tv future in the hands of viewers with home theatre systems plasma high-definition

tvs and digital video recorders moving into the living room the way people watch
tv will be radically different in five years time. that is according to an expert
panel which gathered at the annual consumer electronics show in las vegas to
discuss how these new technologies will impact one of our favourite pastimes. with
the us leading the trend programmes and other content will be delivered to viewers
via home networks through cable satellite telecoms companies and broadband
service providers to front rooms and portable devices. one of the most talked-
about technologies of ces has been digital and personal video recorders (dvr and
pvr). these set-top boxes like the us s tivo and the uk s sky+ system allow
people to record store play pause and forward wind tv programmes when they want.
essentially the technology allows for much more personalised tv. they are also
being built-in to high-definition tv sets which are big business in japan and the
us but slower to take off in europe because of the lack of high-definition
programming. not only can people forward wind through adverts they can also forget
about abiding by network and channel schedules putting together their own a-la-
carte entertainment. but some us networks and cable and satellite companies are
worried about what it means for them in terms of advertising revenues as well as
brand identity and viewer loyalty to channels. although the us leads in this
technology at the moment it is also a concern that is being raised in europe
particularly with the growing uptake of services like sky+. what happens here
today we will see in nine months to a years time in the uk adam hume the bbc
broadcast s futurologist told the bbc news website. for the likes of the bbc there
are no issues of lost advertising revenue yet. it is a more pressing issue at the
moment for commercial uk broadcasters but brand loyalty is important for everyone.
we will be talking more about content brands rather than network brands said tim
hanlon from brand communications firm starcom mediavest. the reality is that with
broadband connections anybody can be the producer of content. he added: the
challenge now is that it is hard to promote a programme with so much choice. what
this means said stacey jolna senior vice president of tv guide tv group is that
the way people find the content they want to watch has to be simplified for tv
viewers. it means that networks in us terms or channels could take a leaf out of
google s book and be the search engine of the future instead of the scheduler to
help people find what they want to watch. this kind of channel model might work for
the younger ipod generation which is used to taking control of their gadgets and
what they play on them. but it might not suit everyone the panel recognised. older
generations are more comfortable with familiar schedules and channel brands because
they know what they are getting. they perhaps do not want so much of the choice put
into their hands mr hanlon suggested. on the other end you have the kids just
out of diapers who are pushing buttons already - everything is possible and
available to them said mr hanlon. ultimately the consumer will tell the market
they want. of the 50 000 new gadgets and technologies being showcased at ces
many of them are about enhancing the tv-watching experience. high-definition tv
sets are everywhere and many new models of lcd (liquid crystal display) tvs have
been launched with dvr capability built into them instead of being external boxes.
one such example launched at the show is humax s 26-inch lcd tv with an 80-hour
tivo dvr and dvd recorder. one of the us s biggest satellite tv companies directtv
has even launched its own branded dvr at the show with 100-hours of recording
capability instant replay and a search function. the set can pause and rewind tv
for up to 90 hours. and microsoft chief bill gates announced in his pre-show
keynote speech a partnership with tivo called tivotogo which means people can
play recorded programmes on windows pcs and mobile devices. all these reflect the
increasing trend of freeing up multimedia so that people can watch what they want
when they want.
worldcom boss left books alone former worldcom boss bernie ebbers who is accused
of overseeing an $11bn (£5.8bn) fraud never made accounting decisions a witness
has told jurors. david myers made the comments under questioning by defence
lawyers who have been arguing that mr ebbers was not responsible for worldcom s
problems. the phone company collapsed in 2002 and prosecutors claim that losses
were hidden to protect the firm s shares. mr myers has already pleaded guilty to
fraud and is assisting prosecutors. on monday defence lawyer reid weingarten
tried to distance his client from the allegations. during cross examination he
asked mr myers if he ever knew mr ebbers make an accounting decision . not that
i am aware of mr myers replied. did you ever know mr ebbers to make an
accounting entry into worldcom books mr weingarten pressed. no replied the
witness. mr myers has admitted that he ordered false accounting entries at the
request of former worldcom chief financial officer scott sullivan. defence lawyers
have been trying to paint mr sullivan who has admitted fraud and will testify
later in the trial as the mastermind behind worldcom s accounting house of cards.
mr ebbers team meanwhile are looking to portray him as an affable boss who by
his own admission is more pe graduate than economist. whatever his abilities mr
ebbers transformed worldcom from a relative unknown into a $160bn telecoms giant
and investor darling of the late 1990s. worldcom s problems mounted however as
competition increased and the telecoms boom petered out. when the firm finally
collapsed shareholders lost about $180bn and 20 000 workers lost their jobs. mr
ebbers trial is expected to last two months and if found guilty the former ceo
faces a substantial jail sentence. he has firmly declared his innocence.
tigers wary of farrell gamble leicester say they will not be rushed into making a
bid for andy farrell should the great britain rugby league captain decide to switch
codes. we and anybody else involved in the process are still some way away from
going to the next stage tigers boss john wells told bbc radio leicester. at the
moment there are still a lot of unknowns about andy farrell not least his medical
situation. whoever does take him on is going to take a big big gamble. farrell
who has had persistent knee problems had an operation on his knee five weeks ago
and is expected to be out for another three months. leicester and saracens are
believed to head the list of rugby union clubs interested in signing farrell if he
decides to move to the 15-man game. if he does move across to union wells
believes he would better off playing in the backs at least initially. i m sure he
could make the step between league and union by being involved in the centre said
wells. i think england would prefer him to progress to a position in the back row
where they can make use of some of his rugby league skills within the forwards.
the jury is out on whether he can cross that divide. at this club the balance
will have to be struck between the cost of that gamble and the option of bringing
in a ready-made replacement.
yeading face newcastle in fa cup premiership side newcastle united face a trip to
ryman premier league leaders yeading in the fa cup third round. the game -
arguably the highlight of the draw - is a potential money-spinner for non-league
yeading who beat slough in the second round. conference side exeter city who
knocked out doncaster on saturday will travel to old trafford to meet holders
manchester united in january. arsenal were drawn at home to stoke and chelsea will
play host to scunthorpe. the only other non-league side in the draw are hinckley
united who held brentford to a goalless draw on sunday. they will meet league one
leaders luton if they win their replay against martin allen s team at griffin park.
a number of premiership teams face difficult away games against championship sides
on the weekend of 8/9 january. third-placed everton visit plymouth liverpool
travel to burnley crystal palace go to sunderland fulham face carling cup semi-
finalists watford bolton meet ipswich while aston villa were drawn against
sheffield united. premiership strugglers norwich blackburn west brom are away at
west ham cardiff and preston north end respectively. southampton visit northampton
having already beaten the league two side in the carling cup earlier this season.
middlesbrough were drawn away against either swindon or notts county while spurs
entertain brighton at white hart lane. arsenal v stoke swindon/notts co v
middlesbrough man utd v exeter plymouth v everton leicester v blackpool derby v
wigan sunderland v crystal palace wolves v millwall yeading v newcastle hull v
colchester tottenham v brighton reading v stockport/swansea birmingham v leeds
hartlepool v boston milton keynes dons v peterborough oldham v man city chelsea
v scunthorpe cardiff v blackburn charlton v rochdale west ham v norwich sheff
utd v aston villa preston v west brom rotherham v yeovil burnley v liverpool
bournemouth v chester coventry v crewe watford v fulham ipswich v bolton
portsmouth v gillingham northampton v southampton qpr v nottm forest luton v
hinckley/brentford matches to be played on weekend of 8/9 january.
ocean s twelve raids box office ocean s twelve the crime caper sequel starring
george clooney brad pitt and julia roberts has gone straight to number one in the
us box office chart. it took $40.8m (£21m) in weekend ticket sales according to
studio estimates. the sequel follows the master criminals as they try to pull off
three major heists across europe. it knocked last week s number one national
treasure into third place. wesley snipes blade: trinity was in second taking
$16.1m (£8.4m). rounding out the top five was animated fable the polar express
starring tom hanks and festive comedy christmas with the kranks. ocean s twelve
box office triumph marks the fourth-biggest opening for a december release in the
us after the three films in the lord of the rings trilogy. the sequel narrowly
beat its 2001 predecessor ocean s eleven which took $38.1m (£19.8m) on its opening
weekend and $184m (£95.8m) in total. a remake of the 1960s film starring frank
sinatra and the rat pack ocean s eleven was directed by oscar-winning director
steven soderbergh. soderbergh returns to direct the hit sequel which reunites
clooney pitt and roberts with matt damon andy garcia and elliott gould. catherine
zeta-jones joins the all-star cast. it s just a fun good holiday movie said dan
fellman president of distribution at warner bros. however us critics were less
complimentary about the $110m (£57.2m) project with the los angeles times
labelling it a dispiriting vanity project . a milder review in the new york times
dubbed the sequel unabashedly trivial .
howard hits back at mongrel jibe michael howard has said a claim by peter hain that
the tory leader is acting like an attack mongrel shows labour is rattled by the
opposition. in an upbeat speech to his party s spring conference in brighton he
said labour s campaigning tactics proved the tories were hitting home. mr hain made
the claim about tory tactics in the anti-terror bill debate. something tells me
that someone somewhere out there is just a little bit rattled mr howard said. mr
hain leader of the commons told bbc radio four s today programme that mr howard s
stance on the government s anti-terrorism legislation was putting the country at
risk. he then accused the tory leader of behaving like an attack mongrel and
playing opposition for opposition sake . mr howard told his party that labour
would do anything say anything claim anything to cling on to office at all costs
. so far this year they have compared me to fagin to shylock and to a flying pig.
this morning peter hain even called me a mongrel. i don t know about you but
something tells me that someone somewhere out there is just a little bit rattled.
environment secretary margaret beckett rejected mr howard s comment telling radio
4 s pm programme that labour was not rattled . we have a very real duty to try to
get people to focus on michael howard s record what the proposals are that he is
trying to put forward to the country and also the many examples we are seeing now
of what we believe is really poor judgement on his behalf. mr howard said tory
policies on schools taxes immigration and crime were striking a chord with
voters. since the beginning of this year - election year - we ve been making the
political weather he told the party conference. mr howard denied he had been
playing politics by raising the case of margaret dixon whose operation had been
cancelled seven times which grabbed headlines for the party two weeks ago. and he
hit back at labour claims he had used mrs dixon as a human shield . she s not a
human shield mr blair she s a human being. mr howard said his party plans for
immigration quotas which have also been the focus of much media coverage were not
racist - just common sense . he pledged cleaner hospitals and better school
discipline with a promise to get rid of political correctness in the national
curriculum and give everyone to the same chance of a decent state education as he
had. i come from an ordinary family. if the teenage michael howard were applying
to cambridge today gordon brown would love me. and he stressed his party s
commitment to cut taxes and red tape and increase the basic state pension in line
with earnings. he finished with a personal appeal to party activists to go out and
win the next election. one day you will be able to tell your children and
grandchildren as i will tell mine i was there. i did my bit. i played my part. i
helped to win that famous election - the election that transformed our country for
the better . labour election co-ordinator alan milburn said: michael howard s
speech today confirms what we have always said - that his only strategy is
opportunism but he has no forward vision for the country. in reference to the
appearance of mr howard s family on the conference stage with him mr milburn said:
michael howard is perfectly entitled to pose with his family today. but it is the
hard working families across britain that will be damaged by his plan to cut £35bn
from public spending.
blair prepares to name poll date tony blair is likely to name 5 may as election day
when parliament returns from its easter break the bbc s political editor has
learned. andrew marr says mr blair will ask the queen on 4 or 5 april to dissolve
parliament at the end of that week. mr blair has so far resisted calls for him to
name the day but all parties have stepped up campaigning recently. downing street
would not be drawn on the claim saying election timing was a matter for the prime
minister. a number 10 spokeswoman would only say: he will announce an election
when he wants to announce an election. the move will signal a frantic week at
westminster as the government is likely to try to get key legislation through
parliament. the government needs its finance bill covering the budget plans to be
passed before the commons closes for business at the end of the session on 7 april.
but it will also seek to push through its serious and organised crime bill and id
cards bill. mr marr said on wednesday s today programme: there s almost nobody at
a senior level inside the government or in parliament itself who doesn t expect the
election to be called on 4 or 5 april. as soon as the commons is back after the
short easter recess tony blair whips up to the palace asks the queen to dissolve
parliament ... and we re going. the labour government officially has until june
2006 to hold general election but in recent years governments have favoured four-
year terms.
henman hopes ended in dubai third seed tim henman slumped to a straight sets defeat
in his rain-interrupted dubai open quarter-final against ivan ljubicic. the
croatian eighth seed booked his place in the last four with a 7-5 6-4 victory over
the british number one. henman had looked on course to level the match after going
2-0 up in the second set but his progress was halted as the rain intervened again.
ljubicic hit back after the break to seal a fourth straight win over henman.
earlier in the day spanish fifth seed tommy robredo secured his semi-final place
when he beat nicolas kiefer of germany 6-4 6-4. afterwards henman was left cursing
the weather and the umpire after seven breaks for rain during the match. it was
incredibly frustrating henman said. it s raining and the umpire doesn t take
control. he kept telling us to play till the end of the game. but if it s raining
you come off - the score s irrelevant. it couldn t be more frustrating as i was
very happy with my form until now. you don t expect this in the desert.
wilkinson fit to face edinburgh england captain jonny wilkinson will make his long-
awaited return from injury against edinburgh on saturday. wilkinson who has not
played since injuring his bicep on 17 october took part in full-contact training
with newcastle falcons on wednesday. and the 25-year-old fly-half will start
saturday s heineken cup match at murrayfield on the bench. but newcastle director
of rugby rob andrew said: he s fine and we hope to get him into the game at some
stage. the 25-year-old missed england s autumn internationals after aggravating
the haematoma in his upper right arm against saracens. he was subsequently replaced
as england captain by full-back jason robinson. sale s charlie hodgson took over
the number 10 shirt in the internationals against canada south africa and
australia. wilkinson s year has been disrupted by injury as his muscle problem
followed eight months on the sidelines with a shoulder injury sustained in the
world cup final.
last star wars not for children the sixth and final star wars movie may not be
suitable for young children film-maker george lucas has said. he told us tv show
60 minutes that revenge of the sith would be the darkest and most violent of the
series. i don t think i would take a five or six-year-old to this he told the
cbs programme to be aired on sunday. lucas predicted the film would get a us
rating advising parents some scenes may be unsuitable for under-13s. it opens in
the uk and us on 19 may. he said he expected the film would be classified pg-13 -
roughly equivalent to a british 12a rating. the five previous star wars films have
all carried less restrictive pg - parental guidance - ratings in the us. in the uk
they have all been passed u - suitable for all - with the exception of attack of
the clones which got a pg rating in 2002. revenge of the sith - the third prequel
to the original 1977 star wars film - chronicles the transformation of the heroic
anakin skywalker into the evil darth vader as he travels to a hell-like planet
composed of erupting volcanoes and molten lava. we re going to watch him make a
pact with the devil lucas said. the film is much more dark more emotional. it s
much more of a tragedy.
berlin cheers for anti-nazi film a german movie about an anti-nazi resistance
heroine has drawn loud applause at berlin film festival. sophie scholl - the final
days portrays the final days of the member of the white rose movement. scholl 21
was arrested and beheaded with her brother hans in 1943 for distributing leaflets
condemning the abhorrent tyranny of adolf hitler. director marc rothemund said:
i have a feeling of responsibility to keep the legacy of the scholls going. we
must somehow keep their ideas alive he added. the film drew on transcripts of
gestapo interrogations and scholl s trial preserved in the archive of communist
east germany s secret police. their discovery was the inspiration behind the film
for rothemund who worked closely with surviving relatives including one of scholl
s sisters to ensure historical accuracy on the film. scholl and other members of
the white rose resistance group first started distributing anti-nazi leaflets in
the summer of 1942. they were arrested as they dropped leaflets at munich
university calling for a day of reckoning with adolf hitler s regime. the film
focuses on the six days from scholl s arrest to the intense trial which saw scholl
initially deny the charges and ended with a defiant appearance. it is one of three
german films vying for a top prize at the festival. a south african film version
of bizet s tragic opera carmen shot in cape town in the xhosa language has also
premiered at the berlin festival. the film is entitled u-carmen ekhayelitsha or
carmen in khayelitsha after the township in which the story is set. it is performed
by a 40-strong music and theatre troupe in their debut film performance. the film
is the first south african feature in 25 years and only the second to be nominated
for a golden bear award.
virgin blue shares plummet 20% shares in australian budget airline virgin blue
plunged 20% after it warned of a steep fall in full year profits. virgin blue said
profits after tax for the year to march would be between 10% to 15% lower than the
previous year. sluggish demand reported previously for november and now december
2004 continues said virgin blue chief executive brett godfrey. virgin blue which
is 25% owned by richard branson has been struggling to fend off pressure from
rival jetstar. it cut its full year passenger number forecast by approximately
2.5% . virgin blue reported a 22% fall in first quarter profits in august 2004 due
to tough competition. in november first half profits were down due to slack demand
and rising fuel costs. virgin blue was launched four years ago and now has roughly
one third of australia s domestic airline market. but the national carrier qantas
has fought back with its own budget airline jetstar which took to the skies in
may 2004. sydney-listed virgin blue s shares recovered slightly to close 12% down
on wednesday. shares in its major shareholder patrick corporation - which owns 46%
of virgin blue - had dropped 31% by the close.
crude oil prices back above $50 cold weather across parts of the united states and
much of europe has pushed us crude oil prices above $50 a barrel for the first time
in almost three months. freezing temperatures and heavy snowfall have increased
demand for heating fuel in the us where stocks are low. fresh falls in the value
of the dollar helped carry prices above the $50 mark for the first time since
november. a barrel of us crude oil closed up $2.80 to $51.15 in new york on
tuesday. opec members said on tuesday that it saw no reason to cut its output.
although below last year s peak of $55.67 a barrel which was reached in october
prices are now well above 2004 s average of $41.48. brent crude also rose in
london trading adding $1.89 to $48.62 at the close. much of western europe and the
north east of america has been shivering under unseasonably low temperatures in
recent days. the decline in the us dollar to a five-week low against the euro has
also served to inflate prices. the dollar moved sharply overnight and oil is
following it said chris furness senior market strategist at 4cast. if the
dollar continues to weaken oil will be obviously higher. several opec members
said a cut in production was unlikely citing rising prices and strong demand for
oil from asia. i agree that we do not need to cut supply if the prices are as much
as this fathi bin shatwan libya s oil minister told reuters. i do not think we
need to cut unless the prices are falling below $35 a barrel he added. opec
closely watches global stocks to ensure that there is not an excessive supply in
the market. the arrival of spring in the northern hemisphere will focus attention
on stockpiles of us crude and gasoline which are up to 9% higher than at this time
last year. heavy stockpiles could help force prices lower when demand eases.
hague given up his pm ambition former conservative leader william hague says he
will not stand for the leadership again having given up his ambition to be prime
minister. mr hague 43 told the daily telegraph he would now find a life
dominated by politics too boring and unfulfilling. mr hague who stepped down
after his party s 2001 election defeat does not rule out a return to the front
bench. he also told the paper he hopes to remain mp for richmond north yorks and
start a family with wife ffion. mr hague who recently had published the biography
of william pitt the younger also said he wanted to continue writing books and
speech-writing. he told the newspaper: i don t know whether i will ever go back
on to the front but don t rush me. asked if he would stand for the leadership
again mr hague replied: no. definitely not. his determination to stay away from
a central role will disappoint some senior conservative members who say the party
needs him. tim collins the shadow education secretary said last week it would be
a huge boost to the party if mr hague returned to the front bench. mr hague
became an mp at 27 and leader of the opposition at 36. he said: i feel fortunate
that by the age of 40 i had crammed in an entire political career. i had been in
the cabinet and been leader of the party so now i can branch out into other
things...it is a very liberating feeling. mr hague added that he may have
misjudged his own ambition to be prime minister. maybe i wasn t as driven by
politics as i thought i was he said.
moya emotional after davis cup win carlos moya described spain s davis cup victory
as the highlight of his career after he beat andy roddick to end the usa s
challenge in seville. moya made up for missing spain s 2000 victory through injury
by beating roddick 6-2 7-6 (7-1) 7-6 (7-5) to give the hosts an unassailable 3-1
lead. i have woken up so many nights dreaming of this day said moya. all my
energy has been focused on today. what i have lived today i do not think i will
live again. spain s only other davis cup title came two years ago in valencia
when they beat australia. and moya nicknamed charly admitted: the davis cup is
my dream and i was a bit nervous at the outset. some people have said that i am
obsessed but i think that it is better this way. it helps me reach my goals if i am
obsessed. it s really incredible - to get the winning point is really something.
spanish captain jordi arrese said: charly played a great game. it was his
opportunity and he hasn t let us down. he had lost three times to roddick and
this was his day to beat him. he had been waiting years to be in this position.
spain s victory was also remarkable for the performance of rafael nadal who beat
roddick in the opening singles. aged 18 years and 185 days the mallorcan became
the youngest player to win the davis cup. what a great way to finish the year
said nadal afterwards. us coach patrick mcenroe wants roddick and the rest of his
team to play more tennis on clay and hone their skills on the surface. i think it
will help these guys even on slow hard courts to learn how to mix things up a
little bit and to play a little bit smarter and tactically better. obviously it s
unrealistic to say that we re going to just start playing constantly on clay with
the schedule. but certainly i think we can put the work in at the appropriate time
and play a couple more events and play against these guys who are the best on this
stuff said mcenroe. roddick was left frustrated after losing both his singles on
the slow clay of seville s olympic stadium. it s just tough because i felt like i
was in it the whole time against one of the top three clay-courters in the world
said the american. i had my chances and just didn t convert them. the bottom line
is they were just better than us this weekend. they came out took care of
business and they beat us. it s as simple as that.
s korean credit card firm rescued south korea s largest credit card firm has
averted liquidation following a one trillion won ($960m; £499m) bail-out. lg card
had been threatened with collapse because of its huge debts but the firm s
creditors and its former parent have stepped in to rescue it. a consortium of
creditors and lg group a family owned conglomerate have each put up $480m to
stabilise the firm. lg card has seven million customers and its collapse would have
sent shockwaves through the country s economy. the firm s creditors - which own
99% of lg card - have been trying to agree a deal to secure its future for several
weeks. they took control of the company in january when it avoided bankruptcy only
through a $4.5bn bail-out. they had threatened to delist the company a move which
would have triggered massive debt redemptions and forced the company into
bankruptcy unless agreement was reached on its future funding. lg card will not
need any more financial aid after this laah chong-gyu executive director of
korea development bank - one of the firm s creditors - said. the agreement will
see some 12 trillion won of debt converted into equity. the purpose of the capital
injection is to avoid delisting and the goal will be met david kim an analyst at
sejong securities told reuters. south korea s consumer credit market has been
slowly recovering from a crisis in 2002 when a credit bubble burst and millions of
consumers fell behind on their debt repayments. lg card returned to profit in
september but needed further capital to avoid being thrown off the market. south
korea s stock exchange can delist any firm if its debt exceeds its assets two years
running.
howard backs stem cell research michael howard has backed stem cell research
saying it is important people are not frightened of the future. the controversial
issue was a feature of the recent us presidential election where george bush
opposed extending it. but the tory leader argued there was a moral case for
embracing science which could help victims of alzheimer s parkinson s and motor
neurone disease. i believe we have a duty to offer hope to the millions of people
who suffer devastating illnesses he said. the use of embryonic stem cells in the
uk is already allowed. stem cells are master cells that have the ability to develop
into any of the body s tissue types. scientists hope that by growing such cells in
the laboratory they can programme them to form specific tissue such as kidney
heart or even brain tissue. mr howard acknowledged there were genuine concerns
about stem cell research. but he argued: we mustn t be frightened of change or
nostalgic about the past - we must be optimistic about the future. politicians
must create the right framework so that the great potential of science can be
harnessed for the benefit of mankind. with the life expectancy of the average
briton now around the mid-70s society has a responsibility to enhance the quality
of people s lives as they grow older. i know many people are concerned about stem-
cell research. they are fearful of meddling with what they see as the stuff of
souls. i respect those concerns. but i also believe we have a duty to offer hope
to the millions of people who suffer devastating illnesses like parkinson s
multiple sclerosis motor neurone disease alzheimer s and - as we saw in the
papers today - now possibly heart problems. mr howard acknowledged there were no
easy answers over such an issue but it was necessary to have the courage to do
what we know to be morally right . he added: of course stem cells are still a
recent discovery. more research needs to be done. but we must look at their
potential in a responsible and grown-up way. the hopes of millions of people rest
on what could be achieved. former superman actor the late christopher reeve was an
advocate for the research after he was paralysed in a horse riding accident. mr
howard made his remarks during a speech in westminster to the conservative national
women s committee on ambitions and values.
connors boost for british tennis former world number one jimmy connors is planning
a long-term relationship with the lawn tennis association to help unearth the next
tim henman. the american spent three days at the lta s annual elite performance
winter camp in la manga earlier this week. britain has the right attitude said
connors. the more involved i can be with the lta the better. a short-term
arrangement is just confusing. the kids will ask: what am i doing there lta
chief executive john crowther added: the relationship that jimmy s already
started to develop with the coaches and the players has said to us that we d like
some more of it. we want to use jimmy for a number of weeks a year and we hope
this is the beginning of a good long-term relationship. the camp played host to
more than 30 leading senior and junior players including greg rusedski arvind
parmar and anne keothavong. la manga is an amazing site to take a bunch of kids
who want to be the best said connors speaking at queen s club in london. what
impressed me most was not only the coaches but the way the kids went about their
workouts and the feeling they put into every practice they had. it was interesting
to me to see kids of 15 16 17 with that desire and passion and that can only be
brought about by the coaches surrounding them. instilling the importance of work
and practice is something you can t buy. they know what s been given to them and
all they have to do is give back the effort and every minute of practice they were
doing that. speaking from la manga lta performance director david felgate told
bbc sport: jimmy was fantastic with the players and the coaches and very humble
considering what he s achieved. he worked through the coaches and hopefully it
will grow and he ll get to have more of an individual relationship with some of the
players and get to know them. he made it clear from the word go he didn t want it
to be short-term. this is a 52-week-a-year job for me it s my life and my passion
and it s the same with the coaches. he respects that but he wants to be involved
and have real input. and why would he stake his reputation on something that s not
going to be successful connors has also agreed to commentate for the bbc at next
year s wimbledon championships. he will work during the second week of the
tournament.
japanese banking battle at an end japan s sumitomo mitsui financial has withdrawn
its takeover offer for rival bank ufj holdings enabling the latter to merge with
mitsubishi tokyo. sumitomo bosses told counterparts at ufj of its decision on
friday clearing the way for it to conclude a 3 trillion yen ($29bn) deal with
mitsubishi. the deal would create the world s biggest bank with assets of about 189
trillion yen ($1.8 trillion). sumitomo s exit ends the most high profile fight in
japanese bank history. ufj holdings japan s fourth-largest bank has been at the
centre of a fierce bid battle over the last year. sumitomo japan s third-largest
bank tabled a higher offer for ufj than its rival valuing the company at $35bn.
however ufj s management was known to prefer the offer from mitsubishi tokyo
financial group (mtfg) japan s second-largest bank. concerns were also raised
about sumitomo s ability to absorb ufj and the former has now admitted defeat. we
believe the market and most investors accept a ufj-mtfg merger sumitomo said in a
statement. given the ongoing integration of ufj and mtfg operations persisting
with our proposal may not be in the best interests of our shareholders or ufj s.
mitsubishi s takeover of ufj - which will be japan s largest-ever takeover deal -
will still have to be approved by shareholders of the two firms. however this is
expected to be a formality. sumitomo may now turn its attention to deepening its
ties with daiwa securities another japanese financial firm. the two are set to
merge their venture capital operations and there has been speculation that this
could lead to a full-blown merger. japanese banks are increasingly seeking
alliances to boost profits.
games maker fights for survival one of britain s largest independent game makers
argonaut games has been put up for sale. the london-based company behind the
harry potter games has sacked about 100 employees due to a severe cash crisis. the
administrators told bbc news online that selling argonaut was the only way to save
it as it had run out of cash. argonaut warned that it was low on cash 10 days ago
when its shares were suspended from trading on the london stock exchange. argonaut
has been making games for some 18 years and is one the largest independent games
developers in the uk. along with its headquarters in north london it operates
studios in cambridge and sheffield. argonaut was behind the harry potter games
which provided a healthy flow of cash into the company. but like all software
developers argonaut needed a constant flow of deals with publishers. signs that it
was in trouble emerged in august when it warned it was heading for losses of £6m
in the financial year due to delays in signing new contracts for games. those new
deals were further delayed leading argonaut to warn in mid-october that it was
running out of cash and suspend trading of its shares on the london stock exchange.
as part of cost-cutting measures some 100 employees were fired. when the news
about the £6m loss came out we knew there were going to be redundancies said
jason parkinson one of the game developers sacked by argonaut. a lot of people
suspected that argonaut had been in trouble for some time he told bbc news
online. mr parkinson said staff were told the job losses were necessary to save
argonaut from going under. at the start of the year the company employed 268
people. after the latest round of cuts there are 80 staff at argonaut headquarters
in edgware in north london with 17 at its morpheme offices in kentish town london
and 22 at the just add monsters base in cambridge. argonaut called in
administrators david rubin & partners on friday to find a way to rescue the company
from collapse. it spent the weekend going over the company s finances and concluded
that the only way to save the business was to put it up for sale. the administrator
told bbc news online that the costs of restructuing would be too high partly
because of the overheads from the company s four premises across the uk. it said it
was hopeful that it could save some 110 jobs by selling the business saying it had
had expressions of interest from several quarters and were looking for a quick
sale. the administrator said it would ensure that staff made redundant would
receive any wages redundancy or holiday pay due to them hopefully by christmas.
security warning over fbi virus the us federal bureau of investigation is warning
that a computer virus is being spread via e-mails that purport to be from the fbi.
the e-mails show that they have come from an fbi.gov address and tell recipients
that they have accessed illegal websites. the messages warn that their internet use
has been monitored by the fbi s internet fraud complaint center. an attachment in
the e-mail contains the virus the fbi said. the message asks recipients to click
on the attachment and answer some questions about their internet use. but rather
than being a questionnaire the attachment contains a virus that infects the
recipient s computer according to the agency. it is not clear what the virus does
once it has infected a computer. users are warned never to open attachment from
unsolicited e-mails or from people they do not know. recipients of this or
similar solicitations should know that the fbi does not engage in the practice of
sending unsolicited e-mails to the public in this manner the fbi said in a
statement. the bureau is investigating the phoney e-mails. the agency earlier this
month shut down fbi.gov accounts used to communicate with the public because of a
security breach. a spokeswoman said the two incidents appear to be unrelated.
halo 2 heralds traffic explosion the growing popularity of online gaming could
spell problems for net service firms warns network monitoring company sandvine.
it issued the warning following analysis which shows that traffic on the xbox game
network increased fourfold on the launch day of halo 2. the 9 november traffic
explosion has continued into december said sandvine. service providers now need to
make sure that their networks can cope with the increasing demands for bandwidth.
as well as being a popular single-player title halo 2 can be connected to
microsoft s subscription-based broadband network xbox live. gamers who want to
play online can create their own clan or team and take on others to see how well
they compare. but the surge in numbers and huge demands for bandwidth should be a
wake-up call to the industry which must ensure that their networks can cope with
the increases in traffic said sandvine s chief technology officer marc morin. in
a bid to cope and ease congestion providers are increasingly making their networks
intelligent finding out who is using bandwidth and for what. it could become
common to charge people for the amount of bandwidth they use. the explosion in
xbox live traffic attributed to halo 2 should be seen as a clarion call he said.
isps need to enhance the broadband experience for these high-end users by
prioritising or reserving bandwidth for games he added. one of the main factors
that spoils online gaming is lag in which there is a noticeable delay between a
gamer clicking on a mouse or keyboard and what happens in the online gaming world.
gamers tend to migrate toward networks with the lowest lag . analysing traffic
will become increasingly important for service providers if they are to hold on to
bandwidth-hungry gamers said lindsay schroth an analyst with research firm the
yankee group. in the competitive broadband environment operators need to
differentiate the way they offer access to services like live-play gaming she
said. in countries such as korea which has high levels of fast net connections to
homes online gaming is hugely popular.
bates seals takeover ken bates has completed his takeover of leeds united. the 73-
year-old former chelsea chairman sealed the deal at 0227 gmt on friday and has
bought a 50% stake in the club. he said: i m delighted to be stepping up to the
mantel at such a fantastic club. i recognise leeds as a great club that has fallen
on hard times. we have a lot of hard work ahead to get the club back where it
belongs in the premiership and with the help of our fans we will do everything we
can. bates bought his stake under the guise of a geneva-based company known as the
forward sports fund. he revealed that part of his plan is to buy back leeds elland
road stadium and thorp arch training ground in due course. it s going to be a
tough jon and the first task is to stabilise the cash flow and sort out the
remaining creditors bates added. but there is light at the end of a very long
tunnel. for the past year it has been a matter of firefighting - now we can start
running the club again. outgoing leeds chairman gerald krasner said: this deal
ensures the medium to long term survival of the club and i believe mr bates
proposals are totally for the benefit of the club. we are content that under mr
bates leeds united will continue to consolidate and move forward. when we took
over leeds united in march 2004 the club had a debt of £103m since that date my
board has succeeded in reducing the debt to under £25m. we worked tirelessly to
solve all of the problems at leeds united. eighty percent of the problems have
already been overcome and we came to this agreement with mr bates to secure its
ongoing success. krasner revealed that his consortium has been asked to remain in
the background at the club for an undisclosed period to help ensure a smooth hand-
over. he will stay on in an unpaid capacity while peter lorimer will continue in
his role as director and point of contact for the fans and peter mccormick will
serve as a consultant to the incoming board. the other outgoing directors have
agreed to leave their loans of £4.5m in the company for the next four years. on
leeds new-look board it is understood that lorimer will be joined by former
chelsea finance director yvonne todd and bates lawyer mark taylor. krasner
refused to give any details of the finances involved in the takeover. he told bbc
five live: i am not going into the figures. if ken wants to give them up that is
up to him. i can not tell you what the money will be used for. this dea l is not
about money for the current board. in the last four months i never saw any cheques
until this week from one person. i am not stretching figures we don t discuss
internal arrangements. bates stepped down as chelsea chairman in march last year
following roman abramovich s £140m takeover at stamford bridge. in may he made a
proposal to invest £10m in sheffield wednesday but this was rejected by the club.
sebastien sainsbury had been close to a takeover of leeds but withdrew his £25m
offer last week. his efforts failed after he revealed it would take £40m to stage
a takeover and that the club will also lose £10m over the next six months. the
club was on the brink of administration - and the deduction of 10 points by the
football league - before bates arrival but his investment has spared them that
prospect.
cole faces lengthy injury lay-off aston villa s carlton cole could be out for six
weeks with a knee injury. the striker who is on a season-long loan from chelsea
picked up the knock in an england under-21 match against holland earlier this
month. carlton will be out of action for four to six weeks after a bad challenge
said villa boss david o leary. i won t be able to tell you whether he will need an
operation until maybe next week. whether he has an operation has got to be left to
chelsea. cole who also struggled with an ankle problem earlier in the season was
unable to rest because o leary had a shortage of strikers. the return to fitness of
darius vassell after four months out with a broken ankle and the emergence of luke
moore has alleviated some of the villa s manager s problems in that department.
mobile audio enters new dimension as mobile phones move closer to being a
ubiquitous all-in-one media player audio is becoming ever more important. but how
good can that sound be from such a small device the sound of a buzzing bee jumps
from left to right before disappearing around the back of my head. the surround
sound demo is unremarkable when heard on a multi-speaker home cinema system but
startling when emerging from a small mobile phone. british firm sonaptic is one of
a number of companies to have developed 3d audio technology that emerges from
stereo speakers. firms am3d and srs both offer stereo-widening technology for
mobile phones. but sonaptic s managing director david monteith says his firm is the
only company to offer positional 3d audio on a mobile. there are quite a few
basic technologies out there making the sound seem a bit bigger headphones a bit
nicer. no-one has really tried before to make proper 3d positional audio - where
an individual channel can be moved around. sonaptic has been working with japanese
mobile network ntt docomo to set standards for 3d audio on mobile phones. in the
last few months handsets from nec fujitsu and mitsubishi have been released on to
the japanese marker which have chips produced by yamaha and rohm with sonaptic s
technology. the technology has been around on pcs and games consoles for some time
but what we are doing is making it more efficient so it can go on a small consumer
device like a mobile phone said mr monteith. the technology works through
applying the science of psychoacoustics and grew out of medical research done by
the company s research director dr alastair sibbald. we are basically trying to
fool your ears into thinking sound is coming from areas it actually isn t. your
brain uses certain bits of information which we are effectively synthesising on a
mobile phone handset. the structure of the ear works as a 3d encoder for sound -
helping the brain understand from where sound is emanating. sonaptic s audio
processing algorithms mimic that 3d encoding giving the impression that sound is
coming from the left right and behind a listener when in fact it is coming from a
single source. mr montieth says: if the sound is off to one side it will get to
one ear before the other - if it is on the right it has to bend around your head to
get to your left ear. the shape of your ear causes differences in sound from one
ear to the other. we are synthesising those differences. sonaptic hopes the
technology will have a big impact in the growing market of mobile gaming and music
downloading. handhelds often have limitations - screens will be small by
definition. if you want to get impact from media you are running - either a movie
a game or watching tv - if you want it to be more immersive then our technology can
help. a fishing game is the first title to use the technology creating a 3d sound
field while the gamer plays. driving games and shoot em ups using the technology
are in development. the technology can also be used for music - giving songs a much
more expansive and immersive feel. sonaptic offers its technology on a chip or in
software and is about to release a new version which significantly improves the
efficiency of the audio processing. it s important we only use 10 or 15% of the
processor otherwise you won t be able to play a game on the handset explained mr
montieth. the company is now looking to the us and european markets where it has
been working with network vodafone. we have focused first on japan because it has
a very advanced mobile phone market. we knew japan would be the first place to
have the handsets that could use our technology. there should be handsets out in
the uk in the next six months.
moya fights back for indian title carlos moya became the first man to successfully
defend the chennai open title by beating four-times finalist paradorn srichaphan 3-
6 6-4 7-6 (7/5). the spaniard then donated his £28 000 prize money to relief
efforts for the victims of the asian tsunami. the final was close throughout with
thai second seed srichaphan - the 2003 winner - closing out the first set. but moya
took the second set before bouncing back from 5-2 down in the decider to force and
win a tie-break. moya confirmed afterwards: i m donating my prize money from this
tournament for the tsunami victims hoping it makes some difference to their lives.
his contribution follows pledges by four other players to donate their prize money
from the tournament which went ahead after the 26 december disaster which has so
far claimed at least 150 000 lives. scrichapan said he would donate an unspecified
amount for relief work in thailand where more than 5 000 people were killed. the
atp has announced that it would contribute the us$25 000 tournament fee to unicef s
emergency relief fund in tamil nadu. the atp tour s sponsor mercedes said it
would also contribute increasing the atp donation to us$40 000.
career honour for actor dicaprio actor leonardo dicaprio s exceptional career has
been honoured at the santa barbara international film festival. the star was
presented with the award by martin scorsese who directed him in oscar-nominated
movie the aviator. it s a lifetime achievement award which is completely and
utterly surreal given i m only 30 years old dicaprio said. but what has it been
almost 17 years now. i ve done quite a few films. a retrospective of his movies
was shown. what s really exciting for me is that this is what i really love
doing he added. it s what i want to do for the rest of my life. dicaprio began
his movie career in horror film critters 3 before moving onto roles in the
basketball diaries romeo and juliet titanic and gangs of new york. the
achievement award was created to commemorate the california festival s 20th
anniversary and coincided with dicaprio s portrayal of millionaire howard hughes in
the aviator. veteran actress jane russell who starred in hughes 1943 film the
outlaw said was impressed by dicaprio s quest for authenticity when he previously
discussed the role with her. i was very happy that (dicaprio) came and cared to
come up and find out what (hughes) was really like she said. the aviator has
taken pole position in this year s oscars race with 11 nominations including
nominations for best film best actor for dicaprio and best director for scorsese.
mobile gig aims to rock 3g forget about going to a crowded bar to enjoy a gig by
the latest darlings of the music press. now you could also be at a live gig on
your mobile via the latest third generation (3g) video phones. rock outfit rooster
are playing what has been billed as the first ever concert broadcast by phone on
tuesday evening from a london venue. the 45-minute gig is due to be phone cast by
the 3g mobile phone operator 3. 3g technology lets people take watch and send
video clips on their phones as well as swap data much faster than with 2g networks
like gsm. people with 3g phones in the uk can already download football and music
clips on their handsets. some 1 000 fans of the london-based band will have to pay
five pounds for a ticket and need a 3g handset. once you have paid you can come
and go as much as you like because we expect the customers to be mobile said 3
spokesperson belinda henderson. it s like going to a concert hall except that you
are virtually there. the company behind the trial hopes to learn more about how
people use their video phones. we are looking on how long people will stay on
average on the streams. some people may stay the whole time some may dip in and
out said ms henderson. we actually expect people to dip in and out because they
are mobile and they will be doing other things. 3 is looking to music as a way of
persuading more people to take up the latest video phones. it is already planning
regular gigs throughout 2005. and during the intermission of course you would
still be able to make a phone call.
terror suspects face house arrest uk citizens suspected of involvement in terrorism
could face house arrest as part of a series of new measures outlined by the home
secretary. it comes after law lords ruled that the detention of 12 foreign terror
suspects without trial breached human rights. charles clarke s planned control
orders mean anyone suspected of being involved in terrorism could be subject to
house arrest curfews or tagging. the law society dubbed mr clarke s new proposals
an abuse of power . deals are already being sought to deport some of the foreign
detainees who are mainly held in belmarsh prison in london under the current laws
introduced after the us terror attacks on 11 september 2001. mr clarke said efforts
would continue to deport them to their countries of origin algeria tunisia egypt
and jordan without them facing torture or death. under the proposed changes -
prompted by the house of lords ruling - the home secretary could order british
citizens or foreign suspects who could not be deported to face house arrest or
other measures such as restrictions on their movements or limits on their use of
telephones and the internet. british citizens are being included in the changes
after the law lords said the current powers were discriminatory because they could
only be used on foreign suspects. mr clarke also said intelligence reports showed
some british nationals were now playing a more significant role in terror threats.
human rights lawyer clive stafford-smith said the plans were a further abuse of
human rights in britain . mr clarke said prosecutions were the government s first
preference and promised the powers would only be used in serious cases with
independent scrutiny from judges. he told mps: there remains a public emergency
threatening the life of the nation. he accepted the law lords ruling but argued
detention powers had helped prevent attacks and deter terrorists. the current
detainees would not be freed until the new powers were in place as they were still
considered a national security threat he told mps. there have been calls for the
rules for wire-tap and intercept evidence to be allowed to be used in courts but mr
clarke refused to back that change. he said intercept evidence was only a small
part of the case against the men and some of it could not be used because it could
put sources lives at risk. most of the terror suspects are being held indefinitely
at belmarsh prison in london. conservative shadow home secretary david davis was
worried about extending special powers to cover british citizens. he warned:
throughout history internment has generally backfired because of the resentment it
creates. so unless the process is clearly just the home secretary could find
himself confining one known terrorist only to recruit 10 unknown terrorists. he
suggested changing the law to let security-cleared judges view evidence gathered by
phone-tapping could allow more terror cases to come to court. liberal democrat
spokesman mark oaten also backed use of wire-tap evidence. he said the standard of
proof for the new powers would have to be very high indeed and he asked whether
ministers had looked at measures which fitted with human rights laws. shami
chakrabarti from human rights group liberty joined calls for intercept evidence
to be allowed in trials. she said: adherence to the rule of law should not be a
game of cat and mouse. the government should not swap one human rights opt out
for another.
halloween writer debra hill dies screenwriter and producer debra hill best known
for her work on the 70s horror classic halloween has died in los angeles aged 54.
hill who had been suffering from cancer co-wrote the 1978 film which starred
jamie lee curtis as a babysitter terrorised by a psychopath. directed by john
carpenter it made over $60m (£31.3m) worldwide - a record for independent film at
that time. hill also worked with carpenter on escape from new york and the fog.
born in new jersey hill began her career as a production assistant and worked her
way through the ranks becoming an assistant director and second-unit director
before she began collaborating with carpenter. she was regarded by many as a
pioneering woman in film taking on jobs in the 70s that were more commonly taken
by men. back when i started in 1974 there were very few women in the industry
she said in 2003. i was assumed to be the make-up and hair person or the script
person. i was never assumed to be the writer or producer. i took a look around
and realised there weren t that many women so i had to carve a niche for myself.
carpenter said that working with hill was one of the greatest experiences of my
life . the ground that she trailblazed in the beginning can now be followed by
anyone. she was incredibly capable and talented he said. carpenter and hill
collaborated on a number of halloween sequels including halloween ii halloween:
resurrection and halloween: the curse of michael myers. later in her career hill
formed a production company with her friend lynda obst making a string of hit
films including oscar nominee the fisher king and teen comedy adventures in
babysitting. other films included the stephen king adaptation the dead zone in 1983
and 1985 s clue a comedy based on the board game cluedo. in the 90s she pursued
work in tv although she was reunited with carpenter in 1996 for escape from la
the sequel to escape from new york. at the time of her death she was working on a
film about the last two men pulled from the rubble of the twin towers following the
11 september terror attacks in 2001. she was also co-producing the remake of the
fog which is due for release early next year.
royal couple watch nation s mood prince charles and camilla parker bowles are
awaiting the nation s reaction after announcing they are to be married on 8 april.
mrs parker bowles will take the title hrh duchess of cornwall after a civil
ceremony to be held at windsor castle. a daily telegraph poll of 1 313 people
suggests two-thirds of britons support the couple s decision to marry. but only 40%
think mrs parker bowles should become princess consort as planned after charles
becomes king. some 47% believe she should have no title while 7% think she should
become queen. the poll also found that the majority of britons would prefer the
monarchy to miss a generation with the queen handing the throne to her grandson
prince william 22 on her death or abdication. on thursday night prince charles
56 and mrs parker bowles 57 hosted a dinner at windsor castle their first
public appearance since announcing their engagement. mrs parker bowles said the
prince went down on one knee to propose and added: i m just coming down to earth.
she displayed her diamond engagement ring - a royal family heirloom - to reporters.
charles said he and his wife-to-be were absolutely delighted . their marriage will
end years of speculation on a relationship which dates back to 1970. the queen and
duke of edinburgh said the news had made them very happy . princes william and
harry said they are very happy and wish the couple all the luck in the future .
the wedding will be a civil ceremony followed by a service of prayer and dedication
in st george s chapel at which the archbishop of canterbury dr rowan williams
will preside. the marriage is likely to be a sensitive issue because mrs parker
bowles is divorced and her former husband is still alive. if he became king
charles would be the supreme governor of the church of england and some anglicans
remain opposed to the remarriage of divorcees. his divorce from diana and the
disappointment the country felt over how diana had been treated... opened up a
sense of disillusionment with [prince charles] said ros coward who wrote the
authorised biography of diana princess of wales. the archbishop of canterbury
said: i am pleased that prince charles and mrs camilla parker bowles have decided
to take this important step. tony blair said he was delighted for the couple and
offered his congratulations as did conservative leader michael howard and liberal
democrat leader charles kennedy. australia s prime minister john howard also
offered his congratulations adding that their decision to marry was a sensible
and a good thing . mrs parker bowles has joined the prince at numerous engagements
in recent years - mostly at evening events for the prince s trust. clarence house
staff were at pains to point out that she attended these events in a private
capacity.
firefox browser takes on microsoft microsoft s internet explorer has a serious
rival in the long-awaited firefox 1.0 web browser which has just been released.
few people get excited when some new software is released especially when the
program is not a game or a music or movie player. but the release of the first full
version of firefox has managed to drum up a respectable amount of pre-launch
fervour. fans of the software have banded together to raise cash to pay for an
advert in the new york times announcing that version 1.0 of the browser is
available. the release of firefox 1.0 on 9 november might even cause a few heads to
turn at microsoft because the program is steadily winning people away from the
software giant s internet explorer browser. firefox has been created by the
mozilla foundation which was started by former browser maker netscape back in 1998.
much of the development work done since then has gone into firefox which made its
first appearance under this name in february. earlier incarnations but which had
the same core technology were called phoenix and firebird. since then the software
has been gaining praise and converts not least because of the large number of
security problems that have come to light in microsoft s internet explorer. rivals
to ie got a boost in late june when two us computer security organisations warned
people to avoid the microsoft program to avoid falling victim to a serious
vulnerability. internet monitoring firm websidestory has charted the growing
population of people using the firefox browser and says it is responsible for
slowly eroding the stranglehold of ie. before july this year according to
websidestory internet explorer was used by about 95% of web surfers. that figure
had remained static for years. in july the ie using population dropped to 94.7% and
by the end of october stood at 92.9%. the mozilla foundation claims that firefox
has been downloaded almost eight million times and has publicly said it would be
happy to garner 10% of the windows- using net-browsing population. firefox is
proving popular because at the moment it has far fewer security holes than
internet explorer and has some innovations lacking in microsoft s program. for
instance firefox allows the pages of different websites to be arranged as tabs so
users can switch easily between them. it blocks pop-ups has a neat way of finding
text on a page and lets you search through the pages you have browsed. one of the
most powerful features of firefox is the many hundreds of extras or extensions
produced for it. the mozilla foundation is an open source organisation which means
that the creators of the browser are happy for others to play around with the core
code for the program. this has resulted in many different add-ons or extensions for
the browser which now include everything from a version of the familiar google
toolbar to a homeland security monitor that keep users aware of current threat
levels. firefox which used to be called firebird and before that phoenix also has
a growing number of vocal net-based fans. a campaign co-ordinated by the spread
firefox website attempted to raise the $50 000 needed for a full page advert in the
new york times. the campaign set itself a target of recruiting 2500 volunteers. ten
days in to the campaign 10 000 people had signed up and now about $250 000 has been
raised. the ad is due to run sometime in a three-week period in late november/early
december. the surplus cash will be used to help keep the mozilla foundation
running. microsoft is facing a growing challenge to ie s hold on the web using
population. from alternative browsers such as opera safari amaya and even
netscape.
celebrities get their skates on former england footballer paul gascoigne will join
eastenders actress scarlett johnson on bbc one s strictly ice dancing. the one-
off christmas special will also star television presenter carol smillie and jessica
taylor from liberty-x. each celebrity will be paired with a professional skater to
impress a panel of judges and win the audience vote. the bbc is yet to confirm the
final two stars who will battle it out to become ice king or queen. veteran
presenter bruce forsyth and tess daly will host the programme which follows hot on
the heels of the current saturday night series strictly come dancing. the
celebrities will have to practise a stipulated ice dance and perform it at an ice
rink with their partner. the judges will have 50% of the vote to decide who wins
the contest with the ice rink audience making up the rest of the vote. the show
forms part of the bbc s festive schedule. ice skating duo jayne torvill and
christopher dean are to front a similar celebrity ice dance show for itv titled
stars on thin ice. the contestants on stars on thin ice will each be paired up with
a professional skater and will learn a new routine every week. at the end of the
series one celebrity will be crowned the winner.
show over for mtv s the osbournes rock star ozzy osbourne has said his family will
not make any more episodes of reality tv show the osbournes. at the end of it i
didn t like having cameras around the house all the time the black sabbath singer
told reporters at the mtv europe awards in rome. his wife sharon who also appears
in the popular mtv show based on the osbournes family life agreed. now everybody
s doing reality shows. he s done it he s been there he s got to do something else
she said. ozzy osbourne said he had had enough of the work involved in making the
series. when you watch a 25-minute episode i ve been filming all day he said.
sharon osbourne is currently appearing as a judge and mentor in itv1 talent show
the x-factor alongside simon cowell and louis walsh. earlier this year she topped
a poll of the most important people in rock for her part in guiding the career of
husband ozzy and her family. she was the driving force behind the osbournes which
ran for three series earning the family a reported $85m (£46m). the renewed
popularity for ozzy has seen sales of his merchandise hit the $50m (£27.2m) mark a
record for a heavy metal artist. sales of t-shirts accessories and action figures
have rocketed since the osbournes hit screens. at its peak the osbournes had a
regular audience of eight million with america s tv guide magazine describing the
series as a cross between the simpsons and this is spinal tap . osbourne himself
was at a loss to explain its popularity: i suppose americans get a kick out of
watching a crazy brit family like us make complete fools of ourselves every week.
insurance bosses plead guilty another three us insurance executives have pleaded
guilty to fraud charges stemming from an ongoing investigation into industry
malpractice. two executives from american international group (aig) and one from
marsh & mclennan were the latest. the investigation by new york attorney general
eliot spitzer has now obtained nine guilty pleas. the highest ranking executive
pleading guilty on tuesday was former marsh senior vice president joshua bewlay.
he admitted one felony count of scheming to defraud and faces up to four years in
prison. a marsh spokeswoman said mr bewlay was no longer with the company. mr
spitzer s investigation of the us insurance industry looked at whether companies
rigged bids and fixed prices. last month marsh agreed to pay $850m (£415m) to
settle a lawsuit filed by mr spitzer but under the settlement it neither admits
nor denies the allegations .
sayeed to stand down as tory mp tory mp jonathan sayeed is to stand down on the
grounds of ill health. the decision comes after mr sayeed survived an attempt to
de-select him in a row over allegations he had profited from private tours of
parliament. the mid-bedfordshire mp had denied a claim that he was paid for guiding
visitors around the palace of westminster. conservative leader michael howard has
now accepted the mp s resignation it has been announced. mr sayeed was suspended
from parliament for two weeks last month after the commons standards and privileges
committee said his conduct had fallen well below the standards expected . the
conservative party had already been withdrawn the whip for a month. but his
constituency association voted against a move to deselect him with mr sayeed
winning 173 of the 299 votes. after the vote mr sayeed said only a fifth of
association members had voted against him and he intended to get on with winning
the election. but the vote prompted constituency association president sir stanley
odell to resign in protest. the standards and privileges committee inquiry was
launched after the sunday times alleged english manner limited charged clients for
access to westminster through mr sayeed. mr sayeed had denied the claims saying
the suspension was unjust and wrong but he made an unreserved apology to mps in
the commons chamber. he insisted that the committee s report had contained a few
errors of fact . mr sayeed has been mp for mid-bedfordshire since 1997. he
represented bristol east from 1983 to 1992.
gamers snap up new sony psp gamers have bought almost all of the first batch of
sony s new playstation portable (psp) games console which went on sale in japan on
sunday. thousands of people queued for hours to get hold of one of the 200 000
psps which were shipped to retailers. the handheld console can play games music
and movies and goes on sale in europe and north america next year. despite the
demand sony said it would not increase the 500 000-strong stock of psps it plans to
ship by year s end. sony says it intends to ship three million of the consoles by
march 2005. the company is hoping to challenge the dominance of nintendo in the
handheld market. nintendo released its new ds console earlier this year and has
already raised shipment targets for the device by 40%. the psp is selling in japan
for 19 800 yen ($188; £98) while nintendo s ds console sells in the us and japan
for $150 (£78). nintendo s goal is to ship 5 million of its new nintendo ds
handheld consoles by march 2005.
row threatens hendrix museum plan proposals to open a museum dedicated to jimi
hendrix are flailing because of a row over the home of his late father. the run-
down house in seattle has already been moved wholesale once and local authorities
are now demanding it be moved to another site. hendrix supporters hoped to turn the
home into a museum for the guitarist. the mayor is going to go down as the mayor
who destroyed jimi hendrix s house said ray rae marshall of the james marshall
hendrix foundation. the foundation moved the building in which al hendrix lived
between 1953 and 1956 when the land it was built on was to be developed for
housing in 2002. now the city of seattle wants its new plot to be used for
development giving a deadline of 22 february for the home to be moved. mr goldman
said the authority had promised the house could remain on its new site and be
turned into a memorial and community centre. seattle officials said no such deal
had been offered. we never said you can own this property said john franklin
chief of its operations department. from our perspective it was a temporary
situation. we have not threatened to demolish the house. we ve simply asked that
they have to move it. now mr goldman is calling for the authority to pay to move
the building to seattle s central district where hendrix grew up. janie hendrix
the guitarist s stepsister said the family were still hoping the guitarist would
be honoured by having a road named after him. that s something my father really
wanted to see she said. it would be nice if we didn t have to fight for
everything to get it. hendrix was widely considered one of the most important
guitarists of his time. he died of drug overdose in 1970 at the age of 27.
debate needed on donations cap a cap on donations to political parties should not
be introduced yet the elections watchdog has said. fears that big donors can buy
political favours have sparked calls for a limit. in a new report the electoral
commission says it is worth debating a £10 000 cap for the future but now is not
the right time to introduce it. it also says there should be more state funding for
political parties and candidates should be able to spend more on election
campaigning. there were almost £68m in reported donations to political parties in
2001 2002 and 2003 with nearly £12m of them from individual gifts worth more than
£1m. the rules have already been changed so the public can see who gives how much
to the parties but the report says there are still public suspicions. the
commission says capping donations would mean taxpayers giving parties more cash -
something which would first have to be acceptable to the public and shown to work.
while we are not in principle opposed to the introduction of a donation cap we do
not believe that such a major departure from the existing system now would be
sensible says its report. if there was to be a cap it should be £10 000 - a
small enough amount to make a difference but which would have banned £56m in
donations between 2001 and 2003. even without changes the commission does urge
political parties to seek out more small-scale donations and suggests there should
be income tax relief for gifts under £200. it also suggests increasing state
funding for parties to £3m so help can be extended to all parties with at least two
members in the house of commons european parliament scottish parliament welsh
assembly or northern ireland assembly. and it suggests new ways of boosting
election campaigning seen as a way of improving voter turnout. all local election
candidates should be entitled to a free mailshot for campaign leaflets says the
watchdog. and there should be a shift in the amount of money allowed to be spent at
elections from a national level to a local level to help politicians engage better
with voters. the report suggests doubling the money which can be spent by
candidates while cutting national spending limits from £20m to £15m. the
commission also says the spending limits for general elections should cover the
four months before the poll - as happens with other elections. electoral commission
chairman sam younger said: there is no doubt that political parties have a vital
role to play in maintaining the health of our democracy and for this they need to
be adequately resourced. our research has shown that people want to be more
informed about party politics and that they want politicians to be more visible and
accessible. the public are reluctant for the state to fund parties but at the same
time are unhappy with large private donations. he called for a wider public debate
on party funding to find the consensus needed for radical changes to the current
system.
german growth goes into reverse germany s economy shrank 0.2% in the last three
months of 2004 upsetting hopes of a sustained recovery. the figures confounded
hopes of a 0.2% expansion in the fourth quarter in europe s biggest economy. the
federal statistics office said growth for the whole of 2004 was 1.6% after a year
of contraction in 2003 down from an earlier estimate of 1.7%. it said growth in
the third quarter had been zero putting the economy at a standstill from july
onward. germany has been reliant on exports to get its economy back on track as
unemployment of more than five million and impending cuts to welfare mean german
consumers have kept their money to themselves. major companies including volkswagen
daimlerchrysler and siemens have spent much of 2004 in tough talks with unions
about trimming jobs and costs. according to the statistics office destatis rising
exports were outweighed in the fourth quarter by the continuing weakness of
domestic demand. but the relentless rise in the value of the euro last year has
also hit the competitiveness of german products overseas. the effect has been to
depress prospects for the 12-nation eurozone as a whole as well as germany.
eurozone interest rates are at 2% but senior officials at the rate-setting
european central bank are beginning to talk about the threat of inflation
prompting fears that interest rates may rise. the ecb s mandate is to fight rising
prices by boosting interest rates - and that could further threaten germany s hopes
of recovery.
labour targets hardcore truants a fresh crackdown on persistent truants in
england has been launched by education secretary ruth kelly. serial truants make
up one in 13 pupils. previous initiatives brought 40 000 pupils back to school
since 1997 according to official statistics. parenting contracts penalty notices
and fast track prosecution systems have been used to tackle what has been a
stubborn problem. it is thought that nearly half a million children skip school
each day. tories say labour s previous success regarding the issue came because it
tackled the easy part of the problem by reducing authorised absence where parents
are permitted to take children out of school. such absences are often due to family
holidays. however serial truants avoid the classroom despite government schemes
costing £885m. those missing classes are more likely to become involved in crime as
well as failing academically. measures such as parenting contracts and penalty
notices were adopted by most local education authorities last term and come into
force in the remainder this term. in one local education authority alone 800
parents were warned they would receive a penalty notice unless their child s
attendance improved. the tough stance paid off with just 24 issued while
attendance improved in 776 cases. truancy has been reduced by 5% at the 128 worst
hit schools through the government s behaviour improvement programme. this is the
equivalent of 200 pupils back in classes since september. the new measures come on
top of national truancy sweeps - the sixth of which will take place on monday.
police and education welfare officers patrol problem hotspots picking up truants
and returning them to school. held twice each year in addition to routine local
patrols previous country-wide sweeps have apprehended 31 000 pupils dodging
school. in almost 14 000 of those cases the youngsters were accompanied by their
parents. a department for education and skills source said: every day in school
counts. it is clear form these figures that schools and local education
authorities are now seizing the tools we have given them to improve school
attendance and crack down hard on the very small numbers of pupils which account
for almost half of the nation s truancy.
federer claims dubai crown world number one roger federer added the dubai
championship trophy to his long list of successes - but not before he was given a
test by ivan ljubicic. top seed federer looked to be on course for a easy victory
when he thumped the eighth seed 6-1 in the first set. but ljubicic who beat tim
henman in the last eight dug deep to secure the second set after a tense tiebreak.
swiss star federer was not about to lose his cool though turning on the style to
win the deciding set 6-3. the match was a re-run of last week s final at the world
indoor tournament in rotterdam where federer triumphed but not until ljubicic had
stretched him for five sets. i really wanted to get off to a good start this time
and i did and i could really play with confidence while he still looking for his
rhythm federer said. that took me all the way through to 6-1 3-1 0-30 on his
serve and i almost ran away with it. but he came back and that was a good effort
on his side. ljubicic was at a loss to explain his poor showing in the first set.
i didn t start badly but then suddenly i felt like my racket was loose and the
balls were flying a little bit too much. and with roger if you relax for a second
it just goes very quick he said. after those first three games it was no match
at all. i don t know it was really weird. i was playing really well the whole year
and then suddenly i found myself in trouble just to put the ball in the court. but
despite his defeat the world number 14 was pleased with his overall performance.
i had a chance in the third and for me it s really positive to twice in two weeks
have a chance against roger to win the match. it s an absolutely great boost to my
confidence that i m up there and belong with top-class players.
house prices show slight increase prices of homes in the uk rose a seasonally
adjusted 0.5% in february says the nationwide building society. the figure means
the annual rate of increase in the uk is down to 10.2% the lowest rate since june
2001. the annual rate has halved since august last year as interest rises have
cooled the housing market. at the same time the number of mortgage approvals fell
in january to a near 10-year low official bank of england figures have shown.
nationwide said that in january house prices went up by 0.4% on the month and by
12.6% on a year earlier. we are not seeing the market collapsing in the way some
had feared said nationwide economist alex bannister. there have been a number of
warnings that the uk housing market may be heading for a downturn after four years
of strong growth to 2004. in november barclays which owns former building society
the woolwich forecast an 8% fall in property prices in 2005 followed by further
declines in 2006 and 2007. and last summer economists at pricewaterhousecoopers
(pwc) warned house prices were overvalued and could fall by between 10% and 15% by
2009. the price of an average uk property now stands at £152 879. homeowners now
expect house prices to rise by 1% over the next six months mr bannister said. he
said if the growth continued at this level then the bank of england may increase
interest rates from their current 4.75%. i think the key is what the bank expects
to happen to the housing market. we always thought we would see a small rise they
thought they would see a small decline. house prices have risen 0.9% this year
nationwide said and if this pace of increase persists prices would rise by just
under 6% in the year to december. this is slightly above the 0-5% range nationwide
predicts. further evidence of a slowdown in the housing market emerged from bank
of england lending figures released on tuesday. new mortgage loans in january fell
to 79 000 from 82 000 in december the bank said. the past few months have seen
approvals fall to levels last seen in 1995. the bank revealed that 48 000 fewer
mortgages were approved in january than for the same month in 2004. overall
mortgage lending rose by £7.2bn in january marginally up on the £7.1bn rise in
december.
disappointed scott in solid start allan scott is confident of winning a medal at
next week s european indoor championships after a solid debut on the international
circuit. the 22-year-old scot finished fourth in the 60m hurdles at the jose m
cagigal memorial meeting in madrid. it was definitely a learning curve and i
certainly haven t ruled out challenging for a medal next week said the east
kilbride athlete. the race was won by felipe vivancos who equalled the spanish
record. sweden s robert kronberg was second with haiti s dudley dorival in third.
scott was slightly disappointed with his run in the final. he won his heat in
7.64secs but ran 0.04secs slower in his first iaaf indoor grand prix circuit final.
i should have done better than that he said. i felt i could have won it. i got a
poor start - but i still felt i should have ran faster. vivancos slashed his
personal best to equal the spanish record with a time of 7.60secs while kronberg
and dorival clocked 7.62secs and 7.63secs respectively.
pandas benefit from wireless net the world s dwindling panda population is getting
a helping hand from a wireless internet network. the wolong nature reserve in the
sichuan province of southwest china is home to 20% of the remaining 1 500 giant
pandas in the world. a broadband and wireless network installed on the reserve has
allowed staff to chronicle the pandas daily activities. the data and images can be
shared with colleagues around the world. the reserve conducts vital research on
both panda breeding and bamboo ecology. using the network vets have been able to
observe how infant pandas feed and suggest changes to improve the tiny cubs
chances of survival. digital technology has transformed the way we communicate
and share information inside wolong and with the rest of the world said zhang
hemin director of the wolong nature reserve. our researchers now have state-of-
the-art digital technology to help foster the panda population and manage our
precious surroundings. the network has been developed by intel working closely
with the staff at wolong. it includes a 802.11b wireless network and a video
monitoring system using five cameras to observe pandas around the clock. before
the new infrastructure arrived at the panda park staff walked or drove to deliver
floppy disks across the reserve. infant panda health was recorded on paper
notebooks and research teams in the field had little access to the data. to foster
cultural links across the globe a children s learning lab has been incorporated in
the network in collaboration with globio (federation for global biodiversity
education for children) an international non-profit organisation. it will enable
children at local primary schools to hook up with their peers in portland oregon
in the us. digital technology brings this story to life by enabling a global
dialogue to help bridge cultures around the world said globio founder gerry
ellis.
franz man seeks government help franz ferdinand frontman alex kapranos has called
for more government help for musicians while taking part in an edinburgh lectures
discussion. for any cultural output to thrive there needs to be some kind of
state input to that as well he said. but kapranos warned against musicians being
too closely linked with mps at the university of edinburgh event. i think the
role of musicians is to question politicians rather than to go to bed with them
he said. kapranos joined the prestigious lecture series to discuss scotland s role
in making 21st century music. there are elements of our musical output which
require sustenance because they aren t self-sufficient he said. but so-called
commercial music would benefit from investment as well. he warned musicians
against being allied to a particular party however. i don t know if having tea
with politicians is always a good idea. kapranos and his glasgow four-piece band
have been nominated for five prizes at next week s brit awards including best
group and best album. their self-titled debut album won last year s mercury music
prize and spawned three top 20 singles. he told the 300-strong audience at the
university s reid hall that musicians should listen to a wide range of music and
should not be restricted by stereotypes. we say i like this . because i listen to
nirvana and korn i am a troubled individual i m riddled with angst because i
listen to chopin and debussy i listen to kylie minogue and scissor sisters because
i m upbeat and i like to party i listen to wagner because i like the smell of
napalm in the morning. kapranos said there was a general hostility towards
classical music adding: there is very little done to break that hostility other
than classic fm. he concluded: we define ourselves as a nation by the way we
encourage our creativity. fellow speaker and classical composer james macmillan
agreed: we need to rediscover our ability to listen. previous speakers at the
edinburgh lectures series have included former soviet leader mikhail gorbachev and
author professor stephen hawking. kapranos described his appearance on wednesday as
more daunting by a long way than their upcoming brits performance. i don t really
care about the brits he said. it s going to be great to go down but i have
actually had to exercise part of my brain tonight. i think the government should
do more to help up-and-coming artists be discovered by scrapping the entertainment
licences for live venues. also they should do more to help independent record
labels have a louder voice within an industry dominated by commercialised major
labels. rather than expecting the government - i.e. the taxpayer - to fork out
why don t some of the megastars put something back in some of britain s wealthiest
people are musicians who have raked it in from albums concerts etc. there are far
more important demands on government funds. if they can fund football why not
fund music areas of the arts are funded by government and lottery grants so why
not music we already have the opera receiving huge grants and it would clearly be
beneficial for diversity in music to have the same opportunities in other areas of
the music. the only problem would be how to judge what merits state cash. the
government has enough problems funding schools and health services. if alex
kapranos genuinely thinks a multi-billion pound industry should also have
government funding then his own education was seriously lacking and more money
should be put into that. as a scot living in england i appreciate the value of
scottish music and culture being a success so i can see no problem with it! franz
ferdinand travis and snow patrol are just recent examples of the success scottish
music can have in the world so we should do what we scots are good at and support
our own goods! i think the issue is more fundamental: should the government be
spending money on subsidising a multi-million pound industry when health and
education are in such a sorry state the answer is most definitely no. those people
who are lucky enough to pursue their passion to get their pay cheque shouldn t be
looking for government subsidies. i know that if i was lucky enough to be able to
pursue my dream of show jumping i would want to finance myself until i was in a
position to pursue corporate sponsorship. yes the government should fund music -
it brings joy to the masses. there are already thousands of state-funded musicians
out there sitting around twiddling their thumbs on the new deal . getting the
government even more involved would only waste money that could be put to better
use. as long as the government was funding real talent it would be a great move. i
would hate to see more pop idol-type funding of music though as it would only
serve to reinforce the stereotypes that alex talked about. only if the proposals
make financial sense. franz ferdinand must be paying serious amounts of tax on
their record sales - if they d had a government grant to get started they d have
more than paid it back by now so the treasury would be making far more than it
paid out. however the government has better things to spend its money on than to
give charity to everyone who decides they re a musician. the government shouldn t
fund music - it should invest in music and those investments should be treated
like any other investment. i think the government needs to provide facilities and
for young groups and bands to form and practise. the equipment is not cheap and can
be well beyond the means of many people. however i do feel this should be the
extent of their role to provide the conditions for the talent to flourish and let
it go from there. i do agree that the government should help to fund music but
there is also a responsibility held by record companies! they generally always opt
for the tried and tested and tend not to want to break any moulds or risk losing
any money which ultimately the directors are in the business for! if labels were
more willing to put money forward towards smaller breakthrough acts then the
government wouldn t have to fork out a great deal. yeah why not music should be
government funded particularly the work of modern composers and veteran
bands/artists and stuff. pop music pretty much rules the earth so more attention
should go to the other fraternities i agree with funding the arts to make it more
accessible to the public but i am not convinced that pop music requires financial
support from the taxpayer. there is a great deal of money generated through pop
music - perhaps a tax on pop could be ploughed into the public performance of other
forms of music for everyone to enjoy. perhaps we could financially penalise really
bad pop idol-style music - that is the music industry sector without any artistic
merit or originality whatsoever and that which is specifically designed to line the
pockets of music producers. call it a tax on music pollution if you like.
though i really like franz ferdinand i have to disagree with mr kapranos. once
government gets their hand into the private sector it will destroy the creative
and possibly controversial avenues the artist pursues. many years ago this was the
case with the us nea when the government started to question what was considered
art for the money they were allotting. the solution mr kapranos should pursue would
be privately-funded organizations like save the music in the us.
jamieson issues warning to bigots scotland s justice minister has warned bigoted
soccer fans that she wants to hit them where it hurts most by banning them from
matches. cathy jamieson said exclusion orders are one of a series of measures
being considered in the scottish executive campaign against sectarianism. she
praised celtic and rangers for their work in tackling the problem. however the
minister said stopping sectarian abuse associated with old firm matches is a key
objective. ms jamieson was speaking ahead of the third round scottish cup clash
between the glasgow clubs at parkhead on sunday. the sectarianism long associated
with sections of the support from both clubs has become a significant target for
the executive. last week ms jamieson and first minister jack mcconnell met
supporters representatives from both clubs to discuss the issue. they plan to
hold an anti-sectarian summit next month with officials from the clubs church
leaders senior police officers and local authority chiefs among those to be
invited. speaking on bbc radio scotland s sunday live programme ms jamieson
described friday s meeting as very productive and said putting the squeeze on the
bigots would be a key aim. ms jamieson stressed that sectarianism has not been
confined to football but it can act as a trigger for tensions and violence. clubs
have taken action in the past to ban troublesome fans and supporters groups
expressed their desire to ensure that the game is no longer tainted by the problem.
ms jamieson said the executive should have a role in tackling the soccer
troublemakers. she said: we can t get away from the fact that in some instances
some of the religious hatred that some people try to associate with football boils
over into violence. that is the kind of thing we want to stop and that s the kind
of thing supporters groups are very clear they don t want to be part of either
and they will work with us to try and deal with that. ms jamieson praised the
police for their action and said: the police do want to identify whether there are
particular individuals who are going over the top and inciting hatred or violence -
they will crack down very effectively on them. we have of course already indicated
that we will consider the introduction of banning orders to give additional powers
to where there are people who are going over the top who have made inappropriate
behaviour at football matches to be able to stop them attending the games. that s
the kind of thing that will hit those kind of people where it hurts the most in not
allowing them to attend the games she said. praising celtic and rangers for their
efforts she said: i don t think there is any doubt that we have seen some
positive moves from the clubs. both rangers and celtic football clubs have been
involved in working with the executive to produce for example an educational pack
for young people.
campaign cold calls questioned labour and the conservatives are still telephoning
the millions of people who have signed up to make sure they do not get marketing
cold calls . the parties say they can stick to the rules by ensuring that their
calls are not marketing - for instance by asking about people s voting intentions.
the lib dems are asking the watchdog overseeing the rules to stop the calls. the
information commissioner s office says surveys are allowed but people had to be
told if personal data was kept. telephone call centres are expected to be used as
never before by all the three major parties in the run-up to the general election.
but seven million telephone numbers are on the telephone preference service (tps)
lists which ban unsolicited sales and marketing calls. both schemes are run by the
direct marketing association and backed by eu directives on privacy and electronic
communications. the rules on marketing calls apply as much to politicians as to
private sector companies. but that does not mean labour and the tories are not
calling people signed up to the tps. a labour party spokesman told the bbc news
website the party avoided those on tps lists when telephoning people about
membership or fundraising. but that did not happen for voter identification
calls. when we ask which party they will vote for that is not marketing and we
have very clear legal advice that it is not he said. so it is not covered by the
telephone preference service. he said the party always asked people if they would
be happy to be contacted again and if they said no they were not rung again. a
conservative spokeswoman said the party stuck to the rules when it rang tps
subscribers. she said: we do apply tps but in line with the law. we would not do
things that are not allowed in the law. assistant information commissioner phil
jones said it was classed as marketing if political parties telephoned people to
encourage them to vote for them. but classic market research such as a poll of
voter intentions did not constitute direct marketing he said. if a party is
calling someone who is registered on tps and records their voting intention with a
view to using this information in the future this should be clear to the voter
concerned said mr jones. if a party rings a person who is registered on tps to
ask about their voting intention and goes on to encourage that voter to support
them the party may well be in breach of the regulations. in summary whether a
party calling tps registered voters to check their voting intentions will breach
regulations will depend on the script used and whether the script is followed. mr
jones said the watchdog received very few complaints on the issue. earlier lib
dem chairman matthew taylor wrote to the watchdog saying: the advice we have
received on several previous occasions is that such phone calls are illegal. he
says evidence from local lib dem parties around the country suggests there are
significant numbers of such calls. i hope you can therefore take swift and
efficient action to ensure that this ceases he tells the commissioner. mr taylor
argues there should be new guidelines so all parties can act in the same way if the
watchdog believes the rules allow parties to ring tps numbers about voting
intentions and later urge those people to vote for them.
england children s tsar appointed the first children s commissioner for england has
been appointed. great ormond street hospital professor of child health al
aynsley-green was chosen by the government and will start the £100 000-a-year job
immediately. he will oversee a £2.5m annual budget and have the power to look into
any matter relating to the interests and well-being of children . prof aynsley-
green has also been the national clinical director for children in the department
of health. he promised to make sure that children s opinions count . i will be
drawing on my experience of working with children and young people to help ensure
that those with the power to improve children s lives do live up to their
responsibilities. i want all children and young people to know that they can
approach me to discuss any matter that affects them knowing that i will value
their opinion. education secretary ruth kelly said prof aynsley-green would
strengthen the voice of children and young people . prof aynsley-green was a
lecturer at oxford university trained at guy s hospital medical school university
of london; oriel college oxford; and in switzerland. he is described as a proud
grandfather of four. scotland wales and northern ireland already have children s
commissioners.
stock market eyes japan recovery japanese shares have ended the year at their
highest level since 13 july amidst hopes of an economic recovery during 2005. the
nikkei index of leading shares gained 7.6% during the year to close at 11 488.76
points. in 2005 it will rise toward 13 000 predicted morgan stanley equity
strategist naoki kamiyama. the optimism in the financial markets contrast sharply
with pessimism in the japanese business community. earlier this month the
quarterly tankan survey of japanese manufacturers found that business confidence
had weakened for the first time since march 2003. slower economic growth rising
oil prices a stronger yen and weaker exports were blamed for the fall in
confidence. despite this traders expect strength in the global economy to benefit
japan which has been close to sliding into recession in recent months. structural
reform within japan and an anticipated end to the banking sector s bad debt
problems should also help they say.
lewsey puzzle over disallowed try england s josh lewsey has claimed he was denied a
late try in his side s six nations loss to ireland. the wasps wing insisted he
grounded the ball when he was bundled over the line and said referee jonathan
kaplan had made a wrong decision. i m positive i touched the ball down over the
line lewsey told bbc sport. it certainly wasn t a turnover. i was driven over
and i put the ball on the ground. the whistle went and i let go of the ball.
lewsey added: one of the irish players scooped it back after the whistle and to
our surprise the referee then gave a turnover. as far as i m concerned that
incident and mark cueto s effort from charlie hodgson s cross-field kick that led
to what looked like a good try were the two key elements in the game. cueto was
also puzzled as to why his try had been disallowed by kaplan. i don t think i
could have been offside for without a doubt i was behind the ball said the sale
player. the move was a planned technique it was not off the cuff. we rehearse it
time and time again. i wouldn t say we were robbed some decisions go with you and
some go against you. today they went against us and that s tough at international
level.
strike threat over pension plans millions of public service workers could strike if
ministers scrap their final salary pension scheme and make them work longer warn
union leaders. the cabinet office has confirmed it is reviewing the current
pension system prompting unions representing 4.5m workers to threaten united
action. they believe the plans include raising the mandatory retirement age for
public service workers from 60 to 65. the government says unions will be consulted
before any changes are made. it is thought the proposed overhaul due on thursday
could mean pensions could be based on a career average salary. for each year
served staff currently get one eightieth of their highest salary in the final
three years. ministers will be anxious to avoid mass strike action in the lead-up
to the next general election which is widely expected next may. in a statement on
sunday the cabinet office said it was reviewing the civil service pension scheme
and hoped to announce proposals soon. unions will of course be consulted about any
proposed changes. public sector pension schemes need to remain affordable and
sustainable. people are living longer and pensions are getting more expensive. to
maintain the long-term affordability of our pension scheme the government
announced in its green paper on pensions that pension age would rise from 60 to 65.
on monday tony blair s official spokesman declined to say whether the prime
minister backed the plans. he said: what s important is that there s a process
going on it s out for consultation at the moment let s wait for that process to
complete itself. there is already widespread anger over the chancellor s plans to
get rid of more than 100 000 civil servants. now public service unions are united
against the plans and the trades union congress is discussing the issue next
monday. dave prentis general secretary of unison said changes to pension
provisions for workers in the public sector would mean they had to pay in more but
would still face a raw deal. members working in the nhs or for local government
have never had high pay or city bonuses but they could look forward to a decent
pension - now all that is being taken away he said. what really riles me is the
breathtaking hypocrisy of mps who recently voted themselves the best pension scheme
in europe but say they can t afford it for anyone else. this is a position that
unison cannot accept and will oppose. it will lead to conflict between unison and
the government if not this year then next. mr prentis said workers did not want
to go on strike and called for talks between unions and the highest level of
government. mark serwotka from the public and commercial services union said there
should be a co-ordinated one day strike unless there was a government rethink. the
fire brigades union said the government was planning to cut ill health retirement
benefits for firefighters and other measures to chip away at pensions. pensions
officer paul woolstenholmes said: the pensions of millions of public sector
workers are under threat - apart from mps and judges who have the most generous
pensions arrangements in the country.
standard life cuts policy bonuses standard life europe s largest mutual life
insurer has cut bonuses for with-profit policyholders. annual bonus rates on its
with-profits life policies were cut from 2.5% to 2% while bonuses on pension
policies were reduced from 3.25% to 2.5%. it is the sixth time in three years
standard life has made cuts to bonus rates despite an 8.7% rise in the value of
the with-profits fund in 2004. the insurer blamed the cuts on poor share returns
and low interest rates. with-profits policies are designed to smooth out the peaks
and troughs of stock market volatility. profits made in good years are kept in
reserve to pay investors an annual bonus even when the stock market performs badly.
slumping share prices throughout 2001 and 2002 forced most firms to trim bonus
rates on their policies. standard life came in for criticism for sticking with
stock market investments during 2001 and 2002. the insurer argued that shares
outperformed other investments over the long term and that policyholders would feel
the benefit when the stock market recovered. recently norwich union and axa sun
life both cut their with-profit bonus rates. john gill managing director of the
insurer s life and pensions division said that a strong stock market recovery in
the past two years had only partly compensated for losses during 2001 and 2002 .
in addition low interest rates meant that long-term investment returns are well
below historic levels mr gill added. however mr gill maintained that with-
profits continued to perform well over the long term. our payouts continue to
stand up well against other types of long-term investments over similar periods
he said. standard life has an estimated 2.4 million with-profits policyholders.
last year the company announced that it was looking to float on the stock market
in 2006.
pernod takeover talk lifts domecq shares in uk drinks and food firm allied domecq
have risen on speculation that it could be the target of a takeover by france s
pernod ricard. reports in the wall street journal and the financial times
suggested that the french spirits firm is considering a bid but has yet to contact
its target. allied domecq shares in london rose 4% by 1200 gmt while pernod shares
in paris slipped 1.2%. pernod said it was seeking acquisitions but refused to
comment on specifics. pernod s last major purchase was a third of us giant seagram
in 2000 the move which propelled it into the global top three of drinks firms. the
other two-thirds of seagram was bought by market leader diageo. in terms of market
value pernod - at 7.5bn euros ($9.7bn) - is about 9% smaller than allied domecq
which has a capitalisation of £5.7bn ($10.7bn; 8.2bn euros). last year pernod tried
to buy glenmorangie one of scotland s premier whisky firms but lost out to luxury
goods firm lvmh. pernod is home to brands including chivas regal scotch whisky
havana club rum and jacob s creek wine. allied domecq s big names include malibu
rum courvoisier brandy stolichnaya vodka and ballantine s whisky - as well as
snack food chains such as dunkin donuts and baskin-robbins ice cream. the wsj said
that the two were ripe for consolidation having each dealt with problematic parts
of their portfolio. pernod has reduced the debt it took on to fund the seagram
purchase to just 1.8bn euros while allied has improved the performance of its
fast-food chains.
rovers reject third ferguson bid blackburn have rejected a third bid from rangers
for scotland captain barry ferguson bbc sport has learnt. it is thought blackburn
want £6m for the midfielder but chief executive john williams has confirmed the
club are still in dialogue with rangers. the 26-year-old has already handed in a
transfer request at ewood park as he seeks a return to ibrox. but the clubs have
been unable to reach agreement over a fee for ferguson who moved to lancashire in
2003 for £6.5m. on thursday rangers said they would not be increasing their offer
of £4m. blackburn have said all along that they want £6m for the midfielder and
williams has rejected proposals from rangers over a player-swap deal. williams
said: we are in dialogue with glasgow rangers but we have no agreement. the
negotiations will have to be concluded by midnight on monday when the winter
transfer window shuts. williams conceded any deal for ferguson was looking
unlikely before the close of the transfer window but rangers still had a chance to
seal the deal. we have no comment to make other than we have not got an agreement
with glasgow rangers he added. the way things are looking i think it is
unlikely we are going to. the ball is in their court but we have not got an offer
that is acceptable at this moment. it is understood that blackburn accepted a £5m
offer for ferguson from everton at the weekend. but the player is determined to
return to scotland and rejected a move to goodison park. ferguson did not play in
the fa cup win over colchester on saturday despite recovering from a groin injury
with rovers boss mark hughes claiming it had been an emotional and difficult time
for the player.
vouchers to cut winter deaths pensioners are being promised energy savings by the
liberal democrats as snow and cold temperatures continue. the party says the
plans could save the average pensioner £100 every year and cut winter deaths. the
government gives £200 for winter fuel to households with people over 60 or £300
where people are over 80. the tories promise to keep the payments. the lib dems
would allow people to swap these winter fuel payments for discounts on home
insulation. shadow local government secretary ed davey said: the current scheme
has helped some older people but this new liberal democrat approach will go much
further to end the scandal of tens of thousands of old people dying from the winter
cold every year. the vouchers are designed to let pensioners choose from a list of
approved energy supplies who would compete for business by offering discounts on
home insulation schemes. the plan would boost energy conservation says the party -
and insulation could save £100 every year for pensioner households so using the
money more intelligently than at present.
ukraine trims privatisation check ukraine is to review dozens of state asset
sales as the country s new administration tackles corruption. the figure announced
by president viktor yushchenko is less than the 3 000 cases mentioned last week
but will cover many of the biggest deals. ukraine recently ousted long-serving
leader leonid kuchma and has said it wants closer european union links. in a
separate statement the eu said that the us should back ukraine s entry into the
world trade organisation. the comments came as viktor yushchenko prepared to head
to brussels to meet with us president george w bush and other north atlantic treaty
organisation (nato) leaders. he is the only non-nato member leader invited to
attend the summit. mr yushchenko recently defeated moscow-backed presidential
candidate and prime minister viktor yanukovych at the polls and has made no secret
of his wish to fight corruption and make ukraine more transparent. earlier this
month new prime minister yulia tymoshenko said as many as 3 000 firms may have
their privatisations put under the spotlight. her comments raised concerns among a
number of investors and mr yushchenko was seen on monday as trying to soothe their
frayed nerves. we acknowledge that business in ukraine is now shaped and 98% of
privatisations were carried out according to the law mr yushchenko said on
monday. we have trust in this business and want to defend it by law he continued
adding that any review would focus on dozens of companies not hundreds or
thousands . he cited last year s sale of ukrainian steel producer krivorizhstal as
one that had raised concerns. it was sold in june 2004 to a consortium that
included viktor pinchuk son-in-law of former-president kuchma and rinat akhmetov
the country s richest man for $800m (£424m) - despite other higher offers. vice-
prime minister oleg rybachuk called on the eu to recognise the steps that ukraine
was taking fearing that should the country not be rewarded for its efforts there
may be a backlash against closer relations with brussels. he said that while he
understood that ukraine was not ready for eu membership the country needed to see
progress on topics such as trade and visa requirements. we deserve an honest
response mr rybachuk told the associated press in an interview. we understand
the difficulties. we refuse to understand double standards. ukraine may find it
has a sympathetic ear in brussels the eu has reiterated that we support (ukraine
s) fast accession to the wto and if possible we would like that to happen some time
during the year said claude veron-reville a spokesman for eu trade commissioner
peter mandelson. we have said as much to the americans. we feel that it is
important for us all to pull together for ukraine to be allowed into the wto. mr
yushchenko was careful not to turn his back on russia which borders the country to
the east saying it was important to maintain pragmatic ties with moscow. russia
is ukraine s eternal strategic partner mr yushchenko said.
henson stakes early lions claim the six nations may be a glittering prize in itself
but every player from the four home unions will also have one eye on a possible
trip to new zealand with the lions this summer. the player who staked the biggest
claim for a place in the starting xv over the weekend was gavin henson. he s very
confident. you just had to listen to his interview afterwards - he beamed with
confidence - but although there s an element of arrogance it s good arrogance. he
certainly showed some nice touches. he once showed a clean pair of heels to mathew
tait when he got outside him his defence was very good and he made some great
kicks out of hand. and that s without even mentioning his majestic match-winning
penalty. but i think we need to wait and see what happens because he needs to be
put to the test. he needs to come up against brian o driscoll or a big french
midfield. wales fly-half stephen jones was another player who impressed me. he gave
good direction he was very confident and he was a nice general for his side. he
showed he can control a game. with jonny wilkinson not playing at the moment due to
inury the number 10 shirt could be up for grabs and jones or maybe even henson
could make the lions team at fly-half. jones stuck his hand up and he certainly
looks a better bet than charlie hodgson after saturday s game. some of the wales
forwards surprised me because i thought they would be out-muscled in the tight
five. england prop julian white is a capable player but when it comes down to
selection gethin jenkins is now going to have the upper hand because he came out on
top. however i still think white and phil vickery will be in the frame. some
english players did their cause no harm. i thought joe worsley had a solid game and
jason robinson and josh lewsey both did nothing wrong. but it looked too soon for
young mathew tait and i think it will be a while before we see him again. despite
being written off beforehand several scots caught my eye against france. tom smith
has been there and done it before but the likes of chris cusiter jason white and
ally hogg all made their mark. hogg made a couple of good runs while white had a
pretty robust game - his defence is right up there. cusiter looked very lively and
he could be a very good option for lions coach sir clive woodward. the star of
ireland s win over italy in rome looks like a certainty to make the starting xv
against new zealand. brian o driscoll is a class act. he ran some good lines
against italy made the breaks and fed his outside backs although italy defended
man on man which made it easy for him. gordon d arcy was unlucky to go off injured
early on but i think you could get a henson d arcy o driscoll combination in the
lions midfield. paul o connell just needs to add a hard edge to his game and
malcolm o kelly keeps on going and seems to be putting his hand up while shane
byrne seems to be a lively character. but they will be a bit worried after the
italian pack drove them off their own ball on sunday although i used to play in
italy and i know how difficult it can be. one player who didn t impress me was
wales scrum-half dwayne peel. he choked late on in the second half when wales were
trailing. they had good possession and he kicked the ball away - i wouldn t want
him as my lions scrum-half after that.
scotland v italy (sat) murrayfield edinburgh saturday 26 february 1400 gmt
bbc1 five live and this website victory for the azzurri in rome last year saw
scotland end their campaign without a victory. and the pressure is on scotland
coach matt williams as he seeks a first six nations victory at the eighth attempt.
italy have lost both their opening games at home to ireland and wales but travel
to edinburgh with high hopes. their coach john kirwan has warned his side they
must eradicate the errors that blighted their loss to wales however or risk
suffering a third successive defeat. if the defeat against wales has taught us
anything it s that at this level we can t make any mistakes kirwan said. in the
six nations every error you make will come at a high price. we have to be
aggressive for 80 minutes keep calm in every situation and display great maturity
on the pitch. it will be fundamental to keep cool in the difficult moments - in
the key situations of the game. kirwan has recalled the experienced cristian
stoica at centre and drafted in david dal maso at open-side after star flanker
mauro bergamasco was ruled out for the rest of the tournament. scotland have also
made two changes simon webster replacing simon danielli on the wing and simon
taylor returning for his first test in a year for injured flanker jason white.
taylor s recovery from a serious knee injury is a major boost to scottish hopes.
he is one of the world-class players in the tournament and you want them in your
team acknowledged williams. despite a record of only two victories from 14 tests
williams insists he is revelling in the pressure. i actually really enjoy seeing
how you cope with such pressure as a coach he said optimistic despite opening
defeats to france and ireland. we were confident for those two first games and we
are confident we can beat italy too he added. : c paterson; s webster a craig
h southwell s lamont; d parks c cusiter; t smith g bulloch (capt) g kerr; s
grimes s murray; s taylor j petrie a hogg. r russell b douglas n hines j
dunbar m blair g ross b hinshelwood. r de marigny; mirco bergamasco c stoica
a masi l nitoglia; l orquera a troncon; a lo cicero f ongaro m castrogiovanni;
s dellape m bortolami (capt); a persico d dal maso s parisse. g intoppa s
perugini ca del fava s orlando p griffen r pedrazzi kp robertson.
us regulator to rule on pain drug us food and drug regulators will decide on friday
whether to recommend the sale of painkillers that have been linked to a high risk
of heart attack and stroke. the food and drug administration (fda) advisory panel
will give its verdict after hearing evidence for three days. the painkillers -
called cox-2 inhibitors - are sold under brand names such as celebrex and vioxx.
vioxx was withdrawn from shops last year but merck said it would consider selling
it if it gets fda approval. the fda has been asked to decide if the benefits to
patients justify the increased risks. putting vioxx back on the shelves is likely
to boost profits at merck and make easier any legal battles with people who claim
to have been injured by the drug analysts said. merck voluntarily stopped sales
of vioxx on 30 september a move which caused the firm s fourth-quarter earnings to
slide to $1.1bn (£581m) from $1.4bn a year earlier. merck s shares tumbled more
than 10% on the news and the company has had to set aside millions of dollars to
cover the cost of vioxx-related litigation. alarm bells were rung by a research
note called approve which showed that the risk of heart attack and stroke doubled
in patients who had been taking the drug for at least 18 months. the cox-2
inhibitors were developed by drug companies including merck and pfizer because
they cause users fewer stomach problems than other painkillers. pfizer is still
selling its celebrex and bextra products though investigations have suggested that
they may also be harmful to the heart. merck s announcement of a possible
reintroduction of vioxx caught analysts by surprise. merck s head of research peter
kim said that it withdrew vioxx based on the information that was available to us
at the time knowing there were alternative therapies . he went on to say that
things have since changed in the light of new reports. given this new information
its is not clear that the cardiovascular risk observed in approve makes vioxx
unique in the class of similar drugs marketed in the us mr kim explained. on
thursday david graham from the fda s office of drug safety told the advisory panel
that there really doesn t appear to be a need for cox-2 inhibitors. according to
calculations presented to the us senate by dr graham in november vioxx may be
linked to as many as to 56 000 american deaths. facing stem criticism for its
handling of the vioxx case the fda said on tuesday that it will create an
independent body to oversee the safety of drugs already in the market place.
european regulators meanwhile ruled on thursday that patients who have had heart
disease or a stroke should not take cox-2 inhibitors. the european medicines agency
also said doctors should be cautious about giving the drugs to patients who have
risk factors for heart disease.
telegraph newspapers axe 90 jobs the daily and sunday telegraph newspapers are
axing 90 journalist jobs - 17% of their editorial staff. the telegraph group says
the cuts are needed to fund an £150m investment in new printing facilities.
journalists at the firm met on friday afternoon to discuss how to react to the
surprise announcement. the cuts come against a background of fierce competition for
readers and sluggish advertising revenues amid competition from online advertising.
the national union of journalists has called on the management to recall the notice
of redundancy by midday on monday or face a strike ballot. pearson s financial
times said last week it was offering voluntary redundancy to about 30 reporters.
the national union of journalists said it stood strongly behind the journalists and
did not rule out a strike. managers have torn up agreed procedures and kicked
staff in the teeth by sacking people to pay for printing facilities said jeremy
dear nuj general secretary. nuj official barry fitzpatrick said the company had
ignored the 90-day consultation period required for companies planning more than 10
redundancies. they have shown a complete disregard for the consultative rights of
our members said mr fitzpatrick who added that the company now planned to
observe the consultation procedures. the two telegraph titles currently employ 521
journalists. some broadsheet newspapers - especially those which have not moved to
a tabloid format - have suffered circulation declines which are hitting revenues.
the telegraph has announced no plans to go tabloid although both the independent
and the times have seen circulation rise since shrinking in size. the guardian is
hedging its bets planning a larger tabloid format like those popular in
continental europe. the telegraph group was bought by the barclay twins - frederick
and david - last year having previously been owned by lord conrad black s
hollinger international. the brothers are currently mulling the sale of another of
their businesses retailer littlewoods. telegraph executive murdoch maclennan said
the two newspapers would add eight colour pages in the coming months. journalists
are the lifeblood of any newspaper and maintaining the quality of the daily
telegraph and the sunday telegraph for our readers is vital he said. however
action to improve our production capability and secure our titles against the
competition is also vital. many newspapers are investing in new printing machinery
that enables them to print more colour pages or in some cases have colour on
every page. they are hoping that by boosting colour it will make their publications
more attractive to advertisers and readers alike. in recent months news corp s news
international unit which publishes the sun and the news of the world the guardian
media group trinity mirror and the daily mail & general trust have all announced
substantial investments in new printing plants.
robinson wants dual code success england rugby union captain jason robinson has
targeted dual code success over australia on saturday. robinson a former rugby
league international before switching codes in 2000 leads england against
australia at twickenham at 1430 gmt. and at 1815 gmt great britain s rugby league
team take on australia in the final of the tri-nations tournament. beating the
aussies in both games would be a massive achievement especially for league said
robinson. england have the chance to seal their third autumn international victory
after successive wins over canada and south africa as well as gaining revenge for
june s 51-15 hammering by the wallabies. meanwhile great britain could end 34
years of failure against australia with victory at elland road. britain have won
individual test matches but have failed to secure any silverware or win the ashes
(with a series victory) since 1970. they have a great opportunity to land a
trophy and it would be a massive boost for rugby league in this country if we won
said robinson. i know the boys can do it - they ve defeated the aussies once
already in the tri-nations. but robinson was not losing sight of the task facing
his england side in their final autumn international. for us we ve played two and
won two this november he said. if we beat australia it would be the end to a
great autumn series for england. if we stumble then we ll be looking back with a
few regrets. robinson also revealed that the union side had sent the great britain
team a good luck message ahead of the showdown in leeds. we signed a card for them
today and will write them an email on saturday wishing them all the best said
robinson. everyone has signed the card - a lot of the guys watch league and we
support them fully. both games will be very tough and hopefully we ll both do
well.
court rejects $280bn tobacco case a us government claim accusing the country s
biggest tobacco companies of covering up the effects of smoking has been thrown out
by an appeal court. the demand for $280bn (£155bn) - filed by the clinton
administration in 1999 - was rejected in a 2-1 decision. the court in washington
found that the case could not be brought under federal anti-racketeering laws.
among the accused were altria group rj reynolds tobacco lorillard tobacco
liggett group and brown and williamson. in its case the government claimed tobacco
firms manipulated nicotine levels to increase addiction targeted teenagers with
multi-billion dollar advertising campaigns lied about the dangers of smoking and
ignored research to the contrary. prosecutors wanted the cigarette firms to
surrender $280bn in profits accumulated over the past 50 years and impose tougher
rules on marketing their products. but the court of appeals for the district of
columbia ruled that the us government could not sue the firms under legislation
drawn up to counteract mafia infiltration of business. the tobacco companies deny
that they illegally conspired to promote smoking and defraud the public. they also
say they have already met many of the government s demands in a landmark $206bn
settlement reached with 46 states in 1998. shares of tobacco companies closed
higher after the ruling with altria rising 5% and reynolds showing gains of 4.5%.
hingis to make unexpected return martina hingis makes her return to competitve
tennis after two years out of the game at the volvo women s open in pattaya
thailand on tuesday. she faces german marlene weingartner in the first round. as
a competitor and athlete i always want to win. i hope my body will hold up said
hingis. you miss being out there in a grand slam final and not competing. it s a
big difference between playing and commenting for tv. i miss it a lot. the former
world number one was 22 when she retired after having surgery on both ankles and
her last wta event was in filderstadt germany in october 2002 when she lost to
elena dementieva. only last year she insisted that a comeback was unlikely but
speaking in thaliand hingis admitted: i said that because i didn t know what would
happen with my body. her appearance will also benefit charities in the region and
the swiss star will donate her prize money.
india power shares jump on debut shares in india s largest power producer national
thermal power corp (ntpc) have risen 13% on their stock market debut. the
government s partial sell-off of ntpc is part of a controversial programme to
privatise state-run firms. the 865 million share offer a mix of new shares and
sales by the government raised 54bn rupees($1.2bn). it was india s second $1bn
stock debut in three months coming after the flotation by software firm tata. the
share offer was eleven times oversubscribed. it is a good investment bet said
suhas naik an investment analyst from ing mutual fund. power needs in india are
set to rise and ntpc will benefit from that. analysts say the success of the ntpc
flotation would encourage the government to reduce stakes in more power companies.
ntpc has said it will use the money from the share sale to feed the growing needs
of the country s energy-starved economy. the firm is the largest utility company in
india and the sixth largest power producer in the world.
broadband in the uk growing fast high-speed net connections in the uk are proving
more popular than ever. bt reports that more people signed up for broadband in the
last three months than in any other quarter. the 600 000 connections take the total
number of people in the uk signing up for broadband from bt to almost 3.3 million.
nationally more than 5 million browse the net via broadband. britain now has among
the highest number of broadband connections throughout the whole of europe.
according to figures gathered by industry watchdog ofcom the growth means that
the uk has now surpassed germany in terms of broadband users per 100 people. the uk
total of 5.3 million translates into 7.5 connections per 100 people compared to
6.7 in germany and 15.8 in the netherlands. the numbers of people signing up to
broadband include those that get their service direct from bt or via the many
companies that re-sell bt lines under their own name. part of the surge in people
signing up was due to bt stretching the reach of adsl - the uk s most widely used
way of getting broadband - beyond 6km. asymmetric digital subscriber line
technology lets ordinary copper phone lines support high data speeds. the standard
speed is 512kbps though faster connections are available. this breakthrough led
to a dramatic increase in orders as we were suddenly able to satisfy the pent-up
demand that existed in many areas said paul reynolds chief executive of bt
wholesale which provides phone lines that other firms re-sell. bt retail which
sells net services under its own name also had a good quarter and provided about
30% of the new broadband customers. this was a slight increase on the previous
three months. despite the good news about growth in broadband figures from
telecommunications regulator ofcom show that bt faces increasing competition and
dwindling influence in other sectors. local loop unbundling (llu) in which bt
rivals install their hardware in exchanges and take over the line to a customer s
home or office is growing steadily. cable & wireless and ntl have announced that
they are investing millions to start offering llu services. by the end of september
more than 4.2 million phone lines were using so-called carrier pre-section (cps)
services such as talktalk and one.tel which route phone calls across non-bt
networks from a local exchange. there are now more than 300 different firms
offering cps services and the percentage of people using bt lines for voice calls
has shrunk to 55.4%.
deadline nears for fiat-gm deal fiat and general motors (gm) have until midnight on
1 february to settle a disagreement over a potential takeover. the deadline marks
the point at which fiat will gain the right to sell its car division to gm part of
an alliance agreed in 2000. gm whose own european operations are losing money no
longer wants to own the unprofitable fiat unit. reports of deadlocked talks sent
fiat shares down 1.2% on tuesday after monday s 4% gain on hopes of a payoff. the
us firm is thought to be offering about $2bn (£1.06bn) to extricate itself from the
arrangement. it has argued the deal was voided by fiat s decision to sell off fiat
s finance arm and halve gm s stake via a capital-raising effort. the 2000 deal
resulted from a race between gm and daimlerchrysler to ally with fiat. the german
firm wanted to buy fiat outright. but gianni agnelli the godfather of the group
wanted to keep control and preferred gm s offer to buy a 20% stake and give fiat
the right to sell in the future known as a put option . since then however fiat
cars have lost market share and the firm has piled up losses while a plan to raise
new money in 2003 cut gm s stake in half to 10%. for its part gm s european units
opel and saab have both had trouble with opel management threatening to cut 12 000
jobs. the last thing they need is additional production capacity in europe said
patrick juchemich auto analyst at sal oppenheim bank.
top of the pops leaves bbc one the bbc s flagship pop music programme top of the
pops is to move from bbc one on fridays to sundays on bbc two. the new programme
will combine with archive show totp2 mixing new music with footage of classic
bands. the corporation said the new show aims to appeal to a diverse audience of
music lovers . the move is the biggest shake-up in the history of the show which
was first broadcast in 1964 and has always been on bbc one. top of the pops was
relaunched in a blaze of publicity in december last year in an attempt to reverse a
long-term decline in audience figures. the all new top of the pops was fronted by
newcomer tim kash and was put together by producer andi peters who was brought
back to the bbc from channel 4 to revitalise the series. about three million
people a week were watching the show on fridays - less than half the total it was
attracting in the mid-1990s - as the programme went up against popular itv soap
coronation street. but despite the relaunch audience figures failed to rise and
still remain around the three million mark. tim kash has since been replaced as
host by fearne cotton. the new show will launch in spring next year in an extended
format. bbc two controller roly keating: it s an exciting new era for top of the
pops. we want to make it bigger and better so that it becomes the ultimate pop
music show for music lovers of every generation. mr keating described bbc two as
the natural home of top of the pops. he added: the addition of top of the pops
will also extend bbc two s offering to younger audiences. a bbc spokeswoman said
andi peters would continue as executive producer on the show. she said that issues
over the exact format of the programme and a time slot were still to be decided.
the programme will have a close relationship with the bbc radio 1 chart show which
suggests the relaunched show may be transmitted at about 1900 on sundays.
hopefully the audience for top of the pops will find it on bbc two. we think that
the new slot will create a buzz around the programme as for the first time viewers
will discover the news of who is number one as it happens.
microsoft gets the blogging bug software giant microsoft is taking the plunge into
the world of blogging. it is launching a test service to allow people to publish
blogs or online journals called msn spaces. microsoft is trailing behind
competitors like google and aol which already offer services which make it easy
for people to set up web journals. blogs short for web logs have become a popular
way for people to talk about their lives and express opinions online. msn spaces
is free to anyone with a hotmail or msn messenger account. people will be able to
choose a layout for the page upload images and share photo albums and music
playlists. the service will be supported by banner ads. this is a simple tool for
people to express themselves said msn s blake irving. this is microsoft s first
foray into blogging which has taken off as a web phenomenon in the past year.
competitors like google already offer free services through its blogger site while
aol provides its members with journals. accurate figures for the number of blogs in
existence are hard to come by. according to blog analysis firm technorati the so-
called blogosphere has doubled every five and a half months for the last 18
months. it now estimates that the number of blogs in existence has exceeded 4.8
million although some speculate that less than a quarter are regularly maintained.
indonesia declines debt freeze indonesia no longer needs the debt freeze offered
by the paris club group of creditors economics minister aburizal bakrie has
reportedly said. indonesia which originally accepted the debt moratorium offer
owes the paris club about $48bn (£25.5bn). mr bakrie told the bisnis indonesia
newspaper that a $1.7bn donors aid package meant that the debt moratorium was
unnecessary. this aid comes on top of a previously-pledged $3.4bn package. most of
this normal aid would be used to finance the country s budget deficit. the
indonesian economics minister explained that the money - $1.2bn in grants and $500m
in soft loans - was for the rebuilding of aceh province which was badly hit by the
tsunami of 26 december. nevertheless one of mr bakrie s deputies mahendra siregar
told afp news agency that indonesia was still considering the offer by the paris
club of rich creditor nations to temporarily suspend its debt payments. what is
true is that we are still discussing... the paris club decision to find out more
details such as how much of our debt will be subject to a moratorium. that s how
far we are at this stage said mr siregar. the 19 member countries of the paris
club are owed about $5bn this year in debt repayments by nations affected by the
indian ocean tsunami. indonesia sri lanka and the seychelles accepted the paris
club offer which was criticised by some aid groups as being too little. thailand
and india have however declined the offer with thailand prefering to keep up with
its payments while india said it would prefer to rely on its own resources rather
than on international aid. putting off payments may lower a country s rating among
financial organisations making it more expensive and more difficult for them to
borrow money in the future analysts said. separately the indonesian government
has said it will announce monthly how much it has received in foreign donations and
how it has spent the money. welfare minister alwi shihab told ap news agency that
this announcement should allay suspicion of official corruption in relief
operations.
wales must learn health lessons the new health minister for wales says there are
lessons to learn from england in tackling waiting lists. dr brian gibbons on his
first full day in the job after jane hutt was sacked admitted big challenges but
insisted the essentials were in place. but both plaid cymru and the liberal
democrats said dr gibbons needed to change policy. meanwhile ms hutt defended her
record saying waiting times and lists were only 10% of the health agenda. dr
gibbons who was a gp in blaengwynfi in the upper afan valley before becoming am
for aberavon said nhs staff wanted a period of consolidation after tremendous
change and reform . one of the biggest problems which had faced ms hutt during her
five-and-a-half years as the assembly s first health minister was the length of
waiting lists in wales. in november the british medical association said nhs staff
were weeping with despair as figures showed 311 000 people were waiting for
treatment in wales up by 2 400 on the previous month. in the same month lists in
england were at their lowest for 17 years with 856 600 people waiting for
treatment. dr gibbons told radio wales: there is no doubt that in managing
waiting lists england has done a lot of very very useful work and we do need to
learn from that. but he said the nhs in wales also needed to create a healthier
population rather than respond only to ill health and a balanced view of
priorities was important. we do need a consistent across-the-board approach
recognising the patients experience of how they use the service is going to be at
the end of the day the main test of how the service is working. he said nhs staff
wanted a period of consolidation after tremendous change and reform . later dr
gibbons praised the work of ms hutt saying he agreed with everything she s done
to change the health service in wales. dr gibbons said he accepted there was a
problem but his job now was to build on the foundations put in place by his
predecessor. he also acknowledged that until the waiting list issue was sorted out
the rest of the assembly government s health policy would be overshadowed.
opposition members and some labour mps had long called for ms hutt s removal after
sustained criticism over extended hospital waiting times. first minister rhodri
morgan told bbc wales he had agreed with ms hutt in 2003 that she would not be
health minister in the run-up to the 2007 elections. she s been doing the job for
five years and eight months and apart from nye bevan himself (architect of the
nhs) i don t think anybody has ever done the job for so long. mr morgan said he
had only told ms hutt of the reshuffle on monday morning and said the nhs in wales
was dr gibbons baby now. in response to dr gibbons comments ieuan wyn jones
leader of the plaid cymru group in the assembly said: it is apparent that this
reshuffle by the first minister was just changing the deckchairs on a sinking
titanic. kisrty williams for the lib dems added: if the underlying policy is
going to continue then changing the minister will serve no purpose other than to
deflect flak from labour s mps she said. meanwhile ms hutt said she hoped that
the people of wales would benefit from my investment of the past five years and
eight months asked about waiting lists she said that waiting times and lists were
only 10% of the health agenda and that the welsh assembly government had turned
the corner on the issue.
singapore growth at 8.1% in 2004 singapore s economy grew by 8.1% in 2004 its best
performance since 2000 figures from the trade ministry show. the advance the
second-fastest in asia after china was led by growth of 13.1% in the key
manufacturing sector. however a slower-than-expected fourth quarter points to more
modest growth for the trade-driven economy in 2005 as global technology demand
falls back. slowdowns in the us and china could hit electronics exports while the
tsunami disaster may effect the service sector. economic growth is set to halve in
singapore this year to between 3% and 5%. in the fourth quarter the city state s
gross domestic product (gdp) rose at an annual rate of 2.4%. that was up from the
third quarter when it fell 3.0% but was well below analyst forecasts. i am
surprised at the weak fourth quarter number. the main drag came from electronics
said lian chia liang economist at jp morgan chase. singapore s economy had
contracted over the summer weighed down by soaring oil prices. the economy s poor
performance in the july to september period followed four consecutive quarters of
double-digit growth as singapore bounced back strongly from the effects of the
deadly sars virus in 2003.
parties build up poll war chests the labour party received more than £5m in
donations in the final quarter of 2004 new figures show. this is nearly half of
the £11 724 929 received by 16 political parties listed by the electoral
commission. the conservatives were in second place with donations totalling £4 610
849 while the liberal democrats received just over £1m. the majority of labour s
donations came from affiliated trade unions. there were also large sums from
individuals. lord drayson whose company powderject won multi-million pound
contracts to provide smallpox vaccine to the government after the 11 september
terror attacks gave £500 000 to the party just days before christmas. this
followed an earlier donation of the same amount earlier in 2004. he was made a lord
by tony blair last year. other significant donations came from retired millionaire
businessman and philanthropist sir christopher ondaatje who gave the party a sum of
£500 000 and refrigerator magnate william haughey obe who gave £330 000. the
totals for the fourth quarter were well up on the same period of 2003 as the
parties built up their war chests for the general election campaign. the largest
donation to the conservatives was a bequest from ruth beardmore of nearly £400 000.
the joint founder of merchant bank hambro magan gave £325 417. there were also
donations topping £250 000 for the conservatives from scottish business groups
focus on scotland and the institute of international research the world s largest
independent conference company. also among the gifts to the tories were 24
donations totalling £161 840 from bearwood corporate services. this company is
controlled by the party s former treasurer lord ashcroft which has directed almost
£300 000 to specific marginal constituencies over the past two years. the liberal
democrats largest donor was the joseph rowntree reform trust ltd a company which
promotes political reform and constitutional change which gave a sum of £250 000.
and fast food giants mcdonald s are listed as donating a sum of £10 575. this was a
fee the firm paid for a room for an event held with the work and skills foundation
during the party s conference. the uk independence party which lost its main donor
paul sykes amid the row over robert kilroy-silk s bid for the leadership last
autumn took in £63 081. just £8 170 of this was cash and the remainder came in
gifts in kind such as office space and printing. registered political parties are
required to set out each quarter all donations over £5 000 to their headquarters
and over £1 000 to local constituency parties they receive. it is an offence for a
person to knowingly or recklessly make a false declaration about party donations.
funding cut hits wales students the wales students rugby side has become a casualty
of the welsh rugby union s reorganisation at youth level. an amalgamated under-18
side formed from separate schools and national youth teams plays its first match on
thursday against italy at the gnoll. but that move has seen the wru decide to end
its funding of representative sides such as wales students. as a result
traditional international fixtures against england and france in the new year have
been cancelled. the welsh students rugby football union feels that it is unable to
properly prepare for or stage the matches. the secretary of the welsh students
rugby football union reverend eldon phillips said: it is a shame that fixtures
cannot be maintained this year. the competition provided by the strong english and
french teams has enabled the welsh students to test themselves in high quality
matches. the increasing number of young rugby players entering higher education
look for the biggest challenge that is representative rugby but this year that
opportunity will be denied them. players who have played for wales students before
going on to win full senior representative honours include robert jones rob howley
jon humphreys darren morris martyn williams and ceri sweeney.
call to save manufacturing jobs the trades union congress (tuc) is calling on the
government to stem job losses in manufacturing firms by reviewing the help it gives
companies. the tuc said in its submission before the budget that action is needed
because of 105 000 jobs lost from the sector over the last year. it calls for
better pensions child care provision and decent wages. the 36-page submission also
urges the government to examine support other european countries provide to
industry. tuc general secretary brendan barber called for a commitment to policies
that will make a real difference to the lives of working people. greater
investment in childcare strategies and the people delivering that childcare will
increases the options available to working parents he said. a commitment to our
public services and manufacturing sector ensures that we can continue to compete on
a global level and deliver the frontline services that this country needs. he also
called for practical measures to help pensioners especially women who he said
are most likely to retire in poverty . the submission also calls for decent wages
and training for people working in the manufacturing sector.
tech helps disabled speed demons an organisation has been launched to encourage
disabled people to get involved in all aspects of motorsport which is now
increasingly possible thanks to technological innovations. the motorsport
endeavour club left the starting grid yesterday at the autosport international 2005
show at birmingham s nec with several technologies to adapt vehicles on display.
motorcycle racer roy tansley from derby developed his electronic sequential gear
changer following an accident which resulted in part of his left leg being
amputated. i needed to find a way of changing gear and generally you do that with
your left leg mr tansley told the bbc news website. in simple terms i needed to
invent a left foot - initially it was quite a heath robinson device. mr tansley
had to argue his case to be allowed to continue competing with motorcycle racing s
governing body the autocycle union. at that time they wouldn t let any amputee
race at all but eventually they told me i could have a licence as long as i raced
sidecars. mr tansley s invention the pro-shift is designed to work with hewland
gearboxes which are widely used in motorcycle racing. in addition to helping
disabled riders to compete mr tansley reckons that the pro-shift saves at least 20
seconds per lap when he competes in the isle of man tt. as a result there has been
considerable interest in the product from other riders keen to improve their
performance. i m not prejudiced i ll sell to able-bodied people if i have to! he
joked. another exhibit on the motorsport endeavour stand is a subaru impreza rally
car adapted to accommodate a variety of disabilities. the vehicle belongs to
pararallying the world s only rally school for disabled drivers which is based in
lincolnshire. we use the latest technology supplied by an italian company said
rally driver dave hawkins who runs the company. the cars have electronic throttles
electronic brakes electronic clutches - we ve yet to turn anybody away. mr
hawkins - a paraplegic himself - says his customers have included right or left arm
amputees quadriplegics people who have had strokes and a woman who had had all
four limbs amputated. pararallying uses a vauxhall astra gsi with an automatic
gearbox and manual subaru imprezas. the car on display is fitted with a duck
clutch - a switch on the gear stick used instead of the clutch pedal. it also has
a second ring behind the steering wheel to operate the throttle and a hand operated
brake bar. when joy rainey started competing in motorsport in 1974 she was
continuing the family tradition - her father murray is a former australian
formula 3 champion. and it was rainey senior who modified a sports racer to
accommodate his daughter s small stature so that she could take part in hill
climbs. she uses an ordinary road car by putting extensions on the pedals a
cushion behind her back and raising the seat. but in a competition car you have to
have everything right or you ll lose the balance of the car she said. i bring
everything back to me - steering wheel steering column gear lever and pedals.
when she recently took part in the london to sydney marathon she shared the driving
with her partner trevor who now does the engineering work. he designed a system
for their morris minor so that the adaptations could be totally removed in under a
minute. the motorsport endeavour club is hoping that putting such technologies on
display will result in more disabled people becoming involved in all areas of the
sport and at every level.
yukos sues four firms for $20bn russian oil firm yukos has sued four companies for
their role in last year s forced state auction of its key oil production unit
yuganskneftegas. yukos is claiming more than $20bn (£11bn) in damages after
yugansk was sold in december to settle back taxes. the four companies named in the
law suit are gas giant gazprom its unit gazpromneft investment company baikal
and state oil firm rosneft. yukos submitted the suit in houston where it filed for
bankruptcy. as well as suing for damages yukos has asked the us court to send its
tax dispute with the russian government to an international arbitrator. it also has
submitted a reorganisation plan as part of its chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. the
clash between yukos and the kremlin came to a head last year when yukos was hit
with a bill of more than $27bn in back taxes and unpaid fines. to settle the bill
russia forced yukos to sell off yuganskneftegas. yukos called the sale illegal and
has turned to courts in the us in an effort to regain control of the oil production
business. it also has vowed to use all legal means at its disposal to go after any
firm that tries to buy or take control of its assets. earlier this month it sued
the russian government for $28.3bn. analysts have questioned whether a us court has
any jurisdiction over russian companies while moscow officials have dismissed
yukos legal wrangling as meaningless. in houston bankruptcy judge letitia clark
will start a two-day hearing on 16 february to hear arguments on whether a us court
is the proper forum for the case. the threat of legal action from yukos and its
bankruptcy filing in houston did have an effect on last year s auction however.
concerned that it would be caught up in a court battle gazprom and gazpromneft
withdrew from the auction and yuganskneftegas was sold to little-known investment
firm baikal finance group. a few days later baikal gave control of the company to
state-run oil group rosneft for $9.3bn. rosneft meanwhile has agreed to merge
with gazprom bringing a large chunk of russia s very profitable oil business back
under state control. yukos claims that the rights of its shareholders have been
ignored and that is has been punished for the political ambitions of its founder
mikhail khodorkovsky. mr khodorkovsky once russia s richest man is in prison
having been charged with fraud and tax evasion and repeatedly denied bail.
hodgson relishes european clashes former blackburn boss roy hodgson says the
premiership should follow the rest of europe and have a winter break - but insists
that a gruelling domestic schedule will not damage the english elite s bid for
champions league glory. hodgson - now in charge at viking stavanger - was at
liverpool s clash with bayer leverkusen at anfield on tuesday as a member of uefa s
technical committee. hodgson is a fierce advocate of the winter break employed
throughout europe although not in england - where the champions league contenders
have ploughed through a heavy fixture list. but hodgson told bbc sport that while
he believes the premiership should embrace the idea he does not expect it to cost
the english representatives in the last 16 of the champions league. i just feel it
is very difficult to say with certainty that teams who have had the break will have
a definite edge. i am a fervent supporter of the break. it gives players the
chance to recharge their batteries midway through the season which some suggest
will give teams an advantage in the champions league. the other school of thought
suggests having a break then coming back to it puts you at a disadvantage. the
bigger discussions around the winter break should be to do with the nature of
football today the needs of football players and the way the premiership has
developed rather than one or two matches in the champions league in february.
hodgson believes a winter break carries many advantages explaining: as i said it
is the perfect chance to recharge batteries. and certainly if i was still a
manager in england i would be supporting any calls for its introduction. in pre-
season you get a lot of enthusiasm and energy but by the time you get towards
christmas many players having also played plenty of international matches for club
and country and travelled a lot find themselves getting very jaded. the break
gives them a chance to recover that energy and enthusiasm and perhaps more
importantly recover their mental strength during the break and get ready for the
games ahead. the mental side is by far the most important thing. hodgson added:
the length of breaks can vary. in italy the break was very short. you just took
christmas and new year. it was so short you didn t do anything. you gave the
players a week or 10 days off then you were training for a week or 10 days and
then went into a game. if it is longer it is important those responsible for
physical fitness give the players a programme to follow to ensure the physical
strength they have accumulated stays with them. and hodgson believes a winter
break would be a positive step in the premiership. he said: if we talk about
football at elite level which the premiership is then i would support a winter
break. if you examine the demands of the premier league and in particular on
players who play international football for their club and country then a break
would do them the world of good - physically and mentally.
o driscoll out of scotland game ireland captain brian o driscoll has been ruled out
of saturday s rbs six nations clash against scotland. o driscoll was originally
named in the starting line-up but has failed to recover from the hamstring injury
he picked up in the win over italy. his replacement will be named after training on
friday morning. fellow centre gordon d arcy is also struggling with a hamstring
injury and he will undergo a fitness test on friday to see if he can play. kevin
maggs would be an obvious replacement at centre while shane horgan could also be
moved from wing. ulster wing tommy bowe could also be asked to travel with the
squad to scotland as a precautionary measure. the only other change to the ireland
side sees wasps flanker johnny o connor replacing denis leamy. o connor will be
winning his third cap after making his debut in the victory over south africa last
november. : murphy horgan tbc d arcy hickie o gara stringer corrigan byrne
hayes o kelly o connell s easterby o connor foley. : sheahan horan o
callaghan miller g easterby humphreys dempsey.
khodorkovsky ally denies charges a close associate of former yukos boss mikhail
khodorkovsky has told a court that fraud charges levelled against him are false .
platon lebedev has been on trial alongside mr khodorkovsky since june in a case
centring around the privatisation of a fertiliser firm. the pair claim they are
being punished by the authorities for the political ambitions of mr khodorkovsky.
mr lebedev said there were absurd contradictions in the case. opening his defence
he said he could not see the legal basis of the charges he faced which also
include allegations of tax evasion. to my embarrassment i could not understand
the file of complaints against me he told a moscow court. mr lebedev headed the
menatep group the parent company of yukos. mr lebedev and mr khodorkovsky who
each face a possible 10 year jail sentence if convicted will be questioned by a
judge over the next few days. mr khodorkovsky began his testimony last week
telling the court that he objected to the way that the running of a normal
business has been presented as a work of criminal fiction . the charges are seen by
supporters as politically motivated and part of a drive by russian president
vladimir putin to rein in the country s super-rich business leaders the so-called
oligarchs. yukos has been presented with a $27.5bn (£13bn) tax demand by the
russian authorities and its key yugansk division was auctioned off to part settle
the bill. the company s effort to gain bankruptcy protection in the us - in a bid
to win damages for the sale - were dismissed by a court in texas.
us company admits benin bribery a us defence and telecommunications company has
agreed to pay $28.5m after admitting bribery in the west african state of benin.
the titan corporation was accused of funnelling more than $2m into the 2001 re-
election campaign of president mathieu kerekou. at the time titan was trying to
get a higher price for a telecommunications project in benin. there is no
suggestion that mr kerekou was himself aware of any wrongdoing. titan a
california-based company pleaded guilty to falsifying its accounts and violating
us anti-bribery laws. it agreed to pay $13m in criminal penalties as well as
$15.5m to settle a civil lawsuit brought by the us financial watchdog the
securities and exchange commission (sec). the sec had accused titan of illegally
paying $2.1m to an unnamed agent in benin claiming ties with president kerekou.
some of the money was used to pay for t-shirts with campaign slogans on them ahead
of the 2001 election. shortly after the poll which mr kerekou won benin officials
agreed to quadruple titan s management fee. prosecuting attorney carol lam said:
all us companies should take note that attempting to bribe foreign officials is
criminal conduct and will be appropriately prosecuted. the company says it no
longer tolerates such practices. under the us foreign corrupt practices act it is
a crime for american firms to bribe foreign officials.
coach ranieri sacked by valencia claudio ranieri has been sacked as valencia coach
just eight months after taking charge at the primera liga club for the second time
in his career. the decision was taken at a board meeting following the side s
surprise elimination from the uefa cup. we understand and he understands that
the results in the last few weeks have not been the most appropriate said club
president juan bautista. former assistant antonio lopez will take over as the new
coach. italian ranieri took over the valencia job in june 2004 having been replaced
at chelsea by jose mourinho. things began well but the spanish champions extended
their winless streak to six after losing to racing santander last weekend. that
defeat was then followed by a uefa cup exit at the hands of steaua bucharest.
ranieri first took charge of valencia in 1997 guiding them to the king s cup and
helping them to qualify for the champions league. the 54-year-old then moved to
atletico madrid in 1999 before joining chelsea the following year.
straw praises kashmir moves the uk has welcomed the decision by india and pakistan
to open a bus link across the ceasefire line dividing the disputed region of
kashmir. foreign secretary jack straw touring south east asian countries praised
the spirit of cooperation in achieving the breakthrough. media reports in both
countries describe the deal as a major step in the ongoing peace process. mr straw
said he hoped the agreement would make a difference to kashmiris. the bus service
was one of several announcements made after a meeting of foreign ministers of both
countries in islamabad on wednesday. kashmiri politicians on both sides of the line
of control which divides the region welcomed the move. in a statement mr straw
said the bus service between srinagar and muzaffarabad will be able to reunite
families that have been divided for decades . this will make a real difference to
the lives of kashmiris on both sides of the line of control he said. i warmly
applaud the efforts of both india and pakistan to make this happen. this spirit of
cooperation will i hope lead to many more measures that will benefit all in the
region. on thursday mr straw was in india visiting sikhism s holiest shrine the
golden temple in amritsar where he tried his hand at making indian bread or roti.
he is due to take part in talks with the indian government on friday. a second bus
service linking the pakistani city of lahore with amritsar in india was also
announced as well as a rail link between rajasthan state and pakistan s sindh
province. both sides agreed to begin talks on reducing the risk of nuclear
accidents and also said they planned to reopen their respective consulates in
karachi and mumbai (bombay). the mountainous region of kashmir has been a
flashpoint between the two nuclear powers for more than 50 years.
news corp makes $5.4bn fox offer news corporation is seeking to buy out minority
investors in fox entertainment group its broadcasting subsidiary for about $5.4bn
(£3.7bn). the media giant run by rupert murdoch owns 82% of the shares in the
company home to the fox television network and the 20th century fox film studio.
the move follows news corp s decision to register its business in the us. 20th
century fox s recent film releases include i heart huckabees and i robot while
fox puts out hit tv series 24. under the terms of the offer minority fox
shareholders will receive 1.90 news corp shares in return for each fox share they
hold. analysts said the decision to list news corp in the us - which will result in
the firm s shares trading in new york rather than sydney- nullified the need to
retain a separate stock market listing for fox entertainment shares. news corp
investors voted in october to approve the transfer of the company s corporate
domicile from australia to the us state of delaware. the move is designed to help
news corp attract more investment from the largest us financial institutions and
make it easier to raise capital. fox entertainment group generated revenues of
$12bn last year. news corp shares fell 25 cents to $17.65 after the share offer was
announced while fox shares were up 19 cents at $31.22.
controversial film tops festival a controversial film starring hollywood actor
kevin bacon as a convicted paedophile won top honours at the london film festival
on thursday. the woodsman won the satyajit ray award named after the indian
director. the low-budget film directed by nicole kassell is about a convicted
child molester trying to rebuild his life after 12 years in jail. judges said the
film tackled the contentious subject with great insight and sensitivity . previous
films to take the prize include the oscar-winning boys don t cry which was about
the true life story of murdered transsexual brandon teena. british writer-director
amma asante won the uk film talent award this year for her debut feature a way of
life. set in south wales the film is about a teenage single mother who becomes
embroiled in a tense stand-off with a turkish neighbour. also on thursday night
the fipresci international critics awards went to aaltra a belgian film about the
handicapped; and the sutherland trophy which was won by jonathan caouette for his
film tarnation. the festival closed with a screening of the film i heart huckabees
starring jude law and dustin hoffman and directed by three kings film-maker david o
russell. the festival this year also included the first european screening of the
new pixar animation the incredibles and the british film bullet boy starring so
solid crew rapper asher d.
hague given up his pm ambition former conservative leader william hague says he
will not stand for the leadership again having given up his ambition to be prime
minister. mr hague 43 told the daily telegraph he would now find a life
dominated by politics too boring and unfulfilling. mr hague who stepped down
after his party s 2001 election defeat does not rule out a return to the front
bench. he also told the paper he hopes to remain mp for richmond north yorks and
start a family with wife ffion. mr hague who recently had published the biography
of william pitt the younger also said he wanted to continue writing books and
speech-writing. he told the newspaper: i don t know whether i will ever go back
on to the front but don t rush me. asked if he would stand for the leadership
again mr hague replied: no. definitely not. his determination to stay away from
a central role will disappoint some senior conservative members who say the party
needs him. tim collins the shadow education secretary said last week it would be
a huge boost to the party if mr hague returned to the front bench. mr hague
became an mp at 27 and leader of the opposition at 36. he said: i feel fortunate
that by the age of 40 i had crammed in an entire political career. i had been in
the cabinet and been leader of the party so now i can branch out into other
things...it is a very liberating feeling. mr hague added that he may have
misjudged his own ambition to be prime minister. maybe i wasn t as driven by
politics as i thought i was he said.
uk pledges £1bn to vaccine effort uk chancellor gordon brown has offered £960m
($1.8bn) over 15 years to an international scheme aiming to boost vaccination and
immunisation schemes. in a speech he called for action to reach the 2000
millennium declaration goals of halving global poverty and tackling child mortality
rates. mr brown has just returned from a tour of african nations. the £1bn
commitment is part of a five-point plan on debt relief trade aid education and
health. the chancellor was speaking at an event jointly organised by the uk s
department for international development and the un development programme on
wednesday. mr brown welcomed news that the bill gates foundation and norway are
joining up to put an extra £0.53bn ($1bn ) into the global alliance for vaccines
and immunisation (gavi). britain france gavi and the gates foundation have drawn
up proposals to apply the principles of the international finance facility (iff) to
the area of immunisation. that could see donors making long-term legally binding
financial commitments which can then be used as collateral for raising extra funds
from international capital markets. as well as pledging £960m over 15 years to the
immunisation iff britain urged other donors to contribute. if gavi could increase
its funding for immunisation by an extra £4bn ($7.4bn) over 10 years then an extra
five million lives could have been saved by 2015 and five million thereafter mr
brown argued. campaign groups including friends of the earth the world development
movement and war on want said uk government policy on free trade was a major
barrier to fighting poverty. war on want s john hilary said: compassionate
rhetoric cannot disguise the reality of the government s neo-liberal policies. as
long as mr blair and mr brown continue to push free trade and privatisation on
developing countries more and more people will be pushed deeper into poverty not
lifted out of it.
chinese dam firm defies beijing the china three gorges project corp is refusing
to obey a government order to stop construction of one of its giant dams the
chinese state press has said. the builder of the three gorges dam is continuing
work on the sister xiluodu dam said the beijing news. the xiluodu dam is one of 30
such large-scale construction projects called to a halt because of a lack of proper
environmental checks. the beijing news said the company may instead choose to pay a
fine. the firm has also ignored orders to stop construction at two of its other
projects - the three gorges underground power plant and the three gorges project
electrical power supply plant. so far only 22 of the 30 construction projects
targeted by china s state environmental protection agency (sepa) for having not
carried out mandatory environmental impact assessments have complied with its
shutdown order. the china three gorges project corp could now face a fine up to 200
000 yuan ($24 000; £12 700). last week it denied that its projects violated
regulations. the three gorges corporation has all along abided by the law and have
built our projects in accordance with the law it said. the sepa order comes as
the chinese government appears to be trying to cool the country s booming economy.
previously it has encouraged construction of new electricity generating capacity to
solve chronic energy shortages which forced many factories into part-time working
last year. in 2004 china increased its generating capacity by 12.6% to 440 700
megawatts (mw). the xiluodu dam is designed to produce 12 600 mw of electricity
and is being built on the jinshajiang - or river of golden sand as the upper
reaches of the yangtze are known. it is a sister project to the main three gorges
dam downstream where more than half a million people have had to be relocated
drawing criticism from environmental groups and overseas human rights activists.
cult band kasabian surge forward indie dance band kasabian built up a cult
following throughout 2004 to secure three brit award nominations. the four-piece
leicester band blends dark electronics with rock earning kasabian places on the
best british group rock act and live act shortlists. they have also earned a
reputation as outspoken and charismatic in contrast to fellow brit nominees such
as keane and snow patrol. british music needs a kick up the arse and britain needs
a new band to breathe life into the british people again declared kasabian s
singer tom meighan. no-one s doing it at the minute. music feels like it s in the
afterlife right now. we don t want people to give up on it. the serpent s going to
rise from the sea and scare all the pirates away! meighan grew up in leicester
with kasabian songwriter/guitarist sergio pizzorno and bassist chris edwards a
trio which began making music from the age of 17. they enlisted guitarist and
keyboard player christopher karloff after spotting him in a pub. we saw his long
sideburns and thought hey he looks the part we ll ask him said meighan.
inspired by britpop and a mutual love of hardcore an early 1990s genre that fused
house music with hip hop beats and a dark sensibility they added an electronic
element to the traditional guitar sound. we got a computer and we cut rock n roll
up because there s no point in going back to how it was said meighan. it s all
about new ideas and creativity. the band s original approach is reflected in its
name inspired by linda kasabian - the getaway driver of us serial killer charles
manson. coincidentally it is also the armenian term for butcher . kasabian moved
into a remote farmhouse in rutland to record their debut album benefiting from its
isolation but also managing to sneak in a few parties while they were there. signed
to the rca record label kasabian tested the water with two singles club foot and
lsf which reached numbers 19 and 10 in the uk singles chart respectively. they
built up their following on the summer festival circuit opening both glastonbury
and t in the park and at a series of guerilla gigs at unusual venues including
half time orange a pub next to leicester city football club s headquarters.
kasabian s self-titled album was released last september to widespread critical
acclaim its indie dance stance drawing comparisons to the stone roses primal
scream and the happy mondays. regarding it as both a fiery assertion of rock n
roll ethics and proof that a siege mentality is alive and well in the badlands of
rutland water the nme s praise was typical of the album s reception. as 2004
progressed kasabian would score a further two hits - processed beats and cutt off -
and embark upon a well-received uk tour. we take our music seriously definitely
but we want to have fun with it said pizzorno. this is not a job to us added
meighan. this is the best life we could ever have. this is what it s all about and
without it we d be lost souls. but music needs us as well.
bank set to leave rates on hold uk interest rates are set to remain on hold at
4.75% following the latest meeting of the bank of england. the bank s rate-setting
committee has put up rates five times in the past year but rates have been on hold
since september amid signs of a slowdown. economic growth slowed in the previous
quarter as manufacturing output fell while consumer confidence has slipped. there
is also growing evidence that the previously booming uk housing market is now
cooling. house prices fell 0.4% in october according to the nationwide their
biggest monthly fall since february 2001. last month bank of england governor
mervyn king said that the economy had hit a softer patch after rapid economic
growth in the first half of 2004. richard jeffrey chief economist at bridgewell
securities said it was very unlikely that the bank of england would put rates up
again this time around. there have been sufficient signs in the economy of a
slowdown to stay the bank of england s hand he told bbc radio 4 s today
programme. however mr jeffrey said he believed the slowdown in economic activity
was temporary and it was dangerous to assume that rates had peaked. i still think
interest rates are going up he said. we are not out of the woods.
slovakia reach hopman cup final slovakia will play argentina in the final of the
hopman cup after beating group b rivals the netherlands 3-0. daniela hantuchova
defeated michaella krajicek 6-4 6-2 to give the slovaks the perfect start before
dutchman peter wessels retired against dominik hrbaty. wessels was unable to
compete in the mixed doubles but slovakia had already booked their place in the
final for the second year running. argentina claimed top spot in group a with three
wins from three matches. in the other group b match the united states defeated
australia 2-1. meghann shaughnessy lost the opening match against alicia molik but
james blake levelled the tie with a 6-3 6-4 win over paul baccanello who came in
as a replacement for the injured mark philippoussis. blake and shaughnessy then
beat molik and baccanello in a tense mixed doubles contest to take the win.
hantuchova who did not win a hopman cup singles match in 2004 has been in good
form during this year s event and has won two of her three matches. i feel like it
s really deserved this time as i ve helped dominik to get through she said. i
think if i keep going the way i have been in the past few matches then i will be
okay. i was really pleased with my last two singles even the first one which was
a really high standard. you can t ask for a better preparation than to play a few
matches here for the australian open.
solskjaer raises hopes of return manchester united striker ole gunnar solskjaer
said he hoped to return next season following a career-threatening injury to his
right knee. the 31-year-old norway international had surgery in sweden in august
to transplant cartilage into the joint. i m in no doubt that i ll play again
solskjaer told aftenposten daily. the problem will be the speed but we re talking
about eight months time. it s going as it should with the knee. i m slavishly
following a programme. solskjaer last played for united as a late substitute in
may s fa cup final win over millwall. his contract with united runs out in 2006 by
which time he will have been at the premier league club for 10 years.
goldsmith: i was not leant on the attorney general has again denied being leant
on by downing street to make the legal case for invading iraq. claims a written
answer on the legality of the war was drafted by downing street were wholly
unfounded he insisted during stormy lords exchanges. lord goldsmith said the
answer represented his genuinely held independent view the war was legal. the
text was released on the eve of a crucial commons vote in which mps backed the
invasion of iraq. many labour mps have since indicated that the attorney general s
answer played a pivotal role in their willingness to back the conflict. the
government has resisted calls to publish the full advice saying such papers are
always kept confidential. in the house of lords the attorney general faced a call
by former tory lord chancellor lord mackay to now publish the full text of the
advice - the suggestion was rejected. another peer meanwhile lord skidelsky said
not to publish the full legal opinion would strengthen the suspicion that the the
original text was doctored for public consumption in exactly the same way as the
notorious intelligence dossier on weapons of mass destruction . last week lord
goldsmith said in a statement: i was fully involved throughout the drafting
process and personally finalised and of course approved the answer. he said the
answer had been prepared in his office with the involvement of solicitor general
harriet harman two of his own officials three foreign office officials a qc
christopher greenwood and the then lord chancellor lord irvine of lairg. no other
minister or official was involved in any way. as i have always made clear i set
out in the answer my own genuinely held independent view that military action was
lawful under the existing (un) security council resolutions he said. the answer
did not purport to be a summary of my confidential legal advice to government.
former foreign secretary robin cook said lord goldsmith s admission that his
parliamentary answer was not a summary of his legal opinion suggested parliament
may have been misled. the attorney general may never have presented his answer as
a summary but others certainly did he said. what is clear from his statement
today is that he does not believe that it was a full accurate summary of his
formal opinion. tony blair has dismissed questions about the attorney general s
advice and said his parliamentary statement had been a fair summary of his
opinion. that s what he [lord goldsmith] said and that s what i say. he has dealt
with this time and time and time again mr blair told his monthly news conference
in downing street. he refused to answer further questions on the issue. on the
question of whether such papers have always been kept confidential tory mp michael
mates who is a member of the commons intelligence and security committee and was
part of the butler inquiry told the bbc: that as a general rule is right but
it s not an absolute rule. he said there had been other occasions when advice had
been published most recently regarding prince charles s marriage plans. the
government could not pick and choose when to use the convention he said. mr mates
added: this may be one of those special occasions... when it would be in the
public interest to see the advice which the attorney general gave to the prime
minister. a book published by philippe sands qc a member of cherie blair s matrix
chambers says lord goldsmith warned tony blair on 7 march 2003 that the iraq war
could be illegal without a second un resolution sanctioning military action. a
short statement about lord goldsmith s position presented in a written
parliamentary answer on 17 march 2003 - just before a crucial commons vote on the
military action - did not suggest this.
south africa sweep top awards south africa s schalk burger was named player of the
year as the tri-nations champions swept the top honours at the international rugby
board s awards. the flanker topped a list which included ireland star gordon d
arcy and australian sensation matt giteau. jake white claimed the coaching award
while his side held off grand slam winners france to take the team award. england
player simon amor beat team-mate ben gollings and argentine lucio lopez fleming to
win the sevens award. burger s award came just a week after he won the equivalent
prize from his fellow international players and white who also coached burger at
under-21 level paid tribute to him. schalk s emergence as a major force has meant
a lot to south african rugby but has also influenced world rugby said white. he
s become to south african rugby what jonty rhodes was to south african cricket. it
s amazing what he has achieved in such a short time so far in his international
career. amor who will captain england in this season s opening irb sevens
tournament the dubai sevens which start on thursday was delighted with his
award. there are so many great sevens players on the circuit at the moment that
this is a genuine honour said the gloucester fly-half.
amnesty chief laments war failure the lack of public outrage about the war on
terror is a powerful indictment of the failure of human rights groups amnesty
international s chief has said. in a lecture at the london school of economics
irene khan said human rights had been flouted in the name of security since 11
september 2001. she said the human rights movement had to use simpler language
both to prevent scepticism and spread a moral message. and it had to fight poverty
not just focus on political rights for elites. ms khan highlighted detentions
without trial including those at the us camp at guantanamo bay in cuba and the
abuse of prisoners as evidence of increasing human rights problems. what s a new
challenge is the way in which this age-old debate on security and human rights has
been translated into the language of war she said. by using the language of war
human rights are being sidelined because we know human rights do not apply in times
of war. ms khan said such breaches were infectious and were now seen in almost
very major country in the world. the human rights movement faces a crisis of faith
in the value of human rights she said. that was accompanied by a crisis of
governance where the united nations system did not seem able to hold countries to
account. the amnesty secretary-general said a growing gap between the perceived
influence of human rights group and what they could actually achieve was fuelling
scepticism. public passivity on the war against terror is the single most powerful
indictment on the failures of human rights groups she said. ms khan said the
movement had failed to mobilise public outrage about what was happening to the
human rights system. there needed to be a drive to use simpler language talking
about the basic morality of the issues rather than the complexity of legal
processes. such efforts could make the issues more relevant to people across the
world she said. the human rights groups also had to recognise there were new
groups which had to be tackled in new ways as power dripped away from state
governments. al-qaeda for example was not going to be impressed by a traditional
amnesty letter writing campaign. more also needed to be done to develop a human
rights framework for international business corporations. amnesty international
members voted in 2001 to extend the organisation s work from political and civil
rights to cover social and economic rights too. ms khan said the human rights
movement would make itself irrelevant if it turned away from the suffering caused
by economic strife. we would be an elitist bunch working for the elites for those
who cannot read the newspaper of their choice rather than those who cannot read
she said. despite her concerns ms khan dubbed herself a hope-monger saying she
was confident the passions of the human rights movement could overcome the new
challenges.
dent continues adelaide progress american taylor dent reached the final of the
australian hardcourt event in adelaide with a crushing 6-1 6-1 win over argentine
juan ignacio chela. dent will meet swede joachim johansson on sunday after the
second seed survived a tense tie-break to defeat belgium s olivier rochus 6-1 7-6
(7/5). johansson the boyfriend of lleyton hewitt s sister jaslyn received strong
crowd support on saturday. it feels like home for me because jaslyn lives here
said johansson. rochus was leading 5-4 in the second set tiebreak but his
concentration was ruffled by a disputed line call and the match slipped away. it
was so close - one mistake like this and the match is over it s tough. for me it
was clearly out rochus said.
oil rebounds from weather effect oil prices recovered in asian trade on tuesday
after falling in new york on milder winter weather across the us. with winter
temperatures staying relatively high in the northern us a barrel of light crude
ended monday down $1.33 to $42.12. however crude prices have rebounded in asia
rising to $42.30 a barrel for february delivery. in london trading of brent crude
was suspended for a public holiday but the price fell to $39.20 in the far east.
with milder temperatures expected to continue in the northern parts of the us over
the next few days at least analysts have said the price of oil may fall further -
even if the decline was only temporary. weather has been the achilles heel of
this market said abn amro analyst john brady. but it is winter in the northeast.
eventually we ll get another cold blast. despite a fall of more than $12 a barrel
from the record highs reached in late october the price of crude oil remains
almost 30% higher than year-ago levels. prices rose last week after militant
attacks in riyadh the capital of saudi arabia briefly renewed fears that the
supply chain might be broken in the world s leading crude exporter. the market was
panicked but fears essentially evaporated... since there was no follow-up said
deborah white senior economist for energy at sg securities in paris.
ireland win eclipses refereeing errors the international rugby board may have to
step in to stop frustrated coaches and players from publicly haranguing referees
when things go belly-up. it may have to go the whole way and have nfl-style video
cameras all over the field or slap the vociferous perpetrators over the knuckles.
what the irb does not want is a football scenario where the verbal slanging matches
often overshadow the game itself. sunday s explosive six nations clash at lansdowne
road was a good example as ireland took another step towards their first grand slam
since 1948. the game was as exciting as it comes with a much-improved england side
enraged at a few decisions that did not go their way. one can understand that
frustration. there was no doubt that ireland had the rub of the green in their 19-
13 victory but the reaction from the england camp may not have endeared them to
the sport s blazers . referee jonathan kaplan was not perfect by any means and two
decisions in particular made him the villain of the piece. i doubt whether kaplan
would have been too pleased at the comments made. after all he has no public
recourse to criticism. it was the same for simon mcdowell the touch judge who was
heavily criticised by scotland coach matt williams after their defeat against
france. as far as england were concerned there were queries over mark cueto s
first half-effort when he went over in the corner from a charlie hodgson kick.
england coach andy robinson referred to a similar case at ravenhill in january when
ulster were playing gloucester in the heineken cup. on that occasion david
humphreys kicked to tommy bowe who touched down in the corner only for the try to
be wiped out. but you cannot have cameras at every conceivable angle to pick up
such anomalies. perhaps robinson was right to say the referee should have gone
upstairs when josh lewsey was driven over the irish line near the end. lewsey
claims he touched it down and was in full control. however one has to credit
ireland flanker johnny o connor for cleverly scooping the ball away and blocking
any evidence of a touchdown. but in rugby everything tends to even out over the 80
minutes. the referee also missed england s danny grewcock taking out ronan o gara
off the ball to allow martin corry a sunday stroll to the line. those were the
stand-out moments in a classic game between the two old foes. but there were many
more and one should not take away from those. brian o driscoll s winning try was
as well-conceived as they come while charlie hodgson s brilliant kicking display
was another highlight. and ronan o gara s tremendous ability to control the game
was also a crucial component. but the defining moments came with ireland under the
cosh in the final 15 minutes. two outstanding pieces of defensive play denied
england and allowed ireland to hold on. the first was denis hickie s brilliant
double tackle in the right-hand corner. he gobbled up cueto from another hodgson
cross-field kick then regained his feet to stop lewsey from scoring a certain try.
ireland s second-row colossus paul o connell was equally superb. england had turned
ireland one way then the other and the defence cordon was slowly disintegrating.
england prop matt stevens ran in at full steam to suck in a few more tacklers.
unfortunately he ran into o connell who hit him hard - very hard - and then
wrestled the ball away for a crucial turnover. that spoke volumes about ireland s
back-foot display with defensive coach mike ford taking a bow at the end. to win a
game like that showed that ireland have moved forward. it may be tries that win
games but it is defence that wins championships.
japan narrowly escapes recession japan s economy teetered on the brink of a
technical recession in the three months to september figures show. revised
figures indicated growth of just 0.1% - and a similar-sized contraction in the
previous quarter. on an annual basis the data suggests annual growth of just 0.2%
suggesting a much more hesitant recovery than had previously been thought. a common
technical definition of a recession is two successive quarters of negative growth.
the government was keen to play down the worrying implications of the data. i
maintain the view that japan s economy remains in a minor adjustment phase in an
upward climb and we will monitor developments carefully said economy minister
heizo takenaka. but in the face of the strengthening yen making exports less
competitive and indications of weakening economic conditions ahead observers were
less sanguine. it s painting a picture of a recovery... much patchier than
previously thought said paul sheard economist at lehman brothers in tokyo.
improvements in the job market apparently have yet to feed through to domestic
demand with private consumption up just 0.2% in the third quarter.
rapper kanye west s shrewd soul us hip-hop star kanye west - who leads the race for
this year s grammys with 10 nominations - rose to prominence by producing songs for
artists such as jay-z and alicia keys. he then emerged from his behind-the-scenes
role to become an artist as well as a producer. but his solo career almost ended
before it began after a near-fatal car crash left west with his jaw wired shut in
2002. the resulting song through the wire became west s first uk hit in april
2004 and subsequent album the college dropout became a transatlantic success both
critically and commercially. west 26 began rapping as a teenager at his chicago
school inspired by the beats and rhymes of 1980s pioneers run dmc. hip-hop
producer no id encouraged west to sample old soul and r&b hits then revive them
with an updated sound an approach that would become his trademark. i feel like a
lot of the soul that s in those old records that i sample is in me he said. so
when i hear them and i put them with the drums and i bring them to the new
millennium it s just like god s doing that. i m one with them records right there.
it s a blessing. leaving his chicago art school after only one year - a move
which would later inspire the title of his album - west began his music career co-
producing songs for artists mase and the madd rapper. this drew the attention of
superstar rapper jay-z who signed west up to his roc-a-fella record label to
produce numerous artists on his roster. west s work gained mainstream recognition
when he produced the singles takeover and izzo (hova) on jay-z s own 2001 album
blueprint. incorporating samples of five to one by the doors and the jackson five s
i want you back respectively the hits were credited with injecting soul back into
hip-hop. as their success attracted further production work for jay-z ( 03 bonnie
& clyde) and artists such as ludacris (stand up) and alicia keys (you don t know my
name) west announced plans for a solo album. driving home from a late-night los
angeles recording session in october 2002 he was involved in the car crash that
left his jaw fractured in three places. anytime i hear about any accident my heart
sinks in and i just thank god that i m still here he later said. that steering
wheel could have been two inches further out and that would have been it. west s
account of the accident sampled chaka khan s hit through the fire to become the
heart of his completed solo album the college dropout. released last year it was
by turns smooth humorous and sharp and largely avoided the clichéd hip-hop
preoccupation with guns girls and jewellery. through the wire was quickly joined
in the uk and us charts by slow jamz on which west collaborated with rapper twista
and ray actor jamie foxx. the college dropout spawned two further uk hits and a
string of award nominations. west was shortlisted for 10 grammys - including
nominations for artist and album of the year - and took the best hip-hop artist
producer and album titles at last year s music of black origin (mobo) awards. now a
respected rapper and producer in the influential field of hip-hop kanye west is
unlikely to regret his decision to leave college early.
housewives lift channel 4 ratings the debut of us television hit desperate
housewives has helped lift channel 4 s january audience share by 12% compared to
last year. other successes such as celebrity big brother and the simpsons have
enabled the broadcaster to surpass bbc two for the first month since last july. bbc
two s share of the audience fell from 11.2% to 9.6% last month in comparison with
january 2004. celebrity big brother attracted fewer viewers than its 2002 series.
comedy drama desperate housewives managed to pull in five million viewers at one
point during its run to date attracting a quarter of the television audience. the
two main television channels bbc1 and itv1 have both seen their monthly audience
share decline in a year on year comparison for january while five s proportion
remained the same at a slender 6.3%. digital multi-channel tv is continuing to be
the strongest area of growth with the bbc reporting freeview box ownership of five
million including one million sales in the last portion of 2004. its share of the
audience soared by 20% in january 2005 compared with last year and currently
stands at an average of 28.6%.
mauresmo opens with victory in la amelie mauresmo and maria sharapova won their
opening matches at the tour championships in los angeles. france s mauresmo routed
vera zvonareva 6-1 6-0 while wimbledon champion sharapova was a 6-1 6-4 winner
over fellow russian svetlana kuznetsova. american serena williams also won edging
russian elena dementieva 7-6 7-5 for her second victory of the event. the event is
split into two groups of four with the top two from each advancing to the semi-
finals. mauresmo s win was her ninth in a row as she tries to overtake lindsay
davenport for the number one spot. mauresmo spent five weeks at number one after
the us open before injury ushered davenport back in front. since then i feel very
confident on court and my game is there. i want to get the ranking back but it s
very different than before i was number one. it was an obsession but now i take
it in a relaxed way. mauresmo completed her first match in the season-ending
championship in 54 minutes as russia s zvonareva struggled to return her serve and
failed to achieve a single break point. she got mad a little bit and i played
some great tennis said mauresmo who was runner-up to kim clijsters in last year
s final. zvonareva has lost both her games so far having crashed 6-2 6-4
kuznetsova in the staples centre on wednesday. sometimes not everything works
she said. it was lots of pressure. maybe that is why i couldn t do 100%. but i was
fighting. sharapova who lost 6-2 6-2 to kuznetsova in beijing in september said:
in beijing she was coming off such a big winning streak [14 matches] and she was
unstoppable. this time it was important to start off well and put some pressure
on her. the tournament debutant added: i love it here. the atmosphere is great.
to be here where the lakers play you just feel that excitement. i love basketball.
williams admitted she is still some way off her best form but remained positive
after two wins in two days. it s hard to go out there and get it right but i m
fighting and i m hoping said williams. what makes me happy is the effort. i had
a really good effort today. i m trying to add new dimensions to my game.
why few targets are better than many the economic targets set out at the lisbon
summit of european union leaders in 2000 were meant to help europe leapfrog its way
past the united states to become the world s leading economy by 2010. but the
lisbon targets are about much more than just economic prestige. for many economists
and analysts they are about ensuring europe doesn t become a global economic
laggard. they are also about ensuring europe can continue to compete as an equal
with the growing economic giants of asia india and china as well as with the
economic might of the united states. that s why there was a tone of urgency in the
report out on wednesday by the former dutch prime minister wim kok. mr kok was
commissioned by the european commission in march this year to assess how far the eu
has come towards meeting the lisbon targets five years on from their inception.
his conclusion was simple: too many of the targets will be seriously missed.
lisbon risks becoming a synonym for missed objectives and failed promises his
report said. the status quo is not an option. at risk in the medium to long run
is nothing less than the sustainability of the society europe has built it said.
the report comes at a time when europe s competitive position is waning. the eu s
economic growth rate is projected to be 2% this year and 2.4% next. while there has
been growth in overall employment rates in europe productivity lags behind that of
the us. but meeting the lisbon targets requires a political commitment that no eu
member state has volunteered so far. that has in part been due to the state of the
global economy in the past few years. as mr kok s report noted: the ink had
scarcely dried on the [lisbon] agreement before the worldwide stock market bubble
imploded. the us suffered two years of economic slowdown and recession and the
european economy followed suit. the circumstances weren t conducive to creating
the 20 million new jobs promised by eu leaders in lisbon in 2000. neither were they
conducive to getting governments to spend more on research and development money
needed if the eu was to meet its target of becoming a so-called knowledge-based
economy . the [lisbon] vision is a compelling one but in order to do it society
has to change said paul hofheinz of the lisbon council a brussels-based citizen
action group. what you find is that a lot of people have been fighting change. you
find trade unions fighting change. but also the employers associations. even
though they tell you they re in favour of change many are actually pushing for
less competition more subsidy and less free market activity. but part of the
problem was also linked to the original targets set out in lisbon five years ago.
targets have a habit of coming back to haunt you and in the lisbon case they
covered too much according to the wim report. economic growth and job creation
were linked to issues ranging from environmental protection to social inclusion
and even safety at sea. the agenda was just too broad and as a result nothing was
prioritised. lisbon is about everything and thus about nothing the kok report
said. everybody is responsible and thus no one. that s why the kok report
recommends that the lisbon targets be narrowed down to 14 key indicators with an
emphasis on creating jobs and economic growth. it also recommends that the european
commission draw up a league table which ranks countries according to the steps they
re taking towards meeting the targets effectively naming shaming and faming .
rhetoric and delivery don t necessarily go hand in hand mr kok said in a press
conference alongside the publication of his report. we don t have the luxury
anymore just to exchange politeness with one another. on one point mr kok was
very clear: the european union should not try to emulate the us economy. the
european economic and social model needs to change but not so much so that social
and environmental issues take a backseat to economic growth. in that sense the
lisbon agenda is sailing into unchartered waters. the kok report tries to do away
with a belief that jobs need to be sacrificed at the altar of economic growth. it
s very ambitious said john palmer political director at the european policy
centre a brussels-based think-tank. this is something that no advanced economy in
the world has tried to do. it s going to require quite new and innovative policies.
but some analysts believe that the kok report doesn t come up with the sort of
innovative policies and thinking needed to make the lisbon targets a reality. for
example it recommends putting in place policies which encourage women and older
people to remain in the workforce. but it doesn t say how companies should be
convinced to do this. it will be up to the incoming president of the european
commission jose manuel barroso to adopt mr kok s recommendations and press them
on eu governments. mr barroso has said that the eu s competitiveness will be his
top priority. he expects his five-year term in office to be judged on europe s
success in meeting the lisbon agenda.
hague s six-figure earnings shown the rewards of leaving front-bench politics are
shown in the latest annual register of members interests. the register shows
former tory leader william hague earning up to £820 000 on top of his mps salary
much of it from speaking fees. his former shadow chancellor michael portillo makes
up to £560 000 a year - partly because of speeches and tv work. ex-health secretary
alan milburn earned up to £85 000 from speeches articles and advice while not in
the cabinet. mr milburn was away from the frontbench for just more than a year
between stepping down as health secretary and becoming labour s election supremo.
his declared interests include £20 000 from newspaper articles and fees of up to
£35 000 for four speeches. he also commanded a salary of between £25 000 and £35
000 for being on investment company bridgepoint capital s european advisory
committee. his time out of office will however have lost him his £71 433 minister
s salary. mr hague s work outside parliament included two one-man shows which with
other speaking fees netted him up to £480 000. he also earned up to £195 000 for a
weekly column in the news of the world and between £5 000 and £10 000 for
presenting bbc 2 s have i got news for you. mr hague was also paid an undisclosed
amount for the newspaper serialisation of his biography of william pitt the younger
and up to £135 00 for work as an adviser to various companies. former defence
secretary michael portillo makes some of his money as a non-executive director of
bae systems. he is to stand down as an mp at the next election. and former foreign
secretary robin cook was paid between £45 001 and £50 000 for the paperback edition
of his book about his resignation from government. his declared income of up to
£205 000 also includes payments for being a consultant to the tote and for his
regular column in the guardian newspaper. the register also shows former home
office minister ann widdecombe declaring a £100 000 advance for her third and
fourth novels. she also received up to £30 000 for acting as the guardian s agony
aunt and between £5 001 and £10 000 for appearing on itv s celebrity fit club.
david blunkett has become a paid adviser to indepen consulting limited now he is
not home secretary - he helps them with seminars about the relationship between
government and business. he earns between £5 001and £10 000 for the work. tony
blair s entry confirms that king abdullah of jordan paid for him to fly from a
holiday in egypt to official discussions - and for a sightseeing tour to wadi rum.
tory leader michael howard s only fresh entry is a christmas hamper from the sultan
of brunei. he also declares a trip to mexico last year to address executives of
news international and helicopter and private jet travel paid for by supporters.
liberal democrat leader charles kennedy registered donations to his office from
supporters a free ticket to last year s bafta awards and rent from a single-
bedroom flat in london. the register only contains new information for december
2004 - but monday saw the publication of the annual review of the register with
the year s details. the payments are shown in bands of up £5 000 making it
difficult to calculate the exact earnings.
howard pitches for uk ethnic vote michael howard is to make a pitch for britain s
ethnic vote urging people who feel taken for granted by tony blair to vote
conservative. he will say conservatives share the same values as the uk s
minorities. and that he wants to build a better britain where everyone whatever
the colour of their skin or religion can make the most of their talents . but the
tory leader will argue against positive discrimination saying it is outdated and
unjust . it sets family against family and it leads ethnic communities to doubt
their own abilities he will argue. mr howard - himself the son of immigrants -
will acknowledge that racial discrimination still exists in the uk. people from
ethnic communities for example still earn less than their white counterparts he
will say before arguing the answer to helping everyone to get on was free
enterprise free trade free speech . the tory leader will also call for religious
tolerance arguing that hindus and sikhs as well as muslims got caught in the
downdraft of islamaphobia which was one of the terrible side effects of 9/11 . mr
howard will make his speech during a visit to support tory parliamentary hopefuls
robert light and sayeeda warsi - the first british muslim woman selected to run
for mp as a conservative candidate. he will attack labour s record in government
over issues such as tax and he will set out tory plans for an immigration quota to
be set by mps. mr howard will also attack the lib dems for wanting to abolish faith
schools introduce compulsory sex education from the age of seven and give
contraceptives out in schools from the age of 11 . so i say to all those people
from ethnic minorities who feel mr blair and the liberal democrats take their votes
for granted - come join us he will say. lib dem president simon hughes branded mr
howard arrogant and wrong for claiming the tories were the natural party for
britain s ethnic minorities. given the tories considerably reduced support in
urban areas where many black and asian britons live during their time in power
the evidence simply does not support his claims that the conservatives are the
party for these communities he said.
loyalty cards idea for tv addicts viewers could soon be rewarded for watching tv as
loyalty cards come to a screen near you. any household hooked up to sky could soon
be using smartcards in conjunction with their set-top boxes. broadcasters such as
sky and itv could offer viewers loyalty points in return for watching a particular
channel or programme. sky will activate a spare slot on set-top boxes in january
marketing magazine new media age reported. sky set-top boxes have two slots. one
is for the viewer s decryption card while the other has been dormant until now.
loyalty cards have become a common addition to most wallets as high street brands
rush to keep customers with a series of incentives offered by store cards. now
similar schemes look set to enter the highly competitive world of multi-channel tv.
viewers who stay loyal to a particular tv channel could be rewarded by free tv
content or freebies from retail partners. broadcasters aiming content at children
could offer smartcards which gives membership to exclusive content and clubs.
parents could pre-pay for some content as a kind of tv pocket money card said
nigel whalley managing director of media consultancy decipher. viewers could even
be rewarded for watching ad breaks with ideas such as ad bingo being touted by
firms keen to make money out of the new market said mr whalley. credit cards that
have been chipped could be used in set-top boxes to pay for movies gambling and
gaming. the idea of an intelligent card in boxes offers a lot of possibilities. it
will be down to the ingenuity of the content players said mr whalley. for the bbc
revenue-generating activity will be of little interest but the new development may
prompt changes to freeview set-top boxes said mr whalley. currently most freeview
boxes do not have a slot which would allow viewers to use a smartcard. some 7.4
million households have sky boxes and sky is hoping to increase this to 10 million
by 2010. loyalty cards could play a role in this particularly in reducing the
number of people who cancel their sky subscriptions said ian fogg an analyst with
jupiter research.
mcclaren eyes uefa cup top spot steve mcclaren wants his middlesbrough team to win
their uefa cup group by beating partizan belgrade. boro have already qualified for
the knockout stages alongside partizan and villareal at the expense of lazio. but
boss mcclaren is looking for a victory which would mean they avoid a team that has
played in the champions league in friday s third-round draw. to need a win to
finish top is fantastic but it is going to be a tough one mcclaren said. when
the draw was made i thought it was the toughest group of them all - and so it has
proved. lazio were favourites villarreal have been semi-finalists and partizan
have fantastic experience in europe. the pleasing thing is we did the business in
the first two games. winning those two has put us in a great position and it has
been a fantastic experience playing these teams.
lit idol begins search for author the second pop idol-style search for literary
talent has begun with the help of the brother of simon cowell. writer tony cowell
is among the judges who will hear aspiring writers read their work aloud. the
winner gets a deal with literary agency curtis brown. i m not going to be the mr
nasty of books said cowell 54 in reference to his brother s caustic remarks on
tv shows pop idol and the x-factor. the 2004 winner paul cavanagh went on to sign
a deal with harper collins. this year the competition is specifically looking for
a crime writer. writers must submit up to 10 000 words from the opening chapters of
their novels and a synopsis. professional readers will choose a shortlist of five
following the competition closing date on 14 january. the final five will then
have to read their work in front of judging panel. a public vote will also take
place which will account for 25% of the final decision. the winner will be
announced at the london book fair on 14 march next year and could be screened on
tv. it s very very hard to find an agent and extremely difficult without an
agent to get a publisher to look at your work said cowell. people do fall by
the wayside and the more avenues we can provide for aspiring authors the better
he added. paul cavanagh a former university professor and health care consultant
from ontario in canada was one of 1 466 aspiring novelists to enter the first
contest. he lifted the inaugural lit idol prize after reading aloud an excerpt of
his work northwest passage. three film studios are said to be interested in buying
film rights for the book even though it is not finished yet.
hong kong in 2011 world cup bid hong kong is hoping to join japan as co-host of the
2011 rugby world cup. japan has applied to host the tournament on its own with
the aim of taking it outside rugby s traditional strongholds for the first time.
but hong kong rugby football union (hkrfu) chairman john molloy has called for the
territory to host one of the pools and a quarter-final. the japanese rugby football
union (jrfu) says it has yet to receive a formal presentation from the hkrfu. at
this stage we are only considering hosting the event by ourselves said jrfu
secretary koji tokumasu. we cannot examine any proposal unless we get it in a
definitive form. japan faces stiff competition in the form of south africa and new
zealand to host the event in seven years time. until now the world cup has been
held in countries from the six nations or tri-nations said tokumasu. we think
and the irb thinks that it is time for rugby to go global. japan is ready to host
the tournament and we are looking forward to welcoming the world of rugby to japan.
tokumasu added that the 2002 football world cup co-hosted by japan and south korea
had been a huge success. as well as having the infrastructure in place japan also
has the commercial clout to host one of sport s top competitions he said. last
year japan launched its first professional rugby league and it has the fourth
largest number of registered players (125 508) in the world after england south
africa and france.
web radio takes spanish rap global spin the radio dial in the us and you are likely
to find plenty of spanish-language music. but what you will not find is much
spanish-language hip-hop. hip-hop and rap are actually quite popular in the
spanish-speaking world but local artists are having trouble marketing their work
abroad. but now a us company is bringing rap and hip-hop en espanol to computer
users everywhere. los caballeros de plan g are one of mexico s hottest hip-hop
acts. they have a devoted fan base in their native monterrey. but most mexican hip-
hop fans not to mention fans in most of the spanish-speaking world rarely get a
chance to hear the group s tracks on the radio. you can t really just go on the
radio and listen to hip-hop in spanish... it s just not accessible says manuel
millan a native of san diego california. it s really hard for the spanish hip-
hop scene to get into mainstream radio. you usually have a very commercialised
sound and the groups are not really known around the country or around the world.
millan and two friends set out to change that - they wanted to make groups like los
caballeros de plan g accessible to fans globally. mainstream radio stations were
not going to play this kind of music and starting their own broadcast station was
economically impossible. so millan and his friends launched a website called
latinohiphopradio.com. the name says it all: it is web-based radio devoted to the
hottest spanish language rap and hip-hop tracks. the site which is in both in
english and spanish is meant to be easy to navigate. all the user has to do is
download a media player. there are no djs. it is just music streamed over the net
for free. suddenly with the help of the website los caballeros de plan g are
producing export quality rap. the web might be just the right medium for spanish
language hip-hop right now. the genre is in what millan calls its infant stage .
but the production values are improving and artists such as argentina s mustafa
yoda are pushing to make it better and better. mustafa yoda is currently one of the
hottest tracks on latinohiphopradio.com. he s considered the eminem of argentina
and the latin american hip-hop scene millan says. he really hasn t had that much
exposure as far as anywhere in the world but he s definitely the one to look out
for as far as becoming the next big thing in the spanish-speaking world. currently
the chilean group makisa is also in latinohiphopradio.com s top 10 as is cuban
artist papo record. every country s got it s own cultural differences and they try
to put those into their own songs millan says. latinohiphopradio.com has been up
and running for a couple of months now. the site has listeners from across the
spanish speaking world. right now mexico leads the way accounting for about 50%
of listeners. but web surfers in spain are logging in as well - about 25% of the
web station s traffic comes from there. that is not surprising as many consider
spain to be the leader in spanish-language rap and hip-hop. millan says that spain
is actually just behind the united states and france in terms of overall rap and
hip-hop production. that might be changing though as more and more latin american
artists are finding audiences. but one spaniard is still firmly in
latinohiphopradio.com s top 10. his name is tote king and manuel millan says that
he is the hip-hop leader in spain. on his track uno contra veinte emcees or one
against 20 emcees tote king shows he is well aware of that fact. it s basically
him bragging that he s one of the best emcees in spain right now millan says.
and it s pretty much true. he has the tightest productions and his rap flow is
impeccable it s amazing. latinohiphopradio.com is hoping to expand in the coming
year. millan says they want to include more music and more news from the world of
spanish language hip-hop and rap. clark boyd is technology correspondent for the
world a bbc world service and wgbh-boston co-production.
us trade gap hits record in 2004 the gap between us exports and imports hit an all-
time high of $671.7bn (£484bn) in 2004 latest figures show. the commerce
department said the trade deficit for all of last year was 24.4% above the previous
record - 2003 s imbalance of $496.5bn. the deficit with china up 30.5% at $162bn
was the largest ever recorded with a single country. however on a monthly basis
the us trade gap narrowed by 4.9% in december to £56.4bn. the us consumer s
appetite for all things from oil to imported cars and even wine and cheese
reached record levels last year and the figures are likely to spark fresh criticism
of president bush s economic policies. democrats claim the administration has not
done enough to clamp down on unfair foreign trade practices. for example they
believe china s currency policy - which us manufacturers claim has undervalued the
yuan by as much as 40% - has given china s rapidly expanding economy an unfair
advantage against us competitors. meanwhile the bush administration argues that
the us deficit reflects the fact the america is growing at faster rate than the
rest of the world spurring on more demand for imported goods. some economists say
this may allow an upward revision of us economic growth in the fourth quarter. but
others point out that the deficit has reached such astronomical proportions that
foreigners many choose not to hold as many dollar-denominated assets which may in
turn harm growth. for all of 2004 us exports rose 12.3% to $1.15 trillion but
imports rose even faster by 16.3% to a new record of $1.76 trillion. foreign oil
exports surged by 35.7% to a record $180.7bn reflecting the rally in global oil
prices and increasing domestic demand. imports were not affected by the dollar s
weakness last year. we expect the deficit to continue to widen in 2005 even if the
dollar gets back to its downward trend said economist marie-pierre ripert at
ixis.
rapper jay-z becomes label boss rap star jay-z is to become a record company
executive after being put in charge of one of hip-hop s most influential labels
def jam. jay-z who said he would make no more music after 2003 s the black album
will become the company s president and chief executive from january. def jam s
parent company universal made the appointment after buying jay-z s roc-a-fella
label. def jam s artists include ll cool j dmx ludacris ja rule and ashanti.
jay-z will continue to run roc-a-fella which he founded with damon dash in 1995
and has kanye west and beanie sigel on its roster. universal said on wednesday it
had bought the 50% of roc-a-fella it did not already own. antonio la reid
chairman of the island def jam music group said: i can think of no-one more
relevant and credible in the hip-hop community to build upon def jam s fantastic
legacy. he hoped jay-z would move the company into its next groundbreaking era
he added. jay-z real name shawn carter said: i have inherited two of the most
important brands in hip-hop def jam and roc-a-fella. i feel this is a giant step
for me and the entire artist community. one of the most successful and respected
rap stars of the last eight years jay-z s hits have included hard knock life dirt
off your shoulder and 03 bonnie and clyde with his girlfriend beyonce knowles. he
said he would retire after the black album but has just released an album and been
on an ill-fated tour with r kelly. def jam was founded in 1984 by russell simmons
and producer rick rubin and signed artists including run-dmc the beastie boys and
public enemy.
prodigy monfils blows away gaudio french prodigy gael monfils underlined his huge
promise by beating french open champion gaston gaudio 6-4 7-6 (7-4) in the first
round of the qatar open. the 18-year-old wild card won three of the four junior
grand slam events last year including wimbledon. fabrice santoro the 2000
champion beat sweden s thomas johansson 6-4 6-2 but fourth seed mikhail youzhny
lost 6-3 7-6 (7-3) to rafael nadal. roger federer plays greg rusedski in the second
round on wednesday. monfils who was given a wildcard into the tournament said:
this is my first win over a top 10 player and i am delighted. i play my best
tennis when i am fired up on the court and the reason i won today was because i was
able to play my natural attacking game he said. of course i was a bit tired in
the second set. but i was confident i could survive had there been a third set.
berlin hails european cinema organisers say this year s berlin film festival which
opens on thursday with period epic man to man will celebrate a revitalised
european cinema. of the 21 films in competition for the golden and silver bear
awards more than half are from europe with france particularly well represented.
festival director dieter kosslick says this strong showing signals a new
consciousness for european films . they re on an incredible winning streak he
told the reuters agency. this isn t to say there aren t any good american films
he continued. it s just that there are more good european films. however mr
kosslick refused to accept that widespread opposition to the iraq war had turned
audiences against hollywood imports. there is no anti-american mood he said.
some 350 films will be screened at this year s festival with a further 300 shown
at the european film market that runs alongside it. more than a dozen celebrities
are scheduled to attend among them will smith kevin spacey and keanu reeves. but
mr kosslick says more would be coming had the academy awards not been brought
forward to 27 february. i m not worried that we won t be able to fill the red
carpet with stars he said though he admitted the festival may be moved to
january next year to avoid a similar clash. the 10-day berlinale runs until 20
february.
beckham relief as real go through david beckham expressed his relief at real madrid
s passage to the champions league knockout phase. after real s 3-0 win at roma
the england skipper admitted another season of under-achievement would not be
tolerated at the bernabeu stadium. beckham said: it s expected of madrid to get
through but it s a relief for the club and players to have won. we lost momentum
last season but we cannot afford to to go another season without winning anything.
real s finish as runners-up in their champions league group means they cannot face
his old club manchester united in the next round. but real could be drawn against
other premiership hopefuls arsenal or chelsea who won their respective groups.
it s going to be great whoever we play even if we don t get either of the two
english teams.
byrds producer melcher dies at 62 record producer terry melcher who was behind
hits by the byrds ry cooder and the beach boys has died aged 62. the son of
actress doris day he helped write kokomo for the beach boys which was used in the
movie cocktail earning a 1988 golden globe nomination. he also produced mr
tambourine man for the byrds as well as other his such as turn turn turn. melcher
died on friday night at his home in beverly hills california after a long battle
with skin cancer. he joined columbia records as a producer in the mid-1960s and
also worked with gram parsons and the mamas and the papas. earlier in his career
melcher had hits as part of duo called bruce & terry with future beach boy bruce
johnston which evolved into the rip chords group. melcher also worked closely with
his mother producing the doris day show and helping to run her charitable
activities. in 1969 his name became linked with the charles manson murders which
saw the deaths of actress sharon tate and four of her friends at a home which
melcher once rented. rumours circulated that melcher - who knew manson - was the
killer s real target because he had turned him down for a record contract. but los
angeles police discounted the rumours pointing out melcher had moved to malibu
and manson knew of his new address.
animation charms japan box office oscar-winning director hayao miyazaki s latest
film has set a new japanese box office record with 1.5bn yen ($14.3m) in two days
according to reports. howl s moving castle is the follow-up to miyazaki s spirited
away which won best animation at last year s oscars. it is based on the children s
book by english writer diana wynne jones. it has registered the highest opening
weekend takings of any japanese film in the country according to trade publication
screen daily. the film is about an 18-year-old girl who is trapped in an old woman
s body after being put under a spell by a witch. its two-day takings represented
1.1 million cinema admissions screen daily said. the film s distributor toho
expects 40 million people to see it in total - almost one third of the country s
population - it added. the film won the golden osella for outstanding technical
contribution at this year s venice film festival.
chancellor rallies labour voters gordon brown has issued a rallying cry telling
supporters the stakes are too high to stay at home or protest vote in the
forthcoming general election. the chancellor said the vote - expected to fall on 5
may - will give a clear and fundamental choice between labour investment and
conservative cuts. speaking at labour s spring conference in gateshead mr brown
claimed the nhs was not safe in conservative hands. he said tory plans to cut £35bn
tax would cut deep into public service . to a packed audience at gateshead s sage
centre the chancellor said the cuts proposed by shadow chancellor oliver letwin
were the equivalent of sacking every teacher gp and nurse in the country he told
activists. laying into the conservative s record in government he said: i give you
this promise - with labour britain will never return to the mistakes of erm and
10% inflation 15% interest rates £3bn in lost reserves 250 000 repossessed one
million in negative equity and three million unemployed. never again tory boom and
bust. this will be the central dividing line at the election between a
conservative party taking britain back and planning deep cuts of £35bn in our
services and a labour government taking britain forward which on a platform of
stability will reform and renew our hospitals schools and public services and i
am proud to say spend by 2008 £60bn more. turning to the economy the chancellor
pledged to continue economic stability and growth in a third term in power. he
said after seven years labour had transformed from a party not trusted with the
economy to the only party trusted with the economy . it was now a party not just
of employees but of employers and managers he said. in the speech - which
prompted a standing ovation from an audience clearly warm to mr brown - he also
promised to end teenage unemployment within the next five years. he also
highlighted plans for 100% debt relief for the world s poorest countries a
national minimum wage for 16 and 17-year-olds and the creation of a network of
children s centres and flexibility in maternity leave. the prime minister is to
take part later on saturday in an interactive question and answer session fielding
queries sent in by e-mail text message and telephone as part of labour s attempt
to engage the public in their campaign.
chelsea denied by james heroics a brave defensive display led by keeper david
james helped manchester city hold the leaders chelsea. after a quiet opening
james denied damien duff jiri jarosik and mateja kezman while paul bosvelt
cleared william gallas header off the line. robbie fowler should have scored for
the visitors but sent his header wide. chelsea had most of the possession in the
second half but james kept out frank lampard s free-kick and superbly tipped the
same player s volley wide. city went into the game with the proud record of being
the only domestic team to beat chelsea this season. and there was little to alarm
them in the first 30 minutes as chelsea - deprived of arjen robben and didier
drogba through injury - struggled to pose much of a threat. indeed it was the
visitors who looked likelier to enliven a drab opening played at a lethargic pace.
shaun wright-phillips - watched by england boss sven-goran eriksson - showed his
customary trickery to burst into the right of the area and deliver a dangerous ball
which was blocked by john terry. but chelsea suddenly stepped up a gear and created
a flurry of chances. first duff got round ben thatcher and blasted in a shot that
james parried to kezman who turned the ball wide. soon afterwards jarosik found
space in the area to powerfully head lampard s corner goalwards but james tipped
the ball over. chelsea were now looking more like premiership leaders and james
kept out kezman s fierce drive before bosvelt and james combined to clear gallas
header from duff s corner. city broke swiftly up the field and the last chance of a
frenetic spell should have resulted in fowler celebrating his 150th premiership
goal. wright-phillips raced down the left and crossed to fowler but city s lone man
up front left free by terry s slip contrived to head wide when it seemed a
breakthrough was certain. the second half started as quietly as the first although
james was forced to divert a cross from the lively duff away from eidur gudjohnsen
s path. there was a nasty moment for petr cech looking for a ninth straight clean
sheet in the league when a series of ricochets saw fowler chase a loose ball in
the area and collide accidently with the czech republic stopper. another quiet
spell followed which duff interrupted with a surging run that was halted illegally
on the edge of the penalty area by bosvelt. lampard stepped up to blast a shot
through the wall and james somehow blocked it with his legs. another timely
challenge this time from richard dunne in time added on prevented gudjohnsen from
getting in a shot. there was still time for james to produce a sensational save to
tip lampard s volley round the post. cech paulo ferreira gallas terry bridge
jarosik (tiago 56) lampard makelele duff gudjohnsen kezman (cole 63). subs
not used: johnson smertin cudicini. makelele gudjohnsen. james mills distin
dunne thatcher shaun wright-phillips bosvelt barton sibierski (mcmanaman 85)
musampa fowler. subs not used: macken weaver onuoha jordan. bosvelt. 42 093
h webb (s yorkshire).
chelsea sack mutu chelsea have sacked adrian mutu after he failed a drugs test.
the 25-year-old tested positive for a banned substance - which he later denied was
cocaine - in october. chelsea have decided to write off a possible transfer fee for
mutu a £15.8m signing from parma last season who may face a two-year suspension.
a statement from chelsea explaining the decision read: we want to make clear that
chelsea has a zero tolerance policy towards drugs. mutu scored six goals in his
first five games after arriving at stamford bridge but his form went into decline
and he was frozen out by coach jose mourinho. chelsea s statement added: this
applies to both performance-enhancing drugs or so-called recreational drugs. they
have no place at our club or in sport. in coming to a decision on this case
chelsea believed the club s social responsibility to its fans players employees
and other stakeholders in football regarding drugs was more important than the
major financial considerations to the company. any player who takes drugs breaches
his contract with the club as well as football association rules. the club totally
supports the fa in strong action on all drugs cases. fifa s disciplinary code
stipulates that a first doping offence should be followed by a six-month ban. and
the sport s world governing body has re-iterated their stance over mutu s failed
drugs test maintaining it is a matter for the domestic sporting authorities. fifa
is not in a position to make any comment on the matter until the english fa have
informed us of their disciplinary decision and the relevant information associated
with it said a fifa spokesman. chelsea s move won backing from drug-testing
expert michelle verroken. verroken a former director of drug-free sport for uk
sport insists the blues were right to sack mutu and have enhanced their reputation
by doing so. chelsea are saying quite clearly to the rest of their players and
their fans that this is a situation they are not prepared to tolerate. it was a
very difficult decision for them and an expensive decision for them but the terms
of his contract were breached and it was the only decision they could make. it is
a very clear stance by chelsea and it has given a strong boost to the reputation of
the club. it emerged that mutu had failed a drugs test on october 18 and although
it was initially reported that the banned substance in question was cocaine. the
romanian international later suggested it was a substance designed to enhance
sexual performance. the football association has yet to act on mutu s failed drugs
test and refuses to discuss his case.
slater to star in broadway play actor christian slater is stepping into the role of
tom in the broadway revival of the glass menagerie. slater 35 is replacing actor
dallas roberts in the tennessee williams drama which opens next month. no reason
was given for roberts departure. the role will be played by understudy joey
collins until slater joins the show. slater won rave reviews for his recent
performance in one flew over the cuckoo s nest in london s west end. he has also
starred in a number of films including heathers robin hood: prince of thieves and
more recently churchill: the hollywood years. preview performances of the glass
menagerie will begin at new york s ethel barrymore theatre on thursday. philip
rinaldi a spokesman for the show said the play s 15 march opening date remains
unchanged. the revival directed by david leveaux will also star jessica lange as
the domineering mother amanda wingfield.
jack cunningham to stand down veteran labour mp and former cabinet minister jack
cunningham has said he will stand down at the next election. one of the few blair-
era ministers to serve under jim callaghan he was given the agriculture portfolio
when labour regained power in 1997. mr cunningham went on to become tony blair s
cabinet enforcer . he has represented the constituency now known as copeland since
1970. mr blair said he was a huge figure in labour and a valued personal friend
. during labour s long period in opposition mr cunningham held a number of shadow
roles including foreign affairs the environment and as trade spokesman. as
agriculture minister he caused controversy when he decided to ban beef on the bone
in the wake of fears over bse. he quit the government in 1999 and in recent years
has served as the chairman of the all-party committee on lords reform and has been
a loyal supporter of the government from the backbenches.
safety alert as gm recalls cars the world s biggest carmaker general motors (gm) is
recalling nearly 200 000 vehicles in the us on safety grounds according to federal
regulators. the national highway traffic safety administration (nhtsa) said the
largest recall involves 155 465 pickups vans and sports utility vehicles (suvs).
this is because of possible malfunctions with the braking systems. the affected
vehicles in the product recall are from the 2004 and 2005 model years gm said.
those vehicles with potential faults are the chevrolet avalanche express kodiak
silverade and suburban; the gmc savana sierra and yukon. the nhtsa said a
pressure accumulator in the braking system could crack during normal driving and
fragments could injure people if the hood was open. this could allow hydraulic
fluid to leak which could make it harder to brake or steer and could cause a crash
it warned. gm is also recalling 19 924 cadillac xlr coupes srx suvs and pontiac
grand prix sedans from the 2004 model year. this is because the accelerator pedal
may not work properly in extremely cold temperatures requiring more braking. in
addition the car giant is calling back 17 815 buick raniers chevrolet
trailblazers gmc envoys and isuzu ascenders from the 2005 model years because the
windshield is not properly fitted and could fall out in a crash. however gm
stressed that it did not know of any injuries related to the problems. news of the
recall follows an announcement last month that gm expects earnings this year be
lower than in 2004. the world s biggest car maker is grappling with losses in its
european business weak us sales and now a product recall. in january gm said
higher healthcare costs in north america and lower profits at its financial
services subsidiary would hurt its performance in 2005.
screensaver tackles spam websites net users are getting the chance to fight back
against spam websites internet portal lycos has made a screensaver that endlessly
requests data from sites that sell the goods and services mentioned in spam e-mail.
lycos hopes it will make the monthly bandwidth bills of spammers soar by keeping
their servers running flat out. the net firm estimates that if enough people sign
up and download the tool spammers could end up paying to send out terabytes of
data. we ve never really solved the big problem of spam which is that its so damn
cheap and easy to do said malte pollmann spokesman for lycos europe. in the
past we have built up the spam filtering systems for our users he said but now
we are going to go one step further. we ve found a way to make it much higher
cost for spammers by putting a load on their servers. by getting thousands of
people to download and use the screensaver lycos hopes to get spamming websites
constantly running at almost full capacity. mr pollmann said there was no intention
to stop the spam websites working by subjecting them with too much data to cope
with. he said the screensaver had been carefully written to ensure that the amount
of traffic it generated from each user did not overload the web. every single user
will contribute three to four megabytes per day he said about one mp3 file.
but he said if enough people sign up spamming websites could be force to pay for
gigabytes of traffic every single day. lycos did not want to use e-mail to fight
back said mr pollmann. that would be fighting one bad thing with another bad
thing he said. the sites being targeted are those mentioned in spam e-mail
messages and which sell the goods and services on offer. typically these sites are
different to those that used to send out spam e-mail and they typically only get a
few thousand visitors per day. the list of sites that the screensaver will target
is taken from real-time blacklists generated by organisations such as spamcop. to
limit the chance of mistakes being made lycos is using people to ensure that the
sites are selling spam goods. as these sites rarely use advertising to offset
hosting costs the burden of high-bandwidth bills could make spam too expensive
said mr pollmann. sites will also slow down under the weight of data requests.
early results show that response times of some sites have deteriorated by up to
85%. users do not have to be registered users of lycos to download and use the
screensaver. while working the screensaver shows the websites that are being
bothered with requests for data. the screensaver is due to be launched across
europe on 1 december and before now has only been trialled in sweden. despite the
soft launch mr pollmann said that the screensaver had been downloaded more than 20
000 times in the last four days. there s a huge user demand to not only filter
spam day-by-day but to do something more he said before now users have never had
the chance to be a bit more offensive.
profits slide at india s dr reddy profits at indian drugmaker dr reddy s fell 93%
as research costs rose and sales flagged. the firm said its profits were 40m
rupees ($915 000; £486 000) for the three months to december on sales which fell 8%
to 4.7bn rupees. dr reddy s has built its reputation on producing generic versions
of big-name pharmaceutical products. but competition has intensified and the firm
and the company is short on new product launches. the most recent was the
annoucement in december 2000 that it had won exclusive marketing rights for a
generic version of the famous anti-depressant prozac from its maker eli lilly. it
also lost a key court case in march 2004 banning it from selling a version of
pfizer s popular hypertension drug norvasc in the us. research and development of
new drugs is continuing apace with r&d spending rising 37% to 705m rupees - a key
cause of the decrease in profits alongside the fall in sales. patents on a number
of well-known products are due to run out in the near future representing an
opportunity for dr reddy whose shares are listed in new york and other indian
generics manufacturers. sales in dr reddy s generics business fell 8.6% to 966m
rupees. another staple of the the firm s business the sale of ingredients for
drugs also performed poorly. sales were down more than 25% from the previous year
to 1.4bn rupees in the face of strong competition both at home and in the us and
europe. dr reddy s indian competitors are gathering strength although they too face
heavy competitive pressures.
us crude prices surge above $53 us crude prices have soared to fresh four-month
highs above $53 in the us as refinery problems propelled petrol prices to an all-
time high. us light sweet crude futures jumped to $53.09 a barrel in new york
before closing at $53.03. the gains tracked a surge in us gasoline futures to a
record high of $1.4850 a gallon. the jump followed a fire at western refining
company s refinery in texas which shut down petrol production. a spokesman for the
group was unable to say when the production unit would be back up and running.
this market simply wants to go up citigroup global markets analyst kyle cooper
told reuters news agency. ed silliere analyst at energy merchant added: gasoline
is up because of the refinery issues in texas which means there will be a scramble
for product in the (us) gulf coast. elsewhere a refinery in houston was closed
due to mechanical problems while on tuesday production at bp s texas city refinery
was taken down for a short time. in the approach to spring the market becomes much
more sensitive to problems with petrol production as dealers anticipate rising
demand for fuel ahead of the holiday season. the rise in prices came despite a us
government report that showed domestic supplies of fuel oil and fuel were rising.
meanwhile oil production cartel opec s recent announcement that it was now
unlikely to cut production levels has also failed to calm fears on the market. oil
prices are roughly 45% higher than a year ago and have risen sharply in recent
weeks due to a combination of colder weather the declining value of the dollar and
fears that opec could rein in production to head off a seasonal drop in demand.
instability in iraq and underlying fears about terrorism have also played a part in
the rally.
ibm frees 500 software patents computer giant ibm says 500 of its software patents
will be released into the open development community. the move means developers
will be able to use the technologies without paying for a licence from the company.
ibm described the step as a new era in how it dealt with intellectual property
and promised further patents would be made freely available. the patents include
software for a range of practices including text recognition and database
management. traditional technology business policy is to amass patents and despite
ibm s announcement the company continues to follow this route. ibm was granted 3
248 patents in 2004 more than any other firm in the us the new york times
reports. for each of the past 12 years ibm has been granted more us patents than
any other company. ibm has received 25 772 us patents in that period and reportedly
has more than 40 000 current patents. in a statement dr john e. kelly ibm senior
vice president technology and intellectual property said: true innovation
leadership is about more than just the numbers of patents granted. it s about
innovating to benefit customers partners and society. our pledge today is the
beginning of a new era in how ibm will manage intellectual property. in the past
ibm has supported the non-commercial operating system linux although critics have
said this was done only as an attempt to undermine microsoft. the company said it
wanted to encourage other firms to release patents into what it called a patent
commons . adam jollans ibm s world-wide linux strategy manager said the move was
a genuine attempt to encourage innovation. we believe that releasing these patents
will result in innovation moving more quickly. this is about encouraging
collaboration and following a model much like academia. mr jollans likened the
plan for a patent commons to the way the internet was developed and said everyone
could take advantage of the result of collaboration. the internet s impact has
been on everyone. the benefits are there for everyone to take advantage of. stuart
cohen chief executive of us firm open source development labs said the move could
mean a change in the way companies deal with patents. i think other companies
will follow suit he said. but not everyone was as supportive. florian mueller
campaign manager of a group lobbying toprevent software patents becoming legal in
the european union dismissed ibm s move as insubstantial. it s just diversionary
tactics wrote mr mueller who leadsnosoftwarepatents.com in a message on the
group s website. let s put this into perspective: we re talking aboutroughly one
percent of ibm s worldwide patent portfolio. they filethat number of patents in
about a month s time he added. ibm will continue to hold the 500 patents but it
has pledged to seek no royalties from the patents. the company said it would not
place any restrictions on companies groups or individuals who use them in open-
source projects. open source software is developed by programmers who offer the
source code - the origins of the program - for free and allow others to adapt or
improve the software. end users have the right to modify and redistribute the
software as well as the right to package and sell the software. other areas
covered by the patents released by ibm include storage management simultaneous
multiprocessing image processing networking and e-commerce.
benitez deflects blame from dudek liverpool manager rafael benitez has refused to
point the finger of blame at goalkeeper jerzy dudek after portsmouth claimed a draw
at anfield. dudek fumbled a cross before lomana lualua headed home an injury-time
equaliser levelling after steven gerrard put liverpool ahead. benitez said: it
was difficult for jerzy. it was an unlucky moment. he was expecting a cross from
matthew taylor and it ended up like a shot so i don t blame him for what happened.
benitez admitted it was a costly loss of two points by liverpool who followed up
their derby defeat against everton with a disappointing draw. he said: we had many
opportunities but didn t score and in the end a 1-0 lead was not enough. if you
don t have any chances you have to think of other things but when you are creating
so many chances as we are there is nothing you can say to the players. it was a
pity. we lost two points but we have one more point in the table. now we have
another difficult game against newcastle and we have to recover quickly from that.
csa could close says minister ministers would not rule out scrapping the child
support agency if it failed to improve work and pensions secretary alan johnson
has warned. but he said replacing the controversial csa would be the nuclear
option . a report by the commons work and pensions committee called for the agency
to be wound up unless it improved its service within weeks. chairman sir archy
kirkwood said: if the agency cannot be rescued then it must be replaced. the
committee reached its conclusions after it found that nearly 250 000 cases have yet
to be processed. it warned that it could be five years before the csa was fit for
purpose describing it as a failing organisation and in crisis with parents
facing payment delays and inaccurate maintenance calculations. the report urged the
csa to draw up contingency plans including the abandonment option to be
presented to parliament by easter in case the cs2 computer system could not be
made to work. and responding to calls for the agency to be scrapped mr johnson
told bbc radio 4 s today programme: i certainly wouldn t rule out the nuclear
option of moving to a completely new system. but i think the select committee
would agree with me we would only do that when we were absolutely convinced that
this system just isn t going to work. the mps launched their inquiry into the csa
s performance after it became clear that despite the introduction of a simpler
system of calculating maintenance payments for new cases in 2003 a backlog of
claims was building up. the mps found the £456m system from american it giant eds
was nowhere near being fully functional and the number of dissatisfied
disenchanted and angry customers continues to escalate . faced with the committee s
criticism the government has suspended its plan to cut the agency s staff by 25%.
the csa has been surrounded in controversy since its introduction in 1993 to assess
and enforce child support payments by absent parents. it is currently chasing
outstanding payments of more than £720m while a further £947m has been designated
as unrecoverable . michelle a mother of twins said she had not received a penny
of the £57 a week she should be receiving from her ex-partner and had faced an on-
going battle with the csa. her forms have twice been lost in the post she said.
i don t receive correspondence i don t receive phone calls i have to chase them
all the time she said. theresa may tory shadow work and pensions secretary
said: we have got to find a way that s going to ensure those payments get through
to the people who are due them. the agency s former chief executive doug smith
quit last autumn claiming he was seriously disappointed with its performance. the
committee said the national audit office should investigate why the eds system had
gone so badly wrong. it blamed the agency s senior management for a multitude of
problems within the agency including for an apparent lack of training of
frontline staff.
williams battles to aussie title serena williams staged a remarkable recovery to
beat lindsay davenport and win her second australian open title. the 2003 champion
claimed her seventh grand slam title and her first since wimbledon in 2003 2-6 6-
3 6-0. williams had looked close to quitting with a rib injury when she left the
court for treatment after five games. she quickly dropped the first set but from 3-
3 in the second found another gear as davenport s game collapsed allowing williams
to take the title. williams later explained her injury problem saying it was the
result of lunging for a ball early in the first set. lindsay had me on the run out
wide on my backhand and my back went but eventually i was able to come back thank
goodness she said. davenport paid tribute to williams saying: she s had a tough
couple of years and she s come back like a champion. the 23-year-old former world
number one was in desperate trouble in the early stages as the injury hampered her
service action. davenport took advantage to race through the opening set and held
six break points in game five of the second. i kept thinking to myself i m not
losing this game said williams afterwards. i don t care if my arm falls off i
m not losing this game . and i guess that s what happened. i didn t want to lose
that particular game because it would have given her a lot of momentum and a lot
of confidence. despite letting the break points slip away davenport looked
comfortable enough at 3-3 but from 40-0 up she just folded. williams won nine
consecutive points for the set and powered through the decider as a lacklustre
davenport looked to have run out of energy after a gruelling two weeks. i felt
like i was playing well and in control pretty much of the match said davenport.
then i just had that horrible lapse i think serving up 40-0 and made a few errors
and opened up the door for her and she just kept going through it. at the end i
think i was a little bit fatigued but she took advantage of it and kept going - she
s a great frontrunner when she gets going.
seamen sail into biometric future the luxury cruise liner crystal harmony
currently in the gulf of mexico is the unlikely setting for tests of biometric
technology. as holidaymakers enjoy balmy breezes their ship s crew is testing
prototype versions of the world s first internationally issued biometric id cards
the seafarer s equivalent of a passport. along with the owner s picture name and
personal details the new seafarers identity document incorporates a barcode
representing unique features of its holder s fingerprints. the cards are due to be
issued in february next year in line with the revised un convention on seafarers
identity documents of june 2003. tests currently under way in the caribbean are
designed to ensure that new cards and their machine readers produced by different
companies in different countries are working to interoperable standards. results
of the current tests which involve seafarers from a wide range of occupations and
nationalities will be published by the international labour organisation (ilo) by
the end of november. crystal cruises which operates the crystal harmony is
exploring the use of biometrics but has not yet committed to the technology.
authenti-corp the us technology consultancy has been working with the ilo on its
technical specifications for the cards. if you re issued a seafarer s id in your
country you want to be sure that when the ship lands in a port in say my country
you can validate yourself using whatever equipment we have installed authenti-
corp s ceo cynthia musselman told the bbc s go digital programme. she said french
jordanian and nigerian nationals would be the first seafarers to get the new id
cards since their countries have already ratified the convention. it aims to combat
international terrorism whilst guaranteeing the welfare the one million seafarers
estimated to be at sea. the convention highlights the importance of access to shore
facilities and shore leave as vital elements to a sailor s wellbeing and therefore
it says to safer shipping and cleaner oceans. by increasing security on the seas
as well as border control and protection the cards will hopefully reduce the
number of piracy problems around the world said ms musselman. it should be a
safer environment for seafarers to work in and will allow people protecting their
borders to have confidence that the people getting off the ship are in fact
seafarers.
film production falls 40% in uk the number of british films produced in the uk
fell 40% in 2004 with movies starring johnny depp and jude law among those
affected screen daily has said. twenty-seven british films were made in the uk
last year following a drop in funding compared with 45 in 2003 according to the
trade weekly. it attributed the drop to tighter tax laws and reduced funding from
sources such as the national lottery. uk and us co-productions in britain fell from
102 in 2003 to 81 last year. last year the government closed tax loopholes that
many film investors had taken advantage of to fund films in the uk. several
projects were shelved as they faced the implications of this clampdown coupled
with the reduction in movie funding from traditional sources including the lottery
and miramax films. shooting on period drama tulip fever which was to star jude law
and keira knightley was postponed indefinitely while shooting of the libertine
starring johnny depp was moved to the isle of man. there isn t anything coming in
to replace (the funds) said the libertine s executive producer marc samuelson.
we are in a hiatus. films with medium budgets of up to £9m a similar level to
box office hits vera drake calendar girls and enduring love are expected to be
worst hit by the tax clampdown. the strength of the pound against the dollar is
expected to have resulted in a fall in the number of us films shot in the uk during
2004 screen international added. big budget co-productions such as the harry
potter series continued to be shot in the uk however. the uk film council said
the drop was partly due to 2003 being an especially good year for british film
production when bridget jones: the edge of reason wimbledon and thunderbirds were
all filmed in the uk. the drop was expected as there was no way 2003 s record
level of production could be bettered the council s spokesperson said. the
reduction in indigenous film production in 2004 was due to a variety of factors
including the continuing long-term trend towards co-production of films in more
than one country and changes to financing arrangements. it was too early to
predict whether the downward trend in uk production would continue throughout 2005
the uk film council said. in september the government introduced subsidies worth up
to £4m per film for medium budget films under new treasury measures. it is also
due to announce a replacement for uk film tax relief scheme section 48 in july.
wales get williams fitness boost wales are hopeful that openside flanker martyn
williams could be fit for saturday s rbs 6 nations championship opener against
england in cardiff. williams was expected to miss the match with a disc problem in
his neck but has been making a speedy recovery. he will have tests in the next 48
hours and we are pretty optimistic he is getting there wales team
physiotherapist mark davies said. it has been frustrating but he is on the mend
he has made good progress. last week williams along with fellow flanker colin
charvis - who is unlikely to play for at least a month while he recovers from a
foot injury - was all but ruled out of the millennium stadium clash. with williams
initially thought to be struggling the signs pointed towards wales coach mike
ruddock handing a first cap to former wales under-21 skipper richie pugh. cardiff
blues flanker williams 29 offers considerable experience and if he is declared
fit then ruddock might be tempted to include him in the back row. charvis will be
reviewed by the wales medical staff next monday but davies admitted that there was
only an outside chance of him being fit to face france in wales third
championship game on 26 february. wales other injury concern is pugh s fellow
neath-swansea ospreys player sonny parker as the centre has a trapped nerve in his
neck. sonny s injury is still an issue davies said. it is still painful and
irritable. we will run the rule of thumb over him in the next couple of days.
ruddock will name his starting line-up for the england game at 1830 gmt on tuesday
evening as wales target their first victory in cardiff over the world champions
since 1993.
france telecom gets orange boost strong growth in subscriptions to mobile phone
network orange has helped boost profits at owner france telecom. orange added more
than five million new customers in 2004 leading to a 10% increase in its revenues.
increased take-up of broadband telecoms services also boosted france telecom s
profits which showed a 5.5% rise to 18.3bn euros ($23.4bn; £12.5bn). france
telecom is to spend 578m euros on buying out minority shareholders in data services
provider equant. france telecom one of the world s largest telecoms and internet
service providers saw its full-year sales rise 2.2% to 47.2bn euros in 2004.
orange enjoyed strong growth outside france and the united kingdom - its core
markets - swelling its subscriber base to 5.4 million. france telecom s broadband
customers also increased rising to 5.1 million across europe by the end of the
year. the firm said it had met its main strategic objectives of growing its
individual businesses and further reducing its large debt. an ill-fated expansion
drive in the late 1990s saw france telecom s debt soar to 72bn euros by 2002.
however this has now been reduced to 43.9bn euros. our results for 2004 allow us
to improve our financial structure while focusing on the innovation that drives our
strategy said chief executive thierry breton. looking ahead the company
forecast like-for-like sales growth of between 3% and 5% over the next three years.
france telecom is consolidating its interest in equant which provides telecoms and
data services to businesses. subject to approval by shareholders of the two firms
it will buy the shares in equant it does not already own. france telecom said it
would fund the deal by selling an 8% stake in telephone directory company
pagesjaunes.
dollar hovers around record lows the us dollar hovered close to record lows against
the euro on friday as concern grows about the size of the us budget deficit.
analysts predict that the dollar will remain weak in 2005 as investors worry about
the state of the us economy. the bush administration s apparent unwillingness to
intervene to support the dollar has caused further concern. however trading has
been volatile over the past week because of technical and automated trading and
light demand. this has amplified reactions to news analysts said adding that they
expect markets to become less jumpy in january. the dollar was trading at $1.3652
versus the euro on friday morning after hitting a fresh record low of $1.3667 on
thursday. one dollar bought 102.55 yen. disappointing business figures from
chicago triggered the us currency s weakness on thursday. the national association
of purchasing management-chicago said its manufacturing index dropped to 61.2 a
bigger fall than expected. there are no dollar buyers now especially after the
chicago data yesterday said abn amro s paul mackel. at the same time german
chancellor gerhard schroeder and italian prime minister silvio berlusconi voiced
concerns about the strength of the euro. mr berlusconi said the euro s strength was
absolutely worrying for italian exports. mr schroeder said in a newspaper article
that stability in foreign exchange markets required a correction of global economic
imbalances. investors will now look towards february s meeting of finance ministers
from the g7 industrialised nations in london for clues as to whether central banks
will combine forces to stem the dollar s decline.
europe backs digital tv lifestyle how people receive their digital entertainment in
the future could change following the launch of an ambitious european project. in
nice last week the european commission announced its networked & electronic media
(nem) initiative. its broad scope stretches from the way media is created through
each of the stages of its distribution to its playback. the commission wants
people to be able to locate the content they desire and have it delivered
seamlessly when on the move at home or at work no matter who supplies the
devices network content or content protection scheme. more than 120 experts were
in nice to share the vision of interconnected future and hear pledges of support
from companies such as nokia intel philips alcatel france telecom thomson and
telefonica. it might initially appear to be surprising that companies in direct
competition are keen to work together. but again and again speakers stated they
could not see incompatible stand-alone solutions working. a long-term strategy for
the evolution and convergence of technologies and services would be required. the
european commission is being pragmatic in its approach. they have identified that
many groups have defined the forms of digital media in the areas that nem
encompasses. the nem approach is to take a serious look at what is available and
what is in the pipeline pick out the best bring them together and identify where
the gaps are. where it finds holes it will develop standards to fill them. what is
significant is that such a large and powerful organisation has stated its desire
for digital formats to be open to all and work on any gadget. this is bound to
please if not surprise many individuals and user organisations who feel that the
wishes of the holder of rights to content are normally considered over and above
those of the consumer. many feel that the most difficult and challenging area for
the commission will be to identify a solution for different digital rights
management (drm) schemes. currently drm solutions are incompatible locking certain
types of purchased content making them unplayable on all platforms. with the
potential of having a percentage of every media transaction that takes place
globally the prize for being the supplier of the world s dominant drm scheme is
huge. although entertainment is an obvious first step it will encompass the remote
provisions of healthcare energy efficiency and control of the smart home. the 10-
year plan brings together the work of many currently running research projects that
the ec has been funding for a number of years. simon perry is the editor of the
digital lifestyles website which covers the impact of technology on media
hillbillies singer scoggins dies country and western musician jerry scoggins has
died in los angeles at the age of 93 his family has said. scoggins was best
remembered for singing the theme tune to popular us tv show the beverly
hillbillies. the texan-born singer approached the producers of the programme with
theme tune the ballad of jed clampett for the pilot which was screened in 1962. the
show which told the story of a poor man striking oil and moving to beverly hills
ran until 1971. scoggins daugher jane kelly misel said that her father never
tired of the song and would sing it at least once a day. he d sing it at birthdays
and anniversaries and variety shows. he never stopped performing it she said.
when a film version of the beverly hillbillies was made in 1993 scoggins came out
of retirement to perform the theme tune. scoggins sang the lyrics while bluegrass
stars lester flatt and earl scruggs played guitar and banjo.
2d metal slug offers retro fun like some drill sergeant from the past metal slug 3
is a wake-up call to today s gamers molly-coddled with slick visuals and fancy
trimmings. with its hand-animated sprites and 2d side-scrolling this was even
considered retro when released in arcades four years ago. but a more frantic
shooter you will not find at the end of your joypad this year. and yes that
includes halo 2. simply choose your grunt and wade through five 2d side-scrolling
levels of the most hectic video game blasting you will ever encounter. it is also
the toughest game you are likely to play as hordes of enemies and few lives pile
the pressure on. players must battle soldiers snowmen zombies giant crabs and
aliens not to mention the huge screen-filling bosses that guard each of the five
levels. the shoot-anything-that-moves gameplay is peppered with moments of old-
school genius. fans of robotic gastropods should note the title refers instead to
the vast array of vehicles on offer in a game stuffed with bizarre hardware. tanks
jets and submarines can be commandeered as well as cannon-toting camels elephants
and ostriches - more weaponry on offer than in an acre of iraq. doling out justice
is a joy thanks to ultra responsive controls and while this is a tough nut to
crack it is addictive enough to have you gagging for that one last go. and at a
mere £20 metal slug 3 is as cheap as sliced fried spuds as the man says. of
course most of you will ignore this lacking as it does the visual fireworks of
modern blasters. but at a time when blockbuster titles offer only a fresh lick of
paint in favour of real innovation metal slug 3 is a fresh gasp of air from an era
when the xbox was not even a twinkle in bill gates eye.
safin relieved at aussie recovery marat safin admitted he thought he was suffering
another australian open final nightmare when he lost the opening set to lleyton
hewitt. the russian who lost the 2002 and 2004 finals fought back brilliantly to
win 1-6 6-3 6-4 6-4. i was nervous and i couldn t play tennis said safin. he
started really well. he wasn t as nervous as i was because i was thinking of the
two finals that i played and wasn t successful. he added: you really have to deal
with the pressure because normally it never happens but when you come to the final
you are so tight because you want to win. i tried to play some tennis but i couldn
t. he has huge experience he s won two grand slam titles he s won 24 titles he s
a great player and he deals with pressure. from 4-1 down in the third set safin
played some of his best tennis to reel off seven games and take control of the
match. in the third set just all of a sudden it all turn around completely in a
way i couldn t expect said safin. because he made a couple of mistakes i was a
little bit lucky at some point then the confidence came back and i was back in the
game. and the russian revealed that the victory and his semi-final win over world
number one roger federer had given him a massive boost for the future. you get
huge confidence because roger is a great player said safin. once i beat him and
then lleyton it s like you get so much confidence in yourself that you really can
play great. you can win big titles and you can beat huge players in the finals and
semi-finals.
rich grab half colombia poor fund half of the money put aside by the colombian
government to help the country s poor is benefiting people who do not need it a
study has found. a total of 24.2 trillion pesos ($10.2bn; £5.5bn) is earmarked for
subsidies for the poor the government department for planning said. but it also
found 12.1 trillion pesos was going to the richest part of the population rather
than to those in need. sound distribution of the cash could cut poverty levels to
36% from 53% the government believes. resources are more than enough to reduce
poverty and there is no need for more tax reforms but a better distribution
deputy planning director jose leibovich said. colombia has a population of about
44 million and half lives below poverty line. however some large properties are
paying less in tax as they are situated inside poor areas which benefit from
cheaper utilities such as electricity and water government research found.
government expenditure in areas such as pensions public services education
property and health should be revised mr leibovich said. he added that the
government is now examining the report but warned there would be no easy solution
to the problem. with a good distribution of such subsidies and economic growth of
just 2% by 2019 poverty could fall as low as 15.3% he said.
disaster claims less than $10bn insurers have sought to calm fears that they face
huge losses after an earthquake and giant waves killed at least 38 000 people in
southern asia. munich re and swiss re the world s two biggest reinsurers have
said exposure will be less than for other disasters. rebuilding costs are likely to
be cheaper than in developed countries and many of those affected will not have
insurance analysts said. swiss re has said total claims are likely to be less than
$10bn (£5.17bn). swiss re believes that the cost would be substantial but that it
is unlikely to be in double-digit billions the financial times reported. munich re
the world s largest reinsurance company said that its exposure is less than 100m
euros (£70m; $136m). at least 10 countries have been affected with sri lanka
indonesia india and thailand among the worst hit. the region s resorts and western
tourists are expected to be among the main claimants. lloyds of london told the
financial times it expected its exposure to be limited to holiday resorts
personal accident travel insurance and marine risks . a spokeswoman for hanover re
europe s fifth-largest reinsurance firm estimated tsunami-related damage claims
would be in the low double-digit millions of euros. the company has paid out about
300 million euros (£281m; $400m) to cover damage caused recently by four major
hurricanes in the us. but insurers have not had long to assess the economic impact
of the damage and reports of more casualties and destruction are still coming
through. so many things are unclear it is just too early to tell said serge
troeber deputy head of swiss re s natural disasters department. you need very
complicated processes to estimate damages. unlike the hurricanes you can t just
run a model. he anticipated that his own company s total claims would be less then
those from the hurricanes which the company put at $640m. allianz a leading
german insurer said it did not know yet what its exposure would be. however it
said the tidal waves were unlikely to have a significant impact on its business.
zurich financial said they could not yet assess the cost of the disaster. the
impact on us insurance companies is not expected to be heavy analysts said. most
us insurers have relatively little exposure to asia and those that do pass on a
lot of the risk to reinsurance companies or special catastrophe funds. insured
damage could be a fraction of the billions of dollars worth of destruction in sri
lanka india thailand indonesia the maldive islands and malaysia said
prudential equity group insurance analyst jay gelb. us insurers are likely to have
only minimal to no exposure. it s more likely the bermuda-based reinsurance
[companies] might have some exposure said paul newsome an insurance analyst at
ag edwards & co. many of the affected countries such as indonesia sri lanka or
the maldives do not usually buy insurance for these kinds of disasters said a us-
based insurance expert. early estimates from the world bank put the amount of aid
needed for the worst affected countries including sri lanka india indonesia and
thailand at about $5bn (£2.6bn) similar to the cash offered to central america
after hurricane mitch. mitch killed about 10 000 people and caused damage of about
$10bn in 1998. but the cost of the tsunamis on the individuals involved is
incalculable. we cannot fathom the cost of these poor societies and the nameless
fishermen and fishing villages ... that have just been wiped out. hundreds of
thousands of livelihoods have gone said jan egeland head of the un office for
the coordination of humanitarian affairs. tourists cutting short their holidays in
affected areas may suffer a financial impact too. the association of british
insurers warned that travel insurance does not normally cover cutting short a
holiday. it said loss of possessions will usually be covered but the association
stressed the importance of checking the wording of travel policies.
us seeks new $280bn smoker ruling the us justice department is to try to overturn a
court ruling that threw out its claim for $280bn (£149bn) in damages from tobacco
firms. earlier this month a three-judge appeal court panel rejected the claim -
filed in 1999 by the administration of bill clinton - in a 2-1 decision. government
lawyers said they would ask the full us court of appeals for the district of
columbia to hear the case. the court room battle is seen as key in government
attempts to fight smoking. it s pretty clear that they ve suffered a severe
setback said anthony sebok a professor at brooklyn law school adding that the
appeal was what the government would be expected to ask for . prosecutors had
argued that tobacco firms lied about the dangers of smoking ignored research that
highlighted problems looked to increase addiction by manipulating nicotine levels
and targeted the young with their adverts. among the firms accused were altria
group rj reynolds tobacco lorillard tobacco liggett group and brown and
williamson. prosecutors went after the companies using legislation put in place to
fight organised crime and accused the firms of conspiring and running racketeer
influenced and corrupt organisations . the tobacco companies denied the charges
saying that they never illegally conspired to promote smoking and fool the public.
they also said that they have met many of the government s demands laid out in a
landmark $206bn settlement hammered out in 1998 with 46 states. a three-judge panel
agreed with the companies finding that the case could not be brought under federal
anti-racketeering laws. central to the government s case was a meeting in the
plaza hotel new york on 15 december 1953. prosecutors contend that executives
from the major tobacco firms met and agreed to present a unified strategy denying
the harmful effects of smoking. despite denying for decades that smoking could be
linked to illness the companies have modified their stances in recent years.
altria s philip morris now accepts that nicotine is harmful and the company s main
lawyer william ohlemeyer told the bbc last year that earlier statements may have
been wrong but they were not dishonest. government lawyers have until 21 march to
file their appeal.
apple mac mini gets warm welcome the mac mini has been welcomed by apple fans
industry experts and pc users. the release of the tiny low-cost machine is seen
as a good move for apple which currently has a small share of the desktop computer
market. mac watchers and some analysts say the mac mini will go a long way to help
apple appeal to the mass of consumers. they speculate that the mac mini will be
bought by ipod owners and those wanting an easy-to-use and administer second home
computer. it s the bravest move they have made yet said jonny evans news
editor at macworld magazine. mr evans said the combination of low cost small size
and huge numbers of ipod users could make it a big success. he thought that the
machine would appeal to those that like apple technology but who before now have
balked at paying high prices for its hardware. it s deeply affordable he said.
plus you know that you do not get viruses or all of the associated problems.
already he said pc owning friends had declared that they would be buying one.
interest in the new products launched at macworld expo was so strong that websites
for apple s store and the show struggled to cope with demand. according to response
statistics gathered by netcraft many visiting the apple store in the wake of mr
jobs speech suffered lengthy response times. the macworld expo site was completely
overwhelmed and went offline. i think fundamentally it s a good idea because it s
cheap even for a pc said nick ross deputy labs editor at pc pro. apple s work on
making things easy to use would also help the mac mini win fans he said. i think
people expect it just to work now and really it should hesaid. the mac mini could
find a role in homes that need a second computer that is easy to install and
administer he said. for browsing the web e-mail and all kinds of basic duties it
s going to be absolutely adequate said mr ross. ian fogg broadband and personal
technology analyst at jupiter research agreed that the mac mini could be very
popular. apple has been hoping that sales of the ipod will have a halo effect on
the sales of the mac he said. before now he said apple has been seen as a
premium brand. but he said the mac mini changed that perception. it s a
particularly good price when you see that it s apple that is doing it he said.
apple expects the mac mini to sell for £339 in the uk and $499 in the us. adding
extras such as a larger hard drive more memory and networking options will
increase the basic price. it will go on sale from 22 january. for consumers
interested in style design and small size - which is what the majority of ipod
customers are interested in - it s a natural next step said mr fogg. apple has
traditionally done well in the market that the mac mini is aimed at said mr fogg
who also expected many pc makers to release copycat devices in reaction. his only
misgivings were over how easy other consumers other than ipod owners would find
using the machine. he said anyone wanting to use the mac mini with the peripherals
from an old computer may find it odd to have something so small and sleek next to a
hulking monitor. they d be much more likely to pair a mac mini with a lcd or flat
panel monitor which increases the upgrade cost he said. those with flat screens
and lcd monitors are likely to have bought them recently and not be in the market
for a new machine. there are also questions over whether the mac mini will work
with very old peripherals such as display keyboard and mouse. the mac mini also
fell short of being a media server that can be a video recorder as well as a store
for all the digital music movies and images people accumulate said mr fogg. the
mac mini is not quite ready for that yet he said. it does not have the right
connectors that fit a tv screen or enough storage. said mr fogg: it s very much a
computer. one dissenting opinion came from brian gammage vice-president of
research at analysts gartner. he said: i don t think it changes the world.
although the mac mini was very cheap for an apple computer it was still expensive
compared to many pcs. also he said it appealed in categories that few consumers
care about when buying a home computer. the pc world is a pile-em-high sell-em-
cheap market he said and all of them are pretty interchangeable. since the
days when apple ruled the personal computing world its market share has been on a
long slow decline he said. every few years it does something to give its market
share a kick then it starts to go back down again said mr gammage. the release of
the mac mini fit perfectly with this trend he said.
greene sets sights on world title maurice greene aims to wipe out the pain of
losing his olympic 100m title in athens by winning a fourth world championship
crown this summer. he had to settle for bronze in greece behind fellow american
justin gatlin and francis obikwelu of portugal. it really hurts to look at that
medal. it was my mistake. i lost because of the things i did said greene who
races in birmingham on friday. it s never going to happen again. my goal - i m
going to win the worlds. greene crossed the line just 0.02 seconds behind gatlin
who won in 9.87 seconds in one of the closest and fastest sprints of all time. but
greene believes he lost the race and his title in the semi-finals. in my semi-
final race i should have won the race but i was conserving energy. that s when
francis obikwelu came up and i took third because i didn t know he was there. i
believe that s what put me in lane seven in the final and while i was in lane
seven i couldn t feel anything in the race. i just felt like i was running all
alone. i believe if i was in the middle of the race i would have been able to
react to people that came ahead of me. greene was also denied olympic gold in the
4x100m men s relay when he could not catch britain s mark lewis-francis on the
final leg. the kansas star is set to go head-to-head with lewis-francis again at
friday s norwich union grand prix. the pair contest the 60m the distance over
which greene currently holds the world record of 6.39 seconds. he then has another
indoor meeting in france before resuming training for the outdoor season and the
task of recapturing his world title in helsinki in august. greene believes gatlin
will again prove the biggest threat to his ambitions in finland. but he also admits
he faces more than one rival for the world crown. there s always someone else
coming. i think when i was coming up i would say there was me and ato (boldon) in
the young crowd greene said. now you ve got about five or six young guys coming
up at the same time.
blind student hears in colour a blind student has developed software that turns
colours into musical notes so that he can read weather maps. victor wong a
graduate student from hong kong studying at cornell university in new york state
had to read coloured maps of the upper atmosphere as part of his research. to study
space weather mr wong needed to explore minute fluctuations in order to create
mathematical models. a number of solutions were tried including having a colleague
describe the maps and attempting to print them in braille. mr wong eventually hit
upon the idea of translating individual colours into music and enlisted the help
of a computer graphics specialist and another student to do the programming work.
the images have three dimensions and i had to find a way of reading them myself
mr wong told the bbc news website. for the sake of my own study - and for the sake
of blind scientists generally - i felt it would be good to develop software that
could help us to read colour images. he tried a prototype version of the software
to explore a photograph of a parrot. in order to have an exact reference to the
screen a pen and tablet device is used. the software then assigns one of 88 piano
notes to individually coloured pixels - ranging from blue at the lower end of this
scale to red at the upper end. mr wong says the application is still very much in
its infancy and is only useful for reading images that have been created digitally.
if i took a random picture and scanned it and then used my software to recognise it
it wouldn t work that well. mr wong has been blind from the age of seven and he
thinks that having a colour memory makes the software more useful than it would
be to a scientist who had never had any vision. as the notes increase in pitch i
know the colour s getting redder and redder and in my mind s eye a patch of red
appears. the colour to music software has not yet been made available commercially
and mr wong believes that several people would have to work together to make it
viable. but he hopes that one day it can be developed to give blind people access
to photographs and other images.
industrial output falls in japan japanese industrial output fell in october while
unemployment rose casting further doubt on the strength of the country s economic
recovery. production dropped 1.6% in october reflecting a decline in exports
while unemployment levels edged up 0.1% to 4.7% slightly higher than forecast. the
economy has grown for six quarters but growth slowed dramatically in the last
quarter amid weaker global demand. japan s government remains optimistic due to
strong domestic demand. analysts had been forecasting a 0.1% rise in month on
month industrial output. according to figures from the ministry of economy trade
and industry (meti) the decline was led by a fall in demand for electronic parts
for mobile phones and digital televisions. although inventories fell 0.7% month on
month they were 36% higher than a year ago. it s a sign that the economy s
adjustment phase is stronger than expected said takashi yamanaka an economist
with ufj bank. japan downgraded its overall economic assessment earlier this month
for the first time in a year. growth slowed to 0.3% in the quarter ending
september 30 down from 6.3% in the first quarter of 2004. experts believe the
economy -which stagnated for most of the 1990s -may be entering a softer patch on
the back of rising oil prices and the falling dollar. japanese government officials
played down the latest data arguing that domestic consumer demand was still
resilient. the outlook for november is positive so i don t think one can say that
conditions have worsened just because of the fall in october said a meti
official. despite the rise in unemployment jobless figures are still some way
below historical highs of recent years. the comparatively weak economic date preyed
on shares with the nikkei down 1% in afternoon trade.
clyde 0-5 celtic celtic brushed aside clyde to secure their place in the scottish
cup semi-final but only after a nervy and testing first half. the home side s
craig bryson had a goal chopped off before stan varga headed celtic into the lead.
alan thompson scored from the penalty spot at the start of the second half after
shaun maloney had been fouled. stilian petrov slid in a third varga tapped in his
second and craig bellamy completed the rout with a fine drive. bryn halliwell was
the busier keeper early on saving from bellamy chris sutton and juninho. clyde
had the ball in the net after half-an-hour through a tremendous strike from bryson
but the referee had already blown for a foul by petrov. from the resulting free
kick darren sheridan curled the ball round the celtic wall only for the post to
deny him. back at the other end halliwell did well to come off his line and block
bellamy s effort to lift the ball over him. the keeper misjudged a corner that
stephane henchoz headed wide but a similar scenario five minutes before the break
led to the opening goal. the ball was delivered from the left and halliwell was
left floundering as varga glanced the ball into the net. maloney replaced the
injured sutton at half time and he marked his first competitive appearance after a
year out injured by helping his side take a two-goal lead just after the break. the
young striker fired a free kick straight into the clyde wall but as he collected
the rebound he was tripped by bryson and thompson converted the penalty. sheridan
and bellamy were involved in something of a flare-up that led to both being booked
after the intervention of the assistant referee. juninho brought out another good
save from halliwell and then petrov saw a tremendous effort come off the top of the
bar. but petrov and juninho combined brilliantly to allow the bulgarian to make it
3-0 on the hour mark - a quick one-two giving him the time and space to steer the
ball past halliwell from 12 yards. varga got his second goal of the game as celtic
drove home their advantage - thompson whipped in a corner from the right and the
unmarked defender simply tapped the ball over the line from a couple of yards out.
celtic were utterly dominant by this stage and bellamy opened his scoring account
for the club after a fine move involving aiden mcgeady jackie mcnamara and maloney
culminated in the welshman hammering the ball into the net. halliwell kept the
deficit at five by pushing a mcgeady shot wide as the game petered out. halliwell
mensing bollan balmer potter sheridan (burns 61) arbuckle (gilhaney 61)
gibson bryson (jones 78) malone harty. morrison wilson. mensing sheridan.
douglas henchoz mcnamara balde varga juninho paulista thompson lennon
(lambert 70) sutton (maloney 45) petrov (mcgeady 70) bellamy. marshall
laursen. thompson bellamy. : varga 40 thompson 48 pen petrov 60 varga 68
bellamy 72. 8 200 c thomson
bennett play takes theatre prizes the history boys by alan bennett has been named
best new play in the critics circle theatre awards. set in a grammar school the
play also earned a best actor prize for star richard griffiths as teacher hector.
the producers was named best musical victoria hamilton was best actress for
suddenly last summer and festen s rufus norris was named best director. the history
boys also won the best new comedy title at the theatregoers choice awards. partly
based upon alan bennett s experience as a teacher the history boys has been at
london s national theatre since last may. the critics circle named rebecca
lenkiewicz its most promising playwright for the night season and eddie redmayne
most promising newcomer for the goat or who is sylvia paul rhys was its best
shakespearean performer for measure for measure at the national theatre and
christopher oram won the design award for suddenly last summer. both the critics
circle and whatsonstage.com theatregoers choice award winners were announced on
tuesday. chosen by more than 11 000 theatre fans the theatregoers choice awards
named us actor christian slater best actor for one flew over the cuckoo s nest.
diana rigg was best actress for suddenly last summer dame judi dench was best
supporting actress for the rsc s all s well that ends well and the history boys
samuel barnett was best supporting actor.
moya emotional at davis cup win carlos moya described spain s davis cup victory as
the highlight of his career after he beat andy roddick to end the usa s challenge
in seville. moya made up for missing spain s 2000 victory through injury by
beating roddick 6-2 7-6 (7-1) 7-6 (7-5) to give the hosts an unassailable 3-1 lead.
i have woken up so many nights dreaming of this day said moya. all my energy has
been focused on today. what i have lived today i do not think i will live again.
spain s only other davis cup title came two years ago in valencia when they beat
australia. and moya nicknamed charly admitted: the davis cup is my dream and i
was a bit nervous at the outset. some people have said that i am obsessed but i
think that it is better this way. it helps me reach my goals if i am obsessed. it
s really incredible - to get the winning point is really something. spanish
captain jordi arrese said: charly played a great game. it was his opportunity and
he hasn t let us down. he had lost three times to roddick and this was his day to
beat him. he had been waiting years to be in this position. spain s victory was
also remarkable for the performance of rafael nadal who beat roddick in the
opening singles. aged 18 years and 185 days the mallorcan became the youngest
player to win the davis cup. what a great way to finish the year said nadal
afterwards. us coach patrick mcenroe wants roddick and the rest of his team to play
more tennis on clay and hone their skills on the surface. i think it will help
these guys even on slow hard courts to learn how to mix things up a little bit and
to play a little bit smarter and tactically better. obviously it s unrealistic to
say that we re going to just start playing constantly on clay with the schedule.
but certainly i think we can put the work in at the appropriate time and play a
couple more events and play against these guys who are the best on this stuff
said mcenroe. roddick was left frustrated after losing both his singles on the slow
clay of seville s olympic stadium. it s just tough because i felt like i was in it
the whole time against one of the top three clay-courters in the world said the
american. i had my chances and just didn t convert them. the bottom line is they
were just better than us this weekend. they came out took care of business and
they beat us. it s as simple as that.
the future in your pocket if you are a geek or gadget fan the next 12 months look
like they are going to be a lot of fun. the relentless pace of development in the
hi-tech world and rampant competition in many of its sectors particularly among
mobile phone firms all suggests that 2005 is going to be a very good year. to
begin with 2005 will be the year that third-generation (3g) mobile phones become
inescapable. the 3 network launched in 2003 vodafone launched its consumer service
in november orange followed in early december and t-mobile and o2 are due to
launch in 2005. the main result of these launches will likely be a slew of good
deals for consumers as operators try to poach new customers from rivals and
convince existing users to trade up. already the extra capacity in 3g networks
lets 3 offer good deals on voice calls at rates that will probably have to be
matched by the other operators. but the shift in technology and low cost of voice
calls means that operators lose a significant chunk of their revenue. show me an
operator that believes their voice business can sustain them and i ll write their
obituary said niel ransom chief technology officer at alcatel. instead operators
are likely to push all other things that 3g phones can do such as video messaging
and other multimedia capabilities. already camera phones look set to challenge
digital cameras and are likely to win more fans as multi-megapixel devices go on
sale. but 3g will not have everything its own way. it will face competition from
emerging technologies such as wimax. this wireless technology can boost data
transmission speeds up to 75 megabits per second and works over distances of up to
30 miles. kent is likely to be the site of the uk s first wimax network which is
due to go live in 2005 and it could be the way that rural areas get high-speed net
access. analyst firm telecom view predicts that wimax will steal a lot of market
share from 3g and will be a clear winner. bob larribeau principal analyst at
telecom view said the better return on investment offered by technologies such as
wimax could dent the possible returns of 3g networks. and the growing ubiquity of
wi-fi must not be forgotten either. the technology is popping up in more places
than ever and its wider use is only held back by the price differences across
countries and suppliers. moves to unite mobile and fixed phones look set to get
more emphasis in 2005 too. for a start bt looks set to roll out its bluephone
project during the next 12 months. the service revolves around a hybrid device that
uses the mobile networks when you are out and about but switches back to the fixed
line when you are at home. fixed line phones will also start to get much more
serious competition from a technology that has the formidable name of voice over ip
(voip). voip routes calls via the net instead of the fixed line phone network.
anyone with a broadband connection which is now more than 50% of the uk s net
using population can use voip and could slash their monthly phone bills if they
used it. telecommunications regulator ofcom has declared 056 to be the area code
for voip calls and 2005 is likely to see a lot more consumer-focused voip call
services starting up. home broadband services will also start to increase in speed
as dwindling numbers of new users signing force the pace of competition. if 2004
has been the year of the portable music player they 2005 looks like it will be the
year of the portable media player. motorola has just announced a deal with apple to
produce a phone that works with the itunes service and other hybrid gadgets that
sport a big memory and lots of other functions will become commonplace. the pace of
advancement in storage media will continue mean that the cost per megabyte of
memory will plummet. some of those devices will sport huge hard drives letting you
store more data than you ever wanted or knew you had. convergence could mean that
single-function devices start to dwindle in number. instead every gadget will be
able to do almost anything and communicate almost any way you want. the only
downside is that consumers will face a series of tough choices as they are
confronted by a bewildering array of gadgets each with an enormous numbers of
features and vast data holding capacities. but that is the kind of problem most
gadget fans can live with.
greek sprinters suspended by iaaf greek sprinters kostas kenteris and katerina
thanou have been suspended after failing to take drugs tests before the athens
olympics. athletics ruling body the iaaf said explanations from the pair and
their former coach as to why they missed the tests were unacceptable . it added
that kenteris and thanou had been provisionally suspended pending the resolution
of their cases . they face two-year bans if found guilty by the greek athletics
federation. the suspension also covers the athletes controversial coach christos
tzekos. kenteris the 2000 olympic 200m champion and thanou the women s 100m
silver medallist from the same games in sydney also face a criminal hearing in
greece over the missed tests. they failed to appear to give samples in chicago and
tel aviv shortly before the athens games and again in athens on 12 august the eve
of the opening ceremony. greek prosecutors have also charged them with faking a
midnight motorcycle crash which led to them spending four days in hospital. some
medical staff have been charged with writing false medical reports. wednesday s
statement said the greek federation (segas) would convene a disciplinary hearing
for the trio to determine whether there had been doping violations. there will be
a final right of appeal from the decision of the greek federation to the court of
arbitration for sport the iaaf said. tzekos insisted he and the runners had
nothing to hide. the iaaf s decision means nothing he said. we ll be presenting
all our arguments to segas - we re innocent.
slim playstation triples sales sony playstation 2 s slimmer shape has proved
popular with uk gamers with 50 000 sold in its first week on sale. sales have
tripled since launch outstripping microsoft s xbox said market analysts chart-
track. the numbers were also boosted by the release of the ps2-only game grand
theft auto: san andreas. the title broke the uk sales record for video games in its
first weekend of release. latest figures suggest it has sold more than 677 000
copies. it is obviously very very encouraging for sony because microsoft briefly
outsold them last week john houlihan editor of computerandvideogames.com told
bbc news. and with halo 2 [for xbox] out next week it really is a head-to-head
contest between them and xbox. although xbox sales over the last week also
climbed ps2 sales were more than double that. the figures mean sony is reaching
the seven million barrier for uk sales of the console. edinburgh-based developer
rockstar which is behind the gta titles has seen san andreas pull in an estimated
£24m in gross revenues over the weekend. in comparison blockbuster films like
harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban took £11.5m in its first three days at the
uk box office. the lord of the rings: the return of the king took nearly £10m over
its opening weekend although games titles are four to five times more expensive
than cinema tickets. gangster-themed gta san andreas is the sequel to grand theft
auto vice city which previously held the record for the fastest-selling video game
ever. the xbox game halo 2 released on 11 november in the uk is also widely
tipped to be one of the best-selling games of the year. the original title won
universal acclaim in 2001 and sold more than four million copies. mr houlihan
added that sony had done well with the ps2 but it definitely helped that the
release of san andreas coincided with the slimline ps2 hitting the shelves. the
run-up to christmas is a huge battlefield for games consoles and titles. microsoft
s xbox had been winning the race up until last week in sales. the sales figures
also suggest that it may be a largely adult audience driving demand since gta san
andreas has an 18 certificate. sony and microsoft have both reduced console prices
recently and are preparing the way for the launches of their next generation
consoles in 2005. both have hit crucial price points at around £100 and that
really does open up new consoles to new audience plus the release of two really
important games in terms of development are also driving those sales said mr
houlihan.
lib dems demand new inquiry a judge should look into the david blunkett controversy
as key questions remain unanswered the lib dems say. sir alan budd s inquiry
linked the ex-home secretary to the speeding up of a visa claim by his ex-lover s
nanny. but he could not say whether mr blunkett had treated the nanny as a special
case or had used her as an example of immigration problems. lib dem spokesman mark
oaten said the number of officials who had forgotten what happened was worrying. he
told bbc news: i m extremely concerned that 20 individuals appear to have
forgotten what happened or more suspiciously are not prepared to say what happened.
that must be bad for government it must be bad for public confidence in the
system. mr oaten said people would be mystified why sir alan s inquiry failed to
uncover why processing of the visa application was speeded up. he said: there is a
strong case for a judge-led judicial review of this because of course next time
it happens it may not be about a nanny and their visa. it may be about something
even more important than that. so we do need to understand what took place and who
was involved. the tories criticised the lib dem stance saying mr oaten had
initially said he accepted mr blunkett s word unless further evidence emerged. but
lib dem officials say mr oaten was speaking when an inquiry was under way and was
avoiding rushing to judgement.
german business confidence slides german business confidence fell in february
knocking hopes of a speedy recovery in europe s largest economy. munich-based
research institute ifo said that its confidence index fell to 95.5 in february from
97.5 in january its first decline in three months. the study found that the
outlook in both the manufacturing and retail sectors had worsened. observers had
been hoping that a more confident business sector would signal that economic
activity was picking up. we re surprised that the ifo index has taken such a
knock said dz bank economist bernd weidensteiner. the main reason is probably
that the domestic economy is still weak particularly in the retail trade. economy
and labour minister wolfgang clement called the dip in february s ifo confidence
figure a very mild decline . he said that despite the retreat the index remained
at a relatively high level and that he expected a modest economic upswing to
continue. germany s economy grew 1.6% last year after shrinking in 2003. however
the economy contracted by 0.2% during the last three months of 2004 mainly due to
the reluctance of consumers to spend. latest indications are that growth is still
proving elusive and ifo president hans-werner sinn said any improvement in german
domestic demand was sluggish. exports had kept things going during the first half
of 2004 but demand for exports was then hit as the value of the euro hit record
levels making german products less competitive overseas. on top of that the
unemployment rate has been stuck at close to 10% and manufacturing firms including
daimlerchrysler siemens and volkswagen have been negotiating with unions over
cost cutting measures. analysts said that the ifo figures and germany s continuing
problems may delay an interest rate rise by the european central bank. eurozone
interest rates are at 2% but comments from senior officials have recently focused
on the threat of inflation prompting fears that interest rates may rise.
google s toolbar sparks concern search engine firm google has released a trial tool
which is concerning some net users because it directs people to pre-selected
commercial websites. the autolink feature comes with google s latest toolbar and
provides links in a webpage to amazon.com if it finds a book s isbn number on the
site. it also links to google s map service if there is an address or to car firm
carfax if there is a licence plate. google said the feature available only in the
us adds useful links . but some users are concerned that google s dominant
position in the search engine market place could mean it would be giving a
competitive edge to firms like amazon. autolink works by creating a link to a
website based on information contained in a webpage - even if there is no link
specified and whether or not the publisher of the page has given permission. if a
user clicks the autolink feature in the google toolbar then a webpage with a book s
unique isbn number would link directly to amazon s website. it could mean online
libraries that list isbn book numbers find they are directing users to amazon.com
whether they like it or not. websites which have paid for advertising on their
pages may also be directing people to rival services. dan gillmor founder of
grassroots media which supports citizen-based media said the tool was a bad idea
and an unfortunate move by a company that is looking to continue its hypergrowth .
in a statement google said the feature was still only in beta ie trial stage and
that the company welcomed feedback from users. it said: the user can choose never
to click on the autolink button and web pages she views will never be modified.
in addition the user can choose to disable the autolink feature entirely at any
time. the new tool has been compared to the smart tags feature from microsoft by
some users. it was widely criticised by net users and later dropped by microsoft
after concerns over trademark use were raised. smart tags allowed microsoft to link
any word on a web page to another site chosen by the company. google said none of
the companies which received autolinks had paid for the service. some users said
autolink would only be fair if websites had to sign up to allow the feature to work
on their pages or if they received revenue for any click through to a commercial
site. cory doctorow european outreach coordinator for digital civil liberties
group electronic fronter foundation said that google should not be penalised for
its market dominance. of course google should be allowed to direct people to
whatever proxies it chooses. but as an end user i would want to know - can i
choose to use this service how much is google being paid can i substitute my
own companies for the ones chosen by google . mr doctorow said the only objection
would be if users were forced into using autolink or tricked into using the
service .
the comic book genius of stan lee stan lee the man responsible for a string of
comic superheroes that have become household names has won a court battle for a
slice of the profits from the hit spider-man movies. many marvel at the man who
gave his characters extraordinary powers and everyday headaches - a formula which
revolutionised comics. born in 1922 to poor working-class jewish immigrants from
romania stan lieberman got a job in timely publications a company owned by a
relative. he was assigned to the comics division and - thanks to a fertile
imagination - rose to editor by the age of 18. for more than 20 years he was the
ultimate hack - knocking out crime stories horrors westerns anything to sate
the appetite of his juvenile readership. words of more than two syllables were
discouraged. characters were either all good or bad with no shades of grey. so
embarrassed was lieberman by much of what he was writing that he refused to put his
real name on the byline. he assumed the dumb name stan lee now legally adopted.
by the time he was 40 lee had decided he was too old for the comic game. his
british-born wife joan suggested he had nothing to lose and for his swansong
should write the kind of characters he really wanted to create. after a rival comic
had come up with a superteam consisting of batman superman and wonder woman
timely needed to respond. lee s answer in 1961 was the fantastic four - a team
of astronauts who gained super powers after being bombarded with cosmic rays. they
were to change lee s life and the comics industry forever. lee gave each
character individual everyday teenage problems such as dandruff ingrown toenails
and acne. they would frequently fall out with their parents and each other. the fan
letters poured in. without immediately knowing it stan lee had ushered in the
golden age of comics and his imagination was rekindled. his marvel universe
spawned the new title of marvel comics. soon after nerdy peter parker was
transformed - after a bite from an irradiated spider - into someone who could crawl
up the sides of new york s skyscrapers. spider-man was born. he was to become an
icon of modern popular culture. spidey as he is affectionately known had quite
extraordinary powers - yet he had problems at work at home and with his
girlfriends. at last the teenager was no longer just the sidekick but the main
hero. and the hero was no longer just brawn he had brains too. just because he s
a hero and has super powers doesn t mean he doesn t have problems stan lee told
the bbc. the incredible hulk the mighty thor iron man and the rest all grappled
with problems like drug abuse bigotry and social inequality. radically lee gave
the artists responsible for the comic designs credits for their work. jack kirby
frank miller john romitaand and others achieved cult status in their own right.
other superheroes broke new ground in other ways. daredevil was blind black
panther was black and silver surfer pondered the state of humanity. lee s influence
remains. some years ago the marvel hero northstar came out of the closet. in its
heyday marvel was selling 50 million copies a year. until he retired from editing
in 1971 stan lee wrote all the copy for marvel s covers. in 1999 his stan lee
media venture aimed at marrying comic-strips with the internet went spectacularly
wrong. lee went bankrupt and his business partner landed in prison for fraud. in
2001 though he started a new company entitled pow! (purveyors of wonder)
entertainment which is currently developing films and television programmes. his
latest project is a superhero based on a real person - jay j armes who has metal
claws after losing both hands aged 12 and fights crime with a tiger. but his 40-
year-old creations are still as enduring as ever - with x-men the hulk and
daredevil have all been turned into hollywood action movies in the last five years.
but spider-man has been the biggest box office hit with the 2002 original and its
2004 sequel taking almost $1.6bn (£857m) in ticket sales around the world - before
dvd and merchandise sales are counted. it seems stan lee is as indestructible as
his heroes.
lomu relishing return to action former all black star jonah lomu says he cannot
wait to run out on the pitch for former england rugby union captain martin johnson
s testimonial on 4 june. the 29-year-old had a kidney transplant in july 2004 but
will play his first full match for three years leading a southern hemisphere side
at twickenham. i actually started training three weeks after my operation but i
was very limited until a few months ago. now it s basically bring it on! said the
giant winger. the match on 4 june will be my first 15-man game but i have a
training schedule which is quite testing and combines with sevens and a whole lot
of things said lomu. i have got so much energy since my operation that i train
three times a day six days a week. mohammed ali has always been my ideal. coming
back to rugby people said you are dreaming but it always starts off with a
dream. it s up to you whether you want to make it a reality. opinion has been
divided on whether lomu should attempt to return to the game after such a major
operation. but when lomu was asked whether he was taking a risk he replied: as
much as someone going down the road being hit by a bus. there are a lot of people
in the world with one kidney who just don t know it. i have talked this over had
a chat with the donor and this is to set my soul at peace and finish something i
started in 1994 [when he made his all blacks debut]. at his lowest ebb lomu was so
ill he could barely walk but he says he is now getting stronger every day and his
long-term target is to play for new zealand again. the only person who saw me at
my worst was my wife he added. i used to take two steps and fall over but now i
can run and it is all coming back and a lot more quickly than i ever thought it
would. to play for the all blacks would be the highest honour i could get. that is
the long-term goal and you have to start somewhere.
gm ford cut output as sales fall us car firms general motors (gm) and ford have
been forced to cut production in the face of falling car sales. us sales at gm
sank 12.7% in february compared to a year ago while ford sales dropped 3% as
foreign rivals took a bigger share of the market. meanwhile asian carmakers fared
well - toyota sales jumped 11% while rival nissan notched up a 10% increase.
overall. sales across the industry also fell to 1.25 million vehicles from 1.27
million a year earlier. gm and ford blamed high fuel prices for low sales of big
trucks and gas-guzzling sports utility vehicles (suvs) - the vehicles that provide
the biggest profits. gm added that us truck sales fell 9% in february while car
business tumbled 17% however it did acknowledge that some new products - such as
the pontiac g6 and chevrolet cobalt - had put in solid performances. the calendar
year is starting off slower than expected both for gm and the industry said mark
laneve gm s vice president for north american sales service and marketing. the
slump in sales prompted the group to cut production in north america by 3% - it has
already reduced output by around 9% in the face of growing stockpiles. meanwhile
ford which posted its ninth consecutive drop in monthly us sales said it was
cutting first-quarter north american production by another 10 000 vehicles or
1.2%. chrysler the us unit of germany s daimlerchrysler was the only detroit
based automaker to boast an increase in market share during the month - with sales
rising 8%. but america s loss was its foreign rivals gain as they continued to
nibble away at the us market. while japan s top car maker toyota and nissan saw
sales accelerate even the smaller suzuki motor corp snapped up a more business
with sales improving 17.6% on a year ago. in 2003 the firm launched an ambitious
plan to triple us sales by 2007 as it seeks to become a bigger player in the asian
assault on the us market. korea s hyundai was another big gainer turning in a 19%
surge in february sales. toyota put its rise in sales down to strong results for
its redesigned avalon sedan and a 120% surge in sales of its gas-electric prius
hybrid mid-size sedan as petrol-price conscious consumers looked to vehicles that
were cheaper to run. as gas prices continue their upward march fuel efficiency
catches the public eye jim press vice president and chief operating officer of
toyota s us sales arm said in a statement.
uk firms embracing e-commerce uk firms are embracing internet trading
opportunities as never before e-commerce minister mike o brien says. a
government-commissioned study ranked the uk third in its world index of use of
information and communication technology (ict). the report suggests 69% of uk firms
are now using broadband and that 30% of micro businesses are trading online. mr o
brien said uk businesses were sprinting forward in ict use but that there were
more challenges ahead. the report carried out independently by consultants booz
allen hamilton and hi europe placed the uk third behind sweden and ireland for
business use of ict. it showed british business brought greater maturity to their
ict use by using broadband in increased numbers bringing ict into their business
plans and using new technologies such as voice activated programmes and desktop
video conferences. mr o brien said: the increase in the proportion of business
connected by broadband shows that uk companies are embracing the opportunities that
ict can bring. it is particularly encouraging to see that small businesses are
beginning to narrow the digital divide that appeared to have opened up in recent
years. the government would play its part in cultivating an environment where
information and communication technologies can flourish mr o brien said. the
clear message the report sends is that effective use of ict can bring real
improvements in business performance for all business. however we are not at the
finishing line yet and many challenges remain if the uk is to reach its aim of
becoming a world-leading e-economy he added. the international benchmarking study
was based on 8 000 telephone interviews with businesses of which more than 2 700
were uk businesses. it is the eighth in a series of examining the adoption and
deployment of ict in the world s most industrialised nations.
orange colour clash set for court a row over the colour orange could hit the courts
after mobile phone giant orange launched action against a new mobile venture from
easyjet s founder. orange said it was starting proceedings against the easymobile
service for trademark infringement. easymobile uses easygroup s orange branding.
founder stelios haji-ioannou has pledged to contest the action. the move comes
after the two sides failed to come to an agreement after six months of talks.
orange claims the new low-cost mobile service has infringed its rights regarding
the use of the colour orange and could confuse customers - known as passing off .
our brand and the rights associated with it are extremely important to us orange
said in a statement. in the absence of any firm commitment from easy we have been
left with no choice but to start an action for trademark infringement and passing
off. however mr haji-ioannou who plans to launch easymobile next month vowed to
fight back saying: we have nothing to be afraid of in this court case. it is our
right to use our own corporate colour for which we have become famous during the
last 10 years. the easyjet founder also said he planned to add a disclaimer to the
easygroup website to ensure customers are aware the easymobile brand has no
connection to orange. the new service is the latest venture from easygroup which
includes a chain of internet cafes budget car rentals and an intercity bus
service. easymobile will allow customers to go online to order sim cards and
airtime - which will be rented from t-mobile - for their existing handsets.
goodrem wins top female mtv prize pop singer delta goodrem has scooped one of the
top individual prizes at the first australian mtv music awards. the 21-year-old
singer won the award for best female artist with australian idol runner-up shannon
noll taking the title of best male at the ceremony. goodrem known in both britain
and australia for her role as nina tucker in tv soap neighbours also performed a
duet with boyfriend brian mcfadden. other winners included green day voted best
group and the black eyed peas. goodrem green day and the black eyed peas took
home two awards each. as well as best female goodrem also took home the pepsi
viewers choice award whilst green day bagged the prize for best rock video for
american idiot. the black eyed peas won awards for best r n b video and sexiest
video both for hey mama. local singer and songwriter missy higgins took the title
of breakthrough artist of the year with australian idol winner guy sebastian
taking the honours for best pop video. the vh1 first music award went to cher
honouring her achievements within the music industry. the ceremony was held at the
luna park fairground in sydney harbour and was hosted by the osbourne family.
artists including carmen electra missy higgins kelly osbourne green day ja rule
and natalie imbruglia gave live performances at the event.
howard s unfinished business he s not finished yet whispered the conservative
party person as your reporter attempted to slip quietly from the hall. and indeed
he wasn t. michael howard had already broken away from the printed text of his
speech at his party s spring conference in brighton to deliver a smart rebuff to
peter hain s description of him as an attack mongrel claiming such personal
abuse meant labour was rattled by the tory challenge. and here he was again
moving to the front of the stage as the party faithful rose to their feet in
applause to make a personal ad-libbed appeal to them to go out and fight for
victory. one day you will be able to tell your children and grandchildren as i
will tell mine i was there. i did my bit. i played my part. i helped to win that
famous election - the election that transformed our country for the better . the
speech which was peppered with references to mr howard s humble beginnings as the
child of immigrants had been introduced by his son nick a trainee vicar who
praised his father s honesty. i always know where i am with him because all my
life he has meant what he has said to me he said. mr howard was also joined on
stage by his wife sandra daughter larissa and stepson sholto. the audience s
reaction to all of this was a little muted by party conference standards. but mr
howard s overall message - that the tories have labour on the run and that they can
win the next election - did not sound quite as hollow as it might have done six
months ago. mr howard claimed with some justification that the tories campaign
has got off to a great start . they have had labour on the back foot over
immigration with tony blair hastily adding a sixth promise on the issue to his
latest pledge card and have even managed to score points in traditional labour
territory such as health and education. the stunts involving margaret dixon with
her postponed operation and maria hutchings with concerns about her son s special
needs education may not have been to everyone s taste but they succeeded in
bringing the issues alive and forcing labour to react. senior tories believe they
are at long last starting to tap into the public mood cutting through the
background noise to connect with the ordinary voter. their latest poster campaign
flags up a range of policies from better school discipline cleaner hospitals ( i
mean how hard is it to keep a hospital clean ) and immigration ( it s not racist
to impose limits on immigration ) - under the headline are you thinking what we
are thinking this they say contrasts with labour s negative campaigning such
as its now infamous flying pigs poster. oliver letwin one of the men lampooned
in the labour poster affects bewilderment at what he believes is labour s loss of
its once sure footing on the campaign trail. the peter hain mongrel attack he
says is just the latest example of the party getting the tone wrong - a by-product
he claims of the tories setting the agenda. i have to say i don t understand
what they are doing. the labour machine appears to be in some kind of state of
shock it doesn t seem to know what to do. a few weeks of positive headlines have
also done wonders for tory activists morale - likely to be a crucial factor at an
election which most analysts seem to agree will hinge on which party can get
their core support out. it has been a fantastic few weeks said 20-year-old
politics student nick vaughan. our policies have been getting in the media and
there is a sense that we can win. i wouldn t be here if i didn t think we could.
some delegates even spoke of the next election being like 1970 when ted heath
behind in the polls and written off by the pundits snatched victory from harold
wilson s labour party. they all insisted it was not going to be a re-run of 2001.
we thought in 2001 we were going to dent that massive majority but it just didn t
happen said john murray of aldridge browhills conservatives. it was very
disappointing. this time it really is different. whoever is running our strategy
from the top has got it bang on. blair is on the back foot. much of the credit for
the tories recent change of fortune must go to lynton crosby the australian
strategist who succeeded in turning political veteran and apparent no-hoper john
howard of australia s liberal party into a serial election winner. the tories
still have a mountain climb if michael howard is to walk through the doors of
number 10. even allowing for the natural bias against the tories in some opinion
polls they are still behind when to have a chance of overturning labour s
whopping majority they should really be ahead. but as they gear up for the start
of the campaign proper the party at least has reason to hope that like his
australian namesake mr howard really isn t finished yet.
custody death rate shocks mps deaths in custody have reached shocking levels a
committee of mps and peers has warned. the joint committee on human rights found
those committing suicide were mainly the most vulnerable with mental health drugs
or alcohol problems. members urged the government to set up a task force to tackle
deaths in prisons police cells detention centres and special hospitals. there was
one prison suicide every four days between 1999 and 2003 mps said. the report
which followed a year-long inquiry by the committee found the high death rate
amounts to a serious failure to protect the right to life of a highly vulnerable
group . many of those who ended up taking their own lives had presented
themselves to the authorities with these problems before they even offended the
report said. it questioned whether prison was the most appropriate place for them
to be kept and whether earlier intervention would have meant custody could have
been avoided. increased resources and a reduction in the use of imprisonment was
needed to address the issue in the longer term the report said. committee chairman
labour mp jean corston said: each and every death in custody is a death too many
regardless of the circumstances. yet throughout our inquiry we have seen time and
time again that extremely vulnerable people are entering custody with a history of
mental illness drug and alcohol problems and potential for taking their own lives.
these highly vulnerable people are being held within a structure glaringly ill-
suited to meet even their basic needs. crime levels are falling but we are holding
more people in custody than ever before. the misplaced over-reliance on the prison
system for some of the most vulnerable people in the country is at the heart of the
problems that we encountered. until we change our whole approach to imprisoning
vulnerable people we cannot begin to meet our positive obligations under article 2
of the european convention on human rights and meet our duty of care to them. the
committee also highlighted deeply worrying cases of children and young people
taking their own lives. between 1990 and 2004 25 children have taken their own
lives in prison and two have died in secure training centres. it picked out the
case of joseph scholes who hanged himself from the bars of his cell in stoke heath
young offender institution in march 2002 and urged the home secretary to hold a
public inquiry. it revealed that two weeks before his court appearance for a series
of robberies the 16-year-old was depressed exhibiting suicidal tendencies and
slashed his face with a knife about 30 times. even though the trial judge had been
alerted to his experience of sexual abuse and mental illness he was sentenced to a
two-year detention and training order. nine days into his sentence joseph hung
himself from the bars of his cell window with a sheet.
musical treatment for capra film the classic film it s a wonderful life is to be
turned into a musical by the producer of the controversial hit show jerry springer
- the opera. frank capra s 1946 movie starring james stewart is being turned into
a £7m musical by producer jon thoday. he is working with steve brown who wrote the
award-winning musical spend spend spend. a spokeswoman said the plans were in the
very early stages with no cast opening date or theatre announced. a series of
workshops have been held in london and on wednesday a cast of singers unveiled the
musical to a select group of potential investors. mr thoday said the idea of
turning the film into a musical had been an ambition of his for almost 20 years. it
s a wonderful life was based on a short story the greatest gift by philip van
doren stern. mr thoday managed to buy the rights to the story from van doren stern
s family in 1999 following mr brown s success with spend spend spend. he later
secured the film rights from paramount enabling them to use the title it s a
wonderful life.
ukip candidate suspended eurosceptic party ukip have suspended a candidate for
allegedly suggesting the criminally insane should be killed. john houston 54 was
due to stand in the east kilbride seat in lanarkshire at the next election. but he
was suspended after his reported views including the return of the british empire
were sent to two scottish newspapers. ukip spokesman mark croucher said those who
selected mr houston knew nothing of his views. the episode comes at a difficult
time for ukip soon after the high-profile departure of mep robert kilroy-silk. mr
houston is alleged to have said that the organs of the criminally insane should be
made available to law-abiding members of the community and proposed the
legalisation of drugs and the sex trade. the document reportedly said: we re
looking for the resurrection of the british empire. the problems for the human
race - environmental and others - can only be dealt with on a global scale and
that calls for a radical alliance of the english-speaking nations which they are
uniquely able to do. mr croucher said the main issue would be that mr houston s
reported views had been presented as ukip policy which they were not. he said they
might have been submissions to a committee working on the party s manifesto but
would not have been matched to mr houston when he was standing to become a
candidate. he told bbc news: he appears to have said these things. we have
suspended him as a member and as a candidate. by all accounts none of this was
mentioned at his selection meeting. it is simply a distraction from the task in
hand the eu constitution not individual idiocies. mr houston was quoted in the
herald newspaper saying: i feel ukip have over-reacted and overshot the runway.
peter nielson who is ukip scotland chairman said he had suspended mr houston on
friday night. he will remain suspended while the matter is being investigated and
then we will decide if and what further action will be taken. he said that any
evidence would be looked into and mr houston may be interviewed by the party. he
added: i can t comment too much at the moment i have one version from him but i
haven t seen the papers yet.
economy strong in election year uk businesses are set to prosper during the next
few months - but this could trigger more interest rate rises according to a
report. optimism is at its highest since 1997 and business will reap the benefits
of a continuing rise in public spending say researchers at bdo stoy hayward. the
bank of england is expected to keep rates on hold this week - but they could go up
later in the year. rates are likely to rise after the anticipated general election
in may. the bdo optimism index - a leading indicator of gdp growth two quarters
ahead edged up in january to 102.5 from 102.2 in october. the rise is due in part
to an increase in public spending and increased merger and acquisition activity.
the only thing blighting business optimism this year will be uncertainties
associated with the general election bdo said. its bdo s output index - which
predicts gdp movements a quarter in advance - remained at 100.8 for january
implying gdp growth at 2.9% in the second quarter of 2005. however the output
index is being held back by recent interest rate rises sterling s strength against
the dollar and high oil prices the group noted. its inflation index which has
risen continuously over the last 8 months climbed to 110.0 in january from 108.0
in october last year. the uk is looking strong going into the general election
but businesses need to prepare themselves for a jolt ahead as the bank of england
reacts to growth and inflationary pressures said peter hemington partner at bdo
stoy hayward. growth will probably slow by the end of 2005 and it is likely that
we will see higher interest rates or a sharp drop in demand for products and
services.
springer criticises opera musical talk show host jerry springer whose programme
inspired the controversial opera shown by the bbc has said he would not have
written it himself. the bbc received 47 000 complaints before the musical was
broadcast and protesters demonstrated outside bbc buildings across the uk.
springer helped launch the west end show and attended the opening night. i wouldn
t have written it. i don t believe in making fun of other religions he said. the
tv host said he understood how people could have thought the musical had gone too
far. you know on our tv show if people use inappropriate language we bleep it out
if there s nudity we cover it up so that viewers at home don t get to see any of
this he said. asked whether he thought the bbc should have screened the
controversial musical he said: i don t know if they should have had it on
television but good lord if you don t like what s on television that s why god
gave us remote controls. my show is about dysfunctional people and i defy anyone
to watch the show and suggest to me the people on it aren t to some degree
dysfunctional. if i did a show about the war in iraq it wouldn t make me a
warmonger i would just be doing my job to report on the war. in the case of my
show it s my job to report on the dysfunctions that take place in society. the
british-born presenter is in london to speak at a fundraising dinner for the united
jewish israel appeal. the dinner on tuesday is expected to be attended by more
than 800 guests.
top judge clashes with ministers the uk s top judge has revealed he has clashed
with ministers about how the heads of public inquiries are chosen. lord woolf said
he was determined his current veto on whether a judge should chair an inquiry
should continue as a guard for judicial independence. but he told mps the lord
chancellor lord falconer was insisting he should have the final say in such
cases. lord hutton s inquiry into the death of dr david kelly sparked debate about
who should run inquiries. the government says the lord chancellor would be
unlikely to go against lord woolf s wishes. lord woolf who is lord chief justice
of england and wales was giving evidence to the commons public administration
select committee s inquiry into public inquiries. he said he had not been involved
in the choice of lord hutton who as a law lord did not come under his
jurisdiction. but he argued he should have a veto on whether judges generally
should chair a particular inquiry and if so which judge it should be. in written
evidence to the committee lord woolf said: i have so far failed to reach an
agreement with the lord chancellor on this issue ... i intend to maintain my
position and will press for this safeguard to be in any future legislation.
judges should think carefully before heading an inquiry into a highly political
issue such as the intelligence on iraq s weapons of mass destruction he said. he
argued: the subject matter of the inquiry may be so political that it would be
damaging to the judiciary for a judge to be involved. in addition the question of
whether there should be an inquiry at all may be highly controversial and if a
judge is appointed the judiciary as a result of the appointment may be seen as
siding inappropriately with the government. he told the mps: anything that tends
to undermine the confidence of the public in the judiciary worries me. lord woolf
said the current rules were not written down but it was inconceivable in practice
that the lord chancellor would overrule his concerns. but that situation could
change with new legal reforms. the issue had been overlooked when a new agreement
was drawn up about those responsibilities and the dispute had emerged in later
discussions. what i am asking for is a situation where if the lord chancellor
cannot obtain my agreement [on appointing a judge] it doesn t happen he said.
lord woolf said he did not think there would be difficulties but he wanted to
establish the principle. a department for constitutional affairs spokeswoman said
lord woolf and lord falconer agreed about what happened in practice. their
disagreement is about whether the legislation should include a requirement for
consultation or concurrence - a very narrow dispute in lord woolf s words she
said. as lord woolf also acknowledged it is highly unlikely that the lord
chancellor would appoint a judge against the wishes of the lord chief justice.
judges are free to decide for themselves whether to accept positions as inquiry
chairs. parliament will examine the issue next year when it debates a new bill
about public inquiries.
blair dismisses quit claim report tony blair has dismissed reports he told gordon
brown he would quit before the next general election. you don t do deals over
jobs like this the prime minister told bbc one s breakfast with frost programme.
according to a new book brown s britain mr blair went back on a pledge to make
way for mr brown after cabinet allies intervened in june 2004. mr blair said the
claims were reheated from six months ago and that he was concentrating on running
the country. mr blair said: i ve dealt with this six months ago. i said then you
don t do deals over jobs like this - you don t. what both of us are actually
concentrating on are the issues that concern the country. the book by sunday
telegraph journalist robert peston and serialised in the newspaper said the pair
had mutual animosity and contempt for each other. it claims tony blair felt by
november 2003 he had lost voters trust because of the iraq war and that he was no
longer an asset to the labour party. and that at a dinner hosted by deputy prime
minister john prescott he told mr brown of his intention to stand down. according
to mr peston the prime minister said: help me to get through the year and i will
then stand down. but he then changed his mind in june 2004 following intervention
from allies in the cabinet and the suspicion that the chancellor was deliberately
manoeuvring against him according to the book. mr peston told bbc news: my
understanding is that they are not nearly as close or as friendly as they once
were. what the book says is there is now a pretty profound mutual mistrust mutual
animosity. i think in public you see this double-act pretending everything is
alright but in private i don t think the relationship is good because brown
understandably feels deeply betrayed - particularly over this issue of the
leadership. but in a wide-ranging bbc interview covering issues such as the asian
tsunami disaster the middle east peace process and northern ireland mr blair
said: when you get to the top in politics you get this huge swell around you. all
sorts of people make all sorts of claims and counter-claims. he admitted to a
sense of frustration about the allegations which he said had been made countless
times . there has been fresh speculation of a rift recently following their
separate responses to the asian tsunami. these rumours were fuelled by mr blair s
decision to hold his monthly media conference at the same time as a long-planned
speech by mr brown on uk plans to tackle global poverty with a new marshall plan
for africa. there was speculation the pair were trying to outdo each other s
response to the disaster. but the prime minister said he had discussed these claims
with the chancellor and dismissed them as a load of nonsense . former welfare
minister frank field mp said the prime minister should sack mr brown but did not
believe mr blair was strong enough to do so. tory leader michael howard accused
the prime minister and mr brown of squabbling like schoolboys . he told sky news
sunday with adam boulton: this is the politics of the playground and britain
really does deserve better. the liberal democrat parliamentary chairman matthew
taylor said the personal ambition of mr blair and mr brown was getting in the way
of good government . either they need to grow up and put their squabbles to one
side or they cannot expect the electorate to support a divided government at the
next election. during the interview mr blair also said the former home secretary
david blunkett would play a big role at the general election.
stars gear up for bafta ceremony film stars from across the globe are preparing to
walk the red carpet at this year s bafta award ceremony. the 2005 orange british
academy film awards are being held at the odeon in london s leicester square. a
host of hollywood stars including cate blanchett leonardo dicaprio keanu reeves
and richard gere are expected to attend saturday s ceremony. hosted by stephen fry
the glittering ceremony will be broadcast on bbc one at 2010 gmt. other actors
expected to add to the glamour of the biggest night in uk film are gael garcia
bernal imelda staunton diane kruger christian slater anjelica huston helen
mirren and former james bond star pierce brosnan. hollywood blockbuster the aviator
starring dicaprio leads the field with 14 nominations including best film. it is
up against eternal sunshine of the spotless mind finding neverland the motorcycle
diaries and british film vera drake which has 11 nominations. british hope imelda
staunton is one of the favourites to land the best actress award for her gritty
role as a backstreet abortionist in the small-budget film. other nominees in the
best actress category include charlize theron for monster ziyi zhang for house of
flying daggers and uk star kate winslet who has two nods for her roles in eternal
sunshine of the spotless mind and finding neverland. dicaprio faces competition
from bernal jamie foxx jim carrey and johnny depp in the best actor category. and
british actor clive owen is hoping to repeat his golden globe success with a best
supporting actor award for his role in closer. his co-star natalie portman is up
against blanchett heather craney julie cristie and meryl streep in the best
supporting actress category. mike leigh is up for the best director award for vera
drake alongside martin scorsese for the aviator michael mann for collateral
michel gondry for eternal sunshine of the spotless mind and marc forster for
finding neverland.
fox attacks blair s tory lies tony blair lied when he took the uk to war so has
no qualms about lying in the election campaign say the tories. tory co-chairman
liam fox was speaking after mr blair told labour members the tories offered a hard
right agenda . dr fox told bbc radio: if you are willing to lie about the reasons
for going to war i guess you are going to lie about anything at all. he would not
discuss reports the party repaid £500 000 to lord ashcroft after he predicted an
election defeat. the prime minister ratcheted up labour s pre-election campaigning
at the weekend with a helicopter tour of the country and his speech at the party s
spring conference. he insisted he did not know the poll date but it is widely
expected to be 5 may. in what was seen as a highly personal speech in gateshead on
sunday mr blair said: i have the same passion and hunger as when i first walked
through the door of 10 downing street. he described his relationship with the
public as starting euphoric then struggling to live up to the expectations and
reaching the point of raised voices and throwing crockery . he warned his
supporters against complacency saying: it s a fight for the future of our country
it s a fight that for britain and the people of britain we have to win. mr blair
said that whether the public chose michael howard or mr kennedy it would result in
a tory government not a labour government and a country that goes back and does not
move forward . dr fox accused mr blair and other cabinet ministers of telling lies
about their opponents policies and then attacking the lies. what we learned at
the weekend is what labour tactics are going to be and it s going to be fear and
smear he told bbc news. the tory co-chairman attacked labour s six new pledges as
vacuous and said mr blair was very worried voters would take revenge for his
failure to deliver. dr fox refused to discuss weekend newspaper reports that the
party had repaid £500 000 to former tory treasurer lord ashcroft after he said the
party could not win the election. we repay loans when they are due but do not
comment to individual financial matters he said insisting he enjoyed a warm and
constructive relationship to lord ashcroft. meanwhile lib dem leader charles
kennedy is expected to attack mr blair s words as he begins a nationwide tour on
monday. mr kennedy is accelerating lib dem election preparations this week as he
visits manchester liverpool leicester somerset basingstoke shrewsbury dorset
and torbay. he said: this is three-party politics. in the northern cities the
contest is between labour and the liberal democrats. in southern and rural seats -
especially in the south west - the principal contenders are the liberal democrats
and the conservatives who are out of the running in scotland and wales. the lib
dems accuse mr blair of making a touchy-feely speech to labour delegates which
will not help him regain public trust.
reds sink 10-man magpies titus bramble s own goal put liverpool on the comeback
trail as injury-hit newcastle were well beaten at anfield. patrick kluivert s
close-range finish put newcastle ahead after 31 minutes but they were pegged back
as bramble headed in steven gerrard s corner. neil mellor gave liverpool the lead
before half-time from milan baros pass before the czech added a third after
rounding shay given on the hour. newcastle then had lee bowyer sent off for two
bookable offences. liverpool brought back luis garcia after a hamstring injury
while newcastle were forced to draft in kluivert after craig bellamy was a late
withdrawal with a back injury sustained in the warm-up. and garcia should have
crowned his return with a goal inside the opening minute when he took a pass from
baros but shot wildly over the top from eight yards. olivier bernard was only
inches away from giving newcastle the lead after 20 minutes when he fired just
wide from a free-kick 25 yards out. but souness s side did go ahead 11 minutes
later in highly controversial circumstances. kluivert looked suspiciously offside
when kieron dyer set bowyer free but the dutchman was then perfectly placed to
score from six yards. the lead lasted three minutes with liverpool back on terms
as bramble headed gerrard s corner into his own net under pressure from sami
hyypia. and liverpool were ahead after 37 minutes when baros slid a perfect pass
into mellor s path for the youngster to slip a slide-rule finish into given s
bottom corner. garcia s finishing was wayward and he was wasteful again in first-
half injury time shooting tamely at given after good work by xabi alonso. any
hopes of a newcastle recovery looked to be snuffed out on the hour when a brilliant
turn and pass by harry kewell set baros free and he rounded given to score.
jermaine jenas then missed a glorious chance to throw newcastle a lifeline
shooting over from just eight yards out from shola ameobi s cross. then bowyer who
had already been booked for a foul on alonso was deservedly shown the red card by
referee graham poll for a wild challenge on liverpool substitute florent sinama-
pongolle. dudek finnan hyypia carragher riise luis garcia (nunez 73) gerrard
alonso kewell (traore 85) baros mellor (sinama pongolle 75). subs not used:
hamann harrison. bramble 35 og mellor 38 baros 61. given andrew o brien
elliott bramble bernard bowyer dyer (ambrose 80) jenas milner (n zogbia 72)
kluivert (robert 58) ameobi. subs not used: harper. bowyer (77). bowyer
elliott bernard. kluivert 32. 43 856. g poll (hertfordshire).
australia rates at four year high australia is raising its benchmark interest rate
to its highest level in four years despite signs of a slowdown in the country s
economy. the reserve bank of australia lifted interest rates 0.25% to 5.5% their
first upwards move in more than a year. however shortly after the bank made its
decision new figures showed a fall in economic growth in the last quarter. the
bank said it had acted to curb inflation but the move was criticised by some
analysts. the rate hike was the first since december 2003 and had been well-
flagged in advance. however opposition parties and some analysts said the move was
ill-timed given data showing the australian economy grew just 0.1% between october
and december and 1.5% on an annual basis. the figures representing a decline from
the 0.2% growth in gdp seen between july and september were below market
expectations. consumer spending remains strong however and the bank is concerned
about growing inflationary pressures. over recent months it has become
increasingly clear that remaining spare capacity in the labour and goods markets is
becoming rather limited said ian macfarlane governor of the reserve bank. at
2.6% inflation remains within the bank s 2-3% target range. however exports
declined in the second half of 2004 fuelling a rise in the country s current
account deficit - the difference in the value of imports compared to exports - to a
record australian dollar 29.4bn. the australian government said the economy
remained strong with unemployment at a near 30 year low. the economy has been
strong and it is properly moderating but it doesn t look to me like it s slowing in
any unreasonable way said treasurer peter costello. stock markets had factored in
the likelihood of a rate rise but analysts still expressed concern about the
strength of the economy. that 1.5% annual growth rate is the lowest we have seen
since the post-election slump we saw back in 2000-1 said michael blythe chief
economist at the commonwealth bank of australia. this suggests the economy really
did slow very sharply in the second half of 2004.
commons hunt protest charges eight protesters who stormed the house of commons
chamber during a debate on the hunting bill have been charged with disorderly
conduct. the men were arrested in september after bursting into the chamber
causing a hunting ban debate to be halted. those charged included otis ferry the
22-year-old son of rock star bryan ferry and luke tomlinson 27 a close friend of
princes william and harry. they were charged under section 5 of the public order
act police said. five of the eight men held an impromptu news conference outside
charing cross police station on monday evening after the charges were formerly put
to them. the men s solicitor matthew knight said that at no time had it occurred
to the men that they were committing a criminal offence. there is no offence of
trespassing in the house of commons - it is not a criminal offence he said. if
parliament wanted to make entering the house of commons chamber on foot a criminal
offence it should have done so but it can t do so retrospectively. we are not
prosecuted for that. we are prosecuted for a public order act offence. we are not
guilty of it. they will appear at bow street magistrates court on 21 december a
police spokesman said. otis ferry a former eton pupil and joint leader of the
south shropshire hunt said: i have no regrets. we have done nothing wrong beyond
the obvious which was to stand up for our rights and not act like a sheep like the
rest of the country. one of the men david redvers 34 from hartpury
gloucestershire said he and the other seven protesters would plead not guilty to
the charges. the other protesters are john holliday 37 a huntsman from ledbury
herefordshire robert thame 34 who plays polo with princes charles in team
highgrove auctioneer andrew elliot 42 from bromesberrow near ledbury point-to-
point jockey richard wakeham 34 from york and former royal chef nick wood 41.
the 15 september protest came on the same day as a huge pro-hunting demonstration
in parliament square. four of the men ran out from behind the speaker s chair while
another wrestled past a doorkeeper from a different entrance. the five tried to
confront mps before they were bundled out of the chamber and later led away
handcuffed by police. three others had been intercepted by security staff as they
tried to join the five in the chamber. speaker michael martin later said the men
had used a forged letter to gain access to the house of commons and had been helped
to get close to the chamber by a parliamentary pass holder. in november the use of
the parliament act meant a total ban on hunting with dogs in england and wales.
however many pro-hunt activists remained defiant after the law was passed saying
they would ignore the ban and continue to hunt. last week the countryside alliance
said more than 250 hunts would meet legally the day after the ban on hunting with
dogs comes into force. the alliance said the 19 february meets would show the new
law was impossibly difficult to determine and open to different interpretations.
mps to debate euthanasia laws mps are preparing to debate a bill which critics
claim would legalise euthanasia by the back door . the bill would give legal
force to living wills where people say they want medical treatment withheld if
they become severely incapacitated. the mental capacity bill has broad support from
charities who say it would give better safeguards over treatment. but christian
groups say it could mean doctors withholding food and fluids even if they think it
inappropriate. ministers insist the mental capacity bill - for england and wales -
would not change laws on assisted suicide and contains a presumption in favour of
preserving life. the bill would establish a legal presumption that everybody can
make decisions about their own treatment unless proved otherwise. it would allow
people to give somebody the power of attorney to make decisions on their behalf
which could be challenged by doctors. critics fear it could allow killing by
omission through withdrawing treatment. an amendment to the bill - specifically
preventing decisions that would bring about death - has been tabled by former
conservative leader iain duncan smith. ninety one mps have signed a petition
backing the amendment. mps could vote on it later on tuesday during the bill s
report stage debate. the bill will then go to a third reading and be debated in the
lords before becoming law. the christian medical fellowship (cmf) and lawyers
christian fellowship (lcf) said the mental capacity bill would allow euthanasia by
the back door . peter saunders of the cmf said it believed advance refusals should
be only advisory not legally binding. cmf is concerned that patients will make
unwise and hasty advance decisions to refuse food and fluids without being properly
informed about the diagnosis and the expected course their illness will take he
said. the lcf s andrea williams said there were too many loopholes that could be
abused by unscrupulous doctors . ex-labour minister frank field told bbc two s
newsnight programme there was a danger people would feel under pressure to do away
with themselves so relatives could inherit their assets. constitutional affairs
minister david lammy said laws affecting 750 000 people with dementia needed
updating. mr lammy told bbc news labour mps would not get a free vote as the law
was being strengthened not changed. we are against euthanasia we are against
assisted suicide but we are in a situation now where people can make living wills
and that has the force of the common law he said. doctors are saying they want
more clarity. patients are saying they want more clarity. the making decisions
alliance which includes the alzheimer s society age concern mencap and the
national autistic society said misunderstandings over the bill had to be cleared
up. it will not change the current law on euthanasia and will actually provide a
series of better safeguards when decisions are made for people who lack capacity
the alliance said in a statement. the british medical association also backs the
bill saying it just gives incapacitated people the same rights as others. debate
on legalising euthanasia has intensified in the uk because of cases like that of
motor neurone patient diane pretty. she died two years ago after losing a legal
battle to allow her husband to help her commit suicide.
chinese exports rise 25% in 2004 exports from china leapt during 2004 over the
previous year as the country continued to show breakneck growth. the spurt put
china s trade surplus - a sore point with some of its trading partners - at a six-
year high. it may also increase pressure on china to relax the peg joining its
currency the yuan with the weakening dollar. the figures released by the ministry
of commerce come as china s tax chief confirmed that growth had topped 9% in 2004
for the second year in a row. state administration of taxation head xie xuren said
a tightening of controls on tax evasion had combined with the rapid expansion to
produce a 25.7% rise in tax revenues to 2.572 trillion yuan ($311bn; £165bn).
according to the ministry of commerce china s exports totalled $63.8bn in december
taking the annual total up 35.4% to $593.4bn. with imports rising a similar amount
the deficit rose to $43.4bn. the increased tax take comes despite healthy tax
rebates for many exporters totalling 420bn yuan in 2004 according to mr xie. china
s exporting success has made the trade deficit of the united states soar even
further and made trade with china a sensitive political issue in washington. the
peg keeping the yuan around 8.30 to the dollar is often blamed by us lawmakers for
job losses at home. a us report issued on tuesday on behalf of a congressionally-
mandated panel said almost 1.5 million posts disappeared between 1989 and 2003. the
pace accelerated in the final three years of the period said the report for the
us-china economic and security review commission moving out of labour-intensive
industries and into more hi-tech sectors. the us s overall trade deficit with china
was $124bn in 2003 and is expected to rise to about $150bn for 2004.
carry on star patsy rowlands dies actress patsy rowlands known to millions for her
roles in the carry on films has died at the age of 71. rowlands starred in nine
of the popular carry on films alongside fellow regulars sid james kenneth
williams and barbara windsor. she also carved out a successful television career
appearing for many years in itv s well-loved comedy bless this house. rowlands died
in hove on saturday morning her agent said. born in january 1934 rowlands won a
scholarship to the guildhall school of speech and drama scholarship when she was
just 15. after spending several years at the players theatre in london she made
her film debut in 1963 in tom jones directed by tony richardson. she made her
first carry on film in 1969 where she appeared in carry on again doctor. rowlands
played the hard-done-by wife or the put-upon employee as a regular carry on star.
she also appeared in carry on at your convenience carry on matron and carry on
loving as well as others. in recent years she appeared in bbc mini-series the
cazalets and played mrs potts in the london stage version of beauty and the beast.
agent simon beresford said: she was just an absolutely favourite client she never
complained about anything particularly when she was ill she was an old trouper.
she was of the old school - she had skills from musical theatre and high drama
that is why she worked with the great and the good of directors. she didn t mind
always being recognised for the carry on films because she thoroughly enjoyed
making them. she was a really lovely person and she will be much missed. her last
appearance on stage was as mrs pearce in the award-winning production of my fair
lady at the national theatre. previously married she leaves one son alan. her
funeral will be a private family occasion with a memorial service at a later
date.
gb quartet get cross country call four british athletes have been pre-selected to
compete at the world cross country championships in march after impressive starts
to the season. hayley yelling jo pavey karl keska and adam hickey will represent
team gb at the event in france. yelling clinched the women s european cross country
title last month and pavey followed up with bronze. keska helped the men s team to
overall third place while hickey finished in 10th place on his junior debut.
winning the european cross country title meant so much to me said yelling. and
being pre-selected for the worlds means that i can focus on preparing in the best
way possible. the 32-year-old will race alongside olympic 5 000m finalist pavey in
the women s 8km race on 19 march. keska who has made a successful return from a
long-term injury lay-off contests the men s 12km race on 20 march while 16-year-
old hickey goes in the junior men s 8km on the same day. the rest of the team will
be named after the trials at wollaton park in nottingham which take place on 5
march.
yukos owner sues russia for $28bn the majority owner of embattled russian oil firm
yukos has sued the russian government for $28.3bn (£15.2bn). the kremlin last year
seized and sold yukos main production arm yugansk to state-run oil group rosneft
for $9.3bn to offset a massive back tax bill. group menatep the gibraltar-based
holding company which controls 51% of yukos says this was illegal. menatep has
already asked rosneft to repay a $900m loan that yugansk had secured on its assets.
the russian government s argument for selling yuganskneftegaz - the unit s full
name - was that yukos owed more than $27bn in back taxes for the years from 2000
onwards. it accused the firm of using a web of offshore firms to avoid its tax
liabilities and the courts sent in bailiffs to freeze yukos accounts and seize
yugansk. but critics say the sell-off and the assault on yukos finances are
part of an attempt to bring the energy industry back under state control. according
to menatep the government s actions were contrary to the 1994 energy charter
treaty which was designed to regulate disagreements over energy investments. we
have warned the russian government about their continuing attacks against yukos
its personnel and its shareholders and we have warned any buyer of yuganskneftegaz
that they would face a lifetime of litigation said tim osborne a director of
group menatep. the time for warning is over and actions to recover the value of
our losses begin in earnest today. menatep said the value of its yukos
shareholding had gone from $17.8bn to virtually nothing since 2003 as a result of
the russian government s action as its shares have fallen 97%. according to its
paris lawyer emmanuel gaillard of shearman and sterling the overall claim is
based on that figure with a 60% addition for the share gains that could have
accrued since then. arbitration of the lawsuit could take place in stockholm or the
hague mr gaillard said. while russia has signed the charter it has never ratified
it - which some experts say could make it difficult for menatep to press its case.
but mr gaillard told bbc news that the charter came into effect on signature not
ratification. russia has said in the past that it is bound by it so as to attract
foreign investors he said. yukos is still waiting to see what will happen to its
filing in a us court for bankruptcy protection. it took the action to try to
prevent the forced sale of yugansk - first to a little-known shell company which
in turn was bought by rosneft. yukos claims its downfall was punishment for the
political ambitions of its founder mikhail khodorkovsky. mr khodorkovsky currently
facing fraud and tax evasion charges of his own was one of the founders of
menatep. he has since signed over his shareholding to one of his fellow investors.
arsenal may seek full share listing arsenal vice-chairman david dein has said the
club may consider seeking a full listing for its shares on the london stock
exchange. speaking at the soccerex football business forum in dubai he said a
full listing was one of the options for funding after the club moves to its new
stadium. the club - which is currently listed on the smaller ofex share exchange -
is due to move into its new 60 000-seater emirates stadium at ashburton grove for
the start of the 2006/07 season. mr dein also warned the current level of tv
coverage of the premiership may be reaching saturation level with signs that match
attendances have been dropping off in the first few months of this season. when
arsenal moves to its new stadium it will see its proportion of turnover from media
earnings drop from 52% this season to 34% in two years time. the club is hoping to
increase matchday earnings from 29% to 40% of turnover and has not ruled out other
money-earning means including a full share listing. when the new stadium opens we
will go through a thorough financial review mr dein said. listing would be one
option but we are flexible and no decisions have been made on that issue yet. we
want to be in the best financial health - maybe clubs can do it (listing)
manchester united have been a success. mr dein said that although television
money and coverage had driven the english game forward in the past 10 years he
feared there might now be too many games being shown. since the formation of the
premier league in season 1992/93 premiership clubs have seen their income from
television soar. television has been the driving force over the past 10 years...
but we must constantly improve if we want to remain as the world s leading league
competition. we must monitor the quality of the product and ensure attendances do
not decline and we must balance that with the quantity of exposure on tv too. i
think we have practically reached saturation point... sometimes i think less is
more. the club is funding its move to ashburton grove through a number of sources
including debt from banks from money it already has and will receive in coming
years from sponsors and from the sale of surplus property including its highbury
stadium. it is also looking to create new revenue streams from overseas markets
including asia. we have two executives travelling round japan and china at the
moment building relationships with organisations and clubs and we know our
supporters clubs are growing there too as they are around the world. we have got
a very good product so it is very important we go and look at these markets and
make sure we are on the case.
keegan hails comeback king fowler manchester city boss kevin keegan has praised
striker robbie fowler for his landmark return to form. the 29-year-old out of
favour at city earlier this season took his premiership goal tally past 150 with a
brace in monday s 3-2 win at norwich. he is still a quality player and knows where
the net is - we have just got to supply him with ammunition and in the end we did
keegan said. he has worked hard to get back to where he is now. the former
liverpool striker who moved to city in 2003 after a poor stint at leeds has
battled back into first-team contention after struggling with fitness at the start
of the season. fowler overtook les ferdinand on tuesday evening to become the
third highest scorer of all time in the premiership with 151 goals and he only
trails alan shearer (250) and andy cole (173). and keegan believes there is still
more to come from the former england forward. he can get better if we can supply
him better added keegan. people want to write him off but if he has kept the
articles of those people who have written him off he could throw them back at them
and they would be left with a bit of egg on their face. fowler s double strike
helped city come back from two goals down to clinch a dramatic win at carrow road
and keegan sympathised with norwich boss nigel worthington afterwards. i feel a
bit for nigel worthington he said. his team have got great character they have
a lot of drive and enthusiasm. i know it is a killer blow for norwich but i really
think they have brought something to the premiership. the stadium and the
atmosphere is great it is just a tough league to stay in - as they are finding out
and as we know.
blogger grounded by her airline a us airline attendant is fighting for her job
after she was suspended over postings on her blog or online diary. queen of the
sky otherwise known as ellen simonetti evolved into an anonymous semi-fictional
account of life in the sky. but after she posted pictures of herself in uniform
delta airlines suspended her indefinitely without pay. ms simonetti was told her
suspension was a result of inappropriate images. delta airlines declined to
comment. i was really shocked i had no warning ms simonetti told bbc news
online. i never thought i would get in trouble because of the blog. i thought if
they had a problem someone would have said something before taking action. the
issue has highlighted concerns amongst the growing blogging community about
conflicts of interest employment law and free speech on personal websites. ms
simonetti was suspended on 25 september pending an investigation and has since
lodged a complaint with the us equal employment opportunity commission (eeoc). a
spokesperson for delta airlines told bbc news online: all i can tell you is we do
not discuss internal employee issues with the media. she added she could not say
whether a similar situation over personal websites had occurred in the past. ms
simonetti started her personal blog in january to help her get over her mother s
death. she had ensured she made no mention of which airline she worked for and
created fictional names for cities and companies. the airline s name was changed to
anonymous airline and the city in which she was based was called quirksville. a
large part of the blog contained fictional stories because queen of the sky
developed over the months as a character in her own right according to ms
simonetti. the images were taken from a digital camera she had inherited from her
mother. we often take pictures on flight or on layovers. i just though why not
include them on my blog for fun. i never meant it as something to harm my company
and don t understand how they think it did harm them ms simonetti said. she has
also claimed that pictures of male delta airline employees in uniform are freely
available on the web. of the 10 or so images on the site only one showed ms
simonetti s flight wings . they did not tell me which pictures they had a problem
with. i am just assuming it was the one of me posing on seats where my skirt rode
up she said. the images were removed as soon as she learned she had been
suspended. as far as ms simonetti knows there is no company anti-blogging policy.
there is guidance which suggests the company uniform cannot be used without
approval from management but use in personal pictures on websites is unclear.
jeffrey matsuura director of the law and technology programme at the university of
dayton said personal websites can be hazardous for both employers and their
employees. there are many examples of employees who have presented some kind of
material online that have gotten them in trouble with employers he said. it was
crucial that any policy about what was and what was not acceptable was expressed
clearly was reasonable and enforced fairly in company policy. you have to
remember that as an employee you don t have total free speech anymore he said.
mr matsuura added that some companies actively encouraged employees to blog. one
of the areas where it does become a problem is that they encourage this when it
suits them but they may not be particularly clear when they [employees] do cross
the line. he speculated that delta might be concerned that the fictional content
on the blog may be linked back to the airline after the images of ms simonetti in
uniform were posted. whether or not that is successful will depend on what exactly
is prohibited and whether you can reasonably say this content now crosses that
line he said. ms simonetti said her suspension has caused two of her friends to
discontinue their blogs. one of them was asked to stop blogging by his company
before any action was taken. if they had asked me just take down the blog i would
have done it but that was not been given to me as an option she said. this
blogging thing is obviously a new problem for employers and they need to get a
policy about it. if i had known it would cost me my job i would not have done
that.
kenyon denies robben barca return chelsea chief executive peter kenyon has played
down reports that arjen robben will return for the champions league match against
barcelona. he s been responding well to treatment and started running on friday
but we ll have to wait and see he told bbc five live s sportsweek. we re looking
to getting him back as soon as possible but he ll be back when it s right for him
and for us. there s no plans at the moment around the barcelona game. his
comments contradict those of chiropractor jean pierre meersseman who treated the
dutchman after he fractured his foot at the start of february. robben had been
expected to be out for six weeks but meersseman hinted that the winger could be
fit for the vital stamford bridge game on 8 march. i hope he can be back and i
will try to help him make that happen meersseman told the mail on sunday. i put
everything right with arjen s foot the last time i saw him 12 days ago. it was an
obvious correction and easy to perform. i know he was pleased with what i did and
now that he is running again. i am due to see him one more time again in the next
few days. meersseman is the medical co-ordinator at italian side ac milan.
xbox power cable fire fear microsoft has said it will replace more than 14
million power cables for its xbox consoles due to safety concerns. the company
said the move was a preventative step after reports of fire hazard problems with
the cables. it affects xboxes made before 23 october 2003 for all regions but
mainland europe - and consoles in that region made before 13 january 2004.
microsoft said it had received 30 reports of minor injury or property damage due to
faulty cables. the firm said fewer than one in 10 000 consoles had experienced
component failures. the recall affects almost three quarters of all xboxes sold
around the world since its launch in 2001. in a statement it added: in almost
all instances any damage caused by these failures was contained within the console
itself or limited to the tip of the power cord at the back of the console. but in
seven cases customers reported sustaining a minor burn to their hand. in 23 cases
customers reported smoke damage or minor damage to a carpet or entertainment
centre. this is a preventative step we re choosing to take despite the rarity of
these incidents said robbie bach senior vice president microsoft home and
entertainment division. we regret the inconvenience but believe offering
consumers a free replacement cord is the responsible thing to do. consumers can
order a new cable from the xbox website or by telephoning 0800 028 9276 in the uk.
microsoft said customers would get replacement cords within two to four weeks from
the time of order. it advised users to turn off their xboxes when not in use. a
follow-up to xbox is expected to released at the end of this year or the beginning
of 2006.
sony wares win innovation award sony has taken the prize for top innovator at the
annual awards of pc pro magazine. it won the award for taking risks with products
and for its brave commitment to good design. conferring the award pc pro s staff
picked out sony s pcg-x505/p vaio laptop as a stunning piece of engineering . the
electronics giant beat off strong competition from toshiba and chip makers amd and
intel to take the gong. paul trotter news and features editor of pc pro said
several sony products helped it to take the innovation award. he said sony s clie
peg ux50 media player with its swivel screen and qwerty keyboard broke the design
rules yet again . other sony products that helped included the vaio w1 desktop
computer and the ra-104 media server. mr trotter said sony s combining of computer
screen and keyboard in the w1 was likely to be widely copied in future home pcs.
the company has also become one of the first to use organic leds in its products.
while not always inventing new technology itself sony was never afraid to innovate
around various formats said mr trotter. other awards decided by pc pro s staff
and contributors included one for canon s eos 300d digital camera in the most
wanted hardware category. microsoft s media player 10 took the award for most
wanted software. this year was the 10th anniversary of the pc pro awards which
splits its prizes into two sections. the first are chosen by the magazine s writers
and consultants the second are voted for by readers. mr trotter said more than 13
000 people voted for the reliability and service awards twice as many as in 2003.
net-based memory and video card shop crucial shared the award for online vendor of
the year with novatech.
almagro continues spanish surge unseeded nicolas almagro became the fifth spaniard
to reach the last eight at the buenos aires open ousting eighth seed mariano
zabaleta. he showed admirable resolve to win a rain-affected match 6-7 6-4 6-4.
compatriot and seventh seed rafael nadal also reached the last eight beating
italian potito starace 6-1 6-3. nadal playing in the outdoor clay event for the
first time hit some powerful forehands to oust starace in a match delayed over an
hour by rain. it s always a problem to have to stop for rain but one gets used to
it said spanish teenager nadal. luckily i was able to keep my pace going
throughout the match. he will now play gaston gaudio who beat unseeded brazilian
flavio saretta 6-3 6-2 in the day s late match.
deutsche boerse set to woo lse bosses of deutsche boerse and the london stock
exchange are to meet amid talk that a takeover bid for the lse will be raised to
£1.5bn ($2.9bn). last month the german exchange tabled a 530 pence-per-share
offer for lse valuing it at £1.3bn. paris-based euronext owner of liffe in london
has also said it is interested in bidding for lse. euronext is due to hold talks
with lse this week and it is reported to be ready to raise £1.4bn to fund a bid.
euronext chief jean-francois theodore is scheduled to meet his lse counterpart
clara furse on friday. deutsche boerse chief werner seifert is meeting ms furse on
thursday in the third meeting between the two exchanges since the bid approach in
december. the lse rejected deutsche boerse s proposed £1.3bn offer in december
saying it undervalued the business. but it agreed to leave the door open for talks
to find out whether a significantly-improved proposal would be in the interests
of lse s shareholders and customers. in the meantime euronext which combines the
paris amsterdam and lisbon stock exchanges also began talks with the lse. in a
statement on thursday euronext said any offer was likely to be solely in cash but
added that: there can be no assurances at this stage that any offer will be made.
a deal with either bidder would create the biggest stock market operator in europe
and the second biggest in the world after the new york stock exchange. according
to the ft in its latest meeting deutsche boerse will adopt a charm offensive to
woo the london exchange. the newspaper said the german suitor will offer to manage
a combined cash and equities market out of london and let ms furse take the helm.
other reports this week said the deutsche boerse might even consider selling its
luxembourg-based clearstream unit - the clearing house that processes securities
transactions. its ownership of clearstream was seen as the main stumbling block to
a london-frankfurt merger. lse shareholders feared a deutsche boerse takeover would
force them to use clearstream making it difficult for them to negotiate for lower
transaction fees.
veteran martinez wins thai title conchita martinez won her first title in almost
five years with victory over anna-lena groenefeld at the volvo women s open in
pattaya thailand. the 32-year-old spaniard came through 6-3 3-6 6-3 for her first
title since berlin in 2000. it feels really good said martinez who is playing
her last season on the tour. to come through like that in an important match feels
good. it s been nearly five years and i didn t think i could do it. groenefeld
was the more powerful player but could not match her opponent s relentless
accuracy. it was my first final a new experience said the german. i think she
played a good match a tough match but i tried to stay in there. i think the whole
week was good for me.
mcconnell in drunk remark row scotland s first minister has told a group of high
school pupils that it is okay to get drunk once in a while . jack mcconnell was
speaking to more than 100 secondary pupils from schools in the highlands about the
problems of binge drinking and drink promotions. he has been criticised by the snp
for encouraging young people to get drunk. but the scottish executive has insisted
mr mcconnell was speaking about adults and his comments were a recognition that
people will get drunk . the first minister s comments came in a question and answer
session at glenurquhart high school in inverness attended by pupils from a number
of secondary schools. a highland councillor who was at the event has also defended
mr mcconnell. margaret davidson the independent member for the loch ness west
said the first minister was speaking in a very general way and she was sure he was
speaking about adults at the time. when one pupil asked mr mcconnell how the
executive proposed to tackle under-age drinking began his response with the quip:
i m sure there s no under-age drinking in the highlands. he went on to speak about
the evils of binge drinking and railed against irresponsible drinks promotions. he
said: i hope i m not going to be seen as preaching to anybody here but the really
serious problem at the moment is binge drinking and the impact it has on people s
health and their ability to control what s happening round about them. mr
mcconnell said he regularly saw reports on the effects of binge drinking sprees
which ended in assaults or even rapes and on the health consequences of binge
drinking. the one thing we are going to do something really serious about is binge
drinking and irresponsible drinks promotions that can help lead to that he said.
far too many pub chains in particular are selling far too much booze far too
cheaply and encouraging people to drink it far too quickly. we are go to clamp
down on that and make those promotions illegal in the hope that people can enjoy a
drink sensibly over the course of an evening. he added: by all means get drunk
once in a while - but do not get into a situation where people are being encouraged
to get completely incapable just to save some money and drink more quickly. snp
holyrood leader nicola sturgeon said: this is an incredible gaffe by jack
mcconnell. we all know that under-age drinking is an issue in scotland but it is
quite staggering that any politician particularly the first minister should
encourage young people to get drunk. the first minister should withdraw these
remarks immediately. but an executive spokeswoman insisted mr mcconnell had made
the remark with adults not youngsters in mind. he was talking in the context of
adults binge drinking and irresponsible drinks promotions - which are for the over-
18s she said. it was just a recognition that people will get drunk but that
binge drinking and drinks promotions that encourage it are not acceptable.
grammys honour soul star charles the memory of soul legend ray charles dominated
the music world s leading music ceremony on sunday as he was given eight posthumous
grammy awards. charles who died in 2004 got honours including record and album
of the year while alicia keys and actor jamie foxx performed a musical tribute to
him. r&b star keys won four awards herself at the grammy ceremony in los angeles.
u2 usher norah jones and kanye west got three each. west led the race going into
the ceremony with 10 nominations. charles last album genius loves company a
collection of duets that has sold more than two million copies was named album of
the year and best pop vocal album. his song here we go again with norah jones won
record of the year and best pop vocal collaboration while heaven help us all with
gladys knight picked up best gospel performance. jones said: i m glad he s getting
recognised because of who he is and how much i love him. actor jamie foxx - who
is nominated for an oscar for playing charles in the hit movie ray - dedicated a
rendition of georgia on my mind to old friends . keys looking to replicate her
grammys success of 2002 when she won five picked up best r&b song for you don t
know my name and best r&b album for the diary of alicia keys. she also shared the
award for best r&b vocal performance by a duo or group with usher for my boo.
usher s other victories were for best contemporary r&b album for confessions and
best rap/sung collaboration for yeah! featuring lil jon and ludacris. kanye west
dominated the rap categories winning best rap song for jesus walks and best rap
album for the college dropout. but in one of the night s biggest shocks he lost
out in the battle to be named best new artist to pop rock act maroon 5. vertigo by
rock giants u2 won three trophies - best rock song best short video and best rock
vocal performance by a duo or group. one of the other main awards song of the year
went to us singer-songwriter john mayer for daughters. mayer also won best male pop
vocal performance. britney spears picked up her first ever grammy for her song
toxic which was named best dance recording. rod stewart also won the first grammy
of his career getting the best traditional pop album award for stardust... the
great american songbook: volume iii. in 2003 stewart said he was astounded he
had never won a grammy - but they tend not to give it to the british unless you re
sting . there were few other high-profile british victors this year. annie lennox
metal group motorhead and dance act basement jaxx all took home trophies. but elvis
costello who had four nominations and joss stone and franz ferdinand who were
both up for three awards got nothing. beach boys veteran brian wilson was another
first-time winner - for best rock instrumental performance. it represents triumph
and achievement in music that i feel that i deserved and i m really glad i won
he said. a live recording of composer john adams 11 september tribute on the
transmigration of souls performed by the new york philharmonic won three
classical prizes. and former us president bill clinton picked up the second grammy
of his career winning the spoken word award for the audio version of his
autobiography my life.
kinnock to urge reform in lords neil kinnock has said his acceptance of a seat in
the house of lords will allow him to help achieve further progress with
substantial democratic reform. on the bbc s breakfast with frost it was put to mr
kinnock that he had once referred to lords members as brigands muggers bribers
and gangsters . but the outgoing european commissioner said his comments - made
some 26 years ago - needed to be put in context. he said advocates for reform
needed to be inside the lords to vote for it. it was pointed out to me that if the
additional democratic reform is going to take place it is going to require
advocates in the lords and people there willing to vote for it. mr kinnock added
that the second factor behind his acceptance of the peerage was his appointment as
chairman of the british council. history demonstrates that it s immensely useful
for the british council to have its chairman in the house of lords and that was a
conclusive factor. mr kinnock said he thought about the decision for quite a long
time because he had long had reservations about the lords. but he added: the
process of reform has developed substantially but not sufficiently and
consequently i did take all these factors into consideration because it s not a
decision to be made glibly. the former labour leader said he would probably take
the title of lord kinnock of bedwellty - his first constituency for which he was
selected in 1969.
the ticking budget facing the us the budget proposals laid out by the
administration of us president george w bush are highly controversial. the
washington-based economic policy institute which tends to be critical of the
president looks at possible fault lines. us politicians and citizens of all
political persuasions are in for a dose of shock therapy. without major changes in
current policies and political prejudices the federal budget simply cannot hold
together. news coverage of the bush budget will be dominated by debates about
spending cuts but the fact is these will be large cuts in small programs. from the
standpoint of the big fiscal trends the cuts are gratuitous and the big budget
train wreck is yet to come. under direct threat will be the federal government s
ability to make good on its debts to the social security trust fund. as soon as
2018 the fund will begin to require some cash returns on its bond holdings in
order to finance all promised benefits. the trigger for the coming shock will be
rising federal debt which will grow in 10 years by conservative estimates to
more than half the nation s total annual output. this upward trend will force
increased borrowing by the federal government putting upward pressure on interest
rates faced by consumers and business. even now a growing share of us borrowing is
from abroad. the us government cannot finance its operations without heavy
borrowing from the central banks of japan and china among other nations. this does
not bode well for us influence in the world. the decline of the dollar is a warning
sign that current economic trends cannot continue. the dollar is already sinking.
before too long credit markets are likely to react and interest rates will creep
upwards. that will be the shock. interest-sensitive industries will feel pain
immediately - sectors such as housing automobiles other consumer durables
agriculture and small business. some will recall the news footage of angry farmers
driving their heavy equipment around the us capitol in the late 1970s. there will
be no need for constitutional amendments to balance the budget. the public outcry
will force congress to act. whether it will act wisely is another matter. how did
this happen by definition the deficit means too little revenue and too much
spending - but this neutral description doesn t adequately capture the current
situation. federal revenues are at 1950s levels while spending remains where it
has been in recent decades - much higher. in addition the united states has two
significant military missions. the bush administration s chosen remedy is the least
feasible one. reducing domestic spending or eliminating waste fraud and abuse
is toothless because this slice of the budget is too small to solve the problem.
indeed if congress were rash enough to balance the budget in this way there would
hardly be any such spending left. law enforcement space exploration environmental
clean-up economic development the small business administration housing
veterans benefits aid to state and local governments would all but disappear. it
s fantasy to think these routine government functions could be slashed. the biggest
spending growth areas are defence (including homeland security) and health care
for the elderly and the poor. to some extent increases in these areas are
inevitable. the us population is aging and the nation does face genuine threats in
the world. but serious savings can only be found where the big money is. savings in
health care spending that do not come at the expense of health can only be achieved
with wholesale reform of the entire system public and private. brute force budget
cuts or spending caps would ill-serve the nation s elderly and indigent. on the
revenue side the lion s share of revenue lost to tax cuts enacted since 2000 will
have to be replaced. some rearranging could hold many people harmless and focus
most of the pain on those with relatively high incomes. finally blind allegiance
to a balanced budget will have to be abandoned. there is no good reason to fixate
on it anyway. moderate deficits and slowly rising federal debt can be sustained
indefinitely. borrowing for investments in education and infrastructure that pay
off in future years makes sense. the sooner we face that reality the sooner
workable reforms can be pursued. first on the list should be tax reform to raise
revenue simplify the tax code and restore some fairness eroded by the bush tax
cuts. second should be a dispassionate re-evaluation of the huge increase in
defence spending over the past three years much of it unrelated to afghanistan
iraq or terrorism. third must be the start of a serious debate on large-scale
health care reform. one thing is certain - destroying the budget in order to save
it is not going to equip the us economy and government for the challenges of this
new century.
blair said he would stand down tony blair promised gordon brown he would stand
down before the next election a new book about the chancellor claims. but the
prime minister changed his mind following intervention from allies in the cabinet
according to the book. the book by sunday telegraph journalist robert peston said
the pair had mutual animosity and contempt for each other. the book brown s
britain said tony blair felt by november 2003 he had lost voters trust. the
author s sources all unnamed allies of mr blair and mr brown said the prime
minister felt the iraq war had undermined him and that he was no longer an asset to
the labour party. the book serialised in the sunday telegraph alleges that mr
blair told the chancellor at a dinner hosted by deputy pm john prescott in november
2003 of his intention to stand down. at that stage he saw gordon brown and said
look you are the next most influential member of the government i need your help
to get through the next year mr peston said. i myself recognise that i m going
to have to stand down before the election but help me to get through the year and i
will then stand down. but he changed his mind in june 2004 following
intervention from allies in the cabinet and the suspicion that the chancellor was
deliberately manoeuvring against him the book claims. mr peston told bbc news:
my understanding is that they are not nearly as close or as friendly as they once
were. what the book says is there now a pretty profound mutual mistrust mutual
animosity. i think in public you see this double act pretending everything is
alright but in private i don t think the relationship is good because brown
understandably feels deeply betrayed - particularly over this issue of the
leadership. there has been fresh speculation of a rift recently following their
separate responses to the asian tsunami. rumours of a rift were fuelled by the
sudden decision to hold mr blair s monthly media conference at the same time as a
long-planned speech by mr brown on uk plans to tackle global poverty with a new
marshall plan for africa. there was speculation the pair were trying to outdo each
other s response to the disaster. former welfare minister frank field mp
criticised the reported rivalry between the pair on gmtv s sunday programme. what
sort of model does it give to the nation when the two most important political
leaders do nothing but fight it out together or use their aides to fight it out
the labour mp for birkenhead asked. he said the prime minister should sack mr brown
but did not believe mr blair was strong enough to do so. conservative policy co-
ordinator david cameron mp for witney added: if it wasn t so serious it would be
funny. but it is serious - you ve got the two most senior people in the government
not concentrating on fighting crime poverty or dirty hospitals - they are fighting
each other. carol walker bbc news 24 political correspondent added: there is a
real concern that this could undermine the general election campaign. and clearly
it is very bad news for the government at a time when it is trying to explain what
it is doing to respond to the terrible problems thrown up by the tsunami disaster.
french suitor holds lse meeting european stock market euronext has met with the
london stock exchange (lse) amid speculation that it may be ready to launch a cash
bid. euronext chief jean-francois theodore held talks with lse boss clara furse
the day after rival deutsche boerse put forward its own bid case. the german
exchange said it had held constructive professional and friendly talks with the
lse. but euronext declined to comment after the talks ended on friday. speculation
is mounting that the germans may raise their bid to £1.5bn. deutsche boerse
previously offered £1.3bn which was rejected by the lse while euronext is
rumoured to have facilities in place to fund a £1.4bn cash bid. so far however
neither have tabled a formal bid. but a deal with either bidder would create the
biggest stock market operator in europe and the second biggest in the world after
the new york stock exchange. there was speculation euronext would use friday s
meeting as an opportunity to take advantage of growing disquiet over deutsche
boerse s own plans for dominance over the london market. unions for deutsche boerse
staff in frankfurt has reportedly expressed fears that up to 300 jobs would be
moved to london if the takeover is successful. the works council has expressed
concerns that the equities and derivatives trade could be managed from london in
the future reuters news agency reports a union source as saying. german
politicians are also said to be angry over the market operator s promise to move
its headquarters to london if a bid were successful. meanwhile lse shareholders
fear that deutsche boerse s control over its clearstream unit - the clearing house
that processes securities transactions - would create a monopoly situation. this
would weaken the position of shareholders when negotiating lower transaction fees
for share dealings. lse and euronext do not have control over their clearing and
settlement operations a situation which critics say is more transparent and
competitive. the german group s ownership of clearstream has been seen as the main
stumbling block to a london-frankfurt merger. commentators believe deutsche boerse
which has now formally asked german authorities to approve its plan to buy the lse
may offer to sell clearstream to gain shareholder approval. euronext so far has
given little away as to what sweeteners it will offer the lse - europe s biggest
equity market - into a deal.
gizmondo gadget hits the shelves the gizmondo combined media player phone and
gaming gadget goes on sale on saturday. priced at £229 the handheld device is
debuting in the uk and goes on sale in the us and mainland europe in the next few
weeks. a catalogue of about 20 games is being prepared for the gadget including the
great escape and conflict vietnam. the british-backed gadget faces stiff
competition from handheld gaming devices made by nintendo and sony. the gizmondo
device packs a lot of functions inside its black cover and is aimed at gamers and
those that want more from their game-playing gadgets. it can be used to play games
music tracks and movies. it can take and store digital photos and be used like a
mobile phone to send text multimedia and e-mail messages. the phone service to
enable people to send messages is being provided by pre-pay vodafone accounts
bundled in with the device. it also works with gps (global position system) so can
also be used as a navigation aid or to support a variety of location-based
services. the gprs and bluetooth wireless data systems onboard mean that it can be
used for multi-player gaming. the gadget will be available from the gizmondo store
on london s regent street and from several other retail partners. although the
device rolls together an impressive list of functions it will face serious
competition from three established names in mobile gaming: nintendo nokia and
sony. the main competition is likely to come from nintendo and sony. nintendo s ds
handheld went on sale on 11 march and priced at £99 costs far less than the
gizmondo. it also has a ready pool of fans of earlier nintendo handhelds to draw
on. in the first two days it was on sale in europe the 87 000 ds handhelds were
sold - a better debut than the gamecube enjoyed. sony s psp was due to make its
european debut in march but now this is likely to be delayed by a few months. the
psp is due to go on sale in the us later this month and a bundle including the
player accessories and a copy of spiderman 2 is expected to cost about $250
(£129). the psp can also play music and movies and supports wireless multiplayer
gaming. nokia s n-gage could also be a competitor on the telecommunications side.
this too crams a fully functional phone into a gadget that also plays games.
mp s shock at long lost daughter labour mp stephen pound has told of his shock and
his joy on learning he fathered a daughter when he was out of control during the
wild 1960s. lucy 36 tracked down mr pound after her birth mother told her he
was known as precious at school. despite being told he was a nutter who died at
sea she found a reference to mr pound on friends reunited. lucy s mother kept her
pregnancy secret and had her adopted at four weeks. mr pound found out about it
last year. that happened when lucy wrote to his parliamentary office saying she
believed he was her father. mr pound who is now married with two other teenage
children said: i was a nutter and i was a sailor but i wasn t dead. he said his
first reaction was to wonder if he was victim of a set-up but he then realised
all the dates fitted. it was a pretty horrible thing with a pretty happy ending. i
felt guilt in the marrow of my bones said the ealing north mp. i don t blame
lucy s mother. i was pretty much out of control. i was 18 when she was conceived.
it was a different time - it was pretty wild. mr pound says he rang lucy as soon
as he got her letter they met up and have been in contact ever since. describing
that first meeting at london s king cross station he said: the earth went from
under my feet ... we were walking across the euston road and i took her arm to take
her across and there was an immediate connection. we were finishing each other
sentences. lucy who was adopted by a family from essex wants to remain anonymous
for the sake of her adoptive father and her children. mr pound said his wife maggie
had been fully supportive and their two children emily 16 and pelham 14 were
pleased to have an older sister.
versace art portfolio up for sale the art collection of murdered fashion designer
gianni versace could fetch up to £9m ($17m) when it is auctioned in new york and
london later this year. among the pictures for sale are works by roy lichtenstein
andy warhol and henri matisse. the collection was housed at versace s six-storey
new york townhouse. the 51-year-old designer was shot outside his florida home in
1997 by suspected serial killer andrew cunanan who later killed himself. the
auction at sotheby s will feature 45 contemporary impressionist and 19th century
paintings. one of the highlights of the sale is roy lichtenstein s blue nude which
has been given an estimate of £1.8m ($3.4m). tobias meyer sotheby s worldwide
head of contemporary art said: this collection reflects mr versace s wide-ranging
taste and impeccable eye and many of the works were commissioned directly from the
artists. outstanding later examples from champions of the pop movement such as
roy lichtenstein are juxtaposed with masterpieces from the most visible artists of
the 1980 s including jean-michel basquiat and the collaborative genius of basquiat
and warhol as well as francesco clemente. much of the collection will be offered
for sale at three auctions in new york in june with smaller contemporary paintings
going under the hammer in london on 22 and 23 june. a sale of versace s furniture
and artworks sold in 2001fetched £5.5m ($10.3m).
lib dems predict best ever poll the lib dems are set for their best results in
both the general election and the local council polls one of their frontbenchers
has predicted. local government spokesman ed davey was speaking as the party
launched its campaign for the local elections being held in 37 english council
areas. the flagship pledge is to replace council tax with a local income tax. the
tories say the lib dems would make people pay more tax and labour says the party s
sums do not add up. looking to the coming elections which are all expected to be
held on 5 may mr davey said: we are going to be winning more votes and winning
more seats. i think we are going to have the best general election results and
local election results we have ever had under [party leader] charles kennedy. i
couldn t think of a stronger endorsement of a leader.
portable playstation ready to go sony s playstation portable (psp) will go on sale
in japan on 12 december. the long-awaited handheld game playing gadget will cost
about 19 800 yen (145 euros) when it hits the shelves. at launch 21 games will be
available for the psp including need for speed ridge racer metal gear acid and
vampire chronicle. sony has not yet announced when the psp will be available in
europe and the us but analysts expect it to debut in those territories in early
2005. fifa 2005 is back at the top of the uk games charts a week after losing it
to rival pro evolution soccer 4. konami s pro evo dropped only one place to two
while the only new entry in the top 10 was another football title lma manager 2005
in at number seven. tony hawk s underground 2 held its own at three while star
wars battlefront inched up to four places to four. there was good news for disney
with the spin-off from the shark s tale film moving up the charts into number
eight. fans of the gran turismo series in europe are going to have to wait until
next year for the latest version. sony has said that the pal version of gt4 will
not be ready for christmas. the product is localised into 13 different languages
across the pal territories therefore the process takes considerably longer than it
does in japan it said. gran turismo 4 for the playstation 2 is still expected to
be released in japan and the usa this year. halo 2 has broken video game records
with pre-orders of more than 1.5 million in the us alone. some 6 500 us stores plan
to open just after midnight on tuesday 9 november for the game s release. halo 2
is projected to bring in more revenue than any day one box office blockbuster movie
in the united states said xbox s peter moore. we ve even heard rumours of fan
anticipation of the halo 2 flu on 9 november.
card fraudsters targeting web new safeguards on credit and debit card payments in
shops has led fraudsters to focus on internet and phone payments an anti-fraud
agency has said. anti-fraud consultancy retail decisions says card-not-present
fraud where goods are paid for online or by phone has risen since the start of
2005. the introduction of chip and pin cards has tightened security for
transactions on the high street. but the clampdown has caused fraudsters to change
tack retail decisions said. the introduction of chip and pin cards aimed to cut
down on credit card fraud in stores by asking shoppers to verify their identity
with a confidential personal pin number instead of a signature. retail decisions
chief executive carl clump told the bbc that there was no doubt that chip and pin
would reduce card fraud in the card-present environment . however it is
important to monitor what happens in the card-not-present environment as fraudsters
will turn their attention to the internet mail order telephone order and
interactive tv he said. we have seen a 22% uplift in card-not-present fraud here
in the uk... since the start of the year. fraud doesn t just disappear it mutates
to the next weakest link in the chain he said. retail decisions survey on the
implementation of chip and pin found that shoppers had adapted easily to the new
system but that banks performance in distributing the new cards had been patchy
at best. the main issue is that not everyone has the pins they need said mr
clump. nearly two thirds - 65% - of the 1 000 people interviewed said they had used
chip and pin to make payments. of these 83% were happy with the experience though
nearly a quarter said they struggled to remember their pin number. however only
34% said they had received replacement cards with the necessary chip technology
from all their card providers. furthermore 16% said that none of their cards had
been replaced while 30% said only some had. uk shoppers spent £5.3bn on plastic
cards in 2003 the last full year for which figures are available from the
association of payment clearing services (apacs). altogether card scams on uk-
issued cards totalled £402.4m in 2003. card-not-present fraud rose an annual 6% to
£116.4m making it the biggest category even then. within this internet fraud
totalled £43m apacs figures show.
holmes feted with further honour double olympic champion kelly holmes has been
voted european athletics (eaa) woman athlete of 2004 in the governing body s annual
poll. the briton made a dame in the new year honours list for taking 800m and 1
500m gold won vital votes from the public press and eaa member federations. she
is only the second british woman to land the title after- sally gunnell won for her
world 400m hurdles win in 1993. swedish triple jumper christian olsson was voted
male athlete of the year. the accolade is the latest in a long list of awards that
holmes has received since her success in athens. in addition to becoming a dame
she was also named the bbc sports personality of the year in december. her gutsy
victory in the 800m also earned her the international association of athletics
federations award for the best women s performance in the world for 2004. and she
scooped two awards at the british athletics writers association annual dinner in
october.
profits stall at china s lenovo profits at chinese computer firm lenovo have stood
still amid slowing demand at home and stiffening competition. the firm is in the
international spotlight after last year signing a deal to buy the pc division of
personal computer pioneer ibm. lenovo s profit for the three months to december was
hk$327m (us$42m; £22m) less than 1% up on the year before. chinese pc sales have
risen by a fifth in each of the past two years but are now growing more slowly.
the company is still by far the biggest player in china with more than a quarter
of the market. but western firms such as dell and hewlett-packard are also mounting
a more solid fight for market share in china and lenovo s sales were down 3.7% by
revenue to hk$6.31bn. if the $1.75bn agreement lenovo signed with ibm on 8
december goes through it will mark the end of an era. ibm pioneered the desktop pc
market in the early 1980s although strategic mis-steps helped lose it its early
dominance. in any case margins in pc market are now wafer thin and profits have
been hard to come by for most vendors except direct-sales giant dell. but investors
have been less than impressed with lenovo s move designed to take it out of china
and further onto the world stage. its shares are down 20% since the announcement
two months ago largely because of the unprofitability of the unit it is buying.
there have been rumours that the deal could be in trouble because us government
agencies fear it could offer china opportunities for industrial espionage. the
reports of the possibility of an investigation into the risk sent lenovo s shares
up 6% in late january.
ferguson fears milan cutting edge manchester united manager sir alex ferguson said
his side s task against ac milan would not be made any easier by the absence of
andriy shevchenko. milan s talismanic european footballer of the year misses
wednesday s champions league first-leg tie after fracturing his cheekbone. it s a
loss (to milan) but it could be worse if they didn t have such quality to bring in
ferguson said. how much they miss him i think they ll know tomorrow night.
ferguson said milan s front line would still represent a formidable challenge for
his defenders. they can play rui costa and play kaka forward. they can bring
serginho in and they can play (jon dahl) tomasson he said. ferguson s own
goalscoring talisman ruud van nistelrooy is fit again but the scot admitted he was
unsure whether to start the dutchman who has not played for three months. ruud
is the best striker in europe. what i have to judge is whether he will struggle
with the early pace after being out for so long he said. his ability puts him in
with a big shout but it is a major decision. ferguson though is confident his
young players particularly wayne rooney and cristiano ronaldo are up to the task.
we have an opportunity to win this cup this year no question about that he
declared. with the maturity we see every week in ronaldo and rooney the return of
van nistelrooy and the form of roy keane paul scholes and ryan giggs we must have
a fantastic chance. it is a view shared by rooney who believes if we can get
past milan we have a great chance . as soon as i knew we were playing milan i
got excited. looking at the draw it is anyone s trophy but we have every chance.
hopefully we can get to that final in turkey and bring the cup back to manchester.
milan coach carlo ancelotti said his team were looking forward to returning to the
venue where they lifted europe s most prestigious club title two seasons ago. milan
beat juventus in a penalty shootout after a 0-0 tie at old trafford and ancelotti
said: we are all very happy to return (to old trafford) to play in the champions
league and this will give us great motivation. ancelotti said he was aware of the
threat united posed to his hopes of champions league glory. it s fundamental that
we don t allow them to take control of the game. our intention is not to adapt to
their play but to play our game he said. they have great quality in attack they
use the wings a lot and we will have to make sure we stop them.
how to make a gigapixel picture the largest digital panoramic photo in the world
has been created by researchers in the netherlands. the finished image is 2.5
billion pixels in size - making it about 500 times the resolution of images
produced by good consumer digital cameras. the huge image of delft was created by
stitching together 600 single snaps of the dutch city taken at a fixed spot. if
printed out in standard 300 dots per inch resolution the picture would be 2.5m
high and 6m long. the researchers have put the image on a website which lets
viewers explore the wealth of detail that it captures. tools on the page let
viewers zoom in on the city and its surroundings in great detail. the website is
already proving popular and currently has more than 200 000 visitors every day.
the image was created by imaging experts from the dutch research and technology
laboratory tno which created the 2.5 gigapixel photo as a summer time challenge.
the goal of the project was to be one of the first groups to make gigapixel images.
the first image of such a size was manually constructed by us photographer max
lyons in november 2003. that image portrayed bryce canyon national park in utah
and was made up of 196 separate photographs. the panorama of delft is a little
staid in contrast to the dramatic rockscape captured in mr lyons image. he did it
all by hand which was an enormous effort and we got the idea that if you use
automatic techniques it would be feasible to build a larger image said jurgen
den hartog one of the tno researchers behind the project. we were not competing
with mr lyons but it started as a lunchtime bet. the dutch team used already
available technologies although it had to upgrade them to be able to handle the
high-resolution image. we had to rewrite almost all the tools me den hartog
told the bbc news website. all standard windows viewers available would not be
able to load such a large image so we had to develop one ourselves. the 600
component pictures were taken on july 2004 by a computer-controlled camera with a
400 mm lens. each image was made to slightly overlap so they could be accurately
arranged into a composite. the stitching process was also done automatically using
five powerful pcs over three days. following the success of this project and with
promises of help from others the tno team is considering creating a full 360-
degree panoramic view of another dutch city with even higher resolution.
day-lewis set for berlin honour actor daniel day-lewis is to be presented with an
award for his career in film at the berlin film festival. the 47-year-old whose
credits include his oscar-winning performance in my left foot will be presented
with the berlinale camera award on 15 february. the honour awarded since 1986
honours figures in cinema that the festival feels particularly indebted to . man
to man a historical epic starring kristin scott thomas opens the german festival
on 10 february. a candid documentary about the life and career of singer george
michael a different story will also be screened at the 10-day event. day-lewis
has competed four times at the berlin film festival with films in the name of the
father (1994) the crucible (1997) the boxer (1998) and martin scorsese s gangs of
new york (2003). the festival praises him for his sensational start with roles in
my beautiful launderette and costume classic a room with a view and a great
number of celebrated roles in subsequent productions. japan s oldest film studio
will also be honoured along with day-lewis. shochiku film studios which was
founded 110 years ago will become the first cinematic institution to receive the
berlinale camera award. famous japanese directors including akira hurosawa have had
films produced at the studio.
alfa romeos to get gm engines fiat is to stop making six-cylinder petrol engines
for its sporty alfa romeo subsidiary unions at the italian carmaker have said.
the unions claim fiat is to close the fiat powertrain plant at arese near milan and
instead source six-cylinder engines from general motors. fiat has yet to comment on
the matter but the unions say the new engines will be made by gm in australia. the
news comes a week after gm pulled out of an agreement to buy fiat. gm had to pay
former partner fiat 1.55bn euros ($2bn; £1.1bn) to get out of a deal which could
have forced it to buy the italian carmaker outright. fiat and gm also ended their
five-year alliance and two joint ventures in engines and purchasing but did agree
to continue buying each other s engines. powertrain told us today that alfa romeo
engines will no longer be made in arese said union leader vincenzo lilliu as
reported by the reuters news agency. the assembly line will be dismantled and the
six-cylinder alfa romeo motor will be replaced with an engine gm produces in
australia. reuters also said that mr lilliu and other union bosses shouted insults
at fiat chairman luca di montezemolo following a meeting on tuesday regarding the
future of the arese plant. the unions said the end of engine production at the
facility would mean the loss of 800 jobs. all alfa romeo models can be bought with
a six-cylinder engine - the 147 156 156 sportwagon 166 gtv gt and spider.
lib dems highlight problem debt people vulnerable to problem debts should be
afforded greater protection from banks aggressively promoting financial products
the lib dems say. vincent cable says one in eight households already struggle with
debt and that will worsen if there is a hike in interest rates or unemployment. the
lib dems treasury spokesman is unveiling a policy aimed at the issue. he wants to
see proper health checks when loans are marketed so people know to take out
payment protection. were economic conditions to deteriorate at all large numbers
of people could be affected because they have borrowed to the limit mr cable told
bbc news. banks are very aggressively promoting debt in many cases there is a
bigger problem ahead. mr cable said the government s consumer credit bill would
target some of the extreme problems such as loan sharking but ministers had been
a bit complacent about the wider issue of debt levels. he said much of the payment
protection currently available was extremely expensive and there were lots of
exclusions . mr cable added that the office of fair trading should investigate the
market. lib dem leader charles kennedy meanwhile is in the middle of a tour of the
uk aimed at persuading voters his is the real opposition . mr kennedy is visiting
a mixture of rural seats where his party is hoping to make gains from the
conservatives and urban areas traditionally associated with labour. labour say a
lib dem vote could let the tories in while the tories say the lib dems would
mean higher taxes soft crime laws more power to europe . mr kennedy s tour comes
as he labour leader tony blair and conservative leader michael howard all step up
campaigning ahead of the next general election widely expected to be held on 5
may. the liberal democrats say in the northern cities the race is between them
and labour while in southern seats - particularly the south west - it is between
them and the tories. speaking to the bbc s westminster hour on sunday mr kennedy
said the upcoming general election - widely tipped for 5 may - would be much more
unpredictable than any others in recent experience . and he brushed off labour
suggestions a vote for his party would mean letting the tories in by the back door
. if you look at the four previous parliamentary by-elections the liberal
democrats have demonstrated that not only can we leapfrog the conservatives where
we start in a third place position but we can go on to defeat the government.
that s going to be the story i think of this coming general election.
blair to face trust issue head on tony blair says he will be facing the issue of
trust and his own integrity head on during the election campaign. during a
question and answer session with first-time voters on five news mr blair said he
had no option but to confront it by talking to people. he also dismissed claims
government plans to get 50% of young people into university would devalue degrees.
he was not forcing anyone to go to university but places should be there for
those who wanted them he said. in answer to a question from 22-year-old liverpool
student david dunne about concerns over the prime minister s personal integrity mr
blair said talking was the only answer. you ve just got to confront it and say to
people let s have a discussion on the things that worry you the things that make
you say i can t trust you or i am against you on this. the worst thing in
politics was that the electorate only got little snatches of policy from things
like prime minister s questions and the news headlines. this was why he wanted to
get out of the 30 seconds on the news he added. by talking through policies at
least people understood the reason for them even if they did not agree with them
he said. mr blair also faced questions about british policy on iran and its alleged
nuclear weapons programme. he insisted there was no plan for an invasion of the
country saying: sometimes people say because of what has happened in iraq this is
the next place. instead there was a real chance of a peaceful resolution to the
problem he said.
public show for reynolds portrait sir joshua reynolds portrait of omai will get a
public airing following fears it would stay hidden because of an export wrangle.
the tate gallery unsuccessfully tried to buy the picture from its anonymous owner
after a ban was issued preventing the painting from leaving the uk. the 18th
century painting has remained in storage but the owner has agreed to allow it to be
part of an exhibition. the exhibition of reynolds work will be shown at tate
britain from may. joshua reynolds: the creation of celebrity will feature prints
caricatures and sculpture by the 18th century artist who painted some of the most
famous personalities of his day. portrait of omai fetched the second highest amount
for a british painting when it was sold at auction for £10.3m in 2001. it was
bought by a london dealer who sold it on to a collector. the unnamed collector
wanted to take it out of the country but was barred from doing so by the
government because of its historical significance. in march 2004 the tate managed
to raise £12.5m funding to buy the portrait but the owner refused to sell and it
has been held in storage since. the portrait is of a young man who was dubbed the
noble savage when he arrived in london from polynesia. he became a darling of
london society and was invited to all the best parties by people who were
fascinated by such an exotic character. sir joshua painted him after his arrival in
1774 and it became the artist s most famous work after it was first exhibited at
the royal academy in 1776.
aragones angered by racism fine spain coach luis aragones is furious after being
fined by the spanish football federation for his comments about thierry henry. the
66-year-old criticised his 3000 euros (£2 060) punishment even though it was far
below the maximum penalty. i am not guilty nor do i accept being judged for
actions against the image of the sport he said. i m not a racist and i ve never
lacked sporting decorum. i ve never done that and i have medals for sporting merit.
aragones was handed the fine on tuesday after making racist remarks about henry to
arsenal team-mate and spanish international jose reyes last october. the spanish
football federation at first declined to take action against aragones but was then
requested to do so by spain s anti-violence commission. the fine was far less than
the expected amount of about £22 000 or even the suspension of his coaching
licence. arsenal boss arsene wenger who was fined £15 000 in december for accusing
manchester united striker ruud van nistelrooy of cheating believes that aragones
punishment was too lenient. you compare his fine and my fine and if you consider
his was for racist abuse then you seem to get away with it more in spain than you
should wenger said. he shouldn t have said what he said and how much money is
enough i don t know but it doesn t look a big punishment. however aragones
insists the fine is unjustified and unfair. i have been treated like islero (the
bull that killed famous bullfighter manolete) said aragones on hearing he had
been fined for his actions. i have not liked one thing about this whole affair and
i do not agree with the sanction. they have looked for a scapegoat. spain s anti-
violence commission must now ratify the spanish fa s decision and has until next
week to announce its verdict. aragones has 10 days to appeal and the commission
can also appeal. alberto flores president of the spanish fa s disciplinary
committee said no-one in the committee felt aragones was a racist nor had acted
in a racist way. a fine the highest we could apply is sufficient punishment.
suspension would have been a bit exaggerated flores told sports daily marca.
lost doors frontman movie found historians in florida have discovered a 40-year-old
clip of a clean-cut jim morrison appearing in a promotional film for his
university. the 1964 film shows the doors frontman who died aged 27 in 1971
playing the part of a young man who had been rejected by florida state university.
morrison is seen quizzing a college administrator on why he was refused. but what
happened how come my parents and the state and the university didn t look ahead
he is seen asking. it s incredible. he s so clean cut and soft-spoken said
florida state archivist jody norman. we know he was at florida state university
for a period of time and he did some acting when he was there norman added. the
doors were one of the most influential bands of the 1960s with hits including
light my fire and riders on the storm. morrison was notorious for his wild
lifestyle - and was accused of exposing himself and simulating a sex act at a miami
concert in 1969. he was found dead in the bath of his paris apartment and died from
heart problems aggravated by alcohol. a coroner recorded a verdict of death by
natural causes and his grave at the city s pere lachaise ceremony has become a
shrine for fans.
straw attacked on china arms moves to lift the european union s ban on arms exports
to china have been condemned by human rights groups and the conservatives. the 15
year embargo was imposed in the aftermath of china s crackdown on protesters in
tiananmen square in 1989. uk foreign secretary jack straw who will hold talks in
beijing on thursday said an eu arms code was more effective than the current ban.
but human rights watch says the eu is putting commerce above abuse concerns. in
december the eu pledged to work towards lifting the ban but said it was not ready
to do so yet. germany and france have repeatedly called for the embargo to be
lifted. britain has been more cautious but mr straw last week said he also wanted
it to end despite us objections. he expects it to be lifted over the next six
months a prediction which has alarmed critics. brad adams from human rights watch
said: this is a huge political signal from europe that they are willing to forget
about tiananmen square. there are still thousands of people who are unaccounted
for. mr straw said it was wrong to put china under the same embargo as countries
such as zimbabwe and burma. the scope of the embargo was very narrow and did not
have any force of law behind it he told bbc radio 4 s world at one. in the uk
more export licences were refused under the existing european union arms code than
under the embargo he said. and only two of the licences denied under the embargo
would have been granted under the code. the code of conduct is much more effective
it s a more powerful tool of and we intend to strengthen it as a pre-condition of
lifting the embargo with china he said. mr straw denied the decision would
suggest to china that tiananmen square had been forgotten. the level of human
rights was a key criteria under the eu arms exports code he said. human rights
groups say the code of conduct is not legally binding - but mr straw said it would
be given legal force by the laws of many eu countries. conservative shadow foreign
secretary michael ancram said the move would be profoundly wrong . the decision
could undermine nato as it severely damaged relations with the us which is opposed
to ending the ban. mr ancram argued: what the british government is doing is
giving in to french and german pressure especially the french who see vast
contracts available to them if the embargo is lifted... it gives the wrong signals
to china who are simply not prepared to accept that what happened at tiananmen
square was wrong. mr straw s china trip is part of regular high-level meetings
with beijing ministers. he will meet chinese counterpart minister li zhaoxing to
discuss developing relations between their two countries hong kong and china s
part in the talks on north korea.
chepkemei joins edinburgh line-up susan chepkemei has decided she is fit enough to
run in next month s great edinburgh international cross country. the kenyan was
initially unsure if she would have recovered from her gruelling tussle with paula
radcliffe in the new york marathon in time to compete. but she has declared herself
up to the task and joins a field headed by world cross country champion benita
johnson. race director matthew turnbull said: susan will add even more strength in
depth to the world-class line up. chepkemei who won the six kilometre event three
years ago when it was staged in newcastle endured an epic battle with radcliffe in
the big apple until the briton outsprinted her in the final 400m. tirunesh dibaba
of ethiopia will defend the title she won last year in tyneside - before the race
was moved north of the border. recently-crowned european cross country champion
briton hayley yelling also competes in edinburgh on 15 january as does in-form
scot kathy butler.
douglas set for indian adventure actor michael douglas is to co-produce and star in
an adventure film about a diamond robbery set in india. the new picture is
expected to be similar to douglas s action films of the 1980s romancing the stone
and the jewel of the nile. another hollywood star is being lined up to co-star
while the rest of the cast will be indian. aishwarya rai star of bride and
prejudice is the preferred choice of the indian studio involved in the film. on
a visit to india the 60-year-old actor said he hoped to start shooting racing the
monsoon next year. douglas added that it had been inspired by a wall street journal
article about india s angadias who courier money and diamonds around india. the
actor s own production company further films is working in partnership with two
indian film-making concerns to bring the picture to the screen. shailendra singh
the founder of india s percept films said there would be a lot of india in the
movie - and that an indian train would play a big role. the train will be a
crucial part of the film. the chase and most of the stunts will be on the train
said mr singh. swashbuckling adventure film romancing the stone saw douglas s
female co-star kathleen turner win a golden globe award for her performance in
1985.
ireland v usa (sat) saturday 20 november lansdowne road dublin 1300 gmt the
irish coach knows a repeat of the record 83-3 victory over the states in 2000 is
not on the agenda and expects a real test at lansdowne road. their coach tom
billups will have them very organised said o sullivan. they ran five tries past
the french in the summer so we will not take them for granted. we have guys coming
into the team who are chomping at the bit. the irish line-up shows nine changes
from the team which started against south africa with winger tommy bowe and flanker
denis leamy making their international debuts. the other changes see recalls for
backs david humphreys kevin maggs and guy easterby with eric miller marcus horan
donnacha o callaghan and frank sheehan all returning to the pack. o sullivan said
the players coming in had the opportunity to stake claims for inclusion against
argentina on 27 november. easterby gets a rare start at scrum-half while humphreys
now effectively ronan o gara s deputy at fly-half wins his 65th cap. we have got
to get the focus right on the day said ulster man humphreys. the us may be
classed as weaker opposition but we will treat them with the respect they deserve.
the states lost 39-31 against france in their last international and are ranked
16th in world rugby. the americans have made three changes plus one positional
switch from the game in july against the french. lock alec parker blind-side
flanker brian surgener and right wing al lakomskis return and captain kort schubert
of the cardiff blues shifts to number eight. schubert is the only eagles player
remaining from the sides meeting four years ago. g murphy; s horgan b o driscoll
(capt) k maggs t bowe; d humphreys g easterby; m horan. f sheahan j hayes d o
callaghan p o connell s easterby d leamy e miller. s byrne s best l cullen
a foley p stringer r o gara g dempsey. viljoen; lakomskis emerick sika fee
hercus timoteo; macdonald wyatt waasdorp parker klerck surgener petruzzella
schubert (capt). hobson osentowski gouws mo unga williams sherman tuipulotu.
navratilova hits out at critics martina navratilova has defended her decision to
prolong her tennis career at the age of 48. navratilova who made a comeback after
retiring in 1994 will play doubles and mixed doubles events in 2005. women s
tennis is really strong she said dismissing suggestions that the fact she could
still win reflected badly on the women s game. all i can say is i m that damn
good. i m sorry but i really have to blow my own horn here. i m still that good.
navratilova has won three grand slam mixed doubles titles since she came out of
retirement. and she was so encouraged by her form that she decided to resume
playing singles winning two of her seven matches. she was knocked out in the first
round of the french open but reached the second round at wimbledon. navratilova
will partner nathalie dechy in the doubles event at the uncle toby s hardcourts
tournament on australia s gold coast which begins on sunday. she will then link up
with daniela hantuchova for the australian open doubles and play in the mixed
doubles with leander paes. i might be playing some singles events this season
depending on the surface she added.
actor scott is new bond favourite bookmaker william hill has stopped taking bets on
who will be the next james bond following a succession of large wagers on actor
dougray scott. the firm closed the book on friday saying insider information
could have contributed to the number of bets. in the past gambles like this have
often been right william hill spokesman rupert adams said. the closing list gave
scott odds of 6-9 followed by oscar nominee clive owen at 5-2. scott first found
fame in the tv series soldier soldier and has since then starred in such films as
mission impossible ii and the wartime drama enigma. mr adams said one punter had
placed a bet of £870 on the 39-year-old actor at odds of 8-1. she told us she had
some inside information perhaps she knew he had been to a casting but she wouldn
t say he said. others thought to be in the running include star wars actor ewan
mcgregor and australian star hugh jackman both of whom have odds of 4-1. colin
farrell jude law and troy star eric bana have also been tipped for the role in the
past. a large number of bets on actor colin salmon to become the first black james
bond were dismissed as a publicity stunt a month ago. the next bond film
originally due for release in 2005 has been delayed until 2006 due to sony s
takeover of the mgm studio. the most recent die another day was released in late
2002 and saw pierce brosnan make his final appearance as the secret agent. the
actor was originally due to make a fifth appearance as bond but was released from
his contract in 2004.
hewitt falls to dent in adelaide lleyton hewitt suffered a shock defeat to taylor
dent in the quarter-finals of the australian hardcourt championships in adelaide on
friday. the top seed was a strong favourite for the title but went down 7-6 (7-4)
6-3 to the american. dent will face juan ignacio chela next after the fourth seed
was too strong for jurgen melzer. olivier rochus beat third seed nicolas kiefer 6-7
(4-7) 7-6 (8-6) 7-5 and will take on second seed joachim johansson. the swede
reached the last four by beating compatriot thomas enqvist 6-3 4-6 6-1. i felt
like i was striking the ball much better said johansson. i felt like i had a
lot of break chances i didn t take care of them all but i broke him four times
and he only broke me once. i felt that was the key to get up in the set early.
hewitt played down his defeat and insisted he is focused solely on the australian
open which starts on 17 january. when you ve been number one in the world for a
couple of years and won a couple of slams you look at the big picture and what
motivates you said hewitt. that s the grand slams and melbourne s as big for me
as any of the four. even if i don t win sydney next week it s no big deal.
new rules tackle sham weddings new rules on marriage for foreign nationals living
in the uk are coming into force. from tuesday most non-eu citizens will need home
office approval to marry. the home office says the new rules are aimed at reducing
the number of sham marriages of which there are estimated to be up to 15 000 a
year. but immigrants group the joint council for the welfare of immigrants (jcwi)
says the rules breach human rights law and it may mount a legal challenge. when the
changes were unveiled last year immigration minister des browne said: our aim is
to avoid unnecessary disruption of genuine marriages while providing firm controls
to prevent abuse. under the previous regulations anybody wishing to get married in
the uk only had to produce evidence they had been resident in the country for a
week and give 15 days notice of the wedding at the local register office. but from
tuesday all non-eu nationals apart from citizens of switzerland liechtenstein
iceland or norway intending to wed in the uk must either obtain a visa allowing
them to get married before they enter the country or apply for a home office
certificate of marriage approval . to get a certificate costing £135 applicants
will have to send proof that they have a legal right to be in the uk. those without
a settled status such as asylum seekers awaiting a decision on their application
will have no right to marry in the uk. once they have the necessary documentation
those subject to immigration controls wishing to get married in england or wales
must register their intention to marry at one of 76 specially-designated register
offices. they can however marry at the register office or church of their choice.
rhian beynon of the jcwi said the new rules were not proportionate and
discriminatory . these rules means in some cases the home secretary is going to
be a marriage registrar of last resort. we re currently taking a legal opinion on
this. we ll be looking for people whose right to marry is breached and we ll be
looking at taking a case on this to the human rights court ms beynon said. the
new rules have also been called into question by the parliamentary joint committee
on human rights. in a report published last july the cross-party committee stated
there was a significant risk the new procedures were incompatible with the right
to marry because they introduced restrictions which were disproportionate . the
committee believed the new laws might be incompatible with the human rights act on
the grounds of religion belief and nationality the report added. over the last
year immigration service operations against marriages of convenience have been
stepped up resulting in a growing number of convictions. in january 25 people who
took part in a sham marriage network based in leicester were jailed for a total of
35 years. and last november samuel amoah a belgian national who set up two sham
weddings for couples who wanted to remain in the uk was jailed for three years.
several other cases are currently going through the courts. the role of registrars
who under the asylum and immigration act 1999 were obliged to report suspected sham
marriages to the home office has been key in many prosecutions. registrars
spokesman mark rimmer said they welcomed the new marriage regulations and
believed they would be an significant deterrent. they will effectively remove most
of the blatant cases. certainly those who are illegals in this country of which we
had quite a few will no longer be getting married mr rimmer said. mr rimmer the
service director for registrations of marriages at brent council in north-west
london said he did not consider the new law to be an infringement of civil
liberties. it may be seen to be far more draconian than it has been but certainly
it s still not as difficult to marry in the uk than it is to marry for example in
holland germany or france. i think it s a proportionate response by government to
what was a very large problem mr rimmer said.
mps assess scots fishing industry a group of mps are on a two-day fact-finding
mission to scotland to gather evidence for a report into the uk s fishing industry.
members of westminster s environment food and rural affairs committee will be
touring fish markets and talking to fish processors. they will also talk to
fisheries minister ross finnie and scientists. mps are deciding whether to
recommend a new system of community quotas to conserve fish stocks. the aim is
that fishing ports like peterhead or fraserburgh would be allocated a quota and
local people would decide how to fish it. the scheme is a variation on the local
management committees already being established by the european union. details are
contained in a royal commission report for the uk government along with the more
controversial idea of closing some mixed fishing grounds completely. six members of
the committee will be in scotland to seek views from fishermen and processors in
aberdeen and peterhead. they will also speak to mr finnie representatives of the
royal society and the sea fish industry authority. committee chairman austin
mitchell said some way has to be found of harvesting mixed fisheries without
wasting stocks.
ray dvd beats box office takings oscar-nominated film biopic ray has surpassed its
us box office takings with a combined tally of $80m (£43m) from dvd and video sales
and rentals. ray s success on dvd outstripped its $74m (£40m) us box office total
earning more than $40m (£22m) on the first day of the dvd s release alone. ray has
been nominated in six oscar categories including best film and best actor for jamie
foxx. the film recounts the life of blues singer ray charles who died in 2004. in
its first week on home entertainment release the film was the number one selling
dvd with the limited edition version coming in at number 11. sony horror film the
grudge starring michelle gellar was the us second best-selling dvd with
jennifer lopez and richard gere s romantic comedy shall we dance at number three.
foxx s critically acclaimed performance as ray has already earned him a screen
actors guild award for best actor as well as a prestigious golden globe. ray
director taylor hackford responsible for the classic 1982 film an officer and a
gentleman has also received an oscar nomination in the best director category. the
film s three other oscar nominations are for costume film editing and sound
mixing.
world tour for top video gamers two uk gamers are about to embark on a world tour
as part of the most lucrative-ever global games tournament. aaron foster and david
treacy have won the right to take part in a tournament offering $1m in total prize
money. the cash will be handed out over 10 separate competitions in a continent-
hopping contest organised by the cyberathlete professional league. as part of their
prize the pair will have their travel costs paid to ensure they can get to the
different bouts. the cpl world tour kicks off in mid-february and the first leg
will be in istanbul. all ten bouts of the tournament will be played throughout 2005
each one in a different country. at each stop $50 000 in prize money will be up for
grabs. the tournament champion for each leg of the cpl world tour will walk away
with a $15 000 prize. the winner of the grand final will get a prize purse of $150
000 from a total pot of $500 000. winners of each stage of the tour automatically
get a place at the next stop. the world tour stops are open to any keen gamer that
registers. online registration for the first stop opens this weekend. some pro-
players are winning a spot at the tour destinations through qualifying events
organised by cpl partners. winners at these qualifiers get seeded higher in the
elimination parts of each tournament. mr foster and mr treacy get the chance to
attend the world tour as members of the uk s four-kings gaming clan. towards the
end of 2004 four-kings staged a series of online painkiller competitions to reveal
the uk s top players of the pc game. the best eight players met face-to-face in a
special elimination event in late december where mr foster and mr tracey proved
their prowess at painkiller. as part of their prize the pair also get a contract
with four-kings intel which is one of the uk s few pro-gaming teams. there are a
lot of people who take gaming very seriously and support their local or national
team with the same passion as any other sport said simon bysshe who filmed the
event for four-kings and intel. more than 80 000 people have downloaded the movie
of the tournament highlights. professional gaming is here to stay and will only
grow in popularity he said.
gardener battles to narrow win jason gardener fought all the way to the line to
narrowly claim the men s 60m title at the norwich union indoor trials and aaas
championships. the world 60m champion got off to a rolling start and had to dig
deep to dip ahead of mark findlay and darren chin who both set personal bests. it
was a close race admitted gardener. i stumbled out the blocks but my experience
told through. i still feel there s more life in me and i believe i can go faster.
gardener s performance in sheffield could have been affected by the news which he
heard before his semi-final that his european record had been broken frenchman
ronald pognon who will be a real threat at the european championships set a new
time of 6.45 one-hundreth of a second faster than gardener s previous mark.
favourite delivered a powerful performance to take the women s 60m title in 7.27
seconds. you ll see me in madrid and i feel there is a lot more to come along
said the 22-year-old. katherine endacott battled hard to take second and dip under
the european qualifying mark. defending champion joice maduaka had pulled out of
the final with a chest infection. was on record-breaking form as she stormed to
the women s 60m hurdles crown. the 25-year-old set a new british record for the
second time in seven days clocking 7.96 seconds to finish ahead of rival diane
allahgreen. i m so happy a tearful claxton told bbc sport. all the years i ve
been running and i m getting recognition. claxton s time was also good enough to
qualify for the european championships. the men s 800m went to form in sheffield
as dominated the race from start to finish. the northern ireland athlete went off
at a startling pace but had to hold off the challenge of welshman jimmy watkins
over the final 200m to win in one minute 47.96 seconds. both mcilory and watkins
who set a life-time best of 1:48.32 had already booked their places in madrid and
were again well within the qualifying time. i had to go out and go through all the
gears before the europeans and i won t run again until then said mcilroy. could
not reach the european mark in the women s race as she crossed the line to win in
2:04.45. olympic bronze heptathlon medallist rounded off a useful weekend with two
more personal bests in sheffield. the 28-year-old reached 1.80m in the high jump
and clocked 8.47secs in the heats of the 60m hurdles. i ve surprised myself said
sotherton. i m starting to thrive on the pressure but if i don t perform then it s
not the end of the world. pole vaulter made a winning return to major competition
after a drugs ban. the trafford athlete who has served a two-year ban after
testing positive for anabolic steroids clinched the title with a championship
record 4.25m. also set a new championship mark in the men s triple jump title in
sheffield. the 26-year-old who has been training in australia over the winter
landed 17.30m with his final effort - the longest leap in the world this year. i
didn t have a clue said idowu. i ve not jumped indoors before and i just wanted
the qualifying mark. but this isn t a bad start and hopefully i ll come back from
madrid with a gold medal. nathan douglas continued his steady progress this season
as he set a life-time best of 16.76m in second while jonathan moore took third.
and resumed their rivalry in the long jump competition both achieving the
european standard. commonwealth champion morgan reached a personal best of 7.96m on
his very first jump and then promptly retired with a bruised heel. olympian
tomlinson tried to play catch up with his six jumps but had to settle for a season
s best jump of 7.91m. i was advised not to jump by my doctor and so i m pleased to
come here and get the qualifying mark said tomlinson. now based at
loughborough sprinted past front runner catherine murphy in the final 100m to
steal the women s 400m title. the 21-year-old ran a personal best of 53.45 seconds
to win her first indoor title. wall s time was just short of the qualifying mark -
something murphy already has. ireland s took the men s title in 46.46 ahead of
promising channel islands decathlete dale garland. sudanese 18-year-old rabah yusuf
who is seeking british citizenship showed his raw talent as he burst through in
third. cleared the required 1.90m to qualify for the european championships and
claim the aaas title in the women s high jump. in the men s 3 000m powered to a
new personal best of seven minutes 56.86 seconds to defend his aaas title in
style. it was the first time in 11 years the eight-minute barrier has been broken
at the championships and was just within the european mark. took the women s 1500m
aaas title in the absence of kelly holmes. her time of 4:19.11 was not good enough
to qualify for madrid but ovens had already opted out of the championships. the men
s race was won by who had to fight off a closing pack to claim the title in
3:45.87.
no-one can define new hunt ban the new law banning hunting with dogs is so poorly
drafted no-one can define the offence pro-hunt mps say. the accusation came
after it emerged a devon man had been told he could use his four dogs to chase
away unwanted animals from his farm. because he did not intend to kill deer or
foxes it was not hunting. lib dem mp lembit opik said ministers had invented a new
category of hunting - chasing away - and asked how police were supposed to
interpret the rules. north devon landowner giles bradshaw was put in touch with
the middle way group of which mr opik is a co-chairman after he had been in
contact with the rural affairs ministry defra. he had asked whether his technique
of using his four dogs to frighten off deer and foxes would be outlawed under the
hunting act. mr bradshaw was initially told it was an offence - prompting him to
complain. the middle way group also said mr bradshaw would be put in a position
where he would have to buy a rifle to shoot animals that would have previously gone
free. in a later conversation mr bradshaw was told that according to defra s
lawyers chasing away unwanted animals was not in fact hunting as described in the
hunting act 2004 therefore you would not be committing an offence . mr opik said:
hunting with dogs and flushing are not defined in the hunting act. now defra have
also invented a completely new category of hunting - chasing away which isn t
even covered by the act. however all these activities involve the use of dogs to
chase wild mammals. how is the village bobby who sees a group of people with dogs
supposed to distinguish between illegal hunting exempt hunting drag hunting
unintentional hunting a hunt exercising hounds or simply chasing away tory mp
peter luff another co-chairman of middle way said that the legislation was so
poorly drafted nobody appears able to properly define the offence . it is no
wonder the government desperately wants to move on from this disastrous law.
however i seriously doubt the countryside will be that accommodating. mike hobday
of the league against cruel sports said: there is no confusion it is a matter of
simple common sense. if mr bradshaw is setting his dogs to chase wild animals then
he is hunting them and that will be a criminal offence. if all the dogs are doing
is barking at the deer then nobody can define that as hunting.
eu-us seeking deal on air dispute the eu and us have agreed to begin talks on
ending subsidies given to aircraft makers eu trade commissioner peter mandelson
has announced. both sides hope to reach a negotiated deal over state aid received
by european aircraft maker airbus and its us rival boeing mr mandelson said.
airbus and boeing accuse each other of benefiting from illegal subsidies. mr
mandelson said the eu and us hoped to avoid having to resolve the dispute at the
world trade organisation (wto). with this agreement the eu and us have confirmed
their willingness to resolve the dispute which has arisen between them mr
mandelson said. i hope our negotiations in the next three months will lead to an
agreement ending subsidies to development and production of large civil aircraft.
last year the us terminated an agreement with the eu reached in 1992 which
limits the subsidies countries can hand over to civil aircraft makers. the us filed
a complaint against brussels with the wto over state aid to airbus prompting a
retaliatory eu complaint over us support for boeing. however both sides agreed to
suspend their requests for wto arbitration at the beginning of december to allow
bilateral talks to continue. eads and bae systems the european defence and
aerospace firms which own airbus welcomed mr mandelson s announcement. it has
always been preferable that any differences between the us and europe on this
matter be overcome through constructive discussion rather than through legal
recourse the companies said in a joint statement. separately the world s
largest package delivery company ups said it had placed an order for 10 airbus
a380 superjumbo freight-carrying jets with an option to buy 10 more of the triple-
decker aircraft. the us company said it needed to expand its air freight capacity
following strong international growth and would begin receiving deliveries of the
a380s from 2009. however ups said it was cutting a previous order for smaller
airbus a300s from 90 planes to 53. so far airbus has delivered 40 a300s to ups.
airbus overtook boeing as the world s largest manufacturer of commercial airliners
in 2003.
fox too reliant on reality tv the head of us tv network fox has admitted the
broadcaster had relied too heavily on reality tv shows such as the poor-rating who
s your daddy. chief executive gail berman said in the case of this fall we
drifted to too much on the unscripted side . the series who s your daddy where a
young woman tries to pick her natural father for a cash prize caused outrage from
adoption groups and rated badly. last season fox s prime-time audience fell by 600
000 to 5.9 million. ms berman said: i think the audience expects loud things from
fox. sometimes they work and sometimes they don t. who s your daddy the first
episode of which was shown on 3 january pulled in a disappointing audience of 6.3
million according to the nielsen ratings system. five other episodes of the show
had also been filmed will be dropped from fox s schedules ms berman said. she was
predicting a drop in ratings even for some of the network s established reality
shows such as american idol which is due to start its fourth series this week.
fox had unveiled a new strategy last year promising to launch new shows every
season including the traditionally quiet summer season. though that had met with a
poor reception ms berman said there s no question that the audience in our mind
is ready willing and able to accept new programming in the summer . fox has
changed this plan launching new shows in may instead of june. one of the new shows
will be the animated series american dad made by seth macfarlane the creator of
family guy. that series after becoming a hit on dvd is also set to return with
new episodes.
learning to love broadband we are reaching the point where broadband is a central
part of daily life at least for some argues technology analyst bill thompson.
one of the nice things about being a writer is that i rarely have to go to an
office to work. i can sit in a café or a library with or without a wi-fi
connection and research and write articles. if i am passing through kings cross
station on my way to a meeting then i can log on from the platform. and i can spend
the day working with my girlfriend anne a children s writer at her house in
cambridge sharing her wireless network. but just over a week ago i arrived at her
house to find that there was no network connection. we checked the cable modem and
noticed that it had no power and when she changed the power lead it sparked at her
in a way which made it abundantly clear that it was never going to talk to the
internet again. she called her service provider and they told her it would be five
days before an engineer would show up with a new cable modem. this did not seem too
bad but in fact she really suffered until her connection was restored on
wednesday. with no modem installed in her computer she had to borrow internet
access from friends or use the dial-up connection on her daughter s laptop so she
had to choose between copying her files onto her usb memory card or accepting a
slower and flakier net connection. as a result she did not submit the pictures she
wanted to use for a book on earthquakes because they were too big to send over
dial-up. she could not research other material because she is used to having easy
access to a fast link that lets her search quickly and effectively. but the impact
spread into her personal life too. she did not take her children to the cinema
during half-term because she could not find out which films were showing at the
local cinemas. she planned a trip to norfolk but did not check the weather because
the only place she knows to look for weather information is the bbc website. and
she did not know where to go fossil-hunting on the trip because she could not type
fossils norfolk into google. of course she readily admits she could have
answered these questions if she had looked in the local paper listened to the
radio or found a book on fossils. but she did not because having fast always on
and easy access to the net has become part of the routine of her daily life and
when it was taken away it was too much effort to go back to the old ways of doing
things. she may be unusual but i do not think anne is alone. according to ofcom
there were almost four million broadband users in the uk in april 2004 and numbers
are climbing fast. there will certainly be five million by the end of the year.
dial-up users are switching to broadband. my dad finally made the change earlier
this month and new net users are selecting broadband from the start. more and more
of these broadband users are beginning to mould their daily lives around the
availability of broadband internet connections and they too will find it difficult
to cope if they cannot get online for any reason. it is part of the process of
adaptation and it is a vital step in the growth of broadband in the uk and
elsewhere. people who have integrated net access into their daily lives tell their
friends about it and show off the cool stuff they can do. they encourage other
people to get broadband so that they can share digital photos and do all of the
other things that need fast and reliable connectivity. of course broadband in the
uk is laughably slow compared to other parts of the world. in south korea japan
and hong kong normal connection speeds are measured in megabits or millions of
bits a second rather than the thousands that we are supposed to be happy with. but
speed is only a small part of the attraction of broadband and when it comes to
checking websites for film times looking at weather forecasts or all of the other
small things that make a real difference to the routines and habits of our daily
lives even uk speeds are sufficient. it may not be the brave new world of
streaming full-screen video and superfast file downloads but it will do for now.
and it is certainly better than slow access or no access. just ask anne. bill
thompson is a regular commentator on the bbc world service programme go digital.
all black magic: new zealand rugby playing colours: all black the haka and more!
the all blacks charles john munro discovered rugby at london s christ college and
on his return to nelson he staged new zealand s first game. nelson town met nelson
college on 14 may 1870 the town triumphing by two goals to nil instigating a
game that would become a national obsession and come to dominate the country s
sporting passions. the game appealed to the kiwi psyche and quickly spread the
native maoris finding a particular empathy with the sport s warrior ethos. in 1888
a british team led by ae stoddart toured new zealand and australia and soon after
a maori named joe warbrick and an english ex-pat called thomas eyton decided to
gather a combined new zealand team. twenty-two maori and four pakiha formed the
new zealand native team who played a total of 107 matches in new zealand
australia and the uk. the integration of white and maori was a reflecion of
enlightened new zealand rugby and society even if the british press were somewhat
mystified by the pre-match tradition of the maori war dance the haka! the other
great symbol of new zealand rugby the all black kit with the silver fern on the
breast was proposed by tom ellison at the first annual meeting of the new zealand
rugby football union in 1893. new zealand played their first international against
australia in 1903 the kiwis triumphing 22-3 in sydney and the following year an
official british touring team came to new zealand for the first time. the tourists
had gone through australia undefeated but their captain david revell bedell-
sivright created animosity in new zealand with his patronising attitude. the kiwis
shocked the rugby world with a 9-3 triumph in wellington sparking great
celebrations across the country but bedell-sivright churlishly suggested that the
victors would have no chance when they visited the uk. their opportunity to prove
him wrong came in 1905 with the first official new zealand tour to europe. the
tourists won their early games with a quick-thinking inventive approach but press
criticism began to grow over their 2-3-2 scrum formation that left a roving
forward free to disrupt opposition attacks. the tactic was effective two late
tries seeing the kiwis to a 12-7 win over scotland before ireland were despatched
15-0 in dublin. a huge crowd at crystal palace convulsed with laughter at the sight
of the haka - but the smiles were soon wiped from their faces when the tourists ran
in five tries in a 15-0 hammering of england. new zealand headed to wales to meet a
country in the midst of its first golden age and the encounter would be the
first in a series of controversial clashes between the sides. an excellent try on
the left wing by teddy morgan sealed a 3-0 win in a hard-fought encounter at
cardiff arms park but post-match talk was dominated by a bob deans try that was
ruled out by scottish referee john dallas. dallas said that deans was tackled short
but the kiwi said he was dragged back into the field of play after grounding a try
- on his death-bed three years later he exclaimed: i did score that try in
cardiff. four of the 1905 all blacks went over to the newly formed all golds
rugby league side soon after the tour but new zealand were strong enough to crush
an anglo-welsh touring team in 1908. the first south africa tour of new zealand in
1921 saw honours shared in a three-test series starting the greatest rivalry in
rugby - and the long-running controversy between the countries over the all blacks
inclusion of maori players. the awesome 1924-5 all black tourists became known as
the invincibles after winning all 30 of their games in france britain and ireland
including a crushing 19-0 victory over wales at st helen s. despite their success
the all blacks 2-3-2 scrum formation left them somewhat short of possession at
times and the flaws were exploited by the springboks in south africa in 1928.
employing the modern 3-4-1 scrum line-up against the new zealand rover system for
the first time south african teams defeated the all blacks in five games and the
test series was drawn two-all. the controversial new zealand scrum method finally
disappeared after the 1930 lions tour (a series won 3-1 by new zealand) the lions
manager describing the tactic as cheating prompting the international rugby
board to rule that three men had to pack down in the front row of the scrum. the
all blacks 1935 european tour started inauspiciously with an 11-3 loss to a
swansea side inspired by teenage schoolboy half-backs hayden tanner and willie
davies. a thrilling test at cardiff arms park went to wales 13-12 although the
winning try from geoffrey rees-jones was controversial following an illegal claude
davey tackle in the build-up. new zealand s next visit to wales in 1953 proved
difficult as they lost 8-3 to cardiff and drew 6-6 at swansea. the all blacks were
on top in the test with wales at the arms park but the teams were locked at 8-8
when a clem thomas cross kick was gathered by ken jones for a famous match-winning
try. the tourists made some amends with wins over the other home nations before a
19-5 success over the barbarians in an arms park thriller. new zealand built from
that tour and by the time they returned in 1963-4 they were undoubtedly the
leading side in the world. that made the shock all the greater when a drop goal by
student john uzzell gave newport an unlikely 3-0 win over the tourists at rodney
parade. wilson whinneray s side rallied to beat wales 6-0 their first win at the
arms park in four attempts and went unbeaten through the rest of the tour but
when they returned home the first question put to them was: what happened in
newport the only blemish on the record of the awesome 1967 tourists was a draw
with east wales as they beat the full wales team 13-6 in cardiff to take the lead
in the series between the countries for the first time. that lead was increased
with two comfortable wins for the home side in new zealand in 1969 the first time
wales had toured the country as an independent team. a ferocious game at the arms
park in 1972 was edged 19-16 by the all blacks a measure of revenge for the defeat
inflicted on new zealand by the carwyn james-inspired lions of 1971. james guided
llanelli to a famous 9-3 win over the tourists at stradey park though and in the
final game of the tour the barbarians defeated the all blacks 23-11 in cardiff in a
game regarded by many as the greatest ever played. new zealand defeated a wales xv
12-3 at the arms park in a non-cap game in 1974 but it was the 1978 game in
cardiff that would reignite the history of controversy between the two countries.
wales were leading 12-10 with one minute left when andy haden flew to the floor
from a line-out. television pictures clearly showed that he dived but english
referee roger quittenton was fooled and awarded a penalty duly converted by brian
mckechnie for a 13-12 win. since that infamous game the competition has largely
left wales v new zealand fixtures as the men in red have slipped from the pinnacle
of the world game. a crushing 23-3 win for new zealand in cardiff in the welsh
rugby union s 1980 centenary game was a sign of things to come. the new
professionalism in the southern hemisphere game that had left europe behind was
shown as the all blacks swatted wales aside 49-6 in brisbane in the semi-final of
the inaugural world cup. the kiwis went on to claim the cup and would inflict
further misery on wales on their ill-fated 1988 tour of new zealand. a young
talented wales side left britain full of confidence as triple crown winners but
one of the greatest ever new zealand teams demolished them 52-3 and 54-9. after
also taking some fearful beatings in the provincial games wales captain jonathan
davies returned home calling for urgent change in the national game but as his
views were ignored he - along with a generation of wales best players - chose to
head north to rugby league. a 34-9 win in cardiff followed for new zealand in 1989
and at the 1995 world cup wales big talk was made to look embarrassing as the all
blacks eased to victory in johannesburg. a crushing 42-7 kiwi triumph in wembley
followed in 1997 and as wales misery increased they turned to new zealand for
their salvation in the shape of coaches graham henry and steve hansen. there was a
temporary resurgence in the welsh game but when an experimental new zealand side
came to cardiff s new millennium stadium in 2002 they left with a 43-17 victory. a
bruising 55-3 defeat followed for wales in hamilton in 2003 as hansen built towards
the world cup but in australia it was a remarkable performance against the all
blacks that gave his side renewed hope. wales were given no chance going into the
game but in the course of the match they rediscovered the value of attacking flair
to lead 37-33 early in the second half. new zealand rallied to a 53-37 win but the
style shown by wales has been used as an inspiration as they look to a better
future. they now face an all blacks team led by henry and hansen coming to europe
with a weakened squad at the end of a long season. an encouraging display against
south africa has inspired a confident wales camp to believe they can claim their
first win over the men in black for over 50 years. they have a chance but clearly
history is not on their side.
tv s future down the phone line internet tv has been talked about since the start
of the web as we know it now. but any early attempts to do it - the uk s home
choice started in 1992 - were thwarted by the lack of a fast network. now that
broadband networks are bedding down and it is becoming essential for millions the
big telcos are keen to start shooting video down the line. in the face of
competition from cable companies offering net voice calls they are keen to be the
top iptv dogs. software giant microsoft thinks iptv - internet protocol tv - is the
future of television and it sits neatly with its vision of the connected
entertainment experience . telcos have been wanting to do video for a long time
ed graczyk director of marketing for microsoft iptv told the bbc news website.
the challenge has been the broadband network and the state of technology up until
not so long ago did not add up to a feasible solution. compression technology was
not efficient enough the net was not good enough. a lot of stars have aligned in
the last 18 months to make it a reality. last year he said was all about deal
making and partnering up; shaping the iptv ecosystem . this year those deals will
start to play out and more services will come online. 2006 is where it starts
ramping up and expanding to other geographies - over time as broadband becomes more
prevalent in south america and other parts of asia it will expand he added.
what telcos really want to do is to send the triple-play of video voice and
data down one single line be it cable or dsl (digital subscriber line). some are
talking about quadruple play too with mobile services added into the mix. it is
an emerging new breed of competition for satellite and cable broadcasters and
operators. according to technology analysts tdg research there will be 20 million
subscribers to iptv services in under six years. key to the appeal of sending tv
programmes down the same line as the web data whenever a viewer wants it is that
it uses the same technology as the internet. it means there is not just a one-way
relationship between the viewer and the broadcaster . this allows for more dvd-
like interactivity limitless storage and broadcast space bespoke channel
playlists and thousands of hours of programmes or films at a viewer s fingertips.
it potentially lets operators target programmes to smaller niche or localised
audiences sending films to bollywood fans for instance as well as individual
devices. operators could also send high-definition programmes straight to the
viewer bypassing the need for a special broadcast receiver. perhaps most
compelling - yet some might say insignificant - is instantaneous channel flicking.
currently there is a delay when you try to do this on satellite cable or
freeview. with iptv the speed is 15 milliseconds. that gets rounds of applause
according to mr graczyk. microsoft is one of the companies that started thinking
about iptv some time ago. we believe this will be the way all tv is delivered in
the future - but that is several years away said mr graczyk. as with music tv
has moved to digital formats. the things software can do to integrate media into
devices means a whole new generation of connected entertainment experiences that
cross devices from the tv to the mobile to the gaming console and so on. the
company intends its microsoft s iptv edition software an end-to-end management and
delivery platform to let telcos to do exactly that seamlessly. it has netted
seven major telcos as customers representing a potential audience of 25 million
existing broadband subscribers. its deal with us telco sbc was the largest tv
software deal to date said mr graczyk. iptv is about more than telcos though.
there are several web-based offerings that aim to put control in the hands of the
consumer by exploiting the net s power. jeremy allaire chief of brightcove told
the bbc news website that it would be a flavour of iptv that was about harnessing
the web as a channel . it is not just niches but about exploiting content not
usually viewed he said. we are focussed on the owners of video content who have
rights to digitally distribute content and who often see unencumbered
distribution. for them to do it through cable and so on is price-prohibitive he
said. this type of iptv service might also be a distribution channel for more
established publishers who have unique types of content that they cannot offer
through cable and satellite operators - history channel archives for instance.
what is a clear sign that iptv has a future is that microsoft is not the only
player in the field. there are a lot of other middleware players providing
similar management services as microsoft like myrio and c-cor. but it will up to
the viewer to decide if it really is to be successful.
france v wales (sat) stade de france paris saturday 26 february 1600 gmt bbc1
radio 4 lw and this website france may have beaten scotland and england but they
were tedious and uninspired throughout both matches. wales on the other hand have
played some fine rugby and have made their best start since they last won the title
in 1994. they also have a good record at the stade de france having won their
first two games there in 1999 and 2001. wales have made two changes from the team
that thrashed italy 38-8 in rome. kevin morgan takes over from his injured
newport-gwent dragons colleague hal luscombe on the right wing. in the pack neath-
swansea ospreys forward ryan jones bas been brought on the blind-side flank to beef
up the wales back row in place of jonathan thomas. wales coach mike ruddock is
determined that his team will not go into their shells after their promising start
to the championship. graham henry (former wales coach) said a couple of years ago
that we should be bold when going to france and he was proved right said
ruddock. that is a great way to approach the game and something we will further
endorse with the players this week. despite their stuttering displays in their
first two games defending champions france are also unbeaten. under-pressure coach
bernard laporte has made four changes with yannick nyanga the debutant julien
laharrague aurelien rougerie and yannick jauzion coming into the side. france have
been criticised for the absence of traditional french flair as they have ground
their way to victory so far this year but captain fabien pelous sees hope on the
horizon. i get the impression we are getting better he said. against wales
which is different from the teams we have beaten i hope we can show our proper
game. j laharrague; a rougerie y jauzion d traille c dominici; y delaigue d
yachvili; s marconnet s bruno n mas; f pelous (capt) j thion; s betsen y nyanga
j bonnaire (bourgoin). w servat o milloud g lamboley i harinordoquy p mignoni
f michalak j-p grandclaude. g thomas (capt); k morgan t shanklin g henson s
williams; s jones d peel; g jenkins m davies a jones; b cockbain r sidoli; r
jones m williams m owen. r mcbryde j yapp j thomas r sowden-taylor g cooper
c sweeney r williams.
tv show unites angolan families angolan families who are attempting to track each
other down after being separated by nearly 30 years of war are succeeding thanks
to a hugely popular tv show. meeting point has become one of tv angola s most
watched programmes and has reunited hundreds of families. it runs daily not only
on the television but also on the radio. every friday hundreds of people gather in
luanda s independence square to record a message in front of the tv cameras in the
hope that a lost relative will see it. many relatives have been reunited on air.
at the beginning there was an absolute explosion - huge huge crowds sergio gera
the programme s chief co-ordinator told bbc world service s assignment programme.
now things are a little calmer there are slightly less people - but after two and
a half years of broadcasting there are still a lot of people going. the media in
the southern african country twice the size of france has been gripped by the
quest of so many people to find their relatives. hundreds of thousands of people
died in angola s 30-year civil war which finally ended in 2002 and tens of
thousands of people are still missing. many have not heard anything for 10 or more
years - in all 90% of angolan families have lost someone. the idea of recording
in independence square was modelled on a square in the argentine capital buenos
aries where mothers go to talk about the dead and the missing and to exchange
news. one woman victoria lapete found her sister - the only remaining member of
her family - in independence square live on meeting point. she had not seen her
sibling for 28 years. when we saw each other we threw ourselves into each other s
arms she told assignment. we started to cry. i felt very very happy because i
d spent so long without any family. suddenly i had a sister again. however angola
is one of the poorest countries in africa and the number of people with access to
either a television or radio is comparatively few. this means that elsewhere in the
country the task of reuniting families lies primarily with the international
committee of the red cross (icrc). in the city of wambo the icrc runs the gazetta
- a 200-page tabloid-size book which contains 13 000 names of missing or
displaced. their task is made much harder by the huge number of landmines dotted
around the country. it s very difficult - there are many displaced stated
joaquim sahundi head of tracing in wambo. as they try to go back [home] others
are trying to relocate their relatives. many people are getting injured because of
that - in the villages in the bush there has been no clearance of mines. when
people are crossing these areas they step on mines. the icrc also uses the media
where it can running four daily broadcasts of their lists of the missing on radio
angola. meanwhile there remain massive challenges to angolan families even once
they are reunited. the programme of family reunification is extremely important
but for these families to remain reunified there has to be social integration job
access education healthcare said rafael marques of the pro-democracy george
soros foundation for southern africa. essentially the government is waiting for
the international community to pay for the reconstruction - that s why it has been
persistently calling for a donor s conference. that is just a way of detaching
itself from its political responsibilities.
mrs howard gets key election role michael howard s ex-model wife sandra is to
play a leading role in the conservative election campaign. mrs howard will make
solo visits to target seats as well as accompanying her husband on his helicopter
campaign trail criss-crossing the country. mr howard will host a news conference at
the party s london hq every morning tory co-chairman liam fox said. we want
michael to be as accessible as possible mr fox said adding that the party was
not afraid of scrutiny. the tory leader wanted to meet as many ordinary members of
the public mr fox said. tony blair has also said he is intending to get out and
talk to as many people as possible during the election campaign. but labour
campaign chiefs say there are no plans for mr blair to hold a daily news
conference. mr fox responded by accusing the prime minister of hiding away from
the scrutiny of london s media . the liberal democrats also say they are planning
to hold daily news conferences with charles kennedy. on mrs howard s role mr fox
said: sandra has already been campaigning with michael on a number of visits and
has been undertaking short visits herself. that pattern will continue. it s worked
very well up until now. mrs howard made her debut speech at the conservative party
conference in bournemouth last october. she used her speech on the fringe to
highlight the work of a drugs charity addaction which she supports. mrs howard
has also appeared along side her husband on tv chat shows. during an interview on
itv1 s this morning she said she often criticised her husband for not showing the
side of him that she knows.
reyes tricked into real admission jose antonio reyes has added to speculation
linking him with a move from arsenal to real madrid after falling victim to a radio
prank. the spaniard believed he was talking to real madrid sporting director
emilio butragueno when he allegedly berated his team-mates as bad people . i wish
i was playing for real madrid the 21-year-old told cadena cope. hopefully it
could happen. i love the way madrid play. i m not happy with the way things are.
the striker joined the gunners from seville for £17m at the start of 2004 but it
has frequently been reported that he is homesick. he began the season in superb
form but has struggled to maintain his high standards as arsenal have gradually
lost the premiership initiative to manchester united and chelsea. if i m not
(playing for real) i m going to have to carry on playing with some bad people he
added. i m sure there are none in the real dressing room. i m happy madrid is
interested in me because it has always been my dream since i was little to play
there. before the story surfaced reyes had moved to play down reports linking him
with the spanish giants issuing a statement through arsenal describing the
speculation as flattering . i have seen the stories in the media linking me with
real madrid he had said on thursday lunchtime. but not only am i under contract
at arsenal i am happy here and committed to helping the team win more trophies.
butragueno meanwhile was angry at being impersonated by the radio disc jockey.
it is a disgrace there is no foundation to this he said. he is an arsenal
player and we have to be respectful. we have to be careful because of the rumours
that appear in the news.
comic morris returns with sitcom comedian chris morris who created controversial
tv show brass eye is to return to screens with a new sitcom about a spoof london
media worker. morris will direct and co-write nathan barley - a character from
cult website tv go home - for channel 4. it is a send-up of the stereotypical cool
metropolitan media scene with nicholas burns in the title role. a brass eye satire
of the media handling of paedophilia sparked 2 500 complaints in 2001. nathan
barley will be a character-driven comedy according to charlie brooker who
created tv go home in 1999 and has co-written the series. barley is described as a
webmaster guerrilla film-maker screenwriter dj and in his own words a self-
facilitating media node . the story will also feature dan ashcroft a style
magazine columnist and his sister claire a film-maker who hates the cool scene.
as well as brass eye morris was behind another news show satire the day today
and dark sketch comedy jam. the new show is expected to begin in february.
itunes user sues apple over ipod a user of apple s itunes music service is suing
the firm saying it is unfair he can only use an ipod to play songs. he says apple
is breaking anti-competition laws in refusing to let other music players work with
the site. apple which opened its online store in 2003 after launching the ipod in
2001 uses technology to ensure each song bought only plays on the ipod.
californian thomas slattery filed the suit in the us district court in san jose and
is seeking damages. apple has turned an open and interactive standard into an
artifice that prevents consumers from using the portable hard drive digital music
player of their choice the lawsuit states. the key to such a lawsuit would be
convincing a court that a single brand like itunes is a market in itself separate
from the rest of the online music market according to ernest gellhorn an anti-
trust law professor at george mason university. as a practical matter the lower
courts have been highly sceptical of such claims prof gellhorn said. apple has
sold more than six million ipods since the gadget was launched and has an 87% share
of the market for portable digital music players market research firm npd group
has reported. more than 200 million songs have been sold by the itunes music store
since it was launched. apple has unlawfully bundled tied and/or leveraged its
monopoly in the market for the sale of legal online digital music recordings to
thwart competition in the separate market for portable hard drive digital music
players and vice-versa the lawsuit said. mr slattery called himself an itunes
customer who was also forced to purchase an apple ipod if he wanted to take his
music with him to listen to. a spokesman for apple declined to comment. apple s
online music store uses a different format for songs than napster musicmatch
realplayer and others. the rivals use the mp3 format or microsoft s wma format
while apple uses aac which it says helps thwart piracy. the wma format also
includes so-called digital rights management which is used to block piracy.
consumer spending lifts us growth us economic growth accelerated in the third
quarter helped by strong consumer spending official figures have shown. the
economy expanded at an annual rate of 3.7% in the july to september period the
commerce department said. the figure marked an increase on the 3.3% growth recorded
in the second quarter but fell short of the 4.2% rate pencilled in by forecasters.
the increase reflected the biggest jump in consumer spending in a year. it was a
little softer than the consensus but not a real surprise said gary thayer an
economist at ag edwards & sons. friday s growth estimate is one of the last
significant pieces of economic data before the 2 november presidential election.
democrat challenger john kerry has criticised president george w bush s handling of
the economy pointing to a net loss of over 800 000 jobs since mr bush took office.
analysts said the economy was still not growing fast enough to stimulate large-
scale job creation. it s a pretty good growth rate but it may not be good enough
to create enough jobs said robert brusca chief economist at fact and opinion
economics in new york. however president bush is expected to point to commerce
department figures showing that consumer spending grew at 4.6% in the third quarter
up from just 1.6% in the second as evidence that his policies are generating solid
growth. consumer spending accounts for about two thirds of all economic activity in
the us. the weaker than expected growth figure makes it less likely that the us
federal reserve will raise interest rates next month economists said. the economy
regained some traction in the third quarter but the growth is not robust ag
edwards thayer. i think that means the fed can take its time raising rates. we ll
probably see one more rate hike before the end of the year. in an effort to pre-
empt rising inflation the federal reserve has pushed through three quarter-point
rate rises since june this year taking borrowing costs to 1.75%. on the financial
markets the dollar fell slightly against the euro and the yen while the dow jones
index of leading us shares was little changed.
kenyan school turns to handhelds at the mbita point primary school in western kenya
students click away at a handheld computer with a stylus. they are doing exercises
in their school textbooks which have been digitised. it is a pilot project run by
eduvision which is looking at ways to use low cost computer systems to get up-to-
date information to students who are currently stuck with ancient textbooks.
matthew herren from eduvision told the bbc programme go digital how the non-
governmental organisation uses a combination of satellite radio and handheld
computers called e-slates. the e-slates connect via a wireless connection to a
base station in the school. this in turn is connected to a satellite radio
receiver. the data is transmitted alongside audio signals. the base station
processes the information from the satellite transmission and turns it into a form
that can be read by the handheld e-slates. it downloads from the satellite and
every day processes the stream sorts through content for the material destined for
the users connected to it. it also stores this on its hard disc. the system is
cheaper than installing and maintaining an internet connection and conventional
computer network. but mr herren says there are both pros and cons to the project.
it s very simple to set up just a satellite antenna on the roof of the school but
it s also a one-way connection so getting feedback or specific requests from end
users is difficult. the project is still at the pilot stage and eduvision staff
are on the ground to attend to teething problems with the linux-based system. the
content is divided into visual information textual information and questions.
users can scroll through these sections independently of each other. eduvision is
planning to include audio and video files as the system develops and add more
content. mr herren says this would vastly increase the opportunities available to
the students. he is currently in negotiations to take advantage of a project being
organised by search site google to digitise some of the world s largest university
libraries. all books in the public domain something like 15 million could be put
on the base stations as we manufacture them. then every rural school in africa
would have access to the same libraries as the students in oxford and harvard
currently the project is operating in an area where there is mains electricity. but
mr herren says eduvision already has plans to extend it to more remote regions. we
plan to put a solar panel at the school with the base station have the e-slates
charge during the day when the children are in school then they can take them home
at night and continue working. maciej sundra who designed the user interface for
the e-slates says the project s ultimate goal is levelling access to knowledge
around the world. why in this age when most people do most research using the
internet are students still using textbooks the fact that we are doing this in a
rural developing country is very exciting - as they need it most.
brewers profits lose their fizz heineken and carlsberg two of the world s largest
brewers have reported falling profits after beer sales in western europe fell
flat. dutch firm heineken saw its annual profits drop 33% and warned that earnings
in 2005 may also slide. danish brewer carlsberg suffered a 3% fall in profits due
to waning demand and increased marketing costs. both are looking to russia and
china to provide future growth as western european markets are largely mature.
heineken s net income fell to 537m euros ($701m; £371m) during 2004 from 798m euro
a year ago. it blamed weak demand in western europe and currency losses. it had
warned in september that the weakening us dollar which has cut the value of
foreign sales would knock 125m euros off its operating profits. despite the dip in
profits heineken s sales have been improving and total revenue for the year was
10bn euros up 8.1% from 9.26bn euros in 2003. heineken said it now plans to invest
100m euros in aggressive and high-impact marketing in europe and the us in
2005. heineken which also owns the amstel and murphy s stout brands said it would
also seek to cut costs. this may involve closing down breweries. heineken
increased its dividend payment by 25% to 40 euro cents but warned that the
continued impact of a weaker dollar and an increased marketing spend may lead to a
drop in 2005 net profit. carlsberg the world s fifth-largest brewer saw annual
pre-tax profits fall to 3.4bn danish kroner (456m euros). its beer sales have been
affected by the sluggish european economy and by the banning of smoking in pubs in
several european countries. nevertheless total sales increased 4% to 36bn kroner
thanks to strong sales of carlsberg lager in russia and poland. carlsberg is more
optimistic than heineken about 2005 projecting a 15% rise in net profits for the
year. however it also plans to cut 200 jobs in sweden where sales have been hit
by demand for cheap imported brands. we remain cautious about the medium-to-long
term outlook for revenue growth across western europe for a host of economic
social and structural reasons investment bank merrill lynch said of carlsberg.
s&n extends indian beer venture the uk s biggest brewer scottish and newcastle
(s&n) is to buy 37.5% of india s united breweries in a deal worth 4.66bn rupees
($106m:£54.6m). s&n will buy a 17.5% equity stake in united maker of the well-
known kingfisher lager brand and make a public offer to buy another 20% stake. a
similar holding will be controlled by vijay mallya chair of the indian firm. the
deal was a natural development of its joint venture with united said tony
froggatt s&n s chief executive. its top brands include newcastle brown ale
foster s john smith s strongbow and kronenbourg. in 2002 s&n and united agreed to
form a strategic partnership one that would include a joint venture business and a
uk investment in the indian brewer. the joint venture was established in may 2003.
with both parties having a 40% stake in the venture - millennium alcobev.
millennium alcobev will now be merged with united which expects post-merger to
have about half of india s beer market. india with a population of more than one
billion consumes about 1.2 billion bottles of beer every year. kingfisher has
market share of about 29%. in addition to the equity stake s&n is to invest 2.47bn
rupees in united through non-convertible redeemable preference shares. meanwhile
united s budget airline kingfisher airlines is to buy 10 a320 aircraft from
airbus and has the option to buy 20 more aircraft in a deal worth up to $1.8bn. the
airline the brainchild of mr mallya expects to start its operations by the end of
april. the new airline would break even in the very first year of operation mr
mallya said.
concerns over windows atms cash machine networks could soon be more susceptible to
computer viruses a security firm has warned. the warning is being issued because
many banks are starting to use the windows operating system in machines. already
there have been four incidents in which windows viruses have disrupted networks of
cash machines running the microsoft operating system. but banking experts say the
danger is being overplayed and that the risks of infection and disruption are
small. for many years the venerable ibm operating system known as os/2 has been
the staple software used to power many of the 1.4m cash machines in operation
around the world. but ibm will end support for os/2 in 2006 which is forcing banks
to look for alternatives. there are also other pressures making banks turn to
windows said dominic hirsch managing director of financial analysis firm retail
banking research. he said many cash machines will also have to be upgraded to make
full use of the new europay mastercard and visa credit cards that use computer
chips instead of magnetic stripes to store data. us laws that demand disabled
people get equal access to information will also force banks to make their cash
machines more versatile and able to present information in different ways. todd
thiemann spokesman for anti-virus firm trend micro said the move to windows in
cash machines was not without risks. mr thiemann said research by the towergroup
showed that 70% of new cash machines being installed were windows based. already
he said there have been four incidents in which cash machines have been
unavailable for hours due to viruses affecting the network of the bank that owns
them. in january 2003 the slammer worm knocked out 13 000 cash machines of the
bank of america and many of those operated by the canadian imperial bank of
commerce. in august of the same year cash machines of two un-named banks were put
out of action for hours following an infection by the welchia worm. incidents like
this happen said mr thiemann because when banks start using windows cash machines
they also change the networking technology used to link the devices to their back
office computers. this often means that all the cash machines and computers in a
bank share the same data network. this could mean that cash machines get caught up
in the viruses that are going around because they have a common transmission system
he said. banks need to consider protection as part of the investment to maintain
the security of that network mr thiemann told bbc news online. but mr hirsch
from retail banking research said the number of cash machines actually at risk was
low because so few were upgraded every year. currently he said a cash machine
has a lifetime of up to 10 years which means that only about 10% of all atms get
swapped for a newer model every year. windows cash machines have been around for
several years he said. most banks simply upgrade as part of their usual
replacement cycle. in theory there is a bigger threat with windows than os/2 he
said but i do not think that the banks are hugely concerned at the moment. it s
pretty unusual to hear about virus problems with atms he said. the many different
security systems built-in to cash machines meant there was no chance that a virus
could cause them to start spitting out cash spontaneously he said. banks were more
likely to be worried about internal networks being overwhelmed by worms and viruses
and customers not being able to get cash out at all he added. a spokesman for the
association of payment and clearing services (apacs) which represents the uk s
payments industry said the risk from viruses was minimal. there s no concern that
there s going to be any type of virus hitting the uk networks he said. risks of
infection were small because the data networks that connect uk cash machines
together and the operators of the atms themselves were a much smaller and tightly-
knit community than in the us where viruses have struck.
retail sales show festive fervour uk retail sales were better than expected in
november as christmas shoppers began their seasonal flock to the high street
figures show. the office for national statistics (ons) said retail sales rose 0.6%
on the month and 6.1% on the year. but the figures along with this week s
inflation report could trigger another interest rate rise in the new year. however
recent data from the british retail consortium showed a 0.2% slip in high street
sales during november. the ons data confounded analyst expectations. many had
expected sales to fall slightly in november as shoppers put off buying christmas
presents until december. however retailers attempts to draw in the crowds may be
behind november s unexpected rise in sales they say. aggressive tactics such as
one-day discount sales adopted by stores such as marks & spencer appear to have
paid off. price discounting has certainly accounted for much of this because the
value of retail sales hasn t grown as much as volumes said investec economist
david page. the figures sparked a rally for sterling as the data supported the view
that it is too early to assume that base rates have peaked.
johnson edges out rival sotherton jade johnson edged out rival kelly sotherton with
her last effort to claim the aaas long jump title at the norwich union european
indoor trials. olympic heptathlon bronze medallist sotherton led the event with
her first leap of 6.43m - a personal best. but johnson who has not competed
indoors for five years leapt to a life-time best of 6.50m in her last jump after
four fouls. both johnson and sotherton passed the european championships qualifying
mark. although sotherton s main aim in madrid next month will be the pentathlon
where she will take on olympic heptathlon champion carolina kluft. ireland s
delivered a shock in the men s 200m as he stormed to his first major title in 21.01
seconds. british favourite chris lambert had to settle for second place while
defending champion ireland s paul brizzel took third. there was some consolation
for lambert as he set a personal best of 20.94 in the first round - good enough to
qualify for europe. two-time aaas champion allyn condon and ian mackie had no such
luck as they were disqualified in the heats. there was plenty of hot action in the
men s 60m hurdles where scotland s was vying for top spot with olympian andy
turner. scott 22 smashed his personal best on the way to the final where he
broke it again to win the aaas title in 7.58 seconds. turner finished second in
7.82 after previously setting a personal best on the 7.83 in the semi-finals while
damien greaves did not finish the final. the trio of athletes have reached the
european qualifying mark this season though one of them is set to miss out on a
call-up to the british squad. comfortably defended her 3 000m title clocking
eight minutes 49.87 seconds to easily surpass the european qualifying mark. the
european cross country bronze medallist is ranked number one in europe this season
and will go to madrid with high hopes. helen clitheroe was agonisingly close to the
9:05.00 qualifying mark as she claimed the runners-up spot in a personal best of
9:05.73. in the men s 800m heats qualified fastest in the 800m heats to lay down
a challenge to in-form . the welsh runner attacked the last 200m to come through
ahead of james thie in one minute 49.87 seconds. mcilroy who is third in the
european rankings eased across the finish in 1:50.87 to set up a showdown in
sunday s final in sheffield. both watkins and mcilroy have already achieved the
european qualifying mark. scotland s susan deacon stole s thunder in the final of
the women s 200m. fraser became the fastest british woman over the distance this
season when she qualified for the final in 23.68 seconds - though that time is
outside the european standard. but deacon claimed her first aaas title over the
distance edging fraser into second in 23.67. in the women s shot put veteran
claimed her fourth aaas title with a throw of 15.27m. but that mark was not good
enough for the 39-year-old to book her place at next month s european indoor
championships in madrid. sotherton finished fifth after producing two throws of
13.77m. in the absence of injured british number one carl myerscough claimed the
men s shot put title with a throw of 17.64m which was below the qualifying mark.
sale s robert mitchell climbed to a season s best of 2.20m - just 3cm short of the
european standard - to claim the british indoor high jump title. could only clear
2.16m to finish in fourth but the 27-year-old s disappointment will be tempered as
he had already achieved the qualifying mark at a meeting in slovenia on tuesday.
there was bad luck for british number one in the pole vault as he failed to clear
the bar after deciding to come in at 5.45m. the aaas indoor title went instead to
ashley swain who climbed to a season s best of 5.25m and ireland s taniesha
scanlon set a new national record of 13.28m in the women s triple jump.
china now top trader with japan china overtook the us to become japan s biggest
trading partner in 2004 according to numbers released by japan s finance ministry
on wednesday. china accounted for 20.1% of japan s trade in 2004 compared with
18.6% for the us. in 2003 the us was ahead with 20.5% and china came second with
19.2%. the change highlights china s growing importance as an economic powerhouse.
in 2004 japan s imports from and exports to china (and hong kong) added up to 22
201bn yen ($214.6bn;£114.5bn). this is the highest figure for japanese trade with
china since records began in 1947. it compares with 20 479.5bn yen in trade with
the us. trade with the us during 2004 was hurt by one-off factors including a 13-
month ban on us beef imports following the discovery of a cow infected with mad cow
disease (bse) in the us. however economists predict china will become an even more
important japanese trading partner in the coming years. on tuesday figures showed
china s economy grew by 9.5% in 2004 and experts say the overall growth picture
remains strong. analysts see two spurs to future growth as being china s membership
of the world trade organisation and lower trade tariffs. during 2004 japan s trade
surplus grew 17.9% to 12.011 trillion yen with more than half the surplus 6.962
trillion yen accounted for by its trade with the us. in december the surplus grew
1.8% on a year ago to 1.14 trillion yen thanks to stronger-than-expected exports.
tindall wants second opinion england centre mike tindall is to seek a second
opinion before having surgery on a foot injury that could force him to miss the
entire six nations. the bath player was already out of the opener against wales on
5 february because of a hand problem. mike had a specialist review on a fracture
in his right mid foot said england doctor simon kemp. before a final decision is
made on surgery... medical teams have decided he should see a second specialist.
england coach andy robinson is already without centre will greenwood and flanker
richard hill while fly-half jonny wilkinson is certain to miss at least the first
two games. robinson is expected to announce his new-look england line-up on monday
for the match at the millennium stadium. and newcastle s 18-year-old centre mathew
tait is set to stand in for tindall alongside club team-mate jamie noon. meanwhile
tindall is targeting a return to action before the end of the regular zurich
premiership season on 30 april. he will also aim to be back to full fitness before
the lions tour to new zealand this summer.
swiss cement firm in buying spree swiss cement firm holcim has bid $800m (£429m) to
buy two indian cement firms and a holding company in the country. it plans to buy
associated cement companies (acc) ambuja cement eastern and the holding firm
ambuja cement india ltd a holcim statement said. shares in acc fell 5.5% as
investors who thought the offer was underpriced decided to sell. meanwhile uk-
based firm aggregate industries said it had agreed a £1.8bn takeover by holcim.
the deal with aggregates will give holcim the world s second-biggest cement maker
an entry into the uk market and boost its presence in the us. peter tom who will
remain as aggregate chief executive said the 138p a share offer provided
significant value for shareholders. the markfield leicestershire-based company
runs 142 quarries in the uk and the us. it also has 164 ready-mixed concrete plants
90 asphalt plants and 32 pre-cast concrete factories. if the indian deals go ahead
it will give holcim a major presence in the world s fastest-growing market behind
china. acc is india s second-largest cement maker with an annual capacity of 18.2
million tonnes and a market share of 13%. holcim is looking to buy it (acc) very
cheap said kk mittal a fund manager with escorts mutual fund in new delhi. the
market is not impressed. if they want a substantial chunk then they should be
paying a premium over the market price. shares in holcim rose by 2.3% on thursday
following news of the takeover.
o connell rejects lions rumours ireland and munster lock paul o connell has
dismissed media reports linking him to the captaincy of the lions tour to new
zealand this summer. o connell is rumoured to be among the front-runners for the
job but says he is totally focused on sunday s six nations crunch clash with
england. i honestly don t think about these reports he told bbc sport. the
lions thing is all speculation and newspaper talk nothing more. i just ignore it
and get on with my job. he added: the only thing that annoys me after reading
some reports is what the opposition locks think. i can just imagine them saying i
m going to show this guy what s what about second row play . that s the one thing
that makes me cringe. o connell who made a try-scoring international debut
against wales two years ago is enjoying his meteoric rise into rugby s shop window
- but refuses to be drawn on the lions. i have spoken to sir clive woodward a few
times but not for very long certainly nothing about summer holidays he joked.
he also said he remains wary of wounded england s abilities coming into sunday s
game after two straight defeats dismissing predictions of a certain irish victory.
it s very dangerous to think that. this england team has so much experience and
skill. you do not become a bad team overnight. they have two world class game-
breakers in josh lewsey and jason robinson while charlie hodgson is just ready to
click into place. he insisted ireland will not make the mistake of being over-
confident. that s not going to happen in our squad. no ireland team lining up to
play england will ever fall into that trap he said. every time we play england
we know what a big task it is. look at what they did to us two years ago. i
remember that game all too well and it was not a good feeling. i came on as a
replacement and we were losing 13-6 and ended up getting hammered 42-6 so i know
what can happen when england come to dublin. they could so easily have been coming
to dublin with two wins and staring a grand slam in the face as well.
pupils to get anti-piracy lessons lessons on music piracy and copyright issues are
to be taught to secondary school pupils in the uk. the lessons aimed at 11 to 14-
year-olds will introduce them to copyright - including the issues of downloading
from the internet and the illegal copying of cds - and its role in protecting
creativity. music piracy including illegally swapping music online costs the uk
music industry millions every year and has been blamed for a decline in world-wide
cd sales. british music rights (bmr) - which was formed to represent the interests
of songwriters and composers - worked with education experts to put together a
learning pack. songwriter guy chambers who has worked with stars including robbie
williams has thrown his support behind the scheme. he said as well as educating
children about music piracy it would also protect young people planning a career
in the music industry from unscrupulous individuals. at a debate in london to
launch the scheme chambers said: i think it is important that young people
receive practical and engaging learning in schools. these lessons will give them
an insight into how the creative industries work which will help them in possible
future careers. the education pack which has already been requested by more than
1 600 secondary schools is aimed at giving children an understanding of copyright
in relation to the music industry. it will also teach children about the importance
of royalties and raises awareness of different careers in the music industry
particularly in the digital age. henri yoxall general manager of british music
rights told bbc news schools had been crying out for a resource to help them
educate pupils about the issues. the scheme - which is an extension of bmr s
respect the value of music campaign - is also being backed by singer-songwriters
feargal sharkey lucie silvas and grammy award-winning composer david arnold.
silvas said: i think it is so important that students gain an understanding of how
the music industry works when they are at a young age. i wish i had been given an
opportunity like this when i was at school. emma pike director general of british
music rights said: we believe that copyright is an essential part of teaching
music in schools. it is vital that the creatives of the future know how to turn
their ideas into value. copyright education has always been important... creatives
are facing more challenges and more opportunities from technological change.
technology is allowing people to create music and distribute their music to the
public in a whole host of new ways.
steady job growth continues in us the us created fewer jobs than expected in
december but analysts said that the dip in hiring was not enough to derail the
world s biggest economy. according to labor department figures 157 000 new jobs
were added last month. that took 2004 s total to 2.2 million the best showing in
five years. job creation was one of last year s main concerns for the us economy.
while worries still remain the conditions are set for steady growth in 2005
analysts said. the unemployment rate stayed at 5.4% in december and about 200 000
jobs will need to be created each month if that figure is to drop. it was a
respectable report said michael moran analyst at daiwa securities. payroll
growth in december was a little lighter than the consensus forecast but we had
upward revisions to the prior two months and an increase in manufacturing
employment. manufacturing is a cyclical area of the economy and if it s showing
job growth it s a good indication that the economy is on a solid growth track.
that means that the federal reserve is likely to continue its policy of raising
interest rates. the fed lifted borrowing costs five times last year to 2.25%
citing evidence the us economic recovery was becoming more robust. job creation
was one of last year s main concerns for the us economy and proved to be a main
topic of debate in the us presidential election. while demand for workers is far
from booming the conditions are set for steady growth. overall compared to the
previous year it looks great it just keeps going stronger and stronger and i
expect that to be the case in 2005 said kurt karl economist at swiss re in new
york. meanwhile economists cautioned against reading too much into data from the
federal reserve showing an unexpected $8.7bn drop in consumer debt in november. a
fall in consumer spending which makes up about two-thirds of all us economic
activity could help limit the extent of any future interest rate rises. but
economists said there could be a number of reasons for a fall in the borrowing
which include credit cards and personal loans while noting that such figures can
vary on a month-to-month basis.
boeing unveils new 777 aircraft us aircraft firm boeing has unveiled its new long-
distance 777 plane as it tries to regain its position as the industry s leading
manufacturer. the 777-200lr will be capable of flying almost 11 000 miles non-stop
linking cities such as london and sydney. boeing in contrast to european rival
airbus hopes airlines will want to fly smaller aircraft over longer distances.
airbus which overtook boeing as the number one civilian planemaker in 2003 is
focusing on so-called super jumbos. analysts are divided over which approach is
best and say that this latest tussle between boeing and airbus may prove to be a
defining moment for the airline industry. boeing plans to offer twin-engine planes
that are able to fly direct to many of the world s airports getting rid of the
need for connecting flights. it is banking on smaller slimmer planes such as the
777-200lr and its much-anticipated 787 dreamliner plane which is set to take to
the skies in 2008. the 777-200lr which had its launch delayed by the 11 september
attacks in the us is the fifth variation of boeing s twin-aisle 777 plane. the
company offically rolled-out the new 777 in seattle at 2200 gmt. better fuel
efficiency from engines made by ge and lighter materials mean that the plane can
connect almost any two cities worldwide. boeing has the latest variant in a very
successful line of airplanes and there is no doubt it will continue to be very
successful said david learmount operations and safety editor at industry
magazine flight international. but the 777-200lr is a niche player mr learmount
continued adding that reach was not the only criteria airlines used when picking
their aircraft. mr learmount pointed out that the 777-200lr has been on the market
for a couple of years and only had limited success at attracting orders. he also
said that while the plane may be able to fly to sydney from london in one hit
prevailing winds meant that it would have to stop somewhere on the return journey.
for airbus the future is big - it is pinning its hopes on planes that can carry as
many as 840 people between large hub airports. from there passengers would be
ferried to their final destinations by smaller planes. airbus is also keeping its
options open and plans to compete in all the main categories of aircraft. it has
been producing a rival to boeing s 777 line for more than a year. airbus is now
where boeing was a few years ago with its product range said flight international
s mr learmount. both boeing and airbus have been taking orders for their new
planes. boeing said it expected to sell about 500 of its 777-200lr planes over the
next 20 years. it already has orders from pakistan international airlines and eva
of taiwan. these orders should help underpin the company s profits. boeing said
earnings during the last three months of 2004 dropped by 84% because of costs
relating to stopping production of its smallest airliner the 717 and the
cancellation of a us air force 767 tanker contract. net profit was $186m (£98m;
143m euros) in the quarter compared with $1.13bn in the same period in 2003.
keanu reeves given hollywood star actor keanu reeves best known for his role in
the matrix movies has been awarded a star on the prestigious hollywood walk of
fame. the 40-year-old attended the unveiling of the star with his mother patricia
and thanked her for inspiring him to become an actor. when i was 15 years old i
asked my mom if it was ok to be an actor reeves said. she said: whatever you
want . his star is the 2 277th to be embedded in the pavement on hollywood
boulevard. the actor who was born in the lebanese capital beirut also spoke of
how he dropped out of school to pursue an acting career. hollywood was calling
he said so i got in my car a 1969 british racing green volvo with holes in the
floor and bricks holding up the seats. i was a young man full of hopes and dreams.
reeves first found fame in the teen comedy bill and ted s excellent adventure and
went on to combine such blockbusters as speed the devil s advocate and the matrix
series with smaller films including my own private idaho. more recently he was
seen in something s gotta give alongside jack nicholson and diane keaton. his next
film the supernatural thriller constantine is released in the us later this month
and opens in the uk in march.
wenger handed summer war chest arsenal boss arsene wenger has been guaranteed
transfer funds to boost his squad the summer. the club s managing director keith
edelman stressed that the development of their new £350m stadium had no affect on
wenger s spending power. the money is there. don t worry we ve got it edelman
told bbc sport. hopefully we ll spend it this summer and in the coming years.
arsene attends all our board meetings and he knows our finances are very strong.
edelman added that it was pointless having a brand new stadium if the team did not
match the surroundings. its great to have nice new surroundings but if the team
aren t performing on the pitch then there isn t great respect in having a fabulous
stadium he said. it s important that we had sufficient funds for our team in
place before we began on the stadium.
federer joins all-time greats the last year has seen one player dominate men s
tennis and one country dominate the women s game. roger federer became the first
man since mats wilander in 1988 to win three grand slams in one season. and after
anastasia myskina became the first russian woman to win a grand slam at the french
open two more followed at wimbledon and the us open. meanwhile briton tim henman
enjoyed his best year while greg rusedski fought back superbly from adversity.
federer began the year as world number one and holder of the wimbledon and masters
cup titles and set about conquering new ground. the swiss sounded warning of the
dominance to come at the australian open. he ripped through the draw before
beating marat safin in the final. andy roddick was the only player to put up any
real resistance at wimbledon and federer s performance against lleyton hewitt in
the us open final was breathtaking. federer again got the better of hewitt in the
season-ending masters cup. his victory in houston proved to be his 13th successive
win in a final an open era record. the only major let-down was a third-round loss
to gustavo kuerten at the french open and roland garros will be his main target in
2005. there was also a surprise loss to the unheralded tomas berdych at the
olympic games which saw chile dominate as nicoals massu took the singles and then
paired up with fernando gonzaelz to win doubles gold. another major trophy that
looks beyond federer is the davis cup which was won by spain in a 3-2 home success
over the usa in seville. roddick struggled on the clay losing to rafael nadal on
the opening day before going down to carlos moya in the all-important fourth
rubber. henman broke new ground by reaching the semis on clay at the french open -
a stunning effort - and also at the us open. a quarter-final defeat to mario ancic
at wimbledon was disappointing for the limp manner of the briton s defeat but he
remains optimistic of going further next year. british number two rusedski endured
a rollercoaster year returning to the circuit after being cleared of a doping
offence in march. with his ranking down at 168 many feared the 31-year-old s
career was over but he battled back in the second half of the season to re-enter
the top 50. the russian women finally delivered on their long-recognised promise in
2004 with myskina maria sharapova and svetlana kuznetsova winning grand slams
before taking the season-ending fed cup. but while the young russians were on the
way up it was a different story for the belgians and the williams sisters. only
veteran lindsay davenport held the new wave at bay a stunning run of form after
wimbledon taking her to number one ahead of amelie mauresmo whose grand slam
drought goes on. the year started in regulation fashion as justine henin-hardenne
beat compatriot kim clijsters at the australian open. a virus ruined the rest of
henin-hardenne s year although she was fit enough to win olympic gold but
clijsters had an even more miserable 2004. she suffered a serious wrist injury and
then announced the end of her relationship with lleyton hewitt and will be happy
to see the year end. in their absence myskina thrashed elena dementieva in a
historic but woeful all-russian final at the french open. wimbledon was a more
refreshing affair as sharapova captivated sw19 showing nerves of steel as she
battled past davenport and serena williams to take the title. davenport was a
strong favourite for the us open but hampered by injury lost to the powerful and
unflappable kuznetsova in the semis. kuznetsova went on to give dementieva another
grand slam final thrashing with the latter s wayward serve becoming one of the
talking points of the year. with the russians still improving the likes of henin-
hardenne clijsters davenport mauresmo venus and serena will need to be fully
fit and motivated in 2005. and it may take their compatriot safin to challenge
federer on the men s side.
ukip candidate suspended in probe eurosceptic party ukip have suspended a candidate
for allegedly suggesting the criminally insane should be killed. john houston 54
was due to stand in the east kilbride seat in lanarkshire at the next election. but
he was suspended after his reported views including the return of the british
empire were sent to two scottish newspapers. ukip spokesman mark croucher said
those who selected mr houston knew nothing of his views. the episode comes at a
difficult time for ukip soon after the high-profile departure of mep robert
kilroy-silk. mr houston is alleged to have said that the organs of the criminally
insane should be made available to law-abiding members of the community and
proposed the legalisation of drugs and the sex trade. the document reportedly said:
we re looking for the resurrection of the british empire. the problems for the
human race - environmental and others - can only be dealt with on a global scale
and that calls for a radical alliance of the english-speaking nations which they
are uniquely able to do. mr croucher said the main issue would be that mr houston
s reported views had been presented as ukip policy which they were not. he said
they might have been submissions to a committee working on the party s manifesto
but would not have been matched to mr houston when he was standing to become a
candidate. he told bbc news: he appears to have said these things. we have
suspended him as a member and as a candidate. by all accounts none of this was
mentioned at his selection meeting. it is simply a distraction from the task in
hand the eu constitution not individual idiocies. mr houston was quoted in the
herald newspaper saying: i feel ukip have over-reacted and overshot the runway.
peter nielson who is ukip scotland chairman said he had suspended mr houston on
friday night. he will remain suspended while the matter is being investigated and
then we will decide if and what further action will be taken. he said that any
evidence would be looked into and mr houston may be interviewed by the party. he
added: i can t comment too much at the moment i have one version from him but i
haven t seen the papers yet.
first look at playstation 3 chip some details of the chip inside sony s playstation
3 have been revealed. sony ibm and toshiba have released limited data about the
so-called cell chip that will be able to carry out trillions of calculations per
second. the chip will be made of several different processing cores that work on
tasks together. the playstation 3 is expected in 2006 but developers are expecting
to get prototypes early next year to tune games that will appear on it at launch.
the three firms have been working on the chip since 2001 but before now few details
have been released about how it might function. in a joint statement the three
firms gave hints about how the chip will work but fuller details will be released
in february next year at the international solid state circuits conference in san
francisco. the three firms claim that the cell chip will be up to 10 times more
powerful than existing processors. when put inside powerful computer servers the
cell consortium expects it to be capable of handling 16 trillion floating point
operations or calculations every second. the chip has also been refined to be
able to handle the detailed graphics common in games and the data demands of films
and broadband media. ibm said it would start producing the chip in early 2005 at
manufacturing plants in the us. the first machines off the line using the cell
processor will be computer workstations and servers. a working version of the ps3
is due to be shown off in may 2005 but a full launch of the next generation console
is not expected to start until 2006. as well as being inside the playstation 3 the
chip will also be used inside high-definition tvs and powerful computers. in the
future all forms of digital content will be converged and fused onto the broadband
network said ken kutaragi chief operating officer of sony. current pc
architecture is nearing its limits.
crucial decision on super-casinos a decision on whether to allow westminster to
legislate on super-casinos is set to be made by the scottish parliament. the
government has plans for up to eight las vegas style resorts in the uk one of
which is likely to be in glasgow. scottish ministers insist they will still have
the final say on whether a super-casino will be built in scotland. but opposition
parties say that will not happen in practice. the vote is due to be taken on
wednesday and is expected to be close. the scottish executive believes that the
legislation should be handled by westminster. the new law will control internet
gambling for the first time and is aimed at preventing children from becoming
involved. a super-casino in glasgow could be located at ibrox or the scottish
exhibition and conference centre. the new gambling bill going through westminster
will allow casino complexes to open to the public have live entertainment and
large numbers of fruit machines with unlimited prizes. but the scottish national
party and the tories say the issue of super-casinos should be decided in scotland
and believe the executive is shirking its responsibility.
mps criticise child access system divorced parents seeking access to their children
are often disadvantaged by the legal system mps have said. the constitutional
affairs select committee said parents with custody could exploit delays in the
system to stop former partners gaining access. courts should be used as a last
resort but where they are their orders should be enforced more rigorously mps
said. but they rejected the claim made by some campaign groups that there should be
a legal presumption of equal access. currently the presumption is that the
interests of the child are paramount. an arbitrary template imposed on all
families whatever the needs of the child would relegate the welfare of individual
children to a secondary position the mps said. they said the law should be
changed to require family courts specifically to take account of the importance of
sustaining the relationship between the child and the non-resident parent in
contested cases. this would reassert the rights of non-resident parents to contact
with their children as well as the rights of children to contact with both their
parents while maintaining sufficient flexibility to cope with issues of safety
they said. delays in court hearings and the inability to effectively enforce court
orders allowed a new status quo arrangement for the children to become
established by default they said. although the courts rigorously avoid
conscious bias there are considerable grounds for accepting that non-resident
parents are frequently disadvantaged by the system as it is administered at
present. given the strong animosity between the parties which is common in
contested family cases we find it hard to believe that tactical delay is not
sometimes used to the advantage of resident parents. committee chairman alan beith
said the five-month inquiry had been a complex and emotive one. at the moment
far too many contact and residency cases are being dealt with by the courts when
they could be better resolved through professional mediation and negotiation he
said. this situation has to change. the court system should only be used as a last
resort where mediation and negotiation have completely broken down or where issues
of abuse or domestic violence need to be dealt with. this will help to reduce
delays and improve the lives of many children across the country.
lib dems new election pr chief the lib dems have appointed a senior figure from bt
to be the party s new communications chief for their next general election effort.
sandy walkington will now work with senior figures such as matthew taylor on
completing the party manifesto. party chief executive lord rennard said the
appointment was a significant strengthening of the lib dem team . mr walkington
said he wanted the party to be ready for any mischief rivals or the media tried
to throw at it. my role will be to ensure this new public profile is effectively
communicated at all levels he said. i also know the party will be put under
scrutiny in the media and from the other parties as never before - and we will need
to show ourselves ready and prepared to counter the mischief and misrepresentation
that all too often comes from the party s opponents. the party is already
demonstrating on every issue that it is the effective opposition. mr walkington s
new job title is director of general election communications.
sporting rivals go to extra time the current slew of sports games offers
unparalleled opportunities for fans who like to emulate on-field action without
ever moving from the couch. the two giants in the field - espn and ea sports -
have been locked in a heavyweight battle for years. the latter is the world s
largest games manufacturer. years of experience mean that the titles in their
steady flow of sport sims are finely honed massively entertaining and ooze flair.
sports broadcaster espn meanwhile has leant its name to a series of games that
are similarly classy but lower in profile and price. but that status quo was
changed forever - or for the next 15 years at least - by a deal earlier this year
when espn sold ea the rights to its tv branding and on-air talent meaning the espn
games presently developed by sega will have to come to and end in their present
form. it was a massive-money deal that not only raised eyebrows but stirred active
indignation in many quarters with fans concerned that it is set to enable ea to
monopolise the sports gaming landscape to an unhealthy degree. some particularly
disgruntled fans set up an online petition that notched more than 18 000 virtual
signatures. many of those clicking to complain were already rankled for the espn
coup happened just weeks after ea had pulled off another enormous licensing deal
controversially giving them exclusive rights to teams and personnel from
america¿s national football league (nfl). so will the sega - espn range be
missed a key reason for answering yes is that liking or disliking a sports game
regularly comes down to personal taste and having some options available always
proves hugely handy. online soccer fans will testify to that between bouts of
arguing over which high-profile title rules supreme out of the similar-yet-hugely-
different fifa 2005 and pro evolution soccer 4. on the same note the espn 2k5 and
ea sports games have so little to choose between them that picking favourites will
come down to players personal preferences and spending budget rather than any
technical elements. taking hockey and basketball as examples both publishers
efforts are phenomenally entertaining and fairly accessible. they also both look
awesome with the sega / espn versions perhaps shading things on a graphical front.
in terms of gameplay i marginally preferred ea s nba live 2005 for basketball and
was more satisfied ice hockey-wise by espn s nhl 2k5. the espn games are a touch
more arcade-like in look and feel and are slightly easier to get into although
like their rivals they also offer a dizzyingly-extensive array of in-game tricks
and overall challenge modes that should be enough to quench thirsts of even the
most die-hard of sports fans. perhaps the most interesting aspect of the espn deal
will be seeing how it affects the presentation of ea s future titles. the front-end
decoration of ea s games has become something of an art-form in itself loaded with
slick visuals and oodles of licensed music. they are also immediately identifiable
as coming from the ea stable and the inevitable compulsion to add an espn look
will no doubt change that in various ways. what is a shame is that the espn titles
took similar care about framing the gameplay with an authentic setting - their
preambles look and sound much like they would on tv. they are neat and excellent-
value games in their current form and combining them with ea s own established
brand should produce a truly formidable beast.
italy 8-38 wales wales secured their first away win in the rbs six nations for
nearly four years with a six-try victory in rome. tries from jonathan thomas tom
shanklin and martyn williams gave the visitors a 19-5 half-time advantage. luciano
orquera did reply with one for italy but second-half efforts from brent cockbain
shane williams and robert sidoli sealed victory. fly-half stephen jones added four
conversions as wales maintained their superb start to this year s tournament.
starting full of confidence after their victory over england the visitors scored
the opening try after just four minutes. diminutive wing shane williams fielded a
kick ahead and danced past the onrushing andrea masi and aaron persico into the
italian half. his pass to tom shanklin appeared forward but when the centre was
held up short the ball was switched left and michael owen s long cut-out pass gave
the lurking thomas an easy run-in. stephen jones who retained the kicking duties
despite gavin henson s heroics against england slotted an excellent conversion
from wide out. wales twice threatened further scores but failed to find the crucial
pass and italy hit back out of the blue in the 11th minute. henson sporting gold
boots rather than the silver variety that did for england beat two players with
ease out on the left touchline. but his attempted chip ahead was charged down by
orquera who snaffled the loose ball and hared away from halfway to score in the
right corner. with the welsh line-out stuttering and italy twice turning the
visitors scrum the home side s forward power brought them back into it. but a
clever high kick from henson almost brought a try for hal luscombe when roland de
marigny and ludovico nitoglia made a hash of claiming it as the ball bounced into
touch. wales regained control with a second try in the 21st minute henson lobbing
up a high kick to the left corner where shanklin jumped higher than nitoglia to dot
down his 15th test try. jones was unable to convert and de marigny then hit the
upright with a penalty attempt for italy. henson was also narrowly short with a
long-range effort at goal but wales ended the half with a vital third score to
give themselves some breathing space. henson sent luscombe streaking away and when
he off-loaded to martyn williams the flanker showed his nous to ground the ball
against the padding of the post jones adding the conversion. italy who lost
flanker mauro bergamasco with a head knock before half-time built up a head of
steam on the resumption. de marigny landed a penalty to make it 19-8 and a nitoglia
break through the middle threatened a try only for the move to break down with a
knock-on. but wales put the outcome beyond doubt with two superb tries in four
minutes before the hour. their fourth after 53 minutes was sparked by another mazy
run from shane williams who beat several players with ease and finished with a
powerful angled run from lock cockbain. before italy could recover from that blow
a strong surge from gareth thomas and great off-loads from martyn williams and
replacement kevin morgan saw shane williams scamper over. with jones converting
both for a 33-8 lead wales had the luxury of sending on five more replacements for
the final quarter. the icing on the cake came with a sixth try after more superb
support work shane williams and ceri sweeney combining to send sidoli over in the
left corner. the only downside for wales was a hamstring injury suffered by
luscombe. but after back-to-back wins at the start of the tournament for the first
time in 11 years they will travel to paris in a fortnight looking like genuine
contenders. r de marigny; mirco bergamasco w pozzebon a masi l nitoglia; l
orquera a troncon; a lo cicero f ongaro m castrogiovanni s dellape m bortolami
(capt) a persico mauro bergamasco s parisse. g intoppa s perugini ca del fava
d dal maso p griffen m barbini kp robertson. g thomas (capt); h luscombe t
shanklin g henson s williams; s jones d peel; g jenkins m davies a jones; b
cockbain r sidoli; j thomas m williams m owen. r mcbryde j yapp i gough r
sowden-taylor g cooper c sweeney k morgan. andrew cole (australia).
podcasters look to net money nasa is doing it 14-year-old boys in bedrooms are
doing it couples are doing it gadget lovers - male and female - are definitely
doing it. it is podcasting - diy radio in the form of downloadable mp3 audio
files. they can done by anyone who has a microphone simple software the net and
something to say. some liken them to talking audioblogs because many complement
text-based weblogs - diary-like sites where people share their thoughts. they are
essentially amateur radio shows on the net on demand and the movement is at
very early stages. it s about real people saying real things and communicating
says adam curry former mtv vj and the pied piper of podcasting. he was one of a
community of people who created ipodder a small computer program known as an
aggregator . it collects and automatically sends mp3 files to any digital music-
playing device that can play wmp formats. those with digital music players can
select which podcasts they like and subscribe - for free - to that show s feed .
when a new podcast is available it is automatically sent to the device when
connected to a computer. it is totally going to kill the business model of radio
thinks curry. i just did a tour of madison avenue where all the big brands and
advertising agencies of the world are he says. and they are scared to death of
the next generation - like my daughter who is 14 - who don t listen to radio. they
are on msn they ve got their ipod their mp3 player they ve got their xbox - they
are not listening to radio. so how are they going to reach these audiences it is
the distribution that is changing and the barriers are being brought down so
everyone can be part of it. it is a fledgling movement but it is gaining
momentum now that people have started thinking about how to make a business from
it. ian fogg jupiter research analyst thinks there could be potential for
business but it could take an interesting turn if big companies like apple and
microsoft get involved. it is a nascent area but quite exciting. it is yet
another area that demonstrates the move to a digital lifestyle and digital home is
not over he says. podcasting is one of those interesting areas that bridges
what you do at home and what you do out and about - a classic hybrid. it is another
aspect of the time-shifting of content - the latest industry buzzword for being
able to listen to what you want when and wherever you want. audiences are in the
10s 100s and 1 000s rather than millions. more than 4 300 podcasts are currently
listed. curry s daily source code - which he committed to doing daily to inspire
the community - has 10s of thousands of listeners. but dave winer is doubtful. he
designed the format called rss (really simple syndication) which gives web users
an easy way to keep updated automatically on sites they like. podcasts rely on his
technology because it is the way they are distributed. he is also writer of the
longest-running weblog on the net scripting news. he thinks its power lies in its
democratising potential not in its over-hyped business promise. we re the
sources the people doing stuff and podcasting is a way to tell people who care
what we re doing. no matter how you look at it commercialising this medium isn t
going to make very much money he says. podcasting is going to be a medium of
niches with audiences measured in the single digits like e-mail or blogs.
maybe in a few years maybe six or seven digits. but it will have to sustain
interest beyond the hype balloon. curry and associate ron bloom s new venture
called podshow is to help ordinary people produce post distribute and market
their podcasts. because of the way podcasts work based on rss the latest podcasts
which people can select mean that they are ready-made targets. when you look at
podcasting - wow this is a pretty interesting audience. the audience is pre-
selected. they have decided to subscribe to your program explains curry.
advertising in his eyes can be tailored to podcasts to make it more imaginative
and unobtrusive. how i believe this will work is to create a network that in
aggregation will have enough numbers to support a return on investment for the
advertisers and for the podcasters. i have 50 60 70 000 listeners. i could make
a couple of bucks off that but not much. if you are talking a million podcasters
and then you can kind of divide that amongst ourselves then that is kind of
interesting. essentially he says if you are doing a bass fishing podcast
someone who is selling bait and tackle will probably want to advertise on your
show. he is clear the ads will not be the traditional in-your-face type familiar
to commercial radio now. we are really going to see these microcosms and commerce
will be all over the place. it is happening already. coffee-loving curry has sold
$4 000 worth of coffee machines through a referral link to amazon from his site.
others use in-show promotions like the dawn and drew show. one eric rice has won
sponsorship from warner bros. he can now legally play the music of a band warner
bros wants to push. some commentators on the net say it has a similar feel to the
dotcom days. others say it is just another element of setting media free from big
companies and letting people be creative. one thing is for sure; they are not about
to disappear in a hurry. the creative forces behind radio are elated says curry.
for now he tunes out the negative comments within the podcasting community. i
should be knighted for this he adds with a wry chuckle people are going to be
so happy to sit at home make their podcast and make a little money.
ukip outspent labour on eu poll the uk independence party outspent both labour and
the liberal democrats in the european elections new figures show. ukip which
campaigned on a slogan of say no to europe spent £2.36m on the campaign - second
only to the conservatives £3.13m. the campaign took ukip into third place with an
extra 10 meps. labour s campaign cost £1.7m the lib dems £1.19m and the greens
£404 000 according to figures revealed by the electoral commission on wednesday.
much of the ukip funding came from yorkshire millionaire sir paul sykes who helped
bankroll the party s billboard campaign. critics have accused the party of
effectively buying votes. but a ukip spokesman said labour and the conservatives
had spent £10m between them on the last general election. with the advantages of
public money the others have the only way the smaller parties can get their
message across is by buying the advertising space he added.
burren awarded egyptian contracts british energy firm burren energy has been
awarded two potentially lucrative oil exploration contracts in egypt. the company
successfully bid for the two contracts granted by government owned oil firms
covering onshore and offshore areas in the gulf of suez. burren energy already has
a presence in egypt having been awarded an exploration contract last year. the
firm which floated in 2003 recently announced a deal to buy 26% of indian firm
hindustan oil exploration. the £13.8m deal gives burren energy access to the indian
oil and gas industry. this latest contract expands burren energy s global
exploration and production portfolio - it also holds contracts in turkmenistan and
the republic of congo. these assets significantly increase our exploration
portfolio in egypt and we continue to investigate further opportunities in this
region said chief executive finian o sullivan.
digital uk driven by net and tv the uk s adoption of digital tv and broadband has
helped make it the fourth most digitally-savvy nation in europe according a report
by jupiter research. but the uk still lags in terms of broadband speeds compared
to others. the most digitally sophisticated europeans in terms of use of digital
goods such as mobiles tv net and cameras are the scandinavians. about 14 million
households in the uk 60% have digital tv according to the communications
regulator ofcom. the least digital of the european nations was greece in 17th
position according to the digital life index. scandinavian countries sweden
denmark and norway came out top in the report but there were some differences in
technology trends. the european digital life index demonstrates that digital
lifestyles are common today but across europe there is no single digital lifestyle
said nate elliott jupiter analyst. consumers adopt different digital products and
services in different countries. although there are differences between different
european nations the gap between them is closing the report concluded. the trend
for gadgets and technologies such as digital video recorders (dvr) broadband and
video-on-demand will continue across europe he added. more than six million uk
households now have broadband net. by the middle of 2005 it is estimated that 50%
of all uk net users will be on broadband. cable company ntl is trialling faster
adsl (asymmetric digital subscriber line) broadband technology using adsl2+ which
can give speeds of 18mbps compared to current speeds which are usually around 1mbps
or 2mbps. bt is set to trial the technology later in the year. super-fast broadband
will be necessary to the delivery of services such as high-definition tv (hdtv) and
video-on-demand already very popular in france and other european countries. a
separate survey by gmipoll last week found that globally people s appetite for
technology and gadgets continues unabated. the poll of 20 000 people in 20
countries found that 59% wanted more technology. the computer was the must-have
gadget for most people (75%). the tv took second place (67%) while the mobile was
ranked in third position with 54%. digital cameras were the most popular choice of
gadget for 2005 said the survey with nearly 40% choosing this over wireless home
printing and dvr technologies. however only 25% of britons said a digital camera
would be their top gadget purchase of the year. almost a quarter 22% said they
would be buying some sort of wireless device. forty-four percent said they would be
buying something other . this might include digital music players or gaming
devices. the nintendo ds sony s psp and gizmondo all hit the shops in 2005 and
the first of the next generation of games consoles xbox 2 is set to launch later
this year. jupiter research s index is calculated using 40 different variables
across net users digital tv adoption wireless and mobile online activity and
digital devices.
ten-year tragedy of missing manic richey edwards guitarist and lyricist for the
manic street preachers vanished 10 years ago on 1 february 1995. his
disappearance remains one of the most tragic mysteries in rock music. for his
devoted fans richey edwards was an inspired and inspiring poet a man who
articulated their desperation and despair who shouted the things most kept hidden.
the manic street preachers may only have become stadium-conquering rock giants
since his disappearance - but edwards was the figurehead for their first dangerous
and dazzling incarnation. edwards did not feature in the original line-up of the
band though. singer/guitarist james dean bradfield bassist nicky wire and drummer
sean moore were originally accompanied by a rhythm guitarist called flicker. but
edwards replaced flicker in time for the band s self-financed debut suicide alley
after designing the record s artwork. after becoming a full-time member edwards
became a critical part of the band writing lyrics and playing guitar - though in
many concerts he was not actually plugged in. but the fiercely intelligent edwards
- who name-checked writers such as sylvia plath george orwell and philip larkin -
battled depression alcohol problems eating disorders and self-harm. by the time
the band released their third album the holy bible in october 1994 edwards had
been admitted to hospital with depression. but in his last interview a few months
later seemed to be making plans for the future. edwards walks out of the embassy
hotel in london in the early morning ahead of the band s us tour to promote the
holy bible. in the following days police issue a missing person alert and his
parents graham and sherry plead for their son to let them know he is safe and
well. police discover edwards car in a car park near the severn bridge near
bristol - a notorious suicide spot. the discovery leads many to believe he has
killed himself. the rest of the band stop touring and recording. the band play
their first concerts since edwards disappearance as a trio performing support
slots for the stone roses on their uk stadium tour. the manic street preachers
release their first music since edwards disappearance. a design for life reaches
number two in the uk singles chart. the album everything must go follows. the
manics win best band and best album for everything must go at the brit awards. a
fan says she saw edwards in the hippy resort of goa india. interpol are alerted
but do not track him down. graham and sherry edwards fly to the spanish island of
fuerteventura six weeks after reports a man fitting their son s description has
been seen in a bar called underground. the report comes to nothing. edwards
sister rachel makes an emotional tv appeal five years after the disappearance. i d
just like to say to him if he is able to listen that we do love him very much and
we d like him to come back - me mum and dad she said. the band play a concert
in the cuban capital havana - the first contemporary western rock band to play
there. on the seventh anniversary of his disappearance police offer edwards
parents the opportunity to sign a death certificate. they refuse. the big issue
magazine which supports homelessness charities prints the last known picture of
edwards in a fresh plea for information. a pair of trainers containing human bones
washed up on the banks of the river severn have no link to edwards police say.
the last song written by edwards - a song called judge y self which was to have
been used for the judge dredd film soundtrack - is released on the b-side
compilation lipstick traces. a skeleton found by the river severn is not edwards
tests reveal. the manics seventh studio album lifeblood features a song
dedicated to edwards called cardiff afterlife. the remaining manic street
preachers members continue to pay a quarter of the band s royalties into an account
held in his name.
tough rules for ringtone sellers firms that flout rules on how ringtones and other
mobile extras are sold could be cut off from all uk phone networks. the rules
allow offenders to be cut off if they do not let consumers know exactly what they
get for their money and how to turn off the services. the first month under the new
rules has seen at least ten firms suspended while they clean up the way they work.
the rules have been brought in to ensure that the problems plaguing net users do
not spread to mobile phones. in the last couple of years ringtones wallpapers
screensavers and lots of other extras for phones have become hugely popular. but
fierce competition is making it difficult for firms to get their wares in front of
consumers said jeremy flynn head of third party services at vodafone. if you
are not on the operator s portal you are going to have quite heavy marketing costs
because it s a problem of how people discover your services he said. to combat
this many ringtone and other mobile content sellers started using a new tactic to
squeeze more cash out of customers. this tactic involved signing people up for a
subscription to give them for instance several ringtones per week or month
instead of the single track they thought they were getting. mr flynn said that the
move to using subscriptions happened over the space of a few weeks at the end of
2004. websites such as grumbletext.co.uk started getting reports from customers who
were racking up large bills for phone content they did not know they had signed up
for. what made us uncomfortable was that these services were not being marketed
transparently said mr flynn. people did not know they were being offered a
subscription service. we saw potential for substantial consumer harm here he
added. the swift adoption of subscription services led to the creation of a new
code of conduct for firms that want to sell content for mobile phones. the drafting
of the new rules was led by the mobile entertainment forum and the uk s phone
firms. everyone is required to conform to this code of conduct said andrew bud
regulatory head of the mef and executive chairman of messaging firm mblox. it s
all about transparency he said. consumers have to be told what they have got
themselves into and how to get out of it. the consumer has a right to be
protected he said. christian harris partnership manager of mobile content firm
zed said the new system was essential if consumers were to trust companies that
sell ringtones and other downloads. the groundrules must be applied across the
whole industry and if that s done effectively we will see the cowboys driven out
he said. the new rules came in to force on 15 january and the first month under the
new regime has seen many firms cautioned for not honouring them. some have been
told to revamp websites so customers know what they get for their money and what
they are signing up for said mr flynn. also said mr flynn vodafone has briefly
cut off between eight and ten content sellers flouting the rules. we have quite
draconian contracts with firms he said. we do not have to say why. we can just
cut them off. under the rules consumers must be able to switch off the services by
using a universal stop command sent via text message. he said the system had been
designed to limit how much a consumer will pay if they inadvertently signed up for
a service. the mobile is so personal that people really resent the abuse of what
is effectively part of their personality said mr flynn.
davenport hits out at wimbledon world number one lindsay davenport has criticised
wimbledon over the issue of equal prize money for women. reacting to a disputed
comment by all england club chairman tim phillips the american said: i think it
is highly insulting if prize money is taken away. somebody i think it was mr
phillips said they won t have money for flowers at wimbledon. that s insulting.
an all england club spokesperson denied phillips made the remark insisting: he
definitely didn t say it. the statement added: it was said by someone else and
was a humorous aside at the end of a radio interview when the conversation had
moved to talking about the wimbledon grounds. davenport was speaking following
the announcement that this week s dubai duty free event will join the us and
australian opens in offering equal prize money for women. you hear about women
playing only three sets while men play five said daveport. and the best women
are never going to beat the best men. but it s a different game you go to watch
with the women - it doesn t make it better or worse. hopefully we will be able to
change people s minds. serena williams who is also in dubai added: i m
obviously for equal prize money. women s tennis is exciting. men s tennis is
exciting as well but the women have it right now. if you are bringing in the
spectators you should be able to reap what everyone else is able to reap.
wolves appoint hoddle as manager glenn hoddle has been unveiled as the new wolves
manager. the ex-england coach has been given a six-month contract to succeed dave
jones who was sacked after the club s poor start to the season. wolves chairman
rick hayward said: we re delighted glenn is here. he has a six-month contract so
we can test each other out and see if it works. hoddle who will work alongside
stuart gray has been out of the game since he was sacked by spurs in 2003. gray
who has been caretaker manager was assistant boss when hoddle was manager at
southampton. i m delighted to be here said hoddle. i saw the massive potential
that wolves have got and their desire and amibition to get back into the
premiership parallels my ambitions. stuart gray has done a fantastic job as
caretaker manager. we ve worked together at southampton and i m delighted to be
back with him. wolves chief executive jez moxey defended the decision to give
hoddle a short-term contract. we hope it will work out for both parties and we
extend it for the long term he said. most managers want a four-year contract and
then expect it to be paid off if it doesn t work out. for somebody of glenn s
calibre to come in on a short-term contract and put his reputation on the line it
demonstrates his commitment and self-belief and the potential he thinks is here.
hayward revealed that hoddle was one of the first to be approached after jones
departure. he was not available at the time because he was looking at various
other things he explained. five weeks later we re back on track and this a
tremendous opportunity for wolves. hoddle began his managerial career as player-
boss with swindon before moving on to chelsea and then taking up the england job.
his spell in charge of the national side came to an end after the 1998 world cup
when he made controversial remarks about the disabled in a newspaper interview. the
47-year-old later returned to management with southampton where he again succeeded
jones - as he has now done at wolves. he engineered an upturn in saints fortunes
before being lured to white hart lane by tottenham - the club where he made his
name as a player. that relationship turned sour at the start of the last campaign
and he left the london club early last season. since then he has applied
unsuccessfully for the post of france manager and had also been linked with a
return to southampton. wolves are currently 17th in the championship and have a
home game against millwall on tuesday.
cairn energy in indian gas find shares in cairn energy rose 3.8% to 1 088 pence on
tuesday after the uk firm announced a fresh gas discovery in northern india. the
firm which last year made a number of other new finds in the rajasthan area said
the latest discovery could lead to large gas volumes. however chief executive bill
gammell cautioned that additional evalution was first needed at the site. cairn has
also been granted approval to extend its rajasthan exploration area. this approval
has come from the indian government. a spokesman said the company s decision to
carry out further investigations at the new find showed that it believed there was
significant gas. but he added: it s still too early to say what the extent of it
is. cairn s string of finds in rajasthan last year saw it elevated to the ftse 100
index of the uk s leading listed companies. the company had bought the rights to
explore in the area from oil giant shell. mr gammell is a former scottish
international rugby player.
ex-boeing director gets jail term an ex-chief financial officer at boeing has
received a four-month jail sentence and a fine of $250 000 (£131 961) for illegally
hiring a top air force aide. michael sears admitted his guilt in breaking conflict
of interest laws by recruiting darleen druyun while she still handled military
contracts. ms druyun is currently serving a nine month sentence for favouring
boeing when awarding lucrative contracts. boeing lost a $23bn government contract
after a pentagon inquiry into the case. the contract to provide refuelling tankers
for the us air force was cancelled last year. the pentagon revealed earlier this
week that it would examine eight other contracts worth $3bn which it believes may
have been tainted by ms druyun s role in the procurement process. boeing sacked mr
sears and ms druyun in november 2003 after allegations that they had violated
company recruitment policy. ms druyun had talks with mr sears in october 2002 about
working for boeing while she was still a top procurement official within the
pentagon. she subsequently joined the company in january 2003. ms druyun admitted
that she had steered multi-billion dollar contracts to boeing and other favoured
companies. in documents filed in a virginia court ahead of mr sears sentencing
prosecutors blamed boeing s senior management for failing to ask key questions
about the legal and ethical issues surrounding ms druyun s appointment. mr sears
told prosecutors that no other boeing officials were aware that ms druyun was still
responsible for major procurement decisions at the time she was discussing a job
with boeing. however analysts believe boeing may yet face civil charges arising
from the scandal. the pentagon has investigated 400 contracts dating back to 1993
since the allegations against ms druyun came to light. boeing s corporate ethics
have come under scrutiny on several occasions in recent years. boeing was sued by
lockheed martin after its rival accused it of industrial espionage during a 1998
contract competition. boeing apologised publicly for the affair - although it
claimed it did not gain any unfair advantage - and pledged to improve its
procedures. the pentagon subsequently revoked $1bn worth of contracts assigned to
boeing and prohibited the seattle-based company from future rocket work.
tories reject rethink on axed mp sacked mp howard flight s local conservative
association has insisted he will not be its candidate at the general election.
russell tanguay agent for arundel and south downs tories said mr flight was
ineligible to be a candidate and the association was seeking a substitute. the news
comes despite mr flight s allies saying they had enough support to hold a meeting
to discuss his fate. mr flight landed in trouble over remarks on tory tax and
spending plans. he quit as tory deputy chairman after apparently suggesting the
tories planned extra spending cuts - but he wants to continue as an mp. tory
headquarters says he cannot stand as a conservative candidate because he is no
longer an approved candidate. mr tanguay backed that view on tuesday saying:
howard flight is ineligible to stand as a conservative party candidate. the
association is in the process of selecting a new candidate. but the local tory
chairman made similar comments on friday and dissent continues. two local
councillors who back mr flight met mr tanguay and the local association s chairman
in arundel on tuesday afternoon but did not comment as they left the meeting. mr
flight says he will not stand down as a candidate unless his local party instructs
him to do so at an extraordinary general meeting (egm). the mp who is consulting
his lawyers told bbc news: they selected me and they if you like dispose of me
or keep me. mr flight s supporters also say they have the 50 signatures needed to
trigger the egm. at a news conference mr howard insisted he had played by the
party s rules. the tory leader who argues he is ensuring honesty said: we do not
say one thing in private and another thing in public. labour election campaign
coordinator alan milburn said the tories were in turmoil because mr flight had
exposed their hidden plans. the comments were not a one-off he said claiming mr
howard and other senior tories were obsessively committed to cutting public
spending. liberal democrat chairman matthew taylor said: whilst i disagree with
howard flight s views it seems extraordinary to sack somebody for telling the
truth. it has also emerged mr howard has suspended slough s constituency
conservative association for refusing to deselect its candidate. adrian hilton was
abandoned after suggesting the signing of the maastricht treaty under john major s
government was an act of treason. the catholic herald also highlighted articles he
wrote about the role of catholicism in the european union. mr hilton was chosen to
fight the seat after the previous candidate robert oulds was sacked for being
pictured with a range of guns and a hunting knife. slough conservative association
has now been placed on support status and is being run from conservative campaign
headquarters says a senior party spokesman. mr hilton on tuesday said he was
considering taking legal action against his deposal. he said the local party had
only learned of the final decision on the bbc news website on monday evening.
there are people at central office who are behaving like little dictators and
seemingly people who are ordinary members are being treated with contempt he
said. the party says it did try to contact the local conservative chairman.
building giant in asbestos payout australian building products group james hardie
has agreed to pay $1.1bn (£568m) to victims of asbestos-related diseases. the
landmark deal could see thousands of people suffering from lung diseases - caused
by asbestos the company once made - receive compensation. the move follows angry
protests after the firm said a previous compensation fund was running out of money.
a subsequent new south wales state inquiry criticised hardie s actions. in
september the inquiry found that the company had misled the public about the
amount of money set aside to cover its asbestos-related liabilities sparking the
resignation of its then chief executive peter macdonald. campaigners welcomed
news of the preliminary agreement. this is a momentous day in the fight for
victims and their families said asbestosis sufferer bernie banton who leads a
victims association. there is still a long way to go but we are getting there.
james hardie chairwoman meredith hellicar said the deal provided for a funding
arrangement that is affordable sensible and workable . at the end of the day we
are dealing with compensation for people who are terminally ill. we don t know
exactly how many of them there will be we don t know over what exact period they
will fall ill she said. however the deal still has to receive the approval of
hardie s shareholders. hardie which currently makes more than 80% of its revenues
in the us was once australia s biggest supplier of asbestos building materials. in
2001 the company set up a fund to compensate asbestos victims but it later
admitted the fund was running short of money. a decision by hardie to move its
headquarters to the netherlands - while remaining a listed company in australia -
provoked a damaging public outcry. victims groups accusing it of trying to escape
its responsibilities by moving abroad a charge the company denies. australia s
securities watchdog is currently investigating hardie s former chief executive and
former chief financial officer over allegations of misleading investors and the
general public.
apple unveils low-cost mac mini apple has unveiled a new low-cost macintosh
computer for the masses billed as the mac mini. chief executive steve jobs showed
off the new machine at his annual macworld speech in san francisco. the $499
macintosh sold for £339 in the uk was described by jobs as the most important
mac made by apple. mr jobs also unveiled the ipod shuffle a new music player
using cheaper flash memory rather than hard drives which are used in more
expensive ipods. the new computer shifts the company into new territory -
traditionally the firm is known as a design and innovation-led firm rather than as
a mass-market manufacturer. the mac mini comes without a monitor keyboard and
mouse and a second version with a larger hard drive will also be sold for $599.
the machine - which will be available from 22 january - was described by jobs as
byodkm... bring your own display keyboard and mouse . in an attempt to win over
windows pc customers mr jobs said it would appeal to people thinking of changing
operating systems. people who are thinking of switching will have no more excuses
he said. it s the newest and most affordable mac ever. the new computer has been
the subject of speculation for several weeks and while few people will be surprised
by the announcement many analysts had already said it was a sensible move. in
january apple sued a website after it published what it said were specifications
for the new computer. ian harris deputy editor of uk magazine mac format said the
machine would appeal to pc-owning consumers who had purchased an ipod. they want
a further taste of mac because they like what they have seen with ipod. harris
added: everybody thought that apple was happy to remain a niche maker of luxury
computers and moving into a market dominated by low margin manufacturers like dell
is a bold move. but it shows that apple is keen to capitalise on the mass market
success it s had with the ipod. the mac mini will appeal to pc users looking for an
attractive no fuss computer. the new ipod shuffle comes in two versions - one
offering 512mb of storage for $99 (£69 in the uk) and a second with one gigabyte of
storage for $149 (£99) - and went on sale tuesday. the music player has no display
and will play songs either consecutively or shuffled. the smaller ipod will hold
about 120 songs said mr jobs. mr jobs told the delegates at macworld that ipod
already had a 65% market share of all digital music players.
soderling wins tense milan final fifth seed robin soderling took the milan indoors
title with a dramatic win over radek stepanek in sunday s final. the 20-year-old
swede edged the final set tie-break for a 6-3 6-7 (2-7) 7-6 (7-5) victory and his
second tour title after winning in lyon last year. i m delighted to have won
against such a good opponent in a tournament of this importance said soderling.
i was really on form my service was good and i really liked playing on the
synthetic surface. soderling the world number 37 shrugged off a nervous start to
take the opening set on his first set point. a change in approach from fourth seed
stepanek in the second set paid dividends as he took it on a tie-break but
soderling s superior power proved too much in the third.
us critics laud comedy sideways road trip comedy sideways has had more praise
heaped on it by two us critics associations adding to honours it has already
picked up. the chicago film critics association (cfca) named it winner in five
categories including best film and best actor for paul giamatti. but the director
award went to clint eastwood for million dollar baby. the southeastern film critics
also awarded sideways its best film of the year accolade. director alexander payne
was named best director and he also won best screenplay shared with jim taylor.
the cfca awarded thomas haden church the best supporting actor prize and virginia
madsen the best supporting actress award for their roles in the film. sideways has
already been voted best film by critics associations in new york and los angeles
and has been nominated for a golden globe. british actress imelda staunton won the
cfca best actress for the gritty abortion drama vera drake adding to a growing
list of awards she has won for her performance in the mike leigh film. scrubs star
zach braff was named best new director for his debut garden state. michael moore s
controversial documentary fahrenheit 9/11 won the best documentary while a very
long engagement won best foreign film. the chicago critics have yet to name a date
for when their awards ceremony will be held.
cudicini misses carling cup final chelsea goalkeeper carlo cudicini will miss
sunday s carling cup final after the club dropped their appeal against his red card
against newcastle. the italian was sent off for bringing down shola ameobi in the
final minute of sunday s match. blues boss jose mourinho had promised to pick
cudicini for the final instead of first-choice keeper petr cech. the 31-year-old
will now serve a one-match suspension commencing with immediate effect. cudicini
kept a club record 24 clean sheets last season for chelsea but petr cech has
established himself as first choice for mourinho since moving to stamford bridge in
summer 2004. the 22-year-old czech republic international has set a new premiership
record of 961 consecutive minutes without conceding a goal a mark which is still
running. but mourinho has used cudicini regularly in the carling cup and the
italian has only let in one goal in his four appearances during chelsea s run to
the final.
report attacks defence spending the ministry of defence has been criticised over
the soaring spending costs and growing delays of its top equipment projects. a
national audit office report on the 20 biggest projects says costs have risen by
£1.7bn in the past year. it says there is little evidence the mod s performance
had improved despite the introduction of a smart acquisition policy six years
ago. a senior defence official told the bbc lessons were being learned. the nao s
annual report showed the total cost of the 20 projects covered was expected to
reach £50bn - 14% higher than originally planned. the total delays amounted to 62
months with average individual delays rising by three months. sir john bourn
head of the nao said the problems showed the principles of the scheme known as
smart acquisition had not been consistently applied. many problems can be traced
to the fact that the mod has not spent enough time and resources in the assessment
phase the report says. the nao found that projects launched since the start of
the scheme were showing the same worrying tendencies as the older legacy projects
such as the eurofighter. a senior defence official speaking to the bbc s defence
correspondent paul adams said that although the figures were still not good enough
the report reflected unrealistic expectations early on in the project cycle. this
year s overspend was significantly less than last year s £3.1bn total and the
defence procurement agency - which is responsible for buying defence equipment -
was improving. lord bach minister for defence procurement said he was obviously
still disappointed with the cost and time increases shown but insisted that the
defence procurement agency had undertaken a huge amount of work to expose any
underlying problems on projects . the latest findings follow a string of critical
reports issued within the last 12 months and according to our correspondent
contain few new surprises. turning around the defence procurement agency was a
little like trying to turn around a super tanker - it takes a very long time indeed
he said. our correspondent said it was the same projects including the joint
strike fighter the nimrod and a400m aircraft and the type 45 destroyer which were
resonsible for the bulk of the cost over-runs and delay. but he added some projects
such as the c-17 heavy lift aircraft and successor identification friend or foe
(siff) were showing good performances.
halo 2 sells five million copies microsoft is celebrating bumper sales of its xbox
sci-fi shooter halo 2. the game has sold more than five million copies worldwide
since it went on sale in mid-november the company said. halo 2 has proved popular
online with gamers notching up a record 28 million hours playing the game on xbox
live. according to microsoft nine out of 10 xbox live members have played the game
for an average of 91 minutes per session. the sequel to the best-selling need for
speed: underground has inched ahead of the competition to take the top slot in the
official uk games charts. the racing game moved up one spot to first place nudging
gta: san andreas down to second place. halo 2 dropped one place to five while
half-life 2 fell to number nine. last week s new releases goldeneye: rogue agent
and killzone both failed to make it into the top 10 debuting at number 11 and 12
respectively. record numbers of warcraft fans are settling in the games online
world. on the opening day of the world of warcraft massive multi-player online game
more than 200 000 players signed up to play. on the evening of the first day more
than 100 000 players were in the world forcing blizzard to add another 34 servers
to cope with the influx. the online game turns the stand alone warcraft games into
a persistent world that players can inhabit not just visit europe s gamers could
be waiting until january to hear when they can get their mitts on nintendo s
handheld device nintendo ds says gamesindustry.biz. david yarnton nintendo uk
general manager told a press conference to look out for details in the new year.
its us launch was on sunday and it goes on sale in japan on 2 december. nintendo
has a 95% share of the handheld gaming market and said it expected to sell around
five million of the ds by march 2005.
band aid retains number one spot the charity single by band aid 20 has held on the
chart top spot for a second week strengthening its chances of becoming the
christmas number one. do they know it s christmas featuring artists including
chris martin and jamelia held off kylie minogue to remain the week s biggest
single. next week s chart will reveal who will have the festive chart-topper
minogue s latest release i believe in you went in at number two pushing down ice
cube s you can do it to three. destiny s child also slipped one place to four with
lose my breath followed by girls aloud at five with the children in need record i
ll stand by you. the only other new entry in the top 10 came from robbie williams
track misunderstood a new track written for his greatest hits album. there were no
new releases in the entire top 40 album charts as record companies put out all the
big releases early hoping to cash in on the lucrative christmas market. u2 s how to
dismantle a bomb remains at number one for a third week in a row followed by
williams greatest hits. opera band il divo have moved up one place with their
eponymous album to number three. maroon 5 s album songs about jane has moved up to
number seven despite being released 47 weeks ago. and the abba gold greatest hits
album has crept back into the top 40 more than nine years after it was first
released.
soaring oil hits world economy the soaring cost of oil has hit global economic
growth although world s major economies should weather the storm of price rises
according to the oecd. in its latest bi-annual report the oecd cut its growth
predictions for the world s main industrialised regions. us growth would reach 4.4%
in 2004 but fall to 3.3% next year from a previous estimate of 3.7% the oecd
said. however the paris-based economics think tank said it believed the global
economy could still regain momentum. forecasts for japanese growth were also
scaled back to 4.0% from 4.4% this year and 2.1% from 2.8% in 2005. but the outlook
was worst for the 12-member eurozone bloc with already sluggish growth forecasts
slipping to 1.8% from 2.0% this year and 1.9% from 2.4% in 2005 the oecd said.
overall the report forecast total growth of 3.6% in 2004 for the 30 member
countries of the oecd slipping to 2.9% next year before recovering to 3.1% in
2006. there are nonetheless good reasons to believe that despite recent oil price
turbulence the world economy will regain momentum in a not-too-distant future
said jean-philippe cotis the oecd s chief economist. the price of crude is about
50% higher than it was at the start of 2004 but down on the record high of $55.67
set in late october. a dip in oil prices and improving jobs prospects would
improve consumer confidence and spending the oecd said. the oil shock is not
enormous by historical standards - we have seen worse in the seventies. if the oil
price does not rise any further then we think the shock can be absorbed within the
next few quarters vincent koen a senior economist with the oecd told the bbc s
world business report. the recovery that was underway and has been interrupted a
bit by the oil shock this year would then regain momentum in the course of 2005.
china s booming economy and a spectacular comeback in japan - albeit one that has
faltered in recent months - would help world economic recovery the oecd said.
supported by strong balance sheets and high profits the recovery of business
investment should continue in north america and start in earnest in europe it
added. however the report warned: it remains to be seen whether continental
europe will play a strong supportive role through a marked upswing of final
domestic demand. the oecd highlighted current depressed household expenditure in
germany and the eurozone s over-reliance on export-led growth.
paris promise raises welsh hopes has there been a better six nations match than
saturday s epic in paris and can the welsh revival continue all the way to a
first grand slam since 1978 those are the two questions occupying not just wales
supporters but rugby fans as a whole after a scintillating display in paris. welsh
legend mervyn davies a member of two of three grand slam-winning sides of the
1970s hailed it as one of the great performances of the past three decades .
martyn williams wales two-try scorer on the day called it one of the most
surreal games i have ever played in . a crestfallen france coach bernard laporte
simply observed: there was a french half and there was a welsh half . and what a
half it was for the red dragonhood transforming a 15-6 half-time deficit into an
18-15 lead within five mesmerising minutes of the second period. but while that
passage of play showed the swelling self-belief of a side prepared to back its own
spirit of adventure the final quarter told us a whole lot more about this welsh
side. that they recovered from a battering in the first half-hour to first stem the
tide before half-time then reverse it on the resumption was remarkable enough.
but in resisting a seemingly unstoppable wave of french pressure in a nail-biting
final five minutes wales showed not only their physical attributes but their
mental resolve. in international rugby any of the top seven sides can beat each
other on a given day but the great sides are those that win the close contests on
a consistent basis. england suffered some infamous six nations disappointments en
route to world cup glory the pain of defeat forging bonds that ultimately led to
victory when it really mattered. wales have some way to go before they can be
remotely considered in a similar light. but the signs are that players previously
on the receiving end are learning how to emerge on the right side of the scoreline.
ten of the 22 on duty on saturday were also involved when wales were trounced 33-5
in paris two years ago. but since they threw off the shackles against new zealand
in the 2003 world cup wales have rediscovered much of what made them a great rugby
nation in the first place. the confidence in the squad has been building and
building since the world cup and we now have young players who are becoming world
class noted coach mike ruddock. the likes of michael owen gethin jenkins dwayne
peel and gavin henson are certainly building strong cases for inclusion on this
summer s lions tour to new zealand. and players like stephen jones martyn williams
shane williams and gareth thomas are proving it is not only the youngsters that are
on an upward curve. jones after his superb man-of-the-match display observed that
we are a very happy camp now . ruddock and thomas can take much of the credit for
that ensuring the tribal and regional divisions that have often scarred welsh
rugby do not extend to the national squad. the joie de vivre so evident in that
magical second-half spell in paris also stems from a style of play that first wooed
supporters the world over in the 1970s. if england had half the innate attacking
exuberance wales have produced in this championship they would not be
contemplating the debris of three consecutive defeats. similarly wales have learnt
that style alone does not win matches and that forward power mental toughness and
good decision-making under pressure are equally important. so on to murrayfield
where wales have not won on their last three visits. while the hype in the
principality will go into overdrive the players will set about the task of beating
scotland. only then - with the visit of ireland to finish - can they start thinking
about emulating the hallowed players of the 1970s and writing their own names into
welsh legend.
levy takes whitbread novel prize orange prize winner andrea levy has seen her book
small island win the whitbread novel of the year award. she is now favourite to
win the overall prize after beating booker winner alan hollinghurst s the line of
beauty. geraldine mccaughrean has picked up the children s fiction award for the
third time for not the end of the world. all the category winners go through to
compete for the whitbread book of the year title which carries with it a £25 000
prize. a panel of judges including sir trevor mcdonald actor hugh grant and writer
joanne harris will meet up on 25 january to decide the overall winner with the
announcement being made later that evening. bookmaker william hill has placed
london-based levy s novel as the 6/4 favourite to win. small island levy s fourth
novel is set in post-war england and centres on a landlady and her lodgers. one is
a jamaican who joined british troops to fight hitler but finds life difficult out
of uniform when he settles in london. the judges who included authors jenny colgan
and amanda craig were full of praise for her writing. what could have been a
didactic or preachy prospect turns out to hilarious moving humane and eye-popping.
it s hard to think of anybody not enjoying it wrote the judges. the first novel
section was won by susan fletcher for eve green beating the favourite jonathan
strange and mr norrell by susanna clarke. fletcher has recently graduated from
graduated from the university of east anglia creative writing course. waterstone s
fiction writer buyer suzie doore said: it is great to see susan fletcher win in
the first novel category. as a relatively unknown author this award will give her
exposure to a wider and mass audience that she may not have reached and is a
perfect example of the influence of the whitbread. fresh out of university she is
certainly one to watch. in the biography category it was john guy s the life of
mary queen of scots that was picked as winner. the judges called it an impressive
and readable piece of scholarship which cannot fail but leave the reader moved and
intrigued by this most tragic and likeable of queens . guy has published many
histories including tudor england. he is a fellow at clare college cambridge and
became a honorary research professor of the university of st andrews in 2003.
michael symmons roberts fourth collection of poems scooped the poetry award. his
works mixes mysticism erotica and philosophy through life death and resurrection.
as well as writing poetry symmons roberts also makes documentary films. children s
winner mccaughrean who went into magazine publishing after studying teaching
previously won the whitbread prize in 1987 with a little lower than angels and in
1994 with gold dust. she has previously been the winner of the blue peter book of
the year.
thanou bullish over drugs hearing katerina thanou is confident she and fellow
sprinter kostas kenteris will not be punished for missing drugs tests before the
athens olympics. the greek pair appeared at a hearing on saturday which will
determine whether their provisional bans from athletics ruling body the iaaf
should stand. after five months we finally had the chance to give explanations. i
am confident and optimistic said thanou. we presented new evidence to the
committee that they were not aware of. the athletes lawyer grigoris ioanidis
said he believed the independent disciplinary committee set up by the greek
athletics federation (segas) would find them innocent. we are almost certain that
the charges will be dropped said ioanidis. we believe that we have presented [a
case] that the charges are unreasonable. thanou the 2000 olympic women s 100m
silver medallist and sydney 200m champion kenteris were suspended by the iaaf for
missing three drugs tests. the third was supposed to take place on the eve of the
athens games last august but the pair could not be found in the athletes village.
they were later taken to hospital after claiming to have been involved in a
motorcycle accident. thanou s coach christos tzekos was also suspended by the iaaf.
we were asked [by the disciplinary committee] all kinds of questions about the
night of 12 august said tzekos. we did not leave any gaps. as far as i am
concerned there is no such issue [of refusing to be tested] and i am very
optimistic. tzekos thanou and kenteris who have all denied the charges can
expect a decision within a month. deliberations will start after some additional
documents are brought in by thursday said committee chairman kostas panagopoulos.
i estimate that the final ruling will be issued by the end of february.
consumers snub portable video consumers want music rather than movies while on
the move says a report. produced by jupiter research the analysis of the portable
media player market found only 13% of europeans want to watch video while out and
about. by contrast almost a third are interested in listening to music on a
portable player such as an ipod. the firm said gadget makers should avoid hybrid
devices and instead make sure music reproduction was as good as possible. the
report concluded that the driving force behind the growth of europe s portable
player market was likely to be music rather than films or any combination of the
two. barely 5% of those questioned said they wanted a player that could play back
both music and movies. only 7% wanted a player that could handle games and video.
dedicated music players are the only established digital media players in europe
today despite their high prices said ian fogg jupiter analyst. mr fogg said
although video players and smartphones were trying to cash in on this success they
faced a tough job because of the compromises that had to be made when creating a
dual-purpose device. europeans care most about music playback he said. the
report showed that 27% of consumers asked are interested in portable music players.
the research revealed that french 39% and british 31% consumers were most
interested in music players. mr fogg said portable video players were likely to
remain a niche product that would not be able to compete with devices dedicated to
music playback. a separate report by jupiter forecasts that the european digital
music market will grow to 836m euros (£581m) by 2009. at the end of 2003 the
market was worth 10.6m euros (£7.36m). digital music players will be behind this
market growth said jupiter . apple s ipod was launched in october 2001 but the
portable music player market has been growing steadily since the launch of the
creative nomad jukebox in mid-2000. now consumers face an almost overwhelming
choice of high-capacity portable music players that let them store every track on
every cd that they own.
plan to give elderly care control elderly and disabled people would choose how
their own budget for personal care was spent and organised under government plans.
ministers say elderly and disabled people themselves not social workers should be
able to decide on their care and stay in their own homes. they also plan a supremo
for adult services in each english area to get different agencies working together.
but the government shunned opponents calls for free long-term care. there are
1.7m people needing care in england and ministers suggest the number could
quadruple by 2050. monday s consultation paper on social care for adults in england
is aimed at ending a system which generates dependency. health minister stephen
ladyman said: this document is the antithesis of the nanny state. it s about
taking power away from the state and giving it to individuals and saying that we
will help you make these decisions but we are not going to make them for you any
more. the government has already allowed local councils to give people money so
they can pay for their services directly but take-up of the scheme has been
disappointing . ministers say the new plans would make direct payments simpler and
try to counter reluctance in some local councils to use the payments. they also
want to set up a new half-way house where social workers tell people how much
money is available for their care and help them choose how to spend that
individual budget . the scheme will be funded on existing budgets set until 2008.
but mr ladyman said the plans could deliver savings in some areas such as freeing
up nhs beds and preventing illnesses. he ruled out free personal care in england -
which is on offer in scotland and wales saying it was unsustainable . david
rogers from the local government association said agencies were working together
on the kind of innovation proposed by the government. and tony hunter president of
the association of directors of social services said the plans could improve
dignity and well-being for thousands of people. but age concern argued social care
was chronically under-funded and older people were being offered choice in
principle but not in practice. its director general gordon lishman said: direct
payments will not work if there are no services for people to choose from locally.
the tories say people who pay for three years long-term care directly or through
insurance should be guaranteed free care for the rest of their lives. tory
spokesman simon burns said more than 80 000 long term care places had been lost
since 1997. after eight years of persistent change dogmatic enforcement of
regulation and overbearing government initiatives - we need action not a vision
said mr burns. the lib dems say they would fund free personal care by a new 50% tax
rate on incomes over £100 000. health spokesman paul burstow said: promoting
independence sounds good and helping people to live in their own homes is a goal we
share. but the risk is that independence can turn into isolation if the right
support and care is not available.
anti-tremor mouse stops pc shakes a special adaptor that helps people with hand
tremors control a computer mouse more easily has been developed. the device uses
similar steady cam technology found in camcorders to filter out shaking hand
movements. people with hand tremors find it hard to use conventional mice for
simple computer tasks because of the erratic movements of the cursor on the screen.
about three million britons have some sort of hand tremor condition said the uk
national tremor foundation. using a computer mouse is well known for being
extremely hard for people with tremors so we re delighted to hear that a technology
has been developed to address this problem said karen walsh from the uk national
tremor foundation. most commonly associated with tremors is parkinson s disease
but they can also be caused by other conditions like essential tremor (et). tremors
more often affect older people but can hit all ages. et for example is genetic
and can afflict people throughout their lives. the assistive mouse adapter (ama)
is the brainchild of ibm researcher jim levine who developed the prototype after
seeing his uncle who has parkinson s disease struggle with mouse control. i knew
that there must be way to improve the situation for him and the millions of other
tremor sufferers around the world including the elderly. the number of elderly
computer users will increase as the population ages and at the same time the need
for computer access grows he said. computer users plug the device into a pc and
it can be adjusted depending on how severe the tremor is. it is also able to
recognise multiple clicking on a mouse button caused by shaky digits. ibm said it
would partner up with a small uk-based electronics firm montrose secam to produce
the devices which will cost about £70. james cosgrave one of the company s
directors said it would make a big difference to those with tremors. i m a pilot
and my tremor condition has not limited my ability to fly a plane he said. but
using a pc has proven almost impossible simply because everything revolves around
using the mouse to accurately manipulate the tiny cursor on the screen. he said a
prototype of the gadget had transformed his life. the device could help open up
computing to millions more people who have found shaking to be a barrier. last year
the office for national statistics reported that for the first time more than half
of all households in britain had a home computer. with prices getting cheaper to
get online too computer ownership is increasing. but although 62% of british
people have tried the internet only 15% of britons aged 65 or over have been
online. more than six million uk households now have a broadband net. by the middle
of 2005 it is estimated that 50% of all uk net users will be on broadband. there
are still millions using the net through dial-up connections too.
nissan names successor to ghosn nissan has named a lifetime employee to run its
operations after carlos ghosn its highly successful boss takes charge at renault.
as chief operating officer toshiyuki shiga will run nissan on a daily basis
although mr ghosn who masterminded its recovery will remain chief executive. mr
ghosn is to become chairman and chief executive of renault which owns 44% of the
japanese carmaker in april. mr ghosn transformed nissan into a fast-growing and
profitable business. mr shiga will nominally serve as mr ghosn s deputy. however
he will be nissan s most senior japan-based executive and will be in charge of the
firm s global sales and marketing. he is currently in charge of nissan s
operations across asia and australasia and is credited with significantly improving
its sales in china. he will inherit a strong legacy from mr ghosn who has overseen
a dramatic turnaround in nissan s fortunes in the past five years. dubbed le cost
killer for pushing through huge cost cuts in previous jobs mr ghosn reduced
nissan s overheads by 20% and trimmed its workforce by about 200 000 after taking
charge in 1999. these actions helped nissan turn a 684bn yen ($6.4bn) loss in 2000
into a 331bn yen ($2.7bn) profit the following year. during his tenure nissan has
increased its market share and made significant strides in key export markets.
nissan aims to increase vehicle sales to more than four million by 2008 launching
28 new models in the process. in his new job as renault chief executive mr ghosn
will devote 40% of his time to renault 40% to nissan and the rest to the group s
activities in north america and other key markets. mr ghosn said mr shiga s
appointment would ensure a seamless transition in management. i need a
leadership team capable of accelerating the performance and delivery of results
that has characterized nissan over the past six years mr ghosn said. i have full
confidence in toshiyuki shiga and the new leadership team to help me implement the
next chapter of nissan s growth. nissan also announced a number of other
management appointments with promotions for several younger executives.
us firm bids for lacroix label a us firm has said it is in final negotiations
with luxury goods group lvmh to buy the loss-making christian lacroix haute-couture
house. paris-based lvmh has been selling non-core businesses and focusing on its
most profitable labels including moet & chandon champagne and louis vuitton.
privately-held falic group bought two cosmetics brands hard candy and urban decay
from lvmh in early 2003. the florida company also own a chain of 90 duty free
stores in the us. lvmh refused to comment on the reports. but one of the three
brothers behind the falic group said the firm had also held talks with the designer
christian lacroix and wished to retain him. we are buying his name simon falic
told the reuters news agency. we have plans to increase the exposure of the brand
and increase the volume of business.
peers debate crown succession law peers are debating proposals to change the rules
governing the succession to the throne. labour peer lord dubs succession to the
crown bill aims to end the right of male heirs to succeed to the crown even if they
have an older sister. the private member s bill would also abolish the ban on heirs
to the throne marrying roman catholics. the fabian society s sundar katwala said
the change was long overdue and that he expected a warm response . the political
reform group s general secretary told bbc radio 4 s today programme there were some
very out-dated features at the heart of britain s constitution. in 1998 the
government said in principle it supported the idea of ending gender discrimination
and that it would consult on how to come forward with its own measures. we hope
they are warm towards it and don t say this is the wrong time. he pointed out that
it was 30 years since the sex discrimination act and urged politicians on all sides
to back the bill. mr katwala added: this is long overdue. parliament will have to
do it eventually the government and i hope all of the political parties might
think this is a very simple thing to have in their manifestos. but he
acknowledged that even if the bill did win support it was unlikely to become law
because the legislative programme is likely to be squeezed by the coming general
election. he said he hoped the bill would be a gentle nudge to the government and
suggested it would demand a response . the bill which is in the lords for its
second reading has been adopted by former chief whip ann taylor in the commons.
the rule of succession is regulated not only through descent and tradition but also
by the act of settlement which confirmed in 1701 that it was for parliament to
determine the title to the throne.
brown targets oaps and homebuyers gordon brown has doubled the level at which house
buyers pay stamp duty to £120 000 as he put the economy at the heart of labour s
election campaign. the chancellor also unveiled a one-off £200 council tax refund
for pensioners and a rise in child tax credit. mr brown put 1p a pint on beer 4p
on a bottle of wine and 7p on 20 cigarettes but froze petrol duty until september.
the tories called it a vote now pay later budget. the lib dems branded it a
sticking plaster for the election. tory leader michael howard predicted the
budget would do nothing to help labour s faltering election campaign. this
government and this chancellor have run out of solutions to the problems britain
faces mr howard told mps. their only answer is to tax to spend and to waste -
to get people to vote now and pay later. he ended his response with an election
challenge to labour saying bring it on . liberal democrat leader charles kennedy
attacked mr brown for failing to mention the environment and for his record on
social justice. how can it be right in britain today that the poorest 20% pay more
in tax as a proportion of their income than the richest 20% he asked. mr
kennedy criticised mr brown for failing to mention the ticking bomb of council
tax revaluation saying it was high time the system was replaced by a local tax
based on the ability to pay . during his 49 minute speech mr brown told mps he had
defied the pundits by hitting his growth target of 3.1% for 2004. he said his
budget struck a balance between tax cuts that are affordable investments that are
essential and stability that is paramount . he rejected across-the-board tax cuts
in favour of targeted help for families. the child tax credit will rise in line
with earnings giving families an extra £5 a week. in contrast the personal income
tax allowance will rise only in line with inflation from £4 745 to £4 895 next
month. mr brown told mps child benefit would rise to a maximum of £63 a week for
the first child and £111 for two children. despite his giveaways budget documents
show mr brown clawed back £265m through a clampdown on tax avoidance and increased
revenue from a windfall tax on oil companies. he also scrapped stamp duty relief
for commercial property in disadvantaged areas - a measure brought in just over
three years ago. bbc political editor andrew marr suggested the sweeteners were not
big enough to have a transforming effect on voters. but trust in mr brown s
economic stewardship would be a central election issue he said. mr brown also
unveiled plans for a memorial to the queen mother funded through a special coin to
celebrate the queen s 80th birthday. other measures include equal tax status for
same-sex couples and a deal with the council of mortgage lenders to boost low cost
home ownership. the level where people start paying inheritance tax will also rise
from £263 000 to £275 000 from april. mr brown said he had met his financial
golden rule with a £6bn surplus and he said public borrowing would continue to
fall over the next five years. the economy had grown for 50 consecutive quarters
he said and was forecast to continue doing so over the next year with a forecast
of 3% to 3.5% in 2005 and 2.5% to 3% in 2006. the first £2bn of value-for-money
savings identified in the gershon review have been achieved the chancellor said.
some 12 500 civil servant posts have been axed and 7 800 relocated out of the
south east of england he added. snp leader alex salmond said mr brown had failed
the tartan test as there were no measures to boost the scottish economy. simon
thomas of plaid cymru called it a budget for middle england. uk independence
party leader roger knapman attacked the plans for pensioners saying they needed
more money and the dignity of being allowed to spend it how they want not free
bus rides . the green party said the budget was a wasted opportunity for
environmental protection adding: brown obviously has an eye on the coming
election and has taken his eye off the needs of the planet.
sydney to host north v south game sydney will host a northern versus southern
hemisphere charity match in june or july the australian rugby union (aru) said on
wednesday. the match will include players from the lions tour of new zealand. the
australian rugby union has thrown its support behind a proposed north-south match
to raise funds for the tsunami appeals the aru said. the date is yet to be
decided but the most likely venue is sydney s olympic stadium. aru chief executive
gary flowers said the world cricket charity match in melbourne earlier this month
had inspired the aru. we still need to discuss the options with the irb
(international rugby board) the lions and our sanzar (south africa new zealand
and australia rugby) partners but june or july is seen as a better option than
march to ensure we have the cream of southern hemisphere rugby available he said.
wallabies captain george gregan said the charity match was a great initiative .
tri-nations rivals australia new zealand and south africa would feature
prominently in a southern team against a northern side comprised of six nations
teams france ireland england wales italy and scotland. coach clive woodward s
lions squad will tour new zealand in june and july including tests on 25 june 2
and 9 july. almost 80 000 fans packed into melbourne cricket ground on 10 january
for a charity match that raised £5.9m for victims of the asian tsunami.
yukos seeks court action on sale yukos will return to a us court on wednesday to
seek sanctions against baikal finance group the little-known firm which has bought
its main asset. yukos has said it will sue baikal and others involved in the sale
of yuganskneftegas for $20bn in damages. yukos us lawyers will attempt to have
baikal assets frozen after the russian government ignored a us court order last
week blocking the sale. baikal s background and its motives for buying the unit are
still unclear. russian newspapers have claimed that baikal - which bought the
yuganskneftegas production unit for $9.4bn (261bn roubles £4.8bn) on sunday at a
state provoked auction - has strong links with surgutneftegas russia s fourth-
biggest oil producer. many observers believe that the unit which produces 60% of
yukos oil output could ultimately fall into the hands of surgutneftegas or even
gazprom the state gas firm which opted out of the auction. the russian government
forced the sale of yukos most lucrative asset as part of its action to enforce a
$27bn back tax bill it says the company owes. yukos us lawyers claim the auction
was illegal because the firm had filed for bankruptcy and therefore its assets were
now under the protection of us bankruptcy law which has worldwide jurisdiction. on
wednesday yukos will also seek further legal remedies to prevent the break-up of
the group. we believe the auction was illegal and we intend to pursue all legal
recourses available to us yukos spokesman mike lake told agence france press. if
it exports that oil it will be marketing a stolen product he added. the future
ownership of yuganksneftegas remains unclear amid widespread suggestions that
baikal was established as a front for other interests. speaking on tuesday
president putin said baikal was owned by individual investors who planned to build
relationships with other russian energy firms interested in the development of
yuganskneftegas. president putin also suggested that china s national petroleum
corporation could play a role in the unit s future after signing a commercial
agreement with gazprom to work on joint energy projects. yukos has claimed that the
sale of its main asset will lead to the collapse of the company. commentators and
yukos itself claim the firm is the target of a government campaign to destroy it
because of the political ambitions of its founder mikhail khodorkovsky.
freeze on anti-spam campaign a campaign by lycos europe to target spam-related
websites appears to have been put on hold. earlier this week the company released
a screensaver that bombarded the sites with data to try to bump up the running
costs of the websites. but the site hosting the screensaver now displays a pink
graphic and the words stay tuned . no one at lycos was available for comment on
latest developments in its controversial anti-spam campaign. lycos europe s make
love not spam campaign was intended as a way for users to fight back against the
mountain of junk mail flooding inboxes. people were encouraged to download the
screensaver which when their pc was idle would then send lots of data to sites
that peddle the goods and services mentioned in spam messages. lycos said the idea
was to get the spam sites running at 95% capacity and generate big bandwidth bills
for the spammers behind the sites. but the plan has proved controversial.
monitoring firm netcraft analysed response times for some of the sites targeted by
the screensaver and found that a number were completely knocked offline. the
downing of the sites could dent lycos claims that what it is doing does not amount
to a distributed denial of service attack. in such attacks thousands of computers
bombard sites with data in an attempt to overwhelm them. laws in many countries do
not explicitly outlaw such attacks but many nations are re-drafting computer use
laws to make them specific offences. lycos europe now appears to have put the plan
on hold. the site hosting the screensaver currently shows a holding page with the
words stay tuned . the numerical internet address of the site has also changed.
this is likely to be in response to spammers who have reportedly redirected traffic
from their sites back to the lycos screensaver site. the campaign has come under
fire from some corners of the web. many discussion groups have said that it set a
dangerous precedent and could incite vigilantism. attacking a spammer s website is
like poking a grizzly bear sleeping in your back garden with a pointy stick said
graham cluley senior technology consultant for sophos. not only is this
screensaver similar in its approach to a potentially illegal distributed denial of
service attack but it also is in danger of turning innocent computer users into
vigilantes who may not be prepared for whatever retaliation the spammers care to
dream up.
christmas song formula unveiled a formula for the ultimate christmas single has
been revealed by chart bible british hit singles and albums. the recipe includes a
reference to father christmas sleigh bells a children s choir and a charity
element. the song should also include christmas in the title wishes for peace on
earth and lots of airplay at office parties. there are common musical elements
linking nearly all the big christmas number ones of recent times said editor
david roberts. the book s analysts commissioned chart prank group moped to create
the first christmas single using the whole formula - the song is called gonna have
a no 1 this christmas by moped vs santa. everybody says that christmas number
ones are formulaic but gonna have a number one this christmas is the first song to
crack the formula and combine all these elements into one ultimate christmas track
said mr roberts. surprisingly there s no santa listed among the 8 000 top 75
chart performers in the book so this is our chance to help santa to his rightful
place in british recording history. big festive hits over the years include band
aid s do they know it s christmas slade s merry christmas everybody wham s last
christmas and sir cliff richards mistletoe and wine. band aid 20 s remake of do
they know it s christmas is set to be confirmed as number one in the charts on
sunday.
tory stalking horse meyer dies sir anthony meyer the tory backbencher who
challenged margaret thatcher for the party leadership in 1989 has died. he was 84
had been suffering from cancer for many months and died at his london home. that
failed stalking horse leadership challenge made it easier for michael heseltine
to mount his own bid. that in turn paved the way for john major to move into 10
downing street after the second ballot. meyer s constituency party clwyd north
west which he had represented as an mp for more than 20 years deselected him as a
result of that challenge. sir anthony john charles meyer was born on 27 october
1920. educated at eton and at new college oxford he served in the scots guards
from 1941 to 1945 and was wounded in tanks in normandy. he worked under edward
heath on europe at the foreign office and subsequently won the eton and slough seat
for the tories in 1964 - by 11 votes. labour regained the seat two years later and
meyer had to wait until 1970 before he could re-enter parliament. his prospects of
a front bench slot remained remote because he tended to defy the party line.
china net cafe culture crackdown chinese authorities closed 12 575 net cafes in the
closing months of 2004 the country s government said. according to the official
news agency most of the net cafes were closed down because they were operating
illegally. chinese net cafes operate under a set of strict guidelines and many of
those most recently closed broke rules that limit how close they can be to schools.
the move is the latest in a series of steps the chinese government has taken to
crack down on what it considers to be immoral net use. the official xinhua news
agency said the crackdown was carried out to create a safer environment for young
people in china . rules introduced in 2002 demand that net cafes be at least 200
metres away from middle and elementary schools. the hours that children can use net
cafes are also tightly regulated. china has long been worried that net cafes are an
unhealthy influence on young people. the 12 575 cafes were shut in the three months
from october to december. china also tries to dictate the types of computer games
people can play to limit the amount of violence people are exposed to. net cafes
are hugely popular in china because the relatively high cost of computer hardware
means that few people have pcs in their homes. this is not the first time that the
chinese government has moved against net cafes that are not operating within its
strict guidelines. all the 100 000 or so net cafes in the country are required to
use software that controls what websites users can see. logs of sites people visit
are also kept. laws on net cafe opening hours and who can use them were introduced
in 2002 following a fire at one cafe that killed 25 people. during the crackdown
following the blaze authorities moved to clean up net cafes and demanded that all
of them get permits to operate. in august 2004 chinese authorities shut down 700
websites and arrested 224 people in a crackdown on net porn. at the same time it
introduced new controls to block overseas sex sites. the reporters without borders
group said in a report that chinese government technologies for e-mail interception
and net censorship are among the most highly developed in the world.
bush to outline toughest budget president bush is to send his toughest budget
proposals to date to the us congress seeking large cuts in domestic spending to
lower the deficit. about 150 federal programs could be cut or axed altogether as
part of a $2.5 trillion (£1.3 trillion) package aimed at curbing the giant us
budget deficit. defence spending will rise however while the proposals exclude
the cost of continuing military operations in iraq. vice-president dick cheney said
the budget was the tightest so far. at the heart of the administration s fifth
budget presented to congress on monday is an austere package of domestic
measures. these would see discretionary spending rise below the projected level of
inflation. such belt-tightening is designed to tackle the massive budget deficit
increases of president bush s first term. mr cheney admitted that the budget was
the toughest of the bush presidency but argued it was fair and responsible . it
is not something we have done with a meat axe nor are we suddenly turning our back
on the most needy people in our society he said. the wars in iraq and afghanistan
increased expenditure on national security after 9/11 and the 2001 recession wiped
out the budget surplus inherited by president bush in 2001 and turned it into a
record deficit. the shortfall is projected to rise to $427bn in 2005. education
environmental protection and transport initiatives are set to be scaled back as a
first step towards reducing the deficit to $230bn by 2009. most controversially
the government is seeking to cut the medicaid budget which provides health care to
the nation s poorest by $45bn and to reduce farm subsidies by $587m. spending on
defence and homeland security is set to increase although not by as much as
originally planned. president bush s proposals would see the pentagon s budget rise
by $19bn to $419.3bn while homeland security would get an extra $2bn. the budget
does not include the cost of running military operations in iraq and afghanistan
for which the administration in expected to seek an extra $80bn from congress later
this year. also not featuring in the proposals is the cost of funding the
administration s radical proposed overhaul of social security provision. some
expects believe this could require borrowing of up to $4.5bn trillion over a twenty
year period. despite the republicans holding a majority in both houses of congress
the proposals will be fiercely contested over the next few months. john mccain a
republican senator said he was pleased the administration was prepared to tackle
the deficit. with the deficits that we are now running i am glad the president is
coming over with a very austere budget he said. however democratic senator kent
conrad said the proposals exposed the country to huge financial commitments beyond
2009. the cost of everything he [president bush] advocates explodes he said.
cage film s third week at us top nicolas cage movie national treasure has topped
the us and canada box office for the third week in a row. national treasure made
$17.1m (£8.8m) in ticket sales from friday to sunday according to studio estimates
taking its total to $110.2m (£56.7m). comedy christmas with the kranks starring
tim allen and jamie lee curtis was in second place. the polar express entered in
third place while jude law film closer made its debut at number six. oliver stone
s big-budget epic alexander starring colin farrell followed last week s
disappointing sixth-place opening with a slump to seventh place and takings of
$4.7m (£2.4m). critics have savaged the three-hour epic which reportedly cost
$150m (£77m) to make. national treasure which sees cage s character ben gates
chase a hidden fortune has been made by disney studios. it is cage s fourth
collaboration with jerry bruckheimer who is usually noted for his male-orientated
action films.
pountney handed ban and fine northampton coach budge pountney has been fined £2 000
and banned from match-day coaching for six weeks for calling a referee a
disgrace . pountney was found guilty of bringing the game into disrepute at a
rugby football union disciplinary hearing in london on thursday night. pountney
criticised referee steve lander s performance in northampton s defeat by saracens
on 5 february. the last two weeks of the six-week ban are suspended. pountney
pleaded guilty to the offence before a panel consisting of chairman robert horner
nigel gillingham and jeff probyn. the ban means former scotland international
pountney cannot enter the playing enclosure technical areas or go near the
touchline tunnel or players and officials areas on the day of a game.
bafta to hand out movie honours movie stars from across the globe are attending
this year s bafta film award ceremony. british stars imelda staunton and clive
owen are hoping for awards at the odeon in london s leicester square. hollywood
stars leonardo dicaprio pierce brosnan christian slater and richard gere are also
in the audience for the biggest night in uk film. hollywood blockbuster the aviator
starring dicaprio leads the field with 14 nominations including best movie. it is
up against eternal sunshine of the spotless mind finding neverland the motorcycle
diaries and british film vera drake which has 11 nominations. staunton is one of
the favourites to land the best actress award for her gritty role as a backstreet
abortionist in the small-budget film. she arrived at the ceremony wearing a green
silk and chiffon low cut evening dress decorated with beads. it s lovely to be
here at home to be on british soil. it s very nice indeed she told reporters.
asked whether she was nervous about her best actress nomination she said: it s out
of my hands there s nothing i can do. i m here with a lot of mates and we re going
to have a very nice evening. other nominees in the best actress category include
charlize theron for monster ziyi zhang for house of flying daggers and uk star
kate winslet who has two nods for her roles in eternal sunshine of the spotless
mind and finding neverland. dicaprio faces competition from bernal jamie foxx jim
carrey and johnny depp in the best actor category. the crowed screamed when he
arrived on the red carpet. it s unlike anything i ve ever encountered. it s very
intense and very loud he told the bbc. it s the first time i ve come to the
baftas because it s the first time i ve been nominated...i ve appreciated british
cinema for a long time and to be recognised like this is a special honour. gere
who is presenting the best film award said: it s a big party i had no idea it
was going to be this big. it s crazy i think it s bigger than the academy awards.
british actor owen is hoping to repeat his golden globe success with a best
supporting actor award for his role in closer. he raised one of the biggest cheers
of the night when he walked down the red carpet. i was always a huge fan of closer
as a play so when i got the call to appear in the film it was a huge thrill for
me he said. the whole experience has been a treat and i m very fortunate to have
been given the role. his co-star natalie portman is up against blanchett heather
craney julie cristie and meryl streep in the best supporting actress category.
mike leigh is up for the best director award for vera drake alongside martin
scorsese for the aviator michael mann for collateral michel gondry for eternal
sunshine of the spotless mind and marc forster for finding neverland. the orange
british academy film awards will be shown on bbc one at 2010 gmt.
ireland surge past scots ireland maintained their six nations grand slam ambitions
with an impressive victory over scotland at murrayfield. hugo southwell s try gave
the scots an early 8-0 lead but scores from locks malcolm o kelly and paul o
connell put the visitors in command by half-time. a third try from wing denis
hickie and third penalty from ronan o gara who kicked 13 points extended the
lead. jon petrie scored a second try for scotland but late scores from john hayes
and gavin duffy sealed victory. after two hard-earned away victories eddie o
sullivan side can now look forward to welcoming england to lansdowne road in a
fortnight. scotland will try to give their coach matt williams a first six nations
victory when italy come to edinburgh but they again struggled to turn pressure
into points. the home side started with tremendous intensity and dominated
territory and possession in the opening 10 minutes. a powerful charge from flanker
jason white was carried on by ali hogg and when ireland conceded a penalty close to
their own line scotland kicked it to touch. the irish defence foiled the home side
on that occasion but a stray hand in a ruck allowed paterson to stroke over a
penalty in the eighth minute. if that was a paltry reward for their early pressure
scotland got the try they deserved when paterson s searing break and andy craig s
pass sent southwell streaking to the right corner. paterson was off target with the
conversion and fly-half dan parks then missed a presentable drop-goal attempt.
ireland got themselves on the scoreboard with an o gara penalty and by the 24th
minute the visitors were ahead. stuart grimes pulled down o kelly at a line-out
ireland kicked the penalty to touch and from the set-piece the big lock was driven
over by the rest of his pack. o gara added the conversion and a further penalty
after shane horgan almost grabbed a second try from o gara s chip to the corner
only for the ball to spill from his hand. but ireland still delivered a hammer blow
to scotland s hopes just before the interval. o connell - skipper in the absence of
brian o driscoll - powered through parks weak tackle after a free-kick from a
scrummage to burrow over. scotland suffered a further blow on the resumption when
ireland flanker johnny o connor won another vital turnover and o gara s basketball
pass sent hickie over in the left corner. o gara converted and then thumped over a
40m penalty to give the visitors a commanding 28-8 advantage. scotland looked
bereft of ideas but a half-break from paterson sparked them back to life just
before the hour. stuart grimes won a line-out and a well-worked move saw petrie
scuttle round the side of the ruck to dive over in the left corner. but it proved a
false dawn and ireland reasserted their authority in the final 10 minutes. peter
stringer and o kelly combined to put giant prop hayes over in the right corner
before replacement gavin duffy scorched away on the left david humphreys adding
the final flourish with a touchline conversion. : c paterson; s danielli a craig
h southwell s lamont; d parks c cusiter; t smith g bulloch (capt) g kerr; s
grimes s murray; j white a hogg j petrie. r russell b douglas n hines j
dunbar m blair g ross b hinshelwood. g murphy; g dempsey s horgan k maggs d
hickie r o gara p stringer; r corrigan s byrne j hayes m o kelly p o connell
s easterby j o connor a foley. f sheahan m horan d o callaghan e miller g
easterby d humphreys g duffy. joel jutge (france)
stars pay tribute to actor davis hollywood stars including spike lee burt reynolds
and oscar nominee alan alda have paid tribute to actor ossie davis at a funeral in
new york. veteran star ossie davis a well-known civil rights activist died in
miami at the age of 87 on 4 february 2005. friends and family including actress
ruby dee his wife of 56 years gathered at the riverside church on saturday. also
present at the service was former us president bill clinton and singer harry
belafonte who gave the eulogy. he would have been a very good president of the
united states said mr clinton. like most of you here he gave more to me than i
gave to him. the 87-year-old was found dead last weekend in his hotel room in
florida where he was making a film. police said that he appeared to have died of
natural causes. davis made his acting debut in 1950 in no way out starring sidney
poiter. he frequently collaborated with director spike lee starring in seven lee
films including jungle fever do the right thing and malcolm x. attallah shabazz
the daughter of activist malcolm x recalled the famous eulogy delivered by davis
at her father s funeral. harlem has come to bid farewell to one of its finest
hopes she said quoting the man she knew as uncle ossie. ditto. ossie was my
hero and he still is said aviator star alan alda a family friend for over forty
years. ossie was a thing of beauty. i want so badly someday to have his dignity
- a little of it anyway added burt reynolds davis s co-star in the 90s tv comedy
evening shade. before the midday funeral scores of harlem residents formed a queue
outside the church to pay their respects to davis. it is hard to fathom that we
will no longer be able to call on his wisdom his humour his loyalty and his moral
strength to guide us in the choices that are yet to be made and the battles that
are yet to be fought said belafonte himself an ardent civil rights activist who
had been friends with davis for over 60 years. but how fortunate we were to have
him as long as we did.
fox attacks blair s tory lies tony blair lied when he took the uk to war so has
no qualms about lying in the election campaign say the tories. tory co-chairman
liam fox was speaking after mr blair told labour members the tories offered a hard
right agenda . dr fox told bbc radio: if you are willing to lie about the reasons
for going to war i guess you are going to lie about anything at all. he would not
discuss reports the party repaid £500 000 to lord ashcroft after he predicted an
election defeat. the prime minister ratcheted up labour s pre-election campaigning
at the weekend with a helicopter tour of the country and his speech at the party s
spring conference. he insisted he did not know the poll date but it is widely
expected to be 5 may. in what was seen as a highly personal speech in gateshead on
sunday mr blair said: i have the same passion and hunger as when i first walked
through the door of 10 downing street. he described his relationship with the
public as starting euphoric then struggling to live up to the expectations and
reaching the point of raised voices and throwing crockery . he warned his
supporters against complacency saying: it s a fight for the future of our country
it s a fight that for britain and the people of britain we have to win. mr blair
said that whether the public chose michael howard or mr kennedy it would result in
a tory government not a labour government and a country that goes back and does not
move forward . dr fox accused mr blair and other cabinet ministers of telling lies
about their opponents policies and then attacking the lies. what we learned at
the weekend is what labour tactics are going to be and it s going to be fear and
smear he told bbc news. the tory co-chairman attacked labour s six new pledges as
vacuous and said mr blair was very worried voters would take revenge for his
failure to deliver. dr fox refused to discuss weekend newspaper reports that the
party had repaid £500 000 to former tory treasurer lord ashcroft after he said the
party could not win the election. we repay loans when they are due but do not
comment to individual financial matters he said insisting he enjoyed a warm and
constructive relationship to lord ashcroft. meanwhile lib dem leader charles
kennedy is expected to attack mr blair s words as he begins a nationwide tour on
monday. mr kennedy is accelerating lib dem election preparations this week as he
visits manchester liverpool leicester somerset basingstoke shrewsbury dorset
and torbay. he said: this is three-party politics. in the northern cities the
contest is between labour and the liberal democrats. in southern and rural seats -
especially in the south west - the principal contenders are the liberal democrats
and the conservatives who are out of the running in scotland and wales. the lib
dems accuse mr blair of making a touchy-feely speech to labour delegates which
will not help him regain public trust.
quiksilver moves for rossignol shares of skis rossignol the world s largest ski-
maker have jumped as much as 15% on speculation that it will be bought by us
surfwear firm quiksilver. the owners of rossignol the boix-vives family are said
to be considering an offer from quiksilver. analysts believe other sporting goods
companies may now take a closer look at rossignol prompting an auction and pushing
the sale price higher. nike and k2 have previously been mentioned as possible
suitors. rossignol shares touched 17.70 euros before falling back to trade 7.8%
higher at 16.60 euros. european sporting goods companies have seen foreign revenues
squeezed by a slump in the value of the us dollar making a takeover more
attractive analysts said. companies such as quiksilver would be able to cut costs
by selling rossignol skis through their shops they added. the boix-vives family is
thought to have spent the past couple of years sounding out possible suitors for
rossignol which also makes golf equipment snowboards and sports clothing.
dallaglio eyeing lions tour place former england captain lawrence dallaglio still
harbours hopes of a place on the british and irish lions tour to new zealand.
lions coach sir clive woodward has made it clear he will pick his squad to tour
next summer based on form shown in the six nations championship. but dallaglio who
called time on england earlier this year said: i assure you i wouldn t let anyone
down. i know what it takes and what i have to offer he told the daily telegraph.
dallaglio toured south africa with the lions in 1997 but was forced home early with
a knee injury from the trip to australia three years ago. the 32-year-old also
felt concentrating on club rugby could have prolonged his international shelf-life.
he said: i ll be in good shape and fresh without another 10 tests on the clock.
from what i witnessed at close quarters on sunday in our heineken cup match against
leicester i certainly didn t feel out of place alongside those players many of
whom will be on the trip. if i m fit and playing well then i m most certainly
available. if clive feels he has no need to look outside the international crop
then fine. if he does then he won t need to look too far will he
india s rupee hits five-year high india s rupee has hit a five-year high after
standard & poor s (s&p) raised the country s foreign currency rating. the rupee
climbed to 43.305 per us dollar on thursday up from a close of 43.41. the currency
has gained almost 1% in the past three sessions. s&p which rates borrowers
creditworthiness lifted india s rating by one notch to bb+ . with indian assets
now seen as less of a gamble more cash is expected to flow into its markets
buoying the rupee. the upgrade is positive and basically people will use it as an
excuse to come back to india said bhanu baweja a strategist at ubs. money has
moved out from india in the first two or three weeks of january into other markets
like korea and thailand and this upgrade should lead to a reversal. india s
foreign currency rating is now one notch below investment grade which starts at
bbb- . the increase has put it on the same level as romania egypt and el salvador
and one level below russia.
faultless federer has no equal roger federer - nice bloke fantastic tennis player
- the ultimate sportsman. when lleyton hewitt shook his hand after getting another
thrashing a third in as many months the australian said; you re the best. how
right he is. the stats speak for themselves: 11 titles from 11 finals during 2004 -
three of them grand slams - and 13 final victories in a row going back to vienna
2003. that s an open-era record. hewitt at times in houston showed form which
easily matched his grand slam-winning efforts of 2001 and 2002. but he was
outplayed. twice. hewitt along with andy roddick and marat safin is sure to be
prominent during 2005. but realistically all three will be fighting for the world
number two ranking. according to all those players and even federer himself the
swiss star is in a different league. right now i feel that a little bit he told
bbc sport. i ve dominated all the top ten players. they say nice things about me
because i have beaten them all. i am dominating the game right now and i hope it
continues! the number one player in the world is also the main man for promoting
the sport off court. he has just been voted by the international tennis writers
as the best ambassador for tennis on the atp tour. he has time for everyone.
every match from first round to final is followed by a series of press interviews
in three languages; english french and swiss-german. after a major win there are
extra requests obligations and interviews all seen through to the end with
courtesy and most importantly good humour. you guys are funny i have a good
time with you guys he said genuinely happy to talk into yet another tape
recorder. i see you pretty much every day on the tour so to give away an hour for
interviews is really no problem for me. if i can promote tennis and the sport then
that is good for me. people say thanks back and that is nice. what a refreshing
attitude from someone who could easily dominate the sports pages for a decade. it
sums up his modest personality. shortly after collecting a waterford crystal trophy
a mercedes convertible and a tasty cheque for $1.5m federer addressed the houston
crowd and concluded by saying thanks for having me . now he just needs to find a
way of winning the french open the one grand slam to so far elude him.
young debut cut short by ginepri fifteen-year-old donald young s first appearance
in an atp tennis tournament proved brief as the teenager went out in round one of
the san jose open. young shot to the top of the junior world rankings when he won
the boys singles at january s australian open. but the wildcard entry was
dispatched by fellow american robby ginepri in straight sets 6-2 6-2 in
california. despite that he was happy with his tour debut. it was fun. i had my
chances but they didn t come through he said. young who beat two players ranked
in the top 200 when he was just 14 was only 2-1 down in the first set before
losing 10 of the next 13 games. and ginepri - six years older than the youngest
player to ever win a junior slam and top the global standings - admitted he was
impressed. he s very talented said ginepri. he s got a long future ahead of
him. being left-handed he was very quick around the court. his serve is a little
deceptive. he came into the net and volleyed better than i thought. earlier south
korean hyung-taik lee defeated american jan-michael gambill 6-3 7-6 (7-4). american
kevin kim defeated jan hernych of the czech republic 7-5 6-3 canadian qualifier
frank dancevic downed american jeff morrison 4-6 7-6 (7-3) 6-0 and denmark s
kenneth carlsen beat irakli labadze of the republic of georgia 6-7 (4-7) 6-2 6-3.
top seed andy roddick launches his defence of the title on wednesday against
qualifier paul goldstein. second seed andre agassi opens his campaign on tuesday
against wildcard bobby reynolds last year s us collegiate champion. agassi has won
the san jose five times but his run of three straight titles ended last year when
he fell to mardy fish in the semi-finals. fish went on to lose to roddick in the
final.
top gig award for scissor sisters new york band scissor sisters have won a gig of
the year award for their performance at this year s v festival. the award was
voted for by listeners of virgin radio which compiled a top 10 which was mostly
dominated by newcomers on the music scene this year. the quirky disco-rock band
beat the red hot chili peppers who came second for their hyde park performance in
june. virgin radio dj pete mitchell said: this year has seen an amazing array of
talent come into the mainstream. he added: the scissor sisters are one of the
most original eccentric bands to come through and it s no surprise the british
public are lapping up their performances. newcomers keane came in third place for
their august gig at the v festival followed by maroon 5 and snow patrol. music
veterans the who and david bowie both earned places on the list at number eight
and 10 respectively. at number seven was oxfam s make fair trade gig at london s
hammersmith apollo in october which featured performances by rem razorlight and
coldplay s chris martin. glasgow s franz ferdinand earned a place at number nine
for their home-town performance in april. the annual survey was voted for by nearly
4 000 listeners.
ruddock backs yapp s credentials wales coach mike ruddock says john yapp has what
it takes as an international. the 21-year-old blues prop is the only uncapped
player in wales six nations squad gaining a chance in the absence of ospreys
loose-head duncan jones. john is a young man with a big future. he has been
playing with the blues for two years and has racked up mileage on his playing clock
said ruddock. he has international size is a big physical lad and a good ball-
carrier with a high tackle-count. ruddock s assessment was backed up by yapp s
coach at the blues former wales and lions prop dai young. john s been on an
upward curve all season and is going from strength to strength young told bbc
sport wales. his ball carrying gives us good go-forward he impresses in defence
and his work-rate is excellent. he s working hard on his scrummaging technique
which he is keen to improve to become a destroyer on the loose-head. to be fair to
him he s not quite there with the scrummaging yet but nobody can fault his effort
commitment and attitude. john s a very strong man and is eager for the challenge
if he s pitched in he won t let anyone down. he s developing quickly but i hope
he isn t pushed too quickly in a way that would hurt his development. ruddock
hopes that the selection of yapp and dragons lock ian gough - out of the
international reckoning since falling out with former coach steve hansen - will
send a message to other players in wales. john and ian have been rewarded for
impressing during the heineken cup competition said ruddock. both of them have
played well and we want to send a message out that consistently playing well gets
you in the squad. we believe this is an exciting squad representing traditional
values of welsh rugby and based on the performances in the november
internationals. we have strength and experience up front and well-recognised
talent pace and skill behind. the management team just want to get hold of the
players and get out on the training pitch at the moment. they are all due in on
sunday and that s when the hard work starts.
iraq advice claim sparks new row the tories say ministers must respond in
parliament to claims that the legal advice used to justify the iraq war was drawn
up at number 10. downing street has denied the claims made in a new book about
the attorney general lord goldsmith s advice. lord goldsmith also denied them
saying he was not leaned on in any way. but the conservatives and liberal
democrats say they want the publication of the full legal advice given by the
attorney general. the government has consistently refused to publish lord
goldsmith s advice on the legality of the war - saying such papers have always been
kept confidential. but a short statement about lord goldsmith s position was
presented in a written parliamentary answer on 17 march 2003 - just before a
crucial commons vote on the military action. it said it was plain iraq continued
to be in material breach of un resolution 1441. in his new book lawless world
philippe sands a qc and international law professor suggests the parliamentary
answer was written in downing street. according to mr sands lord goldsmith had
warned tony blair in a document on 7 march 2003 that the use of force against iraq
could be illegal and that it would have been safer to seek a second un resolution
sanctioning military action. mr sands told newsnight the government had prepared a
legal team to be able to defend its case in case legal action was taken against
the uk over the war. on 10 march military chiefs reportedly asked for an
unequivocal statement about the legality of the war to make sure troops could be
defended in a court of law. the book being serialised in the guardian newspaper
says on 13 march lord goldsmith met then home office minister lord falconer and
downing street adviser baroness morgan. after that downing street proceeded to set
out his [lord goldsmith s] view in a parliamentary answer which was then published
on 17 march said mr sands. tory leader michael howard reiterated calls for the
publication of the full legal advice given by the attorney general warning: this
issue will not go away. these revelations throw an intensive spotlight on to the
cavalier way in which this government operates - even on an issue as important as
peace and war. the government needs to act to restore public confidence and trust.
liberal democrat foreign affairs spokesman menzies campbell repeated his party s
calls for lord goldsmith s first piece of legal advice to be made public. the
public interest which the government claims justifies non-publication of the whole
of the advice can only be served now by the fullest disclosure. in a statement
to newsnight lord goldsmith said: in my parliamentary answer on march 17 2003 i
explained my genuinely held independent view that military action was lawful under
the existing security council resolutions. it was certainly not a view that i
expressed as a result of being leaned on in any way nor as i have already made
clear was it written by or at number 10. the prime minister s official spokesman
also rejected the claims saying: the attorney general made it clear the words and
the judgement were his. but ex-foreign secretary robin cook says all the advice
should now be published. he said the claims suggested parliament had only received
a précis of lord goldsmith s second opinion - and that it was actually drafted
in no 10. this would be wrong even if lord goldsmith had signed the statement mr
cook said because the attorney general s advice should be an independent legal
opinion not subject to political negotiation of this kind .
mps issued with blackberry threat mps will be thrown out of the commons if they use
blackberries in the chamber speaker michael martin has ruled. the £200 handheld
computers can be used as a phone pager or to send e-mails. the devices gained new
prominence this week after alastair campbell used his to accidentally send an
expletive-laden message to a newsnight journalist. mr martin revealed some mps had
been using their blackberries during debates and he also cautioned members against
using hidden earpieces. the use of electronic devices in the commons chamber has
long been frowned on. the sound of a mobile phone or a pager can result in a strong
rebuke from either the speaker or his deputies. the speaker chairs debates in the
commons and is charged with ensuring order in the chamber and enforcing rules and
conventions of the house. he or she is always an mp chosen by colleagues who once
nominated gives up all party political allegiances.
lacroix label bought by us firm luxury goods group lvmh has sold its loss-making
christian lacroix clothing label to a us investment group. the paris-based firm
has been shedding non-core businesses and focusing on its most profitable brands
including moet & chandon champagne and louis vuitton. lvmh said the french designer
s haute couture and ready-to-wear labels had been purchased by the falic group for
an unspecified sum. the falic group bought two cosmetics labels from lvmh in 2003.
the sale of the lacroix label comes as many fashion houses are struggling to make
money from their expensive haute couture ranges. the florida-based falic group
which also runs a chain of 90 duty free stores in the us said it planned to expand
the brand by opening new stores. mr lacroix said he planned to stay at the label he
founded in 1987 although exact details are still to be confirmed.
incredibles win animation awards the incredibles movie has beaten shrek 2 to the
main prizes at hollywood s animation awards the annies. the superhero film was
named best animated feature while brad bird won best director writer and voice
actor for his role as designer edna mode. the incredibles won a total of 10 awards
- but shrek 2 which had seven nominations went home empty-handed. the two movies
will compete with shark tale in the best animated film category of the oscars at
the end of february. the incredibles awards came despite shrek 2 s greater box
office success. shrek 2 took $881m (£468m) around the world compared with $576m
(£306m) for the incredibles. spongebob squarepants was named best animated tv show
while tv comedy king of the hill picked up two prizes including one for actress
brittany murphy s voice work. tom kenny who provides the voice for spongebob
squarepants hosted sunday s ceremony at the alex theater los angeles. the awards
are handed out by the international animated film society. finding nemo won nine
annies last year.
speech takes on search engines a scottish firm is looking to attract web surfers
with a search engine that reads out results. called speegle it has the look and
feel of a normal search engine with the added feature of being able to read out
the results. scottish speech technology firm cec systems launched the site in
november. but experts have questioned whether talking search engines are of any
real benefit to people with visual impairments. the edinburgh-based firm cec has
married speech technology with ever-popular internet search. the ability to search
is becoming increasingly crucial to surfers baffled by the huge amount of
information available on the web. according to search engine ask jeeves around
80% of surfers visit search engines as their first port of call on the net. people
visiting speegle can select one of three voices to read the results of a query or
summarise news stories from sources such as the bbc and reuters. it is still a bit
robotic and can make a few mistakes but we are never going to have completely
natural sounding voices and it is not bad said speegle founder gordon renton.
the system is ideal for people with blurred vision or for those that just want to
search for something in the background while they do something else. we are not
saying that it will be suitable for totally blind people although the royal
national institute of the blind (rnib) is looking at the technology he added. but
julie howell digital policy manager at the rnib expressed doubts over whether
speegle and similar sites added anything to blind people s experience of the web.
there are a whole lot of options like this springing up on the web and one has to
think carefully about what the market is going to be she said. blind people have
specialised screen readers available to them which will do the job these
technologies do in a more sophisticated way she added. the site uses a
technology dubbed panavox which takes web text and converts it into synthesised
speech. in the past speech technology has only been compatible with broadband
because of the huge files it downloads but cec says its compression technology
means it will also work on slower dial-up connections. visitors to speegle may
notice that the look and feel of the site bears more than a passing resemblance to
the better known if silent search engine google. google has no connection with
speegle and the use of bright colours is simply to make the site more visible for
those with visual impairments said mr renton. it is not a rip-off. we are doing
something that google does not do and is not planning to do and there is truth in
the saying that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery he said. speegle is
proving popular with those learning english in countries such as japan and china.
the site is bombarded by people just listening to the words. the repetition could
be useful although they may all end up talking like robots said mr renton.
two nigerian banks set to merge nigerian banks united bank of africa and standard
trust bank have agreed plans to merge and create the biggest bank in west africa.
the deal is also in line with a 2004 directive from the nigerian central bank that
called for more consolidation in the nation s crowded banking sector. the merger
was announced in a statement on standard trust s website on tuesday but no
financial details were revealed. united bank is the third biggest in nigeria in
terms of number of branches. standard trust is smaller but more profitable. the
boards of united bank and standard trust at separate meetings yesterday approved
arrangements to merge both institutions standard trust said. standard trust is
100% nigerian-owned but united bank has some foreign investors including new
york-based global depository receipts (32.8%) and banca nazionale del lavoro and
monte del paschi di siena both from italy who each have a 2.4% stake.
white prepared for battle tough-scrummaging prop julian white is expecting a
resurgent wales to give him a rough ride in england s six nations opener in cardiff
on saturday. the leicester tight-head is in the form of his life making the
england number three shirt his own. but he knows wales will put his technique under
immense scrutiny. the welsh scrum is a force to be reckoned with he told bbc
sport. they have made a lot of changes for the better over the last few years.
white is also impressed with the welsh pack s strength in depth. gethin jenkins is
starting at loose-head for them. he has played a bit at tight-head but i think his
favoured position is loose-head and he is very good he added. the 31-year-old has
made a massive contribution to the england and leicester cause of late and is
arguably the form tight-head prop in the world. he destroyed south africa s os du
randt in the scrum at twickenham last autumn to give england the platform for an
impressive 32-16 victory. leicester who signed white from bristol when the west
country side were relegated from the zurich premiership in the summer of 2003 have
also been aided by white s presence this season. the tigers are sitting pretty at
the top of the premiership table and have also booked their place in the last eight
of the heineken cup. i am pleased with my form he said. but my form is helped
by the people i play with at leicester - people like martin johnson and graham
rowntree. it s been a good season so far and to be in the starting xv for the
first game of the six nations is what every player wants. i am delighted with the
way things have gone but we have to get it right this weekend. white is now one of
the more experienced members of the england squad which takes to the field on
saturday. injuries have taken their toll and coach andy robinson has been deprived
of richard hill jonny wilkinson martin corry mike tindall will greenwood and
stuart abbott. and with 27 caps and a world cup winner s medal to his name white
is now in a position to offer his experience to youngsters such as centres matthew
tait and jamie noon. i don t know how much experience a tight-head can give a
centre but you are there to give them a pat on the back if things go wrong or to be
there if they want to talk in any way he added. when i first came into the squad
people like jason leonard and martin johnson were the first to come over and talk
through things and help out. it gives you a lot of confidence when people like
that speak to you. i was in awe of a lot of them so to sit down and speak with
them and realise you are on the same wavelength is good. white missed the vast
majority of last year s six nations because of a knee injury and is raring for the
2005 event to get going. and that is despite the opening game taking place amid the
red-hot atmosphere in cardiff. i enjoy the atmosphere. the millennium stadium is
probably one of the best stadiums in the world he said. to go down there and
hear the shouting and the singing - it s one of my favourite places to play. this
is probably the most even six nations for a long time. england ireland france and
wales are all contenders. on form ireland should be favourites but you just don t
know - that s the great thing about this tournament.
takeover offer for sunderland fc bob murray chairman of sunderland fc has
launched a £1.5m ($2.8m) bid for the club after buying broadcaster bskyb s stake in
the business. mr murray is already sunderland s leading shareholder holding a
37.6% stake and now hopes to take full control of the championship side. mr murray
said the club would find it easier to attract more investment by having a single
majority owner. sunderland delisted its shares from the stock market in august. a
lifetime sunderland supporter and board director since 1984 mr murray agreed to
buy bskyb s 4.76% holding in the wearside club on tuesday - taking his stake to
42.3%. under stock market rules mr murray is required to make an offer for the
remaining shares that he does not already own at the same price paid for the bskyb
holding of 31p a share. should the offer be fully accepted mr murray said he
expected to pay a maximum of £1.53m for the remaining shares. he also stressed that
fans who wanted to keep in touch with the club s financial affairs could retain a
small number of shares enabling them to attend annual meetings. the football
sector is experiencing significant changes and uncertainty mr murray said in a
statement. the recent speculation surrounding malcolm glazer and manchester united
has shown the unsettling effect possible where there are a number of disparate
interests he added. i believe that this offer will strengthen the company and
remove the potential for that type of uncertainty. sunderland were relegated from
the premiership in 2003 but are currently pushing for promotion. the club managed
to reduce its losses last year from £20.6m to £1.2m after selling a host of leading
players. however the club s turnover dropped sharply from £42.5m to £28.5m over
the same period because of a fall in broadcast revenues. bskyb bought its stake in
sunderland in 1999 as part of a five year media partnership deal. the deal expired
last month.
uk debut for kevin spacey movie hollywood stars kevin spacey and kate bosworth
attended the british premiere of new film beyond the sea in london s leicester
square on thursday. spacey 45 wrote directed and starred in the film inspired
by the life of 1950s croooner bobby darin. this is my tribute to someone i think
was a remarkable talent said spacey who as darin sings all 18 songs on the
film soundtrack. bosworth 21 plays darin s wife - real life hollywood actress
sandra dee. i knew absolutely nothing about bobby darin before this film but now
i m a huge fan said bosworth who attended the premiere with british boyfriend
orlando bloom. there is darkness and tragedy in the story and it was a dream for
me to land this part. actress sandra dee continues to live in los angeles as a
virtual recluse but has given her approval to the biopic. she called me last
week and said she loved it said spacey who was joined at the premiere by members
of the boy band westlife. spacey a double oscar-winner has long been fascinated
by the story of singer bobby darin. the voice behind mack the knife dream lover
and beyond the sea fought childhood illness to become one the biggest stars of the
1950s but died aged 37 from the heart condition that had troubled him all his
life. bobby darin was one of the greatest entertainers the world has ever known
and yet because he died young he s been kind of forgotten said spacey at the
premiere. making this film was the most fun i ve ever had in my entire life. the
movie also stars british actors bob hoskins and brenda blethyn as darin s mother.
uk bank seals south korean deal uk-based bank standard chartered said it would
spend $3.3bn (£1.8bn) to buy one of south korea s main retail banks. standard
chartered said acquiring korea first bank (kfb) fulfilled a strategic objective of
building a bigger presence in asia s third largest economy. its shares fell nearly
3% in london as the bank raised funds for the deal by selling new stocks worth £1bn
($1.8bn) equal to 10% of its share capital. standard chartered expects about 16%
of future group revenue to come from kfb. the south korean bank will also make up
22% of the group s total assets. the move a year after citigroup beat standard
chartered to buy koram bank would be the south korean financial sector s biggest
foreign takeover. this time around standard chartered is thought to have beaten
hsbc to the deal. kfb is south korea s seventh largest bank with 3 million retail
customers 6% of the country s banking market and an extensive branch network. the
country s banking market is three times the size of hong kong s with annual
revenues of $44bn. standard chartered has its headquarters in london but does two
thirds of its business in asia and much of the rest in africa. we re comfortable
with the price paid...the key here has been speed and decisiveness in making sure
that we won said standard chartered chief executive mervyn davies at a london
press conference. standard chartered said kfb was a well-managed conservatively
run bank with a highly skilled workforce and represented a significant
acquisition in a growth market . in london standard chartered s sale of 118
million new shares to institutional investors pushed its share price down and
contributing to the ftse 100 s 0.3% decline. standard chartered s shares were 28
pence lower at 925p by midday. some analysts also queried whether standard
chartered had overpaid for kfb. the deal which requires regulatory approval is
expected to be completed by april 2005 and to be earnings accretive in 2006
standard chartered said. rival banking giant hsbc which is based in london and
hong kong was also in the running. standard chartered is believed to have gained
the initiative by putting together a bid during the christmas break. they were
able to move so quickly it caught hsbc by surprise the financial times newspaper
quoted an insider in the talks as saying. hsbc will now have to wait for the next
south korean bank in line to be sold off - thought likely to be korea exchange bank
also currently in the hands of a us group. standard chartered said it was buying
100% of kfb an agreement that would bring an end to the bank s complex dual
ownership. the south korean government owns 51.4% of kfb while the remaining
shareholding and operational control are in the hands of us private equity group
newbridge capital. newbridge bought its stake during the government s
nationalisation of several banks in the wake of the 1997 asia-wide currency crisis
which crippled south korea s financial institutions. south korea s economy is
expected to grow by 4.5% this year. although often thought of an export-driven
economy south korea s service sector has overtaken manufacturing in the last
decade or so. services now make up roughly 40% of the economy and consumer
spending and retail banking have become increasingly important. in the aftermath of
the asian financial crisis the government encouraged the growth of consumer
credit. bad loan problems followed; lg card the country s biggest credit card
provider has been struggling to avoid bankruptcy for months for instance. but
analysts believe south korea s financial services industry is still in its infancy
offering plenty of scope for new products. standard chartered sees the opportunity
to create value by the introduction of more sophisticated banking products . since
1999 kfb has been restructured from a wholesale bank into a retail bank focused on
mortgage lending which makes up 45% of its loans.
business fears over sluggish eu economy as european leaders gather in rome on
friday to sign the new eu constitution many companies will be focusing on matters
much closer to home - namely how to stay in business. lille is a popular tourist
destination for britons who want a taste of france at the weekend. but how many
tourists look at the impressively grand victorian chambre de commerce which stands
beside the opera house and consider that it was built - like the town halls in
many northern english towns - on the wealth created by coal steel and textiles
like northern england and industrial scotland those industries have been in long
term decline - the last coal pit closed in 1990. beck-crespel is a specialist steel
firm in armentieres about 20 miles from lille. the company has not laid off a
worker since 1945. it specialises in making bolts and fixings for power stations
and the oil industry but not many of those are being built in europe these days.
director hugues charbonnier says he is under pressure because factories in the far
east are able to make some of his output more cheaply while his key markets are
now in china and india. in our business the market is absolutely global you can
not imagine living with our size (of business) even within an enlarged european
union (if we did that) we would need not 350 people but perhaps just 150 or 200
he says. it isn t just globalisation that is hurting; the law in france means
workers are paid for a 39 hour week even though they work just 35 hours. but at
least there is still a steel industry. coal has now totally vanished and textiles
are struggling. new business has been attracted but not enough to make up the
difference. that is one reason why people here are not great fans of the eu says
frederic sawicki a politics lecturer at the university of lille. in the region
today the unemployment rate is 12% in some areas it is 15%. they don t see what
europe is doing for them so there is a kind of euro scepticism especially in the
working classes he says. which is strange because lille is at the crossroads of
europe - if anywhere should be benefiting from the euro it is here. the euro was
designed to increase trade within the eurozone but the biggest increase in trade
has been with the rest of the world. much of that trade passes through the world s
largest port rotterdam in holland home to specialist crane maker huisman itrec.
its cranes help build oil rigs and lifted the sunken russian submarine kursk from
the sea bed but huisman itrec is now setting up a factory in china where costs
are cheaper and its main customers are closer. boss henk addink blames the low
growth rate in europe for the lack of orders closer to home. in the us growth is
something like 6% in china they are estimating 15% and in the eu it is more or
less 1% he says. mr addink blames the euro for stifling demand. he much preferred
the old currencies of europe which moved in relation to each country s economic
performance. in germany industry is exporting more these days but the economy as
a whole is once again mired in slow growth and high unemployment. growth is likely
to peak this year at just under 2%. in britain that would be a bad year; in germany
it is one of the best in recent years. with germany making up a third of the
eurozone s economy this is a major problem. if germany doesn t once again become
the powerhouse of europe growth across the bloc is never going to be as strong as
it could be. however at one factory near the dutch border things are changing.
the siemens plant at boscholt makes cordless phones and employs 2 000 staff. staff
have started working an extra four hours a week for no extra pay after siemens
threatened to take the factory and their jobs to hungary. factory manager herbert
stueker says that he now hopes to increase productivity by nearly 30% . but
germany needs much more reform if all its industry is to compete with places such
hungary or china. the government is reforming the labour market and cutting the
generous unemployment system but the real solution is to cut the wages of low
skilled workers says helmut schneider director of the institute for the study of
labour at bonn university. labour is too costly in germany especially for the low
skilled labour and this is the main problem. if we could solve that problem we
could cut unemployment by half he says. the eu set itself the target of being the
most efficient economy in the world by 2010. four years into that process and the
target seems further away than ever.
madagascar completes currency switch madagascar has completed the replacement of
its malagasy franc with a new currency the ariary. from monday all prices and
contracts will have to be quoted in the ariary which was trading at 1 893 to the
us dollar. the malagasy franc which lost almost half its value in 2004 is no
longer legal tender but will remain exchangeable at banks until 2009. the phasing
out of the franc begun in july 2003 was intended to distance the country from its
past under french colonial rule and address the problem of the large amount of
counterfeit francs in circulation. it s above all a question of sovereignty
reuters quoted a central bank official as saying. it is symbolic of our
independence from the old colonial ways. since we left the french monetary zone in
1973 we should have our own currency with its own name. the ariary was the name of
a pre-colonial currency in the indian ocean island state.
blair says mayor should apologise tony blair has urged london mayor ken livingstone
to apologise for his nazi comment to a jewish reporter. labour s mr livingstone
who says he is standing by his remarks had accused an evening standard
journalist of being like a concentration camp guard . mr blair told five s wright
stuff show: let s just apologise and move on. mr livingstone has said the remarks
may have been offensive but were not racist and said he would not apologise even
if the prime minister asked. mr blair who was instrumental in returning mr
livingstone to the labour party insisted on wednesday it was time for the london
mayor to say sorry. a lot of us in politics get angry with journalists from time
to time but in the circumstances and to the journalist because he was a jewish
journalist yes he should apologise he said. let s just apologise and move on -
that s the sensible thing. tory leader michael howard asked about mr livingstone
s remark by reporters said it was important for politicians to be mindful about
the language they use. it s particularly important that as we get close to the
election that politicians talk with civility and courtesy about issues that we all
face he said. i think it s a matter of sadness that we are not seeing that from
the labour party. we had what ken livingstone said we had what alastair campbell
has said and we have what others have said. i think that s a matter of great
regret. the row blew up after mr livingstone was approached by evening standard
reporter oliver finegold following a party marking the 20th anniversary of former
culture secretary chris smith coming out as britain s first gay mp. on tape mr
livingstone who once worked as a freelance restaurant critic on the paper is
heard asking mr finegold if he is a german war criminal . mr finegold replies:
no i m jewish i wasn t a german war criminal. i m quite offended by that. the
mayor then says: ah right well you might be but actually you are like a
concentration camp guard you are just doing it because you are paid to aren t you
at his weekly press conference on tuesday mr livingstone said his comments were
not racist and refused to apologise. if you think they are racist i think you are
wrong he told reporters. the dispute comes as an inspection team from the
international olympic committee began a four-day tour to assess london s bid for
the 2012 games. an official complaint has been made to local government watchdogs
by the british jews demanding an investigation by the standards board of england.
it has the power to suspend or bar mr livingstone from public office.
bank opts to leave rates on hold the bank of england has left interest rates on
hold at 4.75% for a sixth month in a row. the bank s monetary policy committee
(mpc) decided to take no action amid mixed signals from the economy. but some
economists predict a further rise in the cost of borrowing will come later this
year. interest rates rose five times between november 2003 and august 2004 as
soaring house prices and buoyant consumer data sparked inflation fears. bank of
england governor mervyn king has recently warned against placing too much weight on
one month s economic data suggesting the mpc is waiting for a clearer picture to
emerge. economists see next week s inflation report from the mpc as key in
assessing whether a further interest rate rise is necessary to keep the economy in
check. slower consumer spending and a quieter housing market are likely to have
convinced the mpc that rates should be left unchanged in recent months. inflation
however has been rising faster than expected hitting an annual rate of 1.6% in
december - its highest level in six months. data on wednesday also showed
manufacturing output rose at its fastest rate since may last month reinforcing a
view that economic growth was stronger than forecasts. and recent house surveys
from the halifax and nationwide have indicated prices are still rising albeit at a
slower pace than in recent years. philip shaw chief economist at investec
securities said he believed rates would remain at 4.75% for the rest of the year
although strong economic data could lead to a further hike. the economic landscape
has changed quite considerably over the last couple of months he said. growth
appears stronger and the mpc may become more concerned about inflation trends.
howard archer economist at global insight said the mpc may well consider that the
balance of risks to the growth and inflation outlook have moved from the downside
to the upside . business groups welcomed the mpc s widely-expected move to leave
rates on hold and cautioned against further rises. the british chambers of commerce
(bcc) said it was concerned by the clamour in some quarters for early interest
rate increases. we believe that these demands should be firmly resisted said
david frost bcc director general. manufacturing still faces extremely serious
problems and is performing poorly in spite of the recent revised figures. ian
mccafferty chief economist at the cbi said the mpc faced an interesting
challenge. consumers appear to have pulled in their horns over the holiday period
and exporters are struggling with the strength of sterling he said. however the
broader economy continues to show healthy growth and the tight labour market and
buoyant commodity prices are nudging inflation higher.
blunkett hints at election call ex-home secretary david blunkett has given fresh
clues that the general election will be announced on monday. he told bbc radio
five live: i m out in my constituency getting ready for what we presume will be an
announcement very shortly at the weekend. he clarified that he meant he would be
in his sheffield seat this weekend not that he expected an election call then.
tony blair is tipped to ask the queen on monday to dissolve parliament ready for a
5 may poll.
dj double act revamp chart show dj duo jk and joel are taking over bbc radio 1 s
flagship chart show on sunday adding showbiz news celebrity interviews and
between-song banter. they hope to boost ratings for the long-running show which
has been overtaken in popularity by independent radio s hit 40 uk rundown. radio 1
s chart show is an institution and remains the station s single most popular show
says jk also known as jason king. for years people have been tuning in at four o
clock with their tape recorders ready to record their favourite tunes. not that i
ever did that. but things have moved on a lot now so it was time for a change.
that change involved ejecting previous host wes butters and relocating king and dj
partner joel ross from their weekend afternoon radio 1 slot. the pair have worked
together for a decade - meeting on viking radio in hull before moving to manchester
station key 103 and winning two sony radio awards. they also presented gadget
series playboyz and car show motor maniacs for cable tv channel granada men and
motors and pure soap on bbc three. on the revamped chart show their cheeky
laddish banter will punctuate star interviews and competitions film and dvd charts
plus a look at future single releases in addition to the singles chart itself.
the chart rundown is no longer the only point of the programme says ross. the
show used to be the only way to discover who was in the top 40. now you can just
click on the internet to find that out so the show has plenty of extra items too.
the show s reduced reliance upon the top 40 also reflects the fact that music fans
are now more likely to download songs in digital format rather than buy them on
compact disc vinyl or cassette. i personally buy downloads rather than cd
singles says 27-year-old ross. even my grandma can download songs now. jk is
still struggling with the technology though. but it s premature for people to
say that the singles chart is dead ross adds. while sales of singles on
traditional formats are down interest in songs has been revived by download sales
which will be incorporated into our main chart rundown from april. music fans
still want to know what is the most popular song of the week. ross will be
plumping for chart success from rapper verbalicious and the stereophonics on sunday
while king is more of an r&b and dance music fan. so listeners will get the
advantage of both our music tastes says king 30 who describes outgoing host
butters as an extremely professional and competent broadcaster . the advantage
joel and i have is that we re a double act with a rapport between us that makes
the show much more interactive king says. wes has a great broadcasting career
ahead of him. and if not i could always use a cleaner he jokes. ross says the
pair have done their best to ignore the weight of expectation placed upon the
revamped show. other people can worry about that we are going to continue doing
what we do well he says. at the end of the day this is a radio show that is
meant to be entertaining. nobody died.
bbc to pour £9m into new comedy the bbc is to invest £9m in developing new comedy
and entertainment programmes outside london. the changes come as part of a shake-
up of several departments to create shows that appeal to a wider range of people.
changes are also being made to teams in the factual and daytime departments outside
london. director of television jana bennett said the changes were about getting
the best ideas on screen as efficiently and effectively as we can . the new
structure in each genre is designed to ensure that happens she said. a number of
new roles are being created in each department including a head of comedy
commissioning based in glasgow. the new person will be in charge of the £9m budget
and their role will be to develop shows outside the capital both within the bbc
and with independent production companies. jane lush controller of entertainment
commissioning said entertainment and comedy are incredibly important to our
audiences; i m confident these changes will help us get the very best programmes on
screen. similar positions will also be created in the other departments with the
new commissioning editor for documentaries based in bristol and the daytime
commissioning editor in birmingham. ms bennett said the new roles would benefit
those making programmes within the bbc as well as those making shows for the
channel independently. a strong independent sector and a flourishing in-house
production base are not mutually exclusive and will stimulate the competition that
will deliver the best ideas to the audience she said.
consumers drive french economy france s economic growth accelerated in the last
three months of 2004 driven by consumer spending a report shows. gross domestic
product (gdp) rose by 0.8% in the fourth quarter compared with the previous three
month period the statistical office insee said. that expansion pushed annual
growth to 2.3% the fastest rate in two years. consumer spending was up by 1.2% in
the fourth quarter and there also was a rebound in business investment that gave
the recovery an extra shove. analysts warned that france still was facing
challenges and was unlikely to keep expanding at its current pace. france still
has a strong economic growth said marc toutai an economist at natexis banques
populaires. but if we check the figures in detail there s a problem. consumer
spending is still high. but french households have spent their savings to consume.
france can t sustain a high growth rate without an improvement in the job market.
there s too much of a gap between growth and employment. unemployment levels are
currently stuck at about 10% and is proving difficult to bring down despite
government efforts. another worry is that demand in germany and italy two of
france s main trading partners is sluggish. despite the concerns analysts
pointed out that france was outperforming the majority of its european counterparts
and that its economy was looking more robust than in previous years. as well as
strong domestic demand exports climbed by 1.3% in the fourth quarter - the biggest
increase in foreign sales for a year. it s an economic growth that seems well
balanced said nicolas claquin an analyst at ccf. in the beginning of 2004
growth was mainly driven by consumer spending. here it gets contributions from
investment and exports though household consumption is still strong. but we
expect overall economic growth to fall to 2.0 percent in 2005.
nadal marches on in mexico rafael nadal continued his run of fine form to beat
guillermo canas and reach the mexican open semis in acapulco. eighth seed nadal
who picked up his second atp title when he beat alberto martin in last week s
brazil open saw off the argentine third seed 7-5 6-3. he now meets argentine wild
card mariano puerta who followed up his win over top seed carlos moya by
overcoming spain s felix mantilla 6-4 3-6 7-6. czech fifth seed czech jiri novak
was eliminated 7-5 6-1 by agustin calleri. the unseeded argentine who won the
tournament two years ago now plays spain s albert montanes. montanes advanced to
his first semi-final of the year with a 4-6 6-3 6-4 triumph over sixth-seeded
italian filippo volandri. argentina s agustin calleri beat fourth seed jiri novak
7-5 6-1 in a battle of former champions at the mexican open. calleri won his only
atp title in acapulco two years ago while novak won the singles and doubles titles
in 1998. calleri will face albert montanes in the semi-finals after the spaniard
ousted sixth seed filippo volandri of italy 4-6 6-3 6-4. argentine wild card
mariano puerta continued his improbable run outlasting felix mantilla 6-4 3-6 7-6.
india s deccan gets more planes air deccan has signed a deal to acquire 36 planes
from avions de transport regional (atr). the value of the deal has not been
revealed because of a confidentiality clause in the agreement. but air deccan s
managing director gorur gopinath has said the price agreed was less than the
catalogue price of $17.6m (£9.49m) per plane. recently india s first low-cost
airline ordered 30 airbus a320 planes for $1.8bn. under the agreement air deccan
will buy 15 new atr 72-500 and lease another 15. atr will also provide six second
hand airplanes. in a statement atr has said deliveries of the aircraft will begin
in 2005 and will continue over a five-year period. mr gopinath said the planes
will connect regional indian cities. after an evaluation of both atr and
bombardier aircraft we have chosen the atr aircraft as we find it most suitable
for our operations and for the indian market for short haul routes. filippo
bagnato atr s chief executive has said that his firm will also work with air
deccan to create a training centre in bangalore. the potential of the indian
budget market has attracted attention from businesses at home and abroad. air
deccan has said it will base its business model on european firms such as ireland s
ryanair. beer magnate vijay mallya recently set up kingfisher airlines while uk
entrepreneur richard branson has said he is keen to start a local operation. india
s government has given its backing to cheaper and more accessible air travel.
blair up for it ahead of poll tony blair says his personal standing in the eyes
of voters will be an issue in the general election. the prime minister said he
was up for it as the country waits to go to the polls possibly in a matter of
weeks. he told the observer government life was a constant barrage of attack but
said he would not stay in charge if he felt unable to contribute. mr blair also
spoke of meeting many people across the country with concerns about the
compensation culture. he said britain was in danger of needless panic over public
safety issues. speaking amid a flurry of pre-election campaigning the prime
minister said: i am an issue i always will be. whoever is the prime minister will
be. he added: if you are afraid to take criticism you should go and do another
job. asked if he would quit as leader if he felt like a liability to labour he
said: it s important always not to do the job unless you feel you have something
to contribute. whether he still had something to offer he said was a judgement
for people to make. mr blair s assessment is likely to be seen as a signal that
replacing him would not bring an upsurge in fortunes for the labour administration.
his comments come as the co-chairman of the conservative party liam fox on
saturday called him a disappointment of historic proportions as a prime minister.
mr blair said he had learned from a series of at times tough encounters with
members of the public during question and answer sessions across the country in
recent weeks. he pledged to clamp down on britain s growing compensation culture
which has brought concerns that doctors teachers and other professionals are being
hampered in their work by the fear of frivolous lawsuits. i was quite shocked to
be told by people who were running a nursery that they were worried about letting
the kids out into the playground when it was wet in case one of them slipped and
fell and they ended up having a legal case [against them] he said. we have got
to look at a way of getting people protection on that. mr blair said the
government was also looking at how to make sure that legal aid is not abused with
actions against doctors and others as part of a review being carried out by the
lord chancellor s department. and there should be real debate about the risk
posed by public safety threats he said. we are in danger of - depending on
whatever is the media campaign of the day - ending up spending literally hundreds
sometimes millions of pounds meeting quite a small risk. his comments come after
the government announced it is to spend £200m on drugs to treat a possible outbreak
of bird flu and the sudan 1 food scare. meanwhile commons leader peter hain has
warned that on the campaign trail he has seen dangerous complacency being
displayed by labour voters convinced of a general election victory. if labour
voters stayed at home in marginal seats they could see tory leader michael howard
coming in the back door to number 10 with the tradesman s key to number 10 getting
into power he added.
yangtze electric s profits double yangtze electric power the operator of china s
three gorges dam has said its profits more than doubled in 2004. the firm has
benefited from increased demand for electricity at a time when power shortages have
hit cities and provinces across the country. as a hydroelectric-power generator it
has not been hurt by higher coal costs. net income jumped to 3bn yuan in 2004
($365m; £190m) compared with 1.4bn yuan in 2003. sales surged to 6.2bn yuan from
3bn yuan a year earlier. the figures topped analysts expectations even though the
rate of growth has slowed from 2003. analysts forecast that it is likely to decline
further this year to a rate of expansion of closer to 20%. yangtze electric has
been expanding its output to meet demand driven by china s booming economy. the
government has delayed the building of a number of power plants in an effort to
rein in growth amid concerns that the economy may overheat. that has led to an
energy crunch with demand outstripping supply. earlier this month work was halted
on an underground power station and a supply unit on the three gorges dam as well
as a power station on its sister xiluodu dam because of environmental worries. a
total of 30 large-scale projects have been halted across the country for similar
reasons. the three gorges dam project has led to more than half a million people
being relocated and drawn criticism from environmental groups and overseas human
rights activists. its sister project the xiluodu dam is being built on the
jinshajiang - or river of golden sand as the upper reaches of the yangtze are
known.
cebit fever takes over hanover thousands of products and tens of thousands of
visitors make cebit the place to be for technology lovers. welcome to cebit 2005
was the message from the pilot as we landed the message on flyers at the airport
and the message on just about every billboard in town. cebit fever has taken over
hanover. hotels have been booked out for months; local people are letting out rooms
in their homes to the hoards of exhibitors visitors and journalists. cebit itself
is huge the exhibition site could almost be classified as a town in its own right.
there are restaurants shops and a bus service between the halls - of which there
are 27. there are more than 6 000 companies here showing their latest products.
the list of them that i was given when i came in is the size and weight of a phone
book. one of the mains themes this year is the digital home and one of the key
buzzwords is convergence. the entertainment pc is being billed as the
replacement for dvd players stereos telephones and computers - offering a one-box
solution wirelessly connected throughout a house. to show them off one display
has been modelled as a prototype digital lifestyle home by german magazine
computer reseller news. we wanted to show how this fits into a living room or
workplace to give people a feeling how it would work in their homes said claudia
neulling from the magazine. the house has webcams for security in each room which
can be called up on the high definition tv connected to the pc in the living room.
that pc provides home entertainment movies or music. it can also be linked to the
car parked outside which is kitted out with a processor of its own along with a
dvd player and cordless headphones for the kids in the back. convergence for me is
about how technology the transfer of data can do things that make it easier and
more convenient for me as a consumer said mark brailey director of corporate
marketing for intel. the real challenge is to show people it s easier than they
think and fun. he firmly believes that entertainment pcs are the future but
says they have to get past people s fears of frequent crashes and
incompatibilities. that is something microsoft is trying to do too - its stand has
computers running windows xp media centre edition 2005 for people to try out.
mobile phones do not escape the convergence theme. samsung is showing off its sgh-
i300 a handset with a three gigabyte hard drive that can be used to watch
compressed video or as an mp3 player. and if you would rather watch live tv than a
downloaded movie nec is showing a phone on sale in china which can show analogue
tv on its colour screen. i think the most probable application is at somewhere
like the train station - if you want to check the status of the soccer game for
example said koji umemoto manager of mobile terminals marketing for nec. he
admitted that the signal quality is not very good if you are on the move and they
do not have plans to launch it in europe at the moment. nokia was happy to
demonstrate its 6230i an upgrade to the very popular 6230. it now has a 1.3
megapixel camera and a music player that can handle multiple formats rather than
just mp3s. it is also compatible with nokia s new visual radio technology. the
handset can receive fm broadcasts and the user can interact with compatible
broadcasts using a gprs connection to take part in competitions or get extra
information such as the name of the song playing. most companies are reluctant to
show prototypes preferring to display products that are already on sale or just
about to hit the market. portable media player firm creative showed off a new
wireless technology based on magnetic inductance rather than radio - a system some
hearing aids use. the benefits over conventional bluetooth are the lack of
interference and longer battery life said riccardo de rinaldini creative s
european marketing manager. the firm has a prototype headset linked up to a zen
micro player. the transmitter on the player creates a private magnetic bubble
around the user which is picked up by the headset. the range is only about one
metre so it is only suitable for personal use. a single aaa battery is said to last
up to 30 hours. creative expects it to hit the market in its final form later this
year. even clothing is likely to be part of the convergence trend. adidas has a
trainer which according to susanne risse from the company can sense understand
and adapt to your running style . it has a battery processor and motor embedded
in the sole. buttons on the side allow you to set the amount of cushioning you
would like by adjusting the tension on a cable running through the heel. the
processor then monitors the surface you are running on and adjusts the tension
accordingly. it is being billed as the world s first intelligent shoe .
jarre joins fairytale celebration french musician jean-michel jarre is to perform
at a concert in copenhagen to mark the bicentennial of the birth of writer hans
christian andersen. denmark is holding a three-day celebration of the life of the
fairy-tale author with a concert at parken stadium on 2 april. other stars are
expected to join the line-up in the coming months and the danish royal family will
attend. christian andersen s fairy tales are timeless and universal said jarre.
for all of us at any age there is always - beyond the pure enjoyment of the tale -
a message to learn. there are year-long celebrations planned across the world to
celebrate andersen and his work which includes the emperor s new clothes and the
little mermaid. denmark s crown prince frederik and crown princess mary visited new
york on monday to help promote the festivities. the pair were at a manhattan
library to honour us literary critic harold bloom the international icon we
thought we knew so well . bloom recognizes the darker aspects of andersen s
authorship prince frederik said. bloom is to be formally presented with the hans
christian andersen award this spring in anderson s hometown of odense. the royal
couple also visited the hans christian anderson school complex where queen mary
read the ugly duckling to the young audience. later at a gala dinner danish
supermodel helena christensen was named a hans christian andersen ambassador. other
ambassadors include actors harvey keitel and sir roger moore athlete cathy freeman
and brazilian soccer legend pele.
ecb holds rates amid growth fears the european central bank has left its key
interest rate unchanged at 2% for the 19th month in succession. borrowing costs
have remained on hold amid concerns about the strength of economic growth in the 12
nations sharing the euro analysts said. despite signs of pick-up labour markets
and consumer demand remain sluggish while firms are eyeing cost cutting measures
such as redundancies. high oil prices meanwhile have put upward pressure on the
inflation rate. surveys of economists have shown that the majority expect
borrowing costs to stay at 2% in coming months with an increase of a quarter of a
percentage point predicted some time in the second half of the year. if anything
there may be greater calls for an interest rate cut especially with the euro
continuing to strengthen against the dollar. the euro land economy is still
struggling with this recovery said economist dirk schumacher. the ecb may sound
rather hawkish but once the data allows them to cut again they will. data coming
out of germany on thursday underlined the problems facing european policy makers.
while germany s economy expanded by 1.7% in 2004 growth was driven by export sales
and lost some of its momentum in the last three months of the year. the strength
of the euro is threatening to dampen that foreign demand in 2005 and domestic
consumption currently is not strong enough to take up the slack. inflation in the
eurozone however is estimated at about 2.3% in december above ecb guidelines of
2%. ecb president jean-claude trichet has remained upbeat about prospects for the
region and inflation is expected to drop below 2% later in 2005. the ecb has
forecast economic growth in the eurozone of 1.9% in 2005.
melzer shocks agassi second seed andre agassi suffered a comprehensive defeat by
jurgen melzer in the quarter-finals of the sap open. agassi was often bamboozled
by the austrian s drop shots in san jose losing 6-3 6-1. defending champion and
top seed andy roddick rallied to beat sweden s thomas enqvist 3-6 7-6 (8-6) 7-5.
but unseeded cyril saulnier beat the fourth seed vincent spadea 6-2 6-4 and tommy
haas overcame eighth seed max mirnyi 6-7 (2-7) 7-6 (7-3) 6-2. melzer has now beaten
agassi in two of their three meetings. i had a good game plan and i executed it
perfectly he said. it s always tough to come out to play andre. i didn t want
him to play his game. he makes you run like a dog all over the court. and agassi
who was more than matched for power by his opponent s two-handed backhand said
melzer was an example of several players on the tour willing to take their chances
against him. a lot more guys are capable of it now said the american. he played
much better than me. that s what he did both times. i had opportunities to loosen
myself up agassi added. but i didn t convert on the big points.
white admits to balco drugs link banned american sprinter kelli white says she
knowingly took steroids given to her by bay area lab co-operative (balco) president
victor conte. conte faces a federal trial next year on charges of distributing
steroids and tax evasion and white said at first he tried to cover up what he was
doing. he s the one who told me that it wasn t what he said it was white said in
the san francisco chronicle. but she added: it was my decision to go to him not
anybody else s. white said conte at first told her the substance was flaxseed oil
only to change his story later. white failed a drugs test after winning the 100m
and 200m titles at the 2003 world athletics championships. she was subsequently
handed a two-year ban in may this year and has admitted taking the stimulant
modafinil. at first white claimed she took the drug to combat narcolepsy but she
now takes full responsibility for her actions. my whole belief about victor is
that he was selling a product white said in the la times. whether it be a good
product or a bad product he was selling a product. white was introduced to conte
through her coach remy korchemy who is also a defendant in the balco case. the 27-
year-old believes doping is so common in sport she felt compelled to cheat herself
if she was to have any chance of winning. i have no clue what it s going to take
to change that said white. i would say i made a mistake and i would never ever
go back. i would never recommend anyone to take that route.
britney attacks false tabloids pop star britney spears has attacked false and
desperate us tabloid magazines questioning their honesty after they reported she
was pregnant. in a letter on her website the singer named celebrity tabloids us
weekly in touch and star as the worst offenders. until you face what is going on
in your life i guess you ll remain a false tabloid the 23-year-old wrote.
stories about the state of her marriage to kevin federline and rumours about a
pregnancy have recently appeared. but the chart-topping singer s letter did not
shed any further light on those stories. in february spears clashed with us weekly
for publishing pictures of her honeymoon in fiji without permission. the couple
who married in los angeles last september claimed staff took photographs of them
which were later sold. they said they allowed the pictures to be taken after they
were assured they would only be used for a private scrapbook which they later
received as a souvenir. us magazine was unrepentant about their decision to publish
saying: britney should start her own magazine if she d like to dictate her own
coverage. coming from a celebrity who sold pictures of both her wedding and her
stepdaughter it s unlikely the issue here is privacy they added. spears claimed
that other magazines were approached with the pictures but chose to contact her
instead.
yukos heading back to us courts russian oil and gas company yukos is due in a us
court on thursday as it continues to fight for its survival. the firm is in the
process of being broken up by russian authorities in order to pay a $27bn (£14bn)
tax bill. yukos filed for bankruptcy in the us hoping to use international
business law to halt the forced sale of its key oil production unit
yuganskneftegas. the unit was however sold for $9.4bn to state oil firm rosneft but
only after the state auction had been disrupted. yukos lawyers now say the auction
violated us bankruptcy law. the company and its main shareholders have vowed to go
after any company that buys its assets using all and every legal means. the
company wants damages of $20bn claiming yuganskneftegas was sold at less than
market value. judge letitia clark will hear different motions including one from
deutsche bank to throw out the chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. the german lender is
one of six banks that were barred from providing financing to gazprom the russian
state-owned company that was expected to win the auction for yuganskneftegas.
deutsche bank which is also an advisor to gazprom has called on the us court to
overturn its decision to provide yukos with bankruptcy protection. lifting the
injunction would remove the uncertainty that surrounds the court case and clarify
deutsche bank s business position analysts said. analysts are not optimistic
about yukos chances in court. russian president vladimir putin and the country s
legal authorities have repeatedly said that the us has no jurisdiction over yukos
and its legal wranglings. on top of that the firm only has limited assets in the
us. yukos has won small victories however and is bullish about its chances in
court. do we have an ability to influence what happens we think we do said mike
lake a yukos spokesman. the litigation risks are real said credit suisse first
boston analyst vadim mitroshin the dispute with the russian authorities is partly
driven by president putin s clampdown on the political ambitions of ex-yukos boss
mikhail khodorkovsky. mr khodorkovsky is in jail on charges of fraud and tax
evasion.
aids and climate top davos agenda climate change and the fight against aids are
leading the list of concerns for the first day of the world economic forum in the
swiss resort of davos. some 2 000 business and political leaders from around the
globe will listen to uk prime minister tony blair s opening speech on wednesday. mr
blair will focus on africa s development plans and global warming. earlier in the
day came an update on efforts to have 3 million people on anti-aids drugs by the
end of 2005. the world health organisation (who) said 700 000 people in poor
countries were on life-extending drugs - up from 440 000 six months earlier but
amounting to only 12% of the 5.8 million who needed them. a $2bn funding gap
still stood in the way of hitting the 2005 target the who said. the themes to be
stressed by mr blair - whose attendance was announced at the last minute - are
those he wants to dominate the uk s chairmanship of the g8 group of industrialised
states. other issues to be discussed at the five-day conference range from china s
economic power to iraq s future after this sunday s elections. aside from mr blair
more than 20 other world leaders are expected to attend including french president
jacques chirac - due to speak by video link after bad weather delayed his
helicopter - and south african president thabo mbeki whose arrival has been
delayed by ivory coast peace talks. the ukraine s new president viktor yushchenko
will also be there - as will newly elected palestinian leader mahmoud abbas.
showbiz figures will also put in an appearance from u2 frontman bono - a well-
known campaigner on trade and development issues - to angelina jolie a goodwill
campaigner for the un on refugees. unlike previous years protests against the wef
are expected to be muted. anti-globalisation campaigners have called off a
demonstration planned for the weekend. at the same time about 100 000 people are
expected to converge on the brazilian resort of porto alegre for the world social
forum - the so-called anti-davos for campaigners against globalisation for fair
trade and many other causes. in contrast the davos forum is dominated by
business issues - from outsourcing to corporate leadership - with bosses of more
than a fifth of the world s 500 largest companies scheduled to attend. a survey
published on the eve of the conference by pricewaterhousecoopers said four in ten
business leaders were very confident that their companies would see sales rise in
2005. asian and american executives however were much more confident than their
european counterparts. but the political discussions focusing on iran iraq and
china are likely to dominate media attention.
russian ex-spy on hunger strike an ex-russian intelligence officer who risked his
life spying for mi6 is entering the seventh week of a hunger strike near 10 downing
street. viktor makarov 50 claims he has been betrayed by the british authorities
who promised he would live like an average british citizen . but despite a £65 000
settlement four years ago he says he has been denied defector status and a decent
pension. other ex-russian spies have been given civil service pensions. hunger
strike is a weapon of last resort. it can work only with determination and of
course the realisation of the righteousness of your case - without that it will not
work mr makarov told the bbc s newsnight programme. since i came to this country
two batches of promises have been made and broken one after the other. oleg
gordievsky a senior kgb officer who became a secret agent for the british said he
was very happy with the way the government have treated him since him since he
defected in 1985. commenting on mr makarov s case he said: the british state is
not a fat cow - it is impossible to come here and demand give me more money every
week. but mr makarov s case has been backed by david kahn - a former yale
historian and a leading expert on code-breaking who has confirmed his information
was valuable to the western allies. i believe the government of the united kingdom
which in that respect was probably the same as most other power authorities - took
the information that victor makarov had wrung him dry and left him to hang out in
the cold mr kahn said. mr makarov joined the kgb in 1970s russia as an
idealistic 20 year-old. one of his fellow pupils at intelligence school was
vladimir putin. at kgb headquarters in moscow he was posted to the secret 16th
directorate - which decoded intercepted diplomatic traffic from the west. by the
1980s he had risen to the rank of senior lieutenant - and was privy to the thoughts
of western powers. but he had became deeply disenchanted with the soviet regime -
fuelled by its repression both at home and in poland. through his english teacher
he made an approach to m16 - and then began passing secrets to the british
intelligence service. he spied for mi6 for two years before being betrayed by a
friend and sent to perm 35 - a soviet hard labour camp in the artic circle. within
a week of his release in 1992 he made contact with the british authorities he d
been spying for who arranged a meeting between him and an mi6 agent in latvia. he
was given a false passport and he says promised that he would be given the chance
to live like an average uk citizen. but after arriving in london 13 years ago he
feels this promise has not been fulfilled. after long periods of living in bedsits
with deteriorating health four years ago he took legal action against the
government - and settled for £65 000 to buy a small house. but he says he will
remain on hunger strike until he receives a decent pension and the right to work
something he feels he has been denied because the authorities do not trust him.
government sources told the bbc they had reached a final settlement with the former
spy which he has been able to appeal to security and intelligence tribunals.
looks and music to drive mobiles mobile phones are still enjoying a boom time in
sales according to research from technology analysts gartner. more than 674
million mobiles were sold last year globally said the report the highest total
sold to date. the figure was 30% more than in 2003 and surpassed even the most
optimistic predictions gartner said. good design and the look of a mobile as well
as new services such as music downloads could go some way to pushing up sales in
2005 said analysts. although people were still looking for better replacement
phones there was evidence according to gartner that some markets were seeing a
slow-down in replacement sales. all the markets grew apart from japan which shows
that replacement sales are continuing in western europe mobile analyst carolina
milanesi told the bbc news website. japan is where north america and western
european markets can be in a couple of years time. they already have tv music
ringtones cameras and all that we can think of on mobiles so people have stopped
buying replacement phones. but there could be a slight slowdown in sales in
european and us markets too according to gartner as people wait to see what comes
next in mobile technology. this means mobile companies have to think carefully
about what they are offering in new models so that people see a compelling reason
to upgrade said gartner. third generation mobiles (3g) with the ability to handle
large amounts of data transfer like video could drive people into upgrading their
phones but ms milanesi said it was difficult to say how quickly that would happen.
at the end of the day people have cameras and colour screens on mobiles and for
the majority of people out there who don t really care about technology the speed
of data to a phone is not critical. nor would the rush to produce two or three
megapixel camera phones be a reason for mobile owners to upgrade on its own. the
majority of camera phone models are not at the stage where they can compete with
digital cameras which also have flashes and zooms. more likely to drive sales in
2005 would be the attention to design and aesthetics as well as music services.
the motorola razr v3 phone was typical of the attention to design that would be
more commonplace in 2005 she added. this was not a women s thing she said but
a desire from men and women to have a gadget that is a form of self-expression too.
it was not just about how the phone functioned but about what it said about its
owner. western europe has always been a market which is quite attentive to design
said ms milanesi. people are after something that is nice-looking and together
with that there is the entertainment side. this year music will have a part to
play in this. the market for full-track music downloads was worth just $20 million
(£10.5 million) in 2004 but is set to be worth $1.8 billion (£94 million) by 2009
according to juniper research. sony ericsson just released its walkman branded
mobile phone the w800 which combines a digital music player with up to 30 hours
battery life and a two megapixel camera. in july last year motorola and apple
announced a version of itunes online music downloading service would be released
which would be compatible with motorola mobile phones. apple said the new itunes
music player would become motorola s standard music application for its music
phones. but the challenge will be balancing storage capacity with battery life if
mobile music hopes to compete with digital music players like the ipod. ms milanesi
said more models would likely be released in the coming year with hard drives. but
they would be more likely to compete with the smaller capacity music players that
have around four gigabyte storage capacity which would not put too much strain on
battery life.
u2 s desire to be number one u2 who have won three prestigious grammy awards for
their hit vertigo are stubbornly clinging to their status as one of the biggest
bands in the world. the most popular groups in the history of rock all have
several things in common. the music must be inspired and appeal across generations
and be distinctive if not always groundbreaking. but such success is down to more
than music. they have to be compelling performers charismatic and intelligent
enough to make good decisions and keep their feet on the ground. they also have to
want it. they have to want to be the biggest band ever and not stop wanting it. the
beatles had it the rolling stones still have it rem hold onto it and queen were
it in a catsuit. and u2 have it in spades and keep churning it out. their new
album how to dismantle an atomic bomb comes 28 years after the schoolfriends got
together in dublin and 17 years after the joshua tree cemented their place on the
all-time rock a-list. they may have lost some of the edginess and raw youthful
force that propelled them to the top but they have lost none of the desire or
ability to craft songs and albums. vertigo the first single from the new album
went straight into the uk singles chart at number one knocking eminem off the top
spot and giving them their 26th top 10 hit. the challenge is to be bigger and
bolder and better - to make records the whole world will listen to bono recently
said. drummer larry mullen jr echoed those sentiments: we re very competitive - we
want to be on the radio have big singles. we don t want to be thought of as a
veteran band. the band have done everything in their considerable powers to
ensure they remain the biggest band in the world according to q magazine editor
paul rees. this makes them hugely determined and formidable. he added: they are
equally determined to push themselves to make music that continues to stand up. as
such they ve constantly re-invented and challenged themselves. they are perhaps
alone as the only rock band that has got better with age. the other key ingredient
was the fact they were highly organised mr rees said. they do everything in the
right way. the group were born when mullen put an appeal for bandmates on a high
school notice board attracting fellow pupils paul hewson (bono vocals) adam
clayton (bass) david evans (the edge guitar) and his brother dick. dick evans
soon dropped out and the four-piece were known as the feedback and the hype before
settling on u2. by 1978 they had won a talent contest and got noticed by a
manager paul mcguinness. they were brilliant but very coarse mcguinness
recently said. in a way they were doing exactly what they do now. only badly.
they struggled to attract record company attention later being described as
pretty damn average and strange and eerie by scouts who saw them live. they
released two ireland-only singles which topped the national charts in 1979 and
1980 leading to a deal with island and their debut album boy. the stadium-filling
anthemic sound was u2 s aim from the start and their third album war saw them
make the breakthrough on both sides of the atlantic going to number one in the uk
and 12 in the us. songs like sunday bloody sunday and new year s day brought
success and an image as a political and spiritual band - which bono rejected as a
cliche. his stage performances - which included flag-waving speaker-climbing and
drum-throwing - earned him a reputation as an electric performer and their
appearance at 1985 s live aid is widely seen as sealing their global stardom. in
1987 the joshua tree broke sales records and saw the band reach the height of
their powers with hits including where the streets have no name i still haven t
found what i m looking for and with or without you. those songs took the band s
epic atmospheric sound to a simple powerful and popular pinnacle. the end of the
decade marked a crucial point for the band - they had reached the top but still
yearned for new challenges and achievements. these came in the form of explorations
of different branches of rock and forays into electronic dance music plus wildly
extravagant stage shows while still trying to retain their mass appeal. the
achtung baby album in 1991 was followed by zooropa pop and their corresponding
stadium tours which featured giant olives flying cars live phone calls to the
white house and bono s transformation into alter-egos the fly and macphisto. he was
also building a parallel reputation - not always to the pleasure of his bandmates -
as a campaigner on issues from global debt to aids. before the release of how to
dismantle an atomic bomb they had sold 125 million albums around the world. but
they still want more.
web photo storage market hots up an increasing number of firms are offering web
storage for people with digital photo collections. digital cameras were the hot
gadget of christmas 2004 and worldwide sales of the cameras totalled $24bn last
year. many people s hard drives are bulging with photos and services which allow
them to store and share their pictures online are becoming popular. search firms
such as google are also offering more complex tools for managing personal photo
libraries. photo giants such as kodak offer website storage which manages photo
collections lets users edit pictures online and provides print-ordering services.
some services such as kodak s ofoto and snapfish offer unlimited storage space
but they do require users to buy some prints online. other sites such as pixagogo
charge a monthly fee. marcus hawkins editor of digital camera magazine said: as
file sizes of pictures increase storage becomes a problem. people are using their
hard drives backing up on cd and dvd and now they are using online storage
solutions. they are a place to store pictures to share their pictures with
families and friends and they can print out their photos. while many of the
services are aimed at the amateur and casual digital photographer other websites
are geared up for enthusiasts who want to share tips and information. photosig is
an online community of photographers who can critique each other s work. on tuesday
google released free software for organising and finding digital photos stored on a
computer s hard drive. the tool called picasa automatically detects photos as
they are added to a pc - whether sent via e-mail or transferred from a digital
camera. the software includes tools for restoring colour and removing red eye as
well as sharpening images. photos can then be uploaded to sites such as ofoto. many
people use the sites to edit and improve their favourite photographs before
ordering prints. mr hawkins added: the growth area is that you can order your
prints online. friends and family can also access pictures you want them to see and
they can print them out too. rather than just a place to dump your pictures it s
about sharing them. the vast majority of pictures remain on a pc s hard drive
which is why search tools such as those offered by google become increasingly
important. but some historians and archivists are concerned that the need for
perfect pictures will mean that those poor quality prints which offered a
tantilising glimpse of the past may disappear forever. it s one thing taking
pictures it s another finding them said mr hawkins. but this is the same
problem that has always existed - how many of us have photos in wallets tucked away
somewhere
blair returns from peace mission prime minister tony blair has arrived back from
his diplomatic mission to the middle east to try to resurrect the peace process.
mr blair held talks with his israeli counterpart ariel sharon and the palestinian
leader mahmoud abbas. he confirmed that a renewed drive to reform the palestinian
authority and address security issues would come at a london conference in march.
mr blair also made a surprise trip to iraq this week. the israelis described the
meeting as important but said they would not need to attend. mr blair briefly
visited the tomb of yasser arafat in ramallah - the first world leader to do so. he
nodded briefly towards the tomb rather than lay a wreath in what palestinian
officials said was a compromise gesture agreed at the last minute. the bbc s paul
reynolds says the london conference will be a limited measure to shore up the
leadership of mahmoud abbas also known as abu mazen who is expected to win the
palestinian presidential election on 9 january. at a news conference following
talks with mr blair mr abbas said the british prime minister was in a unique
position to help us progress in our peaceful pursuit . he added: your endeavour to
hold a conference in london is another example of your deep commitment to this
purpose. in an interview with the bbc s political editor andrew marr mr blair
said getting progress between israelis and palestinians would be tough but at
least we have got the first step . mr blair acknowledged some people believed he
was too close to the israelis but said the israelis were entitled to expect
palestinians to give up terrorism. he argued that mr sharon was committed to the
internationally-agreed roadmap peace plan and said his bid to disengage from gaza
had to be part of the peace process not the end of it. earlier mr sharon again
said he had not seen the slightest step the palestinians were working to end
terror attacks - though he acknowledged palestinian leaders were in the middle of
an election campaign that could be hampering their efforts. before visiting israel
mr blair made a surprise visit to iraq where he met leaders in baghdad during his
first trip to the city. he was briefed on preparations for the national poll which
is scheduled for next month but is threatened by a deadly campaign of insurgent
violence. he also flew to basra in southern iraq where british forces are
stationed.
senior fannie mae bosses resign the two most senior executives at us mortgage giant
fannie mae have resigned after accounting irregularities were uncovered at the
company. chief executive franklin raines a former senior official in the clinton
administration and chief financial officer tim howard have left the firm. fannie
mae was criticised by financial regulators and could have to restate its earnings
by up to $9bn (£4.6bn). it is america s second largest financial institution.
recent investigations have exposed extensive accounting errors at fannie mae which
supplies funds to america s $8 trillion mortgage market. last week the firm was
admonished by the securities and exchange commission which said it had made major
errors in its financial reporting. the financial regulator said fannie mae would
have to raise substantial new capital to restore its balance sheet. analysts said
the sec s criticism made it impossible for fannie mae s senior executives to
remain. mr raines head of the office of management and budget under president
clinton has taken early retirement while mr howard has also stepped down the
company said on tuesday. kpmg fannie mae s independent auditor will also be
replaced. by my early retirement i have held myself accountable mr raines said
in a statement. fannie mae was found to have violated accounting rules relating to
derivatives - financial instruments used to hedge against fluctuations in interest
rates - and some pre-paid loans. as a result it could be forced to restate $9bn in
earnings over the past four years effectively wiping out a third of the company s
profits since 2001. although not making loans directly to buyers fannie mae is the
largest single player in the mortgage market underwriting half of all us house
purchases. the firm operates under charter from the us congress. it has faced
stinging criticism from congressional leaders who held hearings into its finances
earlier this year and from government regulator the office of federal housing
enterprise oversight (ofheo). we are encouraged that the board s announcement
signals a new culture and a new direction for fannie mae armando falcon ofheo
director said. the problems afflicting fannie mae are just the latest to hit the us
mortgage industry. freddie mac the country s other largest mortgage firm was
forced to restate its earnings by $4.4bn last year and pay a $125m fine after an
investigation of its books.
clijsters could play aussie open kim clijsters has denied reports that she has
pulled out of january s australian open because of her persistent wrist injury.
open chief paul mcnamee had said: kim s wrist obviously isn t going to be
rehabilitated. but her spokesman insisted she had simply delayed submitting her
entry. the doctors are assessing her injury on a weekly basis and if there is no
risk she could play. but if there s the least risk she will stay away. despite
being absent from the wta entry list for the tournament which begins on 17 january
clijsters would be certain to get a wild card if she requested one. clijsters is
still ranked 22nd in the world despite only playing a handful of matches last
season. the belgian had an operation on her left wrist early in the season but
injured it again on her return to the tour. meanwhile jelena dokic who used to
compete for australia has opted out of the first grand slam of the season. dokic
has not played in the australian open since 2001 when she lost in the first round.
but the 21-year-old would have had to rely on a wild card next season because her
ranking has tumbled to 127th. four-time champion monica seles who has not played
since last year s french open is another absentee because of an injured left foot.
visa decision every 11 minutes visa processing staff are sometimes expected to
rule on an application every 11 minutes mps have said. pressure was placed on
staff to be efficient rather than to do a thorough examination of an application
the public accounts committee found. every officer had an annual target of 8 000
applications - equivalent to 40 a day or one every 11 minutes. mps want research
into whether uk visa holders leave at the end of their stays or vanish into the
black market. committee chairman edward leigh said: there is a worrying tension
between quick processing and proper control over the visas issued. entry clearance
staff are expected to deal with a visa application in about 11 minutes which is
surely too little time to look closely at the supporting documents. the
committee s report also discussed the romanian and bulgarian visas scandal which
led to the resignation of immigration minister beverley hughes last year. committee
members said the home office had been wrong to dismiss concerns from visa staff
abroad who feared the system was being abused. investigations carried out in the
wake of ms hughes resignation found more than 7 000 people had entered the uk
under the business visa scheme for romanian and bulgarian entrepreneurs . mr leigh
said the home office should now consider removing those who had not set up a valid
business. a home office spokesman said the system had been toughened and tightened
since the investigation. he added that the traditional system of a dual decision
making process for all pre-entry applications will be replaced by a single pre-
entry check at post which will be simpler and more robust against abuse than the
current system .
healthsouth ex-boss goes on trial the former head of us medical services firm
healthsouth overstated earnings and assets to boost the company s share price it
was claimed in court. richard scrushy 52 is accused of directing a $2.7bn
(£1.4bn) accounting fraud at the company he co-founded in alabama in 1984.
prosecutors said he was motivated by wealth - spending about $200m between 1996 and
2002 while earning much less. defence lawyers said mr scrushy had been deceived by
other executives. several former healthsouth employees have already pleaded guilty
to fraud and are expected to give evidence against mr scrushy. we will present
evidence that richard scrushy knew about the conspiracy that he participated in
the conspiracy and that he profited prosecutor alice martin told the court. mr
scrushy is the first chief executive to be tried for breaching the sarbanes oxley
act - a law introduced in the wake of the enron and worldcom frauds which obliges
corporate bosses to vouch for the accuracy of their companies results. among the
charges he faces are conspiracy to commit fraud filing false statements and money
laundering. after federal agents raided healthsouth s offices in march 2003 the
company said none of its past financial statements could be relied on. the firm has
since reorganised its board and management team and currently operates about 1 400
health clinics.
rapper 50 cent ends protege feud rapper 50 cent has ended his public feud with his
protege the game as the pair said they wanted to be good role models for their
communities. the row blew up when 50 cent threw the game out of his g-unit crew
and accused him of being disloyal. a member of the game s entourage was reportedly
shot outside a radio station where 50 cent was being interviewed. but the pair
shook hands as they handed over money to music projects for new york s deprived
areas on wednesday. the game whose real name is jayceon taylor told a news
conference: i want to apologise. i m almost ashamed to have participated in the
things that went on over the last few weeks. chart-topper 50 cent real name
curtis jackson said the truce came on the anniversary of the death of the
notorious big in 1997 who was part of a volatile feud between the east and west
coast rap scenes. we re here today to show that people can rise above the most
difficult circumstances and together we can put negativity behind us 50 cent
said. a lot of people don t want to see it happen but we re responding to the
two most important groups - our family and our fans. the boys choir of harlem got
a cheque for $150 000 (£77 800) from 50 cent while the game handed over $103 500
(£53 400). the game also made a contribution to the compton schools music
programme. 50 cent announced he has launched the g-unity foundation to help people
overcome obstacles and make a chance for the better in their lives . i realised
that if i m going to be effective at that i have to overcome some of my own he
said. game and i need to set an example in the community. 50 cent is no stranger
to feuds with rapper ja rule among the targets for ridicule in his songs. on his
latest album released earlier this month he turned his attentions to fat joe and
nas who have both worked with ja rule. both he and the game have admitted drug
dealing in the past and have both been shot.
speak easy plan for media players music and film fans will be able to control their
digital media players just by speaking to them under plans in development by two
us firms. scansoft and gracenote are developing technology to give people access
to their film and music libraries simply by voice control. they want to give people
hands-free access to digital music and films in the car or at home or on the move.
huge media libraries on some players can make finding single songs hard. voice
command-and-control unlocks the potential of devices that can store large digital
music collections said ross blanchard vice president of business development for
gracenote. these applications will radically change the car entertainment
experience allowing drivers to enjoy their entire music collections without ever
taking their hands off the steering wheel he added. gracenote provides music
library information for millions of different albums for jukeboxes such as apple s
itunes. the new technology will be designed so that people can play any individual
song or movie out of a collection just by saying its name. users will also be able
to request music that fits a mood or an occasion or a film just by saying the
actor s name. speech is a natural fit for today s consumer devices particularly
in mobile environments said alan schwartz vice president of speechworks a
division of scansoft. pairing our voice technologies with gracenote s vast music
database will bring the benefits of speech technologies to a host of consumer
devices and enable people to access their media in ways they ve never imagined.
the two firms did not say if they were developing the technology for languages
other than english. users will also be able to get more information on a favourite
song they have been listening to by asking: what is this portable players are
becoming popular in cars and a number of auto firms are working with apple to
device interfaces to control the firm s ipod music player. but with tens of
thousands of songs able to be stored on one player voice control would make
finding that elusive track by elvis presley much easier. the firms gave no
indication about whether the ipod or any other media player were in mind for the
use of the voice control technology. the companies estimate that the technology
will be available in the fourth quarter of 2005.
sky takes over oscar night mantle sky has signed a major new deal to broadcast this
year s academy awards taking over from three years of live oscar coverage on the
bbc. sky said it was honoured to have won exclusive broadcasting rights and
promised to cover the event in a way no other broadcaster could . the bbc denied
it had lost a bidding war saying it had decided to pass the mantle to another
broadcaster . the ceremony hosted by newcomer chris rock takes place on 27
february 2005. sky s coverage will launch with the nominations on 25 january and
will include themed programming across sky channels including sky news sky travel
and the biography channel. there will also be a month-long season of oscar-winning
films on sky movies in the run up to the event and live uninterrupted coverage on
the night. we are honoured to have won the live and exclusive broadcasting rights
for the academy awards said sky networks sophie turner laing. sky is the
natural place to see the biggest and most prestigious film event of the year and
will cover the event in a way that no other broadcaster could. sky first scooped
oscar rights from the bbc in 1999 but the bbc won them back in 2001 when sky was
forced to pull out of a bidding war due to financial constraints. bbc viewers will
of course be able to watch quality coverage of the 2005 academy awards on the bbc s
bulletins and news programmes a spokesman said. among the films tipped to do well
at this year s academy awards are martin scorsese s the aviator jean-pierre jeunet
s a very long engagement and the ray charles biopic ray.
new consoles promise big problems making games for future consoles will require
more graphic artists and more money an industry conference has been told. sony
microsoft and nintendo will debut their new consoles at the annual e3 games expo in
los angeles in may. these so-called next generation machines will be faster than
current consoles and capable of displaying much higher-quality visuals. for gamers
this should make for better more immersive games. in a pre-recorded video slot
during microsoft s keynote address at the game developers conference held last
week in san francisco famed director james cameron revealed he is making a game in
tandem with his next film - believed to be battle angel alita. the game s visual
quality would be like a lucid dream said mr cameron. but numerous speakers
warned that creating such graphics will require more artists and so next
generation console games will be much more expensive to develop. the first new
console microsoft s xbox 2 is not expected to reach the shops until the end of
2005. games typically take at least 18 months to create however so developers are
grappling with the hardware today. according to robert walsh head of brisbane-
based game developer krome studios next generation games will cost between $10-25m
to make with teams averaging 80 staff in size taking two years to complete a
title. such sums mean it will be difficult for anyone to start a new game studio
said mr walsh. if you re a start-up i doubt that a publisher is going to walk in
and give you a cheque for $10m however good you are he said. mr walsh suggested
that new studios should make games for mobile phones and handheld consoles like the
sony psp and the nintendo ds since they are cheaper and easier to create than
console games. one developer bucking the trend towards big art teams is will
wright the creator of the best-selling the sims games. the founder of california s
maxis studio surprised the conference with a world exclusive preview of his next
game spore. spore will allow players to experiment with the evolution of digital
creatures. starting with an amoeba-sized organism the player will guide the
physical development of their creature by selecting how its limbs jaws and other
body parts evolve. eventually the creature will become capable of establishing
cities trading and fighting and even building space ships. advanced players will
visit the home planets of creatures created by other spore players. these worlds
will be automatically swapped across the internet. mr wright said that enabling
players to devise and share their creatures would make them care more about the
game. i don t want to put the player in the role of luke skywalker or frodo
baggins - i want them to be george lucas or dr seuss explained mr wright. few
games have hinted at the scope of spore but mr wright explained that he has
nevertheless kept his development team small by hiring expert programmers. instead
of employing lots of artists to create 3d models of the digital creatures spore
generates and displays the creatures according to rules devised by the programmers.
the thing i am coming away with [from the conference] is that next generation
content is going to be really expensive and creating it will drive the smaller
players out of the market said mr wright. i d like to offer an alternative to
that. new development tools will be another important aid in making next
generation games and dozens of companies demonstrated their latest products at the
conference. oxford-based natural motion launched endorphin v2.0 which enables
artists to direct a 3d virtual actor . the actor is realistically modelled
according to the laws of physics. endorphin simulates how the actor falls down
stairs for instance or crumples up after a gunshot. artists can blend together
these visual sequences and include the results in their games. the process is much
quicker than having an artist animate each movement by hand and so lessens the
need for larger art teams. another british company aiming to reduce the workload of
artists is manchester start-up genemation. its latest tool gencrowd enables
artists to create unique photo-realistic human faces for games involving lots of
people. gencrowd works by blending together elements of an in-built supply of stock
faces of differing ages and ethnicities. the software can create up to 2 000 new
heads an hour. one area not yet dominated by graphical blockbusters is mobile
phone games. even the latest phones are not as powerful as the consoles of a decade
ago so smaller teams of half a dozen people can still create complete games for
the devices. the game developers conference included a special two-day summit
dedicated to creating mobile games. a niche attraction for a few dozen conference
attendees when it began five years ago gdc s mobile summit this year drew several
hundred delegates. mobile games are a fast-growing sector because newer phones have
better graphics and sound and are thus more suitable for playing games.
furthermore the adoption of mobile phones continues to spread across the world. it
s predicted that by 2006 two billion people will own a mobile phone. the growing
importance of mobile gaming was reflected by a keynote given by john batter
general manager at ea mobile. ea mobile is a division of electronic arts the
biggest games publisher. until recently electronic arts had been dismissive of
games for phones. the last time you checked ea wasn t in this business mr
batter admitted. but he said ea now planned on dominating the market by releasing
mobile versions of its most popular franchises. ea plans to release up to 20 mobile
games over the next 12 months. the first will be a version of its need for speed
racing game created by ea mobile s 30-person development team. mr batter predicted
that by 2006 mobile phones would be capable of running games of comparable quality
to those on sony s upcoming psp handheld console. owain bennallack is the editor
of develop magazine.
councils prepare to set tax rises council tax in scotland is set to rise by an
average of about 4% in the coming year bbc scotland has learned. authorities will
decide final figures on thursday when projected increases will be more than twice
the rate of inflation which is currently 1.6%. the finance minister has urged
councils to limit increases but they have warned that they will struggle to
maintain services unless funding is increased. they say much additional government
money is for new initiatives. scottish finance minister tom mccabe msp said:
last week in parliament i announced an additional £419m for core expenditure to
local government in scotland. that s a 5.5% increase and sits against an inflation
rate of 1.6% so i think we have quite rightly said to councils this year that we
would at the very least ask them to exercise restraint. mr mccabe is also looking
for local authorities to become more efficient and save money in coming years. he
told bbc radio scotland s sunday live programme: here in scotland we have 32
councils who all have their own individual collection systems for council tax they
have their own payroll systems and their own human resource systems. we think
there has to be opportunities there for rationalisation and using the money saved
to reinvest in frontline services. the councils umbrella organisation cosla
which provided bbc scotland with the indicative figures for next year warned that
councils would face a continuous struggle to maintain services. mr mccabe has
promised them about £8.1bn next year. however most of the increase is targeted to
new initiatives and councils will experience difficulties in maintaining core
services a cosla spokesman said. cosla says that it is willing to work with the
executive on finding efficiency savings but that these will not be enough to
maintain services. they say the funding plans for the next three years will see
councils lose more of the share of public spending. the conservatives accuse the
scottish executive of using the council tax to raise funds because it is too afraid
to raise income tax. the tory finance spokesman brian monteith msp said: its a
form of disguise... yet again we see that council tax is being used as a way of
passing on costs. scared of actually using its three pence income tax that it
could put up what we ve seen over the years is more and more burdens being put
onto local authorities and the council tax payer having to pick up the bill. there
are also warnings that unless funding to councils is increased in the next few
years then services may have to be reduced. linda knox director of the scottish
local authority management centre at strathclyde university said: with this
current settlement the increase is slowing. at the same time the burdens on
councils are greater than they were. the settlement figures don t include pay
increases and the executive is also requiring a substantial figure - in the area of
£325m - in efficiency savings across the settlement period. education will be
protected from any cuts but linda knox says this will mean other services will
suffer. she said: in practice that will mean a 4-5% cut for other services. on
the face of it the settlement looks like an increase of about 9.7% but by the time
you take into account other factors its probably only about 1% in real terms.
pearce keen on succeeding keegan joint assistant boss stuart pearce has admitted he
would like to succeed kevin keegan as manager at manchester city. keegan has
decided to step down as city manager when his contract comes to an end in 18
months. you don t have to be einstein to realise there will be a manager s job
available at a really good club pearce told bbc gmr. i will certainly be
applying for it although whether the board deem me good enough to take it i do
not know. pearce initially joined city as a player under keegan in 2001 before
becoming part of the coaching staff. he was promoted to joint assistant-manager
following the departure of arthur cox last summer. the former england defender had
a year as player-boss with nottingham forest eight seasons ago but has made no
secret of his desire to have another crack at the job. he was linked with the
manager s job at oldham and keegan has stated he would not get in the way if pearce
wanted to leave. but it now appears pearce is keen to wait for his chance at city.
he added: by that time i will have been here for five years so at least they will
have had a good look at me and they are aware of my feelings with regard to being
kevin s successor. obviously the issue is out of my hands but it is a fantastic
job for anybody - i just hope it will be me.
neeson in bid to revive theatre hollywood film star liam neeson has held a dinner
party in new york to promote belfast s lyric theatre. the ballymena-born actor
said that the theatre on ridgeway street was in a very dilapidated condition .
lyric chairman david johnston has said that rebuilding the theatre at a cost of
£8m is the only answer. mr neeson said that the idea was to get a bunch of healthy
wealthy irish americans in one room and ask them to help with fundraising. the
oscar-nominated actor whose films include schindler s list michael collins and
star wars: the phantom menace said: the lyric is too important to the cultural
and social life of northern ireland for this building to crumble and fall apart.
it gave me a start professionally. mary o malley the founder of the theatre gave
me my future. in those days in the mid-70s when i was there we were doing a
play every four weeks. belfast was not a pretty town to be living in. there was
serious trouble as you know but this theatre was like a belisha beacon of light
and hope six nights a week doing everything from shakespeare to yeats to o casey
with a group of actors and actresses that affected me very deeply and still do.
the lyric began 50 years ago but the doors opened at its present site on the
stranmillis embankment overlooking the river lagan in 1968. as well as liam neeson
it also launched the careers of adrian dunbar and stephen rea and playwrights such
as martin lynch and gary mitchell. speaking to bbc northern ireland before the
event at new york s soho house mr neeson said that his spirit belonged to the
glens of antrim. and he said that there was one figure from his childhood that he
would love to portray on the big screen - ian paisley. he said that the dup leader
and preacher was a very dynamic extraordinary figure . neeson used to listen to
his sermons on a friday night in ballymena. he said: what an orator. he was from
that old school of bible-thumping righteousness. but it was so dramatic. i found
him very powerful. i d love to get a chance to play him some time.
eu too slow on economic reforms most eu countries have failed to put in place
policies aimed at making europe the world s most competitive economy by the end of
the decade a report says. the study undertaken by the european commission
sought to assess how far the eu has moved towards meeting its economic targets. in
2000 eu leaders at a summit in lisbon pledged the european economy would outstrip
that of the us by 2010. their economic targets became known as the lisbon agenda.
but the commission report says that in most eu countries the pace of economic
reform has been too slow and fulfilling the lisbon ambitions will be difficult -
if not impossible. only the uk finland belgium denmark ireland and the
netherlands have actually followed up policy recommendations. among the biggest
laggards according to the report are greece and italy. the lisbon agenda set out
to increase the number of people employed in europe by encouraging more older
people and women to stay in the workforce. it also set out to raise the amount the
private sector spends on research and development while bringing about greater
discipline over public spending and debt levels. combined with high environmental
standards and efforts to level the playing field for businesses throughout the eu
the plan was for europe to become the world s most dynamic economy by 2010. next
week the commission will present revised proposals to meet the lisbon goals. many
people expect the 2010 target to be quietly dropped.
green fear for transport ballot the green party is concerned thousands of residents
may not be able to vote in edinburgh s transport referendum. edinburgh city
council is to ballot constituents on proposals to introduce congestion charging in
the capital. but green msp mark ballard fears people not on the council s edited
electoral register may miss out. local authorities can only send ballot papers to
those on the edited list over non-statutory matters such as the transport
referendum. therefore residents who have exercised their right to have their
details left off the list could miss the chance to vote. however there is still
time for those who are not on the list to contact the council and make sure they
are sent ballot forms ahead of february s voting deadline. mr ballard said: this
vote will set the future of transport in edinburgh for decades to come. it is
therefore vital that as many residents as possible in edinburgh city and the
surrounding areas are registered to vote in the ballot. many people are not aware
that they may miss out on their chance to have a say. everyone involved in this
debate - both for and against - wants the ballot to be as fair and representative
as possible and that means encouraging people to take part. the ballot will ask
residents to vote for or against the council s proposed congestion charge scheme
and a host of transport improvements to be funded by it. the outcome of the
referendum will be known next month after the ballot forms are sent out and
returned to the council. towards the end of february the council will meet to
decide whether to proceed with an application to scottish ministers for approval
for its planned congestion charging scheme and the other parts of its transport
package.
market unfazed by aurora setback as the aurora limped back to its dock on 20
january a blizzard of photos and interviews seemed to add up to an unambiguous
tale of woe. the ship had another slice of bad luck to add to its history of
health scares and technical trouble. and its owner p&o cruises - now part of the
huge us carnival corporation - was looking at a significant slice chopped off this
year s profits and a potential pr fiasco. no-one however seems to have told the
stock markets. the warning of a five-cent hit to 2005 earnings came just 24 hours
after one of the world s biggest investment banks had upped its target for carnival
s share price from £35 to £36.20. other investors barely blinked and by 1300 gmt
carnival s shares in london were down a single penny or 0.03% at £32.26. why the
mismatch between the public perception and the market s response the aurora issue
had been an ongoing one for some time says deutsche bank s simon champion. it
was clearly a source of uncertainty for the company - it was a long cruise after
all. but the stock market is very good at treating these issues as one-off events.
despite its string of bad luck he pointed out aurora is just one vessel in a
large carnival fleet the uk s p&o princess group having been merged into the much
larger us firm in 2003. and generally speaking carnival has a reputation for
keeping its ships pretty much on schedule. carnival has an incredibly strong track
record mr champion. similarly analysts expect the impact on the rest of the
cruise business to be limited. the hundreds of disappointed passengers who have now
had to give up the opportunity to spend the next three months on the aurora have
got both a refund and a credit for another cruise. that should mitigate some of the
pr risk both for carnival and its main competitor royal caribbean. while not
common cancellations for technical reasons are not entirely unusual in the
industry wrote analysts from citigroup smith barney in a note to clients on
friday. moreover such events typically have a limited impact on bookings and
pricing for future cruises. after all the aurora incident may be big news in the
uk - but for carnival customers elsewhere it s unlikely to make too much of a
splash. assuming that citigroup is right and demand stays solid the structure of
the industry also works in carnival s favour. in the wake of p&o princess s
takeover by carnival the business is now to a great extent a duopoly. given the
expense of building outfitting and running a cruise ship slowing supply growth
is a certainty said david anders at merrill lynch on thursday. in other words if
you do want a cruise your options are limited. and with carnival remaining the
market leader it looks set to keep selling the tickets - no matter what happens to
the ill-fated aurora in the future.
iraq to invite phone licence bids iraq is to invite bids for two telephone licences
saying it wants to significantly boost nationwide coverage over the next decade.
bids have been invited from local arab and foreign companies iraq s ministry of
communications said. the winner will work in partnership with the iraqi
telecommunications and post company (itpc). the firms will install and operate a
fixed phone network providing voice fax and internet services. the ministry said
that it wanted to increase iraq s very low telephone service penetration rate from
about 4.5% today to about 25% within 10 years. it also hopes to develop a highly
visible and changeable telecommunication sector . details of the bidding and tender
process will be published on the ministry s website on 9 february. it also is
planning a road-show for investors in amman jordan. the ministry said it would
base its selection on criteria including the speed of implementation tariff rates
coverage and the firm s experience and financial strength.
baa support ahead of court battle uk airport operator baa has reiterated its
support for the government s aviation expansion plans to airports throughout the
country. the comments come a day ahead of a high court challenge by residents
groups and local councils to the government s white paper. the judicial review will
centre on government plans for expansion at heathrow stansted and luton airports.
baa which operates all three said it was consulting with local communities. we
are...consulting on voluntary compensation schemes which go beyond our statutory
obligations a baa spokesman said. groups challenging the plans include stop
stansted expansion heathrow anti-noise campaigners hacan clearskies and the london
boroughs of hillingdon and wandsworth. at heathrow gatwick edinburgh and glasgow
airports baa launched a series of consultations on blight to properties from the
proposed expansion in september 2004 which will close next week. the company is
also offering to buy noise-hit properties for an index-linked unblighted price.
among other measures baa has set up a homeowner support scheme for people living
near stansted and has launched a special scheme for those close to the airport but
far enough away not to be covered by the homeowner scheme. at heathrow baa said it
was working closely with all interested parties to see how the strict environmental
air quality and noise targets for a third runway can be met. at gatwick the
company has written to homes and business likely to be affected by any extra
runway. stop stansted expansion said the white paper published in december 2003
was fundamentally flawed and did not follow the proper consultation process. we
do not underestimate the scale of the challenge before us because the courts have
never before overturned a government white paper said stop stansted expansion
chairman peter sanders said. hacan chairman john stewart said: almost exactly a
year ago the government published its 30-year aviation white paper with much
fanfare. it hoped that would be the end of the debate and it could proceed with
its plans for a massive expansion of aviation. yet a year later the protesters
are still here and stronger than ever. a judgement from mr justice sullivan is
expected early in february.
henman & murray claim lta awards tim henman was named player of the year for 2004
by the lawn tennis association at wimbledon on monday. the briton was recognised
for the best year of his career which saw him reach the semis at the french and us
opens. scotland s andrew murray was named young player of the year after winning
the us open juniors as well as a futures event in italy. and world number one
peter norfolk won disabled player of the year after claiming his third us open
crown. great britain s under 14 boys won the team of the year prize for their
victory at the world junior tennis event in august. henman will start his 2005
campaign at the kooyong event on 12 january in a field that includes roger federer
andy roddick and andre agassi. and the briton is optimistic of surpassing his best
effort of a fourth-round place at the australian open which begins the following
week. i ve often felt that the conditions suit my game in melbourne so i d love to
be able to start next year by doing well at the australian open henman told his
website. that s why i ve changed my schedule slightly by committing to play in the
kooyong classic. i ll be able to acclimatise while practising before the event and
then will be guaranteed matches against the best players in the world. i think
that will give me the best possible chance of doing well at the australian open.
us woman sues over cartridges a us woman is suing hewlett packard (hp) saying its
printer ink cartridges are secretly programmed to expire on a certain date. the
unnamed woman from georgia says that a chip inside the cartridge tells the printer
that it needs re-filling even when it does not. the lawsuit seeks to represent
anyone in the us who has purchased an hp inkjet printer since february 2001. hp
the world s biggest printer firm declined to comment on the lawsuit. hp ink
cartridges use a chip technology to sense when they are low on ink and advise the
user to make a change. but the suit claims the chips also shut down the cartridges
at a predetermined date regardless of whether they are empty. the smart chip is
dually engineered to prematurely register ink depletion and to render a cartridge
unusable through the use of a built-in expiration date that is not revealed to the
consumer the suit said. the lawsuit is asking for restitution damages and other
compensation. the cost of printer cartridges has been a contentious issue in europe
for the last 18 months. the price of inkjet printers has come down to as little as
£34 but it could cost up to £1 700 in running costs over an 18-month period due to
cartridge a study by computeractive magazine revealed last year. the inkjet
printer market has been the subject of an investigation by the uk s office of fair
trading (oft) which concluded in a 2002 report that retailers and manufacturers
needed to make pricing more transparent for consumers.
japanese growth grinds to a halt growth in japan evaporated in the three months to
september sparking renewed concern about an economy not long out of a decade-long
trough. output in the period grew just 0.1% an annual rate of 0.3%. exports - the
usual engine of recovery - faltered while domestic demand stayed subdued and
corporate investment also fell short. the growth falls well short of expectations
but does mark a sixth straight quarter of expansion. the economy had stagnated
throughout the 1990s experiencing only brief spurts of expansion amid long periods
in the doldrums. one result was deflation - prices falling rather than rising -
which made japanese shoppers cautious and kept them from spending. the effect was
to leave the economy more dependent than ever on exports for its recent recovery.
but high oil prices have knocked 0.2% off the growth rate while the falling dollar
means products shipped to the us are becoming relatively more expensive. the
performance for the third quarter marks a sharp downturn from earlier in the year.
the first quarter showed annual growth of 6.3% with the second showing 1.1% and
economists had been predicting as much as 2% this time around. exports slowed
while capital spending became weaker said hiromichi shirakawa chief economist at
ubs securities in tokyo. personal consumption looks good but it was mainly due to
temporary factors such as the olympics. the amber light is flashing. the
government may now find it more difficult to raise taxes a policy it will have to
implement when the economy picks up to help deal with japan s massive public debt.
nortel in $300m profit revision telecoms equipment maker nortel networks has
sharply revised downwards its profits for the 2003 fiscal year. in a long-awaited
filing nortel said it had made $434m (£231m) compared to the previously reported
$732m. but the figures - revised after an audit which led to the sacking of the
canadian firm s chief - showed revenue was about 4% higher than first thought.
nortel shares which have lost nearly 50% of their value since last year climbed
1.46% in toronto on tuesday. nortel s head frank dunn and two other executives were
fired in january last year after the company announced it had conducted the
internal audit. securities and police authorities in both the us and canada are
still conducting inquiries into the accounts. nortel also issued new figures for
the 2001-2002 period which they had previously indicated had understated losses.
with the completion of our restatements we have a solid foundation on which to move
forward with our business said nortel president and chief executive bill owens.
the restatement has been a monumental task both complex and demanding. the
company also said 12 senior executives - none of whom were involved directly in the
accounting of the revised figures - have voluntarily agreed to repay to bonuses
awarded in 2003 totalling $8.6m. nortel added: these members of the core executive
team share the board s deep disappointment over the circumstances that led to the
restatement.
bangkok film festival battles on organisers of the third bangkok international film
festival have been determined to carry on with this year s event despite the
ravages of the asian tsunami disaster. the festivities have been scaled down red
carpets have been mothballed and profits from ticket sales are being donated to the
tsunami relief fund. apart from this however the festival has continued as
originally planned. when the disaster happened we naturally asked ourselves if we
should cancel said the festival s executive director craig prater. the decision
was made that we would continue but that the focus would change. our premieres
became fundraisers the opening night was visibly toned down and 10% of every
ticket sold goes to the disaster fund he continued. but we feel like we ve
turned a page. we ve acknowledged our position and now it s business as usual.
mr prater s sentiments were echoed by christine rush director of the festival s
sister event the bangkok film market. we have been careful to be respectful of
the thai nation s recovery from this terrible disaster she said. however the
nation s recovery very much depends upon it continuing its economic life. we are
encouraging attendees to keep the victims in mind and aggressively support the aid
organisations helping out she added. given the conspicuously low audience figures
that support may be more symbolic than significant. however poor ticket sales have
less to do with any fallout from the disaster and more to do with administrative
and promotional difficulties. the eclectic programme contains a wide range of
titles including such oscar hopefuls as ray charles biopic ray and mike leigh s
abortion drama vera drake. that said the absence of thai subtitles on most film
prints might have proved offputting to local cinemagoers. on a more positive note
the celebrity guests attending the event have generated huge media interest in this
busy capital city. problems securing air transport the clash with last sunday s
golden globes ceremony in los angeles and other factors have forced some big names
to cancel. but the festival has still attracted such hollywood directors as oliver
stone and joel schumacher alongside such screen stars as michael douglas jeremy
irons and jean-claude van damme. irons whose film being julia is in competition
for the festival s golden kinnaree awards said he had wondered whether he should
attend after december s catastrophe. i questioned whether i should come when such
a tragedy had happened the british actor said. i thought it might be in rather
bad taste. but then i spoke to the organisers and i was encouraged to let life go
on. now i ve come here i m very glad. what impresses me about thai culture is they
get over these things far quicker than we do in the west he continued. basically
i was invited here by thailand. if they still want you to come you should. now
in its third year bangkok is a relatively recent addition to the hectic film
festival calendar. and while it has yet to attain the stature of more established
events held in hong kong tokyo and pusan in south korea mr prater predicts it
will soon become their equal. it s grown awfully fast in three years - maybe too
fast he concedes. we ve had some bumps in the road but that s only because the
festival is still a baby. i have no doubt in my mind that in five years this will
be the top asian film festival in the world. the golden kinnarees will be awarded
on friday. the festival itself runs until 24 january.
sideways dominates spirit awards the comedy sideways has dominated this year s
independent spirit awards winning all six of the awards for which it was
nominated. it was named best film while alexander payne won best director and best
screenplay along with writing partner jim taylor. it also won acting awards for
stars paul giamatti thomas haden church and virginia madsen. sideways is tipped to
do well at sunday s oscars with five nominations. the awards now in their 20th
year are given to films made outside the traditional studio system and are
traditionally held the day before the oscars. other winners included catalina
sandino moreno who took best actress for her role as a drug smuggler in the
colombian drama maria full of grace. moreno is also nominated for best actress at
the oscars. the best first screenplay award went to joshua marston for maria full
of grace. scrubs star zach braff won the award for best first feature for garden
state which he wrote directed and starred in. oscar-nominated euthanasia film the
sea inside from spain won best foreign film while metallica: some kind of monster
was awarded best documentary. actor rodrigo de la serna took the best debut
performance prize for the motorcycle diaries. the awards are voted for by the 9 000
members of the independent feature project/los angeles which includes actors
directors writers and other industry professionals. last year s big winner lost
in translation went on to win the oscar for best original screenplay for writer-
director sofia coppola.
mobile multimedia slow to catch on there is no doubt that mobile phones sporting
cameras and colour screens are hugely popular. consumers swapping old phones for
slinkier dinkier versions are thought to be responsible for a 26% increase in the
number of phones sold during the third quarter of 2004 according to analysts
gartner more than 167 million handsets were sold globally between july and
september 2004 a period that according to gartner analyst carolina milanesi is
seldom strong . but although consumers have mobiles that can take and send snaps
sounds and video clips few so far are taking the chance to do so. in fact the
numbers of people not taking and sending pictures audio and video is growing.
figures gathered by continental research shows that 36% of british camera phone
users have never sent a multimedia message (mms) up from 7% in 2003. this is
despite the fact that during the same period the numbers of camera phones in the
uk more than doubled to 7.5 million. getting mobile phone users to send multimedia
messages is really important for operators keen to squeeze more cash out of their
customers and offset the cost of subsidising the handsets people are buying. the
problem they face said shailendra jain head of mms firm adamind is educating
people in how to send the multimedia messages using their funky handsets. also
he said they have to simplify the interface so its not rocket science in terms of
someone understanding it. research bears out the suspicion that people are not
sending multimedia messages because they do not know how to. according to
continental research 29% of the people it questioned said they were technophobes
that tended to shy away from innovation. only 11% regarded themselves as
technically savvy enough to send a picture or video message. the fact that
multimedia services are not interoperable across networks and phones only adds to
people s reluctance to start sending them said mr jain. they ask themselves: if
i m streaming video from one handset to another will it work he said. there s a
lot of user apprehension about that. there are other deeper technical reasons why
multimedia messages are not being pushed as strongly as they might. andrew bud
executive chairman of messaging firm mblox said mobile phone operators cap the
number of messages that can be circulating at any one time for fear of overwhelming
the system. the rate we can send mms into the mobile network is fairly constant
he said. the reason for this is that there are finite capacities for data traffic
on the second generation networks that currently have the most users. no-one wants
to take the risk of swamping these relatively narrow channels so the number of mms
messages is capped said mr bud. this has led to operators finding other
technologies particularly one known as wap-push to get multimedia to their
customers. but when networks do find a good way to get multimedia to their
customers the results can be dramatic. israeli technology firm celltick has found
a way to broadcast data across phone networks in a way that does not overwhelm
existing bandwidth. one of the first firms to use the celltick service is hutch
india the largest mobile firm in the country. the broadcast system gets multimedia
to customers via a rolling menu far faster than would be possible with other
systems. while not multimedia messaging such a system gets people used to seeing
their phones as a device that can handle all different types of content. as a
result 40% of the subscribers to the hutch alive which uses celltick s broadcast
technology regularly click for more pictures sounds and images from the operator.
operators really need to start utilising this tool to reach their customers said
yaron toren spokesman for celltick. until then multimedia will be a message that
is not getting through.
safin slumps to shock dubai loss marat safin suffered a shock loss to unseeded
nicolas kiefer in round one of the dubai tennis championships. playing his first
match since winning the australian open safin showed some good touches but was
beaten 7-6 (7-2) 6-4 by the in-form kiefer. the german got on top in the first-set
tie-break striking a sweet forehand to win the first point against serve. and he
maintained the momentum early in the second set breaking the russian with the help
of an inspired volley. spain s feliciano lopez lined up a second round clash with
andre agassi by beating thailand s paradorn srichaphan. lopez who lost in three
sets to roger federer in last year s final won 6-2 3-6 6-3. former champion
fabrice santoro of france was beaten 6-3 6-0 by sixth seeded russian nikolay
davydenko. there were also wins for two other russians igor andreev and seventh
seed mikhail youzhny.
emi shares hit by profit warning shares in music giant emi have sunk by more than
16% after the firm issued a profit warning following disappointing sales and delays
to two album releases. emi said music sales for the year to march will fall 8-9%
from the year before with profits set to be 15% lower than analysts had expected.
it blamed poor sales since christmas and delays to the releases of new albums by
coldplay and gorillaz. by 1200 gmt on monday emi shares were down 16.2% at 235.75
pence. emi said two major albums scheduled for release before the end of the
financial year in march - one by coldplay and one by gorillaz - have now had their
release dates put back. emi music s sales particularly re-orders in january
have also been lower than anticipated and this is expected to continue through
february and march the company added. therefore for the full year at constant
currency emi music s sales are now expected to be 8% to 9% lower than the prior
year. the company said it expected profits to be about £138m ($259.8m). alain levy
chairman and chief executive of emi music described the performance as
disappointing but added that he remained optimistic over future trends in the
industry. the physical music market is showing signs of stabilisation in many
parts of the world and digital music in all its forms continues to develop at a
rapid pace he said. commenting on the delay to the release of the coldplay and
gorillaz albums mr levy said that creating and marketing music is not an exact
science and cannot always coincide with our reporting periods . while this
rescheduling and recent softness is disappointing it does not change my views of
the improving health of the global recorded music industry he added. paul
richards an analyst at numis securities said the market would be focusing on the
slump in music sales rather than the timing of the two albums. it s unusual to see
this much of a downgrade just because of phasing he said.
eminem beats elvis to number one rapper eminem has denied elvis his fourth number
one of the year after his song like toy soldiers stormed to the top of the
singles charts. the track claimed the top spot ahead of the king s latest re-
release are you lonesome tonight. it is the fifth in a series of 18 reissues to
mark the 70th anniversary of presley s birth. almost here the duet from former
westlife star brian mcfadden and delta goodrem went in at number three. like toy
soldiers from eminem s encore album is sampled from martika s 1980s hit toy
soldiers. it takes a swipe at hip-hop feuds and follows the success of just lose
it. last week s number one elvis s it s now or never slipped 13 places to number
14 but all five of his re-released songs are in the top 40. one world project
tsunami fundraiser grief never grows old slipped four places to number eight.
featuring cliff richard and boy george the song was written by former dj mike
read. in the album charts athlete s latest offering tourist claimed the top spot
toppling the chemical brother s push the button down which fell to number six.
text messages aid disaster recovery text messaging technology was a valuable
communication tool in the aftermath of the tsunami disaster in asia. the messages
can get through even when the cell phone signal is too weak to sustain a spoken
conversation. now some are studying how the technology behind sms could be better
used during an emergency. sanjaya senanayake works for sri lankan television. the
blogging world though might know him better by his online name morquendi. he was
one of the first on the scene after the tsunami destroyed much of the sri lankan
coast. cell phone signals were weak. land lines were unreliable. so mr senanayake
started sending out text messages. the messages were not just the latest news they
were also an on-the-ground assessment of who needs what and where . blogging
friends in india took mr senanayake s text messages and posted them on a weblog
called dogs without borders. thousands around the world followed the story that
unfolded in the text messages that he sent. and that s when mr senanayake started
to wonder if sms might be put to more practical use. sms networks can handle so
much more traffic than the standard mobile phone call or the land line call he
says. in every rural community there s at least one person who has access to a
mobile phone or has a mobile phone and can receive messages. half a world away
in the caribbean nation of trinidad and tobago taran rampersad read morquendi s
messages. mr rampersad who used to work in the military knew how important on the
ground communication can be in times of disaster. he wondered if there might be a
way to automatically centralise text messages and then redistribute them to
agencies and people who might be able to help. mr rampersad said: imagine if an
aid worker in the field spotted a need for water purification tablets and had a
central place to send a text message to that effect. he can message the server so
the server can send out an e-mail message and human or machine moderators can e-
mail aid agencies and get it out in the field. he added: or send it at the same
time to other people who are using sms in the region and they might have an excess
of it and be able to shift supplies to the right places. mr rampersad and others
had actually been thinking about such a system since hurricane ivan ravaged the
caribbean and the southern united states last september. last week he sent out e-
mail messages asking for help in creating such a system for asia. in only 72 hours
he found dan lane a text message guru living in britain. the pair along with a
group of dedicated techies are creating what they call the alert retrieval cache.
the idea is to use open-source software - software can be used by anyone without
commercial restraint - and a far-flung network of talent to create a system that
links those in need with those who can help. this is a classic smart mobs
situation where you have people self-organizing into a larger enterprise to do
things that benefit other people says paul saffo a director at the california-
based institute for the future. you may be halfway around the world from someone
but in cyberspace you re just one click or one e-mail away he said that s put a
whole new dimension on disaster relief and recovery where often people halfway
around the world can be more effective in making something happen precisely because
they re not right on top of the tragedy. it is still very early days for the
project though. in an e-mail dan lane calls it an early proof of concept. right
now the alert retrieval cache can only take a text message and automatically
upload it to a web-page or distribute it to an e-mail list. in the near future
the group says it hopes to take in messages from people in affected areas and use
human moderators to take actions based on the content of those messages. but there
s still another challenge. you have to get people to know that the system is there
for them to use. it s amazing how difficult it is to find someone to pass it along
to and say look this is what we re trying to do and everything like that says
mr rampersad. so the big problem right now is the same problem we re trying to
solve - human communication. he is optimistic however. he thinks that the alert
retrieval cache is an idea whose time has come and he hopes governments too will
sit up and take notice. and he stands by his motto courtesy of michelangelo:
criticise by creating. clark boyd is technology correspondent for the world a bbc
world service and wgbh-boston co-production.
us peer-to-peer pirates convicted the first convictions for piracy over peer-to-
peer networks have been handed down in the us. new yorker william trowbridge and
texan michael chicoine have pleaded guilty to charges that they infringed copyright
by illegally sharing music movies and software. the two men faced charges
following raids in august on suspected pirates by the fbi. the pair face jail terms
of up to five years and a $250 000 (£130 000) fine. in a statement the us
department of justice said the two men operated the central hubs in a piracy
community organised across the direct connect peer-to-peer network. the piracy
group called itself the underground network and membership of it demanded that
users share between one and 100 gigabytes of files. direct connect allows users to
set themselves up as central servers that act as co-ordinating spots for sharers.
users would swap files such as films and music by exchanging data over the
network. during its investigation fbi agents reportedly downloaded 84 movies 40
software programs 13 games and 178 sound recordings from the five hubs that made
up the larger piracy group. the raids were organised under the umbrella of
operation digital gridlock which was aimed at fighting criminal copyright theft on
peer-to-peer networks . in total six raids were carried out in august. five were
on the homes of suspected copyright thieves and one on a net service firm. the
department of justice said that both men pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy
to commit felony copyright infringement. they also pleaded guilty to acting for
commercial advantage. the two men are due to be sentenced on 29 april.
u2 to play at grammy awards show irish rock band u2 are to play live at the grammy
awards presentation in the us next month organisers have said. other acts to play
include soul singer alicia keys country singer tim mcgraw and punk band green day
at the event on 13 february in los angeles. u2 are nominated twice for their recent
single vertigo including a nomination for best rock song. this year the grammys
have been dominated by rap star kanye west who is in contention for 10 awards. us
comedian ellen degeneres and singer christine milian will present awards at the
event. last week grammy producers announced the show will be hosted by rap star and
chicago actress queen latifah. it will be held at the staples center. u2 had number
one success in the album charts on both sides of the atlantic in november when
their latest studio album how to dismantle an atomic bomb topped the us and uk
charts. the band who are also dominated for best international album at this year
s brit awards are to undertake a major world tour this year their first for four
years.
aviator creator in oscars snub the man who said he got oscar-nominated movie the
aviator off the ground and signed up leonardo dicaprio has been shut out of the
academy awards race. charles evans jr battled over his role with the people who
eventually made the film and won a producer s credit. but he is not on the list of
producers who can win a best film oscar due to a limit on the number of nominees.
the oscars organisers have picked two of the aviator s four producers to be
nominated for best film. up to three producers can be named per film but the
studios behind the aviator and million dollar baby failed to trim their credits -
so the academy of motion pictures arts and sciences (ampas) has done it for them.
the aviator s nominated producers are michael mann and graham king - with mr evans
and sandy climan mr mann s former deputy left off. mr evans sued mr mann in 2001
claiming he came up with the idea spent years developing it and persuaded dicaprio
to play hughes - but said he was later excluded from the project. the two sides
settled out of court in a deal that has remained secret apart from the fact mr
evans name has appeared as a producer when the film s credits roll. at the golden
globes mr evans - who was named among the winners when the film won best drama
film - evaded a security guard to have his photo taken with dicaprio director
martin scorsese mr mann and mr king. ampas decided to limit the number of
producers who could be nominated after shakespeare in love s victory in 1999 saw
five producers collect awards. the eligible names for the aviator and million
dollar baby were decided by ampas producers branch executive committee on
wednesday. the decision also saw clint eastwood get his third personal nomination
for million dollar baby. he is now named in the best film category as well as being
nominated for best director and best lead actor. the academy awards ceremony will
be held in hollywood on 27 february. chinese actress ziyi zhang star of crouching
tiger hidden dragon hero and house of flying daggers is the latest name to be
added to the list of presenters on the night.
baywatch dubbed worst tv import surf show baywatch has won the title of worst tv
import of all time in a poll of uk television executives. the programme which
starred david hasselhoff and pamela anderson during its 12-year run was shown in
140 countries at its height. model anna nicole smith s reality show and the dukes
of hazzard were runners-up in the broadcast magazine survey. the simpsons and
dallas and 24 were among the magazine s list of the best all-time imports from the
us. soap operas knots landing falcon crest plus the bold and the beautiful all
made the top 10 of transatlantic tv howlers. the jerry springer show which came in
at sixth on the list did not fare well. broadcast magazine said: british tv
never realised how low it could go before jerry showed the way. baywatch rose to
the top of the list for having mind-numbingly predictable scripts: beachgoer is
saved from drowning according to the magazine. just inside the all-time worst top
10 came extreme makeover which sees members of the public given thousands of
pounds worth of plastic surgery. other american shows which won praise were the x-
files i love lucy twin peaks and star trek.
election deal faltered over heath role the tories failed to hold onto power in 1974
after liberals demanded sir edward heath quit in return for co-operation.
documents released after 30 years reveal the failed negotiations by the then prime
minister following the dramatic february general election. liberal leader jeremy
thorpe appeared willing to form a coalition government. but it partly collapsed
over the conservative leader s own role prompting the queen to ask harold wilson
to form a labour government. the february 1974 general election surprised the
nation when it created a hung parliament with no party in overall control. sir
edward had gone to the country for a fresh mandate amid the spiralling economic
crisis a miners strike and the subsequent three-day week. labour emerged with the
most seats - but its 301 mps were 17 short of the number mr wilson needed to form a
majority. sir edward who had received more votes but had fewer mps believed he
had the authority to remain at number 10 providing the 14 liberal mps would support
his government. he said the liberals could keep out labour in three ways: lend ad
hoc support to his minority government help draw up the government s programme or
have up to three cabinet members in a coalition with the conservatives. according
to the documents released at the national archives the friendly and easy first
meeting indicated that both sir edward and mr thorpe thought they had the makings
of a deal. mr thorpe was in high spirits having just led his party to a historic
jump in support. he also argued for a grand coalition of all three main parties.
but sir edward said that was impossible because the labour left was set against it
and the pair settled on trying for a conservative-liberal pact. hours later sir
edward s hopes of a deal unravelled as mr thorpe s colleagues refused to support
him. jeremy said he was encountering a rather embarrassing problem with his
colleagues about the prime minister personally reads a telephone memo for mr
heath. they feel they could not agree to serve as long as he is the prime
minister. asked if this was his own view he said - no it was not i am very close
to ted and thought he was by far the most able man we had and he would be perfectly
happy to serve - it was only some of his colleagues who were being difficult. the
following day the stickling points had clearly become two-fold: mr thorpe s
colleagues wanted electoral reform and sir edward s resignation. mr thorpe told sir
edward: i am sorry this is obviously hell - a nightmare on stilts for you.
somehow i personally hope that we can work something out. four hours later sir
edward called the liberal leader back to downing street in a last attempt at a
deal. the minutes of the meeting show how the chance of a coalition government
quickly evaporated. the pm said he was bound to tell mr thorpe that his colleagues
had told him that they would not agree to serve under any other prime minister. mr
thorpe was at liberty to verify this by talking to one or two of the prime minister
s colleagues. documents show that sir edward mulled over resigning and perhaps
returning to coalition government in a labour-led coalition. but he already knew mr
wilson would not form a coalition with either the liberals or the conservatives
because of the opposition of the labour left. within hours of his final talks with
mr thorpe sir edward told the nation he was resigning and the queen invited mr
wilson to form a new minority government.
iaaf will contest greek decision the international association of athletics
federations will appeal against the acquittal of greek athletes kostas kenteris and
katerina thanou. the high-profile duo were cleared of doping offences by the greek
athletics federation (segas) last month. now the iaaf will lodge an appeal with the
court of arbitration for sport (cas) and has suspended both athletes. an iaaf
statement said: the doping review board concluded that the decision is erroneous.
the statement continued: both athletes cases will be refered to arbitration
before the cas. the decision in both cases will be final and binding. segas said
the iaaf appeal was expected and understandable. now we are going to await the
final result which we cannot prejudge said segas chairman vassilis sevastis.
kenteris who won olympic 200m gold at the 2000 olympics and thanou were suspended
by the iaaf last december after failing to take routine drugs tests before the
athens games. however the independent tribunal overturned those bans clearing the
sprinters of avoiding tests in tel aviv chicago and athens and failing to notify
anti-doping officials of their whereabouts before the olympics. kenteris lawyer
gregory ioannidis described the iaaf s decision as not unexpected but told bbc
sport he did not expect the organisation to take action so quickly. the iaaf s
timing is extremely surprising and it creates concerns and questions said
ioannidis. the iaaf has not yet received the complete file of proceedings which
include statements testimonies the closing speeches of defence counsel... and
nine audio tapes. we have the evidence and it is time the world discovered the
truth. kenteris and thanou dramatically withdrew from last summer s olympics after
missing a drugs test at the olympic village on 12 august. the pair then spent four
days in a hospital claiming they had been injured in a motorcycle crash. it was
the international olympic committee who demanded the iaaf investigate the affair.
thanou and kenteris still face a criminal trial later this year for allegedly
avoiding the test and then faking a motorcycle accident
top tories on lib dem hit list the liberal democrats are aiming to unseat a
string of top tories - including leader michael howard - at the next general
election. mr howard s seat is at the top of the liberal democrats list. others
targeted include oliver letwin david davis and theresa may lib dem s elections
chief lord rennard said. he said it was nothing personal but that very many of
the prominent conservatives had slender leads in seats where the lib dems were
second. in 2001 michael howard won the folkestone & hythe seat with 20 645 votes
compared to 14 738 for the liberal democrat candidate peter carroll giving the
tory leader a majority of 5 907. asked if this amounted to the party s much vaunted
decapitation strategy lord rennard said it was not a term he had ever used. but he
urged labour supporters to vote tactically to remove prominent conservatives. i
just don t think labour voters in these sort of seats could resist the temptation
to use their votes effectively to remove a conservative. he denied this strategy
was opportunism insisting the lib dem s policies on issues such as tuition fees
the council tax and free care for the elderly appealed to all sides of the
political spectrum . we are in favour of tactical voting as long as the tactic is
to vote liberal democrat he added. a conservative spokesperson said: the liberal
democrats can talk all they like about strategy. the problem the liberal democrats
face is that a large number of lib dem voters do not agree with their policies. we
will be pointing out how they are soft on crime how they support higher taxes
their opposition to controlled immigration and support for giving europe more
control over our lives .
parents face video game lessons ways of ensuring that parents know which video
games are suitable for children are to be considered by the games industry. the
issue was discussed at a meeting between uk government officials industry
representatives and the british board of film classification. it follows concerns
that children may be playing games aimed at adults which include high levels of
violence. in 2003 britons spent £1 152m on games more than ever before. and this
christmas parents are expected to spend millions on video games and consoles.
violent games have been hit by controversy after the game manhunt was blamed by the
parents of 14-year-old stefan pakeerah who was stabbed to death in leicester in
february. his mother giselle said her son s killer warren leblanc 17 - who was
jailed for life in september - had mimicked behaviour in the game. police
investigating stefan s murder dismissed its influence and said manhunt was not part
of its legal case. the issue of warnings on games for adults was raised on sunday
by trade and industry secretary patricia hewitt. this was the focus of the talks
between government officials representatives from the games industry and the
british board of film classification. adults can make informed choices about what
games to play. children can t and they deserve to be protected said culture
secretary tessa jowell after the meeting. industry will consider how to make sure
parents know what games their children should and shouldn t play. roger bennett
director general of entertainment and leisure software publishers association
said: a number of initiatives were discussed at the meeting. they will be
formulated to create specific proposals to promote greater understanding
recognition and awareness of the games rating system ensuring that young people
are not exposed to inappropriate content. among the possible measures could be a
campaign to explain to parents that many games are made for an adult audience as
well as changes to the labelling of the games themselves. according to industry
statistics a majority of players are over 18 with the average age of a gamer
being 29. academics point out that there has not been any definitive research
linking bloodthirsty games such as manhunt with violent responses in players. in a
report published this week for the video standards council dr guy cumberbatch
said: the research evidence on media violence causing harm to viewers is wildly
exaggerated and does not stand up to scrutiny. dr cumberbatch head of the social
policy think tank the communications research group reviewed the studies on the
issue. he concluded that there was an absence of convincing research that media
violence caused harm.
mcdonald s boss bell dies aged 44 charlie bell the straight-talking former head of
fast-food giant mcdonald s has died of cancer aged 44. mr bell was diagnosed with
colorectal cancer in may last year a month after taking over the top job. he
resigned in november to fight the illness. joining the company as a 15-year-old
part-time worker mr bell quickly moved through its ranks becoming australia s
youngest store manager at 19. a popular go-getter he is credited with helping
revive mcdonald s sales. mr bell leaves a wife and daughter. as we mourn his
passing i ask you to keep charlie s family in your hearts and prayers chief
executive james skinner said in a statement. and remember that in his abbreviated
time on this earth charlie lived life to the fullest. no matter what cards life
dealt charlie stayed centred on his love for his family and for mcdonald s.
after running the company s australian business in the 1990s mr bell moved to the
us in 1999 to run operations in asia africa and the middle east. in 2001 he took
over the reins in europe mcdonald s second most important market. he became chief
operating officer and president in 2002. mr bell took over as chief executive after
his predecessor as ceo jim cantalupo died suddenly of a heart attack in april.
having worked closely with mr cantalupo who came out of retirement to turn
mcdonald s around mr bell focused on boosting demand at existing restaurants
rather than follow a policy of rapid expansion. he had promised not to let the
company get fat dumb and happy and according to reuters once told analysts
that he would shove a fire hose down the throat of competitors if he saw them
drowning. mr bell oversaw mcdonald s i m lovin it advertising campaign and
introduced successes such as mccafe now the biggest coffee shop brand in australia
and new zealand. colleagues said that mr bell was proud of his humble beginnings
helping out behind cash tills and clearing tables when visiting restaurants.
stallone evicted from big brother jackie stallone mother of actor sylvester has
become the first star to be evicted from celebrity big brother. she and john
mccririck faced the public vote on friday - 67% of people voted to keep the racing
pundit in the house. stallone 71 appeared not to have enjoyed her time in the
house saying: i m a total wreck i need a vacation this was a nightmare . but she
was pleased to have patched things up with actress brigitte nielsen her former
daughter-in-law. that alone was worth $1m she said. stallone joined the channel
4 show on monday as a surprise for nielsen. she was hot favourite to be evicted
first with odds of 1/4 to leave. but mccririck has made some enemies with his
outspoken views about women. ladbrokes spokesman warren lush said: we may have
underestimated the power of the anti-mccririck brigade but it s so hard to call
with him there are people out there who either love him or hate him there is no
middle ground. the bookmakers have made former happy mondays dancer bez favourite
to win the show at 7/4 while blazin squad singer kenzie is second at 2/1. bez
has wooed the viewers and looks the one to beat he s kept his nose clean and doesn
t take anything too seriously mr lush said. earlier on friday 15 protesters from
the fathers 4 justice campaign group were arrested after entering the big brother
compound at 0300 gmt and throwing fireworks. feminist icon germaine greer quit the
show earlier in the week over what she called bullying tactics used by the
programme s producers. the show is currently attracting an average audience of
about 4.2 million viewers a night.
e-university disgraceful waste a failed government scheme to offer uk university
courses online has been branded a disgraceful waste by mps. the e-university was
scrapped last year having attracted only 900 students at a cost of £50m. chief
executive john beaumont was paid a bonus of £44 914 despite a failure to bring in
private sector backers. the commons education select committee called this morally
indefensible but the government said the e-university project had improved
understanding . a department for education and skills spokeswoman said the venture
had been ambitious and ground-breaking but take-up had not been sufficient to
continue with the project . she added: uk e-universities was not the only
organisation to have lost out on private sector investment in the collapse of the
dotcom boom. the select committee found that those responsible for founding the e-
university in 2000 had been caught up in the general atmosphere of enthusiasm
surrounding the internet. initial business plans forecast a quarter of a million
students joining within a decade bringing in at least £110m in profit. but
virtually no market research was carried out and just £4.2m was spent on worldwide
sales and marketing of courses. some £14m went on developing the technology to make
the e-university work. this was used by just 200 students the rest preferring to
work through existing university websites. with no significant private investors
and no direct accountability to a government minister the e-university had had
too much freedom to spend public money as it wished the report found. committee
chairman barry sheerman said: uk e-university was a terrible waste of public
money. the senior executives failed to interest any private investors and showed
an extraordinary over-confidence in their ability to attract students to the
scheme. the report warns that the government should not be scared off investment
in innovative but potentially risky schemes by the failure of the e-university but
should learn the lessons from this disaster .
argentina venezuela in oil deal argentina and venezuela have extended a food-for-
oil deal which helped the former to overcome a severe energy crisis last year.
argentine president nestor kirchner and venezuelan president hugo chavez signed the
deal in buenos aires on tuesday. last april argentina signed a $240m agreement to
import venezuelan fuel in exchange for agricultural goods and this deal has now
been extended. venezuela will now import cattle medicines and medical equipment.
last year argentina s severe energy crisis forced president kirchner to suspend
gas exports to chile. argentina fears that rising demand could spark another crisis
and wants to prevent it by signing this deal. the two countries also formalised a
co-operation deal between venezuelan energy firm pdvsa and argentina s enarsa.
under this deal the argentine market will be opened to venezuelan investment.
president chavez added that brazil s petrobras could join soon the co-operation
deal. president chavez is an ardent promoter of the concept of a south american oil
company which could include the state-owned companies of venezuela argentina
brazil and bolivia. the two presidents also agreed to create television sur a
latin american network of state-owned television channels.
brando rejected godfather role late film star marlon brando is said to have
repeatedly turned down his oscar-winning role in the godfather. the actor s friend
budd schulberg told vanity fair magazine that brando s assistant suggested he read
the novel. the actor repeatedly refused throwing the book at her and saying: for
the last time i won t glorify the mafia . but brando who died last july at the
age of 80 eventually took the role of don corleone winning him an oscar in 1973
which he notoriously refused. the actor sent a young woman dressed in native
american costume to refuse the award on his behalf and to draw attention to the
plight of native americans. schulberg told the magazine that brando s assistant
realised the film star had warmed to the idea of the godfather role when he sported
a drawn-on pencil moustache and asked: how do i look his assistant alice
marchak said that he looked like george raft an actor famed for playing gangsters
on the silver screen. every time she went to see brando from then on she added he
was wearing a different gangster-style moustache. brando was asked to screen test
for the role in the godfather as studio executives were said to be reluctant for
the actor to play the part following problems on the set of brando s previous film
mutiny on the bounty . in fact brando s academy award triumph revived his career.
the actor was nominated for an oscar the following year for his role in bernardo
bertolucci s last tango in paris. before his death brando granted gaming company
electronic arts the rights to use his voice and image in a video game based on the
godfather film and book and recorded voice-overs which closely resembled his role
as don corleone. brando s co-stars from the godfather james caan and robert duvall
will also reprise their roles for the video game it was confirmed on wednesday.
drive to save festive holidays efforts are being made to protect workers days
off on christmas day and new year s day. support is being sought for a bill which
would ensure that large retailers in scotland remain closed on christmas day and 1
january. the usdaw trade union said shop workers should be able to enjoy a break
with their families. msp karen whitefield wants to ensure only those whose roles
are essential are at work over the festive season. in recent years more stores
have been opening on traditional holidays with some starting their end-of-year
sale on christmas day or new year s day. ms whitefield said: i have found members
of the public to be very supportive when i have been campaigning on the streets.
the early evidence shows quite clearly that the vast majority of people believe
that shop workers should be given these two special days to spend with friends and
family. usdaw general secretary john hannett added: christmas day and new year s
day are special days for everyone in scotland and the fact that shops do not open
is an important part of making them special. they are largely collective days of
rest. we want people to tell karen through her consultation whether they want
the special nature of these days to remain or whether they want them to become
like any other trading day with shops open for business as usual. the
consultation on a christmas & new year s day trading bill has so far attracted
almost 500 responses and closes on 7 february.
ukip s secret weapon by any measure new yorker dick morris is that thing
americans love over everything else - a winner. this is the man who some pundits
believe was almost single-handedly responsible for bill clinton s sensational 1992
comeback victory. but morris is no ideologue. he has worked as election strategist
for any number of republicans as well and more recently politicians from mexico
to uruguay. now he is back in london as the uk independence party s not-so-secret
electoral weapon after returning from the ukraine where he helped - you guessed it
- opposition candidate viktor yushchenko. if there is one regular criticism
levelled at morris it is that he is too ready to switch allegiances. that he
enjoys the game more than the politics. so why britain and why ukip which despite
its recent eu election successes is not likely to pull off a sensational victory
in the looming general election. on this subject morris appears almost
evangelical. i was on a cruise in the mediterranean and coincidentally so was
ukip leader roger knapman. i had just written a piece saying how the english
channel was now wider than the atlantic which he liked and it went from there . but
what is it about ukip that particularly attracts him many might think it is simply
another chance to practice his art irrespective of the politics. i think the
greatest threat to democracy in the world is not terrorism but bureaucratism . a
great soundbite but a surprise coming from a new yorker post 11 september. it is
the growth of these bodies composed of experts who know better who don t believe
in letting democracy govern but believe in letting the correct solution be
determined. that s international bankers the world trade organisation the
international monetary fund the world bank and primarily the european union .
so he is out to help ukip take britain out of this organisation which he believes
is unreformable and inherently undemocratic. and he is scathing of the tory party
which he also appears to believe is unreformable. the tory party is schizophrenic
about europe. but until somebody says they are willing to leave the eu they can t
possibly re-negotiate anything (as michael howard is pledged to do). it s like
walking into a liquor store with a gun to rob it and saying: before i can proceed
with the robbery i want to make clear i am not going to shoot anybody . possibly a
very american analogy but another great soundbite. the basic point is that the eu
seeks political integration to move the entire nexus of decision making away from
britain - and we oppose that and the tories cannot be trusted to oppose it . so is
ukip s job to destroy the tories as former member robert kilroy-silk once
notoriously declared no. the aim of ukip is to withdraw from the eu and if it has
any relation to the tories it is to stiffen the tories spine on the issue by
having a large enough ukip vote so that we move the tories in the direction they
are refusing to move. but it s not just to shift the tories. i think ukip had a
huge amount to do with tony blair s decision to hold a referendum on the european
constitution and i think it had a huge amount to do with his refusal to go into the
euro . and while we are on the subject of mr kilroy-silk mr morris despatches him
with another of his neat soundbites. robert kilroy silk is not a team player - it
is a good idea our party stands for some thing and not some one . so what is the
big plan for the general election. how will he achieve the breakthrough look we
are not going to be forming the next government he said. neither does ukip have
to fight every seat. as with the 2004 us presidential election he says the
outcome will be decided by a small number of swing seats - just as he believes it
will in britain. so with limited resources the aim is to target those seats and
end the day with a significant group in the commons. he also believes it is
possible the internet could have a big part in the poll. the internet was a
decisive factor in the 2004 presidential election - through blogs (individuals
posting their views in online diaries). people just did it . anything can happen
in the next general election. there is an inherent instability at the moment.
labour and the tories have drawn the consensus so tightly and to the left there is
room for another voice . that might he suggests lead to a hung parliament with
ukip and others holding the balance of power. it is a huge task surely. but there
is undoubtedly a sense that the next general election may indeed produce some
surprises - even while most still believe it is labour s for the taking. ukip s
performance in last year s european elections was just such a shocker and showed
that mr morris may have a point about the new consensus. and after all he has a
reputation to sustain.
wright-phillips to start on right england coach sven-goran eriksson has revealed
shaun wright-phillips will start against the netherlands. but wright-phillips will
not make his first start for england playing on the left as had been widely
expected. shaun wright-phillips will probably start the game said eriksson. but
i m not going to start wright-phillips on the left. eriksson also revealed that
wes brown will start alongside jamie carragher in the injury-hit centre of defence.
when asked if brown and carragher would start eriksson replied: i could tell you
yes. it s a blow that four or five central defenders are away because of injuries.
on the other hand it s good for carragher and brown to show what they can do at
this level. that s positive. the england coach said that he had been impressed by
wright-phillips form for manchester city. he deserves his chance. he has been
playing well all season and i look forward to seeing him. and he added that andy
johnson and stewart downing - the other two new players in the squad - would also
get a chance to impress. wright-phillips downing and johnson will start or get
the chance to play some part. johnson was not in my plans a year ago but he is
doing a great season and scoring a lot of goals. downing is another one making a
great season. he is young talented and there are not too many left-footed players
in the squad.
roddick into san jose final andy roddick will play cyril saulnier in the final of
the sap open in san jose on sunday. the american top seed and defending champion
overcame germany s tommy haas the third seed 7-6 (7-3) 6-3. and saulnier survived
an injury scare in his semi-final with seventh-seeded austrian jurgen melzer. the
frenchman twisted his ankle early in the second set but overcame melzer who was
left fuming over a series of line calls 6-7 (3-7) 6-3 6-3. i was feeling horrible
earlier in the week roddick said. i thought tonight was another step in the
right direction. on my returns i was standing in more and i m getting a little
more depth even if i don t hit a perfect return. roddick won the last four
points of the first-set tie-break before being broken at the start of the second
set. but he broke straight back and then broke haas again to lead 4-2. it s
extremely frustrating when you have chances against a top-five player and don t do
anything with them admitted haas. i rushed a few backhands and he took
advantage. saulnier will move into the world s top 50 for the first time after his
passage through to the final. it s taken a lot of work and a lot of fighting in my
mind he revealed. sometimes i didn t believe i could get to a final and now i am
here. i ve stayed mentally strong. i m on the way. i ll keep fighting and work a
lot and i ll be up there.
dollar hits new low versus euro the us dollar has continued its record-breaking
slide and has tumbled to a new low against the euro. investors are betting that
the european central bank (ecb) will not do anything to weaken the euro while the
us is thought to favour a declining dollar. the us is struggling with a ballooning
trade deficit and analysts said one of the easiest ways to fund it was by allowing
a depreciation of the dollar. they have predicted that the dollar is likely to fall
even further. the us currency was trading at $1.364 per euro at 1800 gmt on
monday. this compares with $1.354 to the euro in late trading in new york on friday
which was then a record low. the dollar has weakened sharply since september when
it traded about $1.20 against the euro. it has lost 7% this year while against the
japanese yen it is down 3.2%. traders said that thin trading levels had amplified
monday s move. it s not going to take much to push [the dollar] one way or the
other said grant wilson of mellon bank. liquidity - a measure of the number of
parties willing to trade in the market - was about half that of a normal working
day traders said.
will tory tax cuts lift spirits michael howard has finally revealed the full scale
of his planned tory tax cuts. should he win the next general election he has
earmarked £4 billion that will be used to reduce taxes - although he still will not
say which or how. this was the pre-election message many in his party have been
pressing for and voters he believes will warm to. at its simplest it is saying:
vote tory and you can have it both ways . not only would his government stick to
labour spending plans on core public services including health and education it
would increase spending on defence police and pensions. and even after that was
done it would still have enough left over for a tax cut equivalent to about a
penny off the basic rate of income tax. all the money would come from its £35
billion efficiency savings which would see the axe taken to bureaucracy waste and
the civil service. of that £23 billion would go on spending plans with £8 billion
to fill the black hole left they claim by gordon brown and the rest going in tax
cuts. neither mr howard nor mr letwin would say exactly how they would use that
cash although a cut in the basic rate seems unlikely. ideas already floated
include raising tax thresholds and abolishing or reducing inheritance tax although
some in the tory party are urging mr howard to announce something more eye-catching
before the election. as the tory leader declared the aim of the exercise is to
open up a real economic policy divide between labour and the tories. at this
election people will have a clear choice between mr blair who will waste more and
tax more and the conservative party which will give value for money and tax less
he said. it is a move back towards an almost traditional tory message which
previously suggested labour was the party of tax rises and the conservatives the
party of tax cuts. the extension of that however was that labour was also seen
as the party of big spending on the public services while the tories were the
cutters. and that is where one of the problems lies for mr howard - can he persuade
sceptical voters that they really can have it both ways with bigger spending on
public services and lower taxes he insists he will not promise anything before the
election that he cannot deliver if put into downing street. labour needless to say
claim his planned £35bn efficiency savings simply don t add up and that those sorts
of figures are fantasy. one of new labour s greatest successes before the historic
1997 election was to persuade voters business and the city that it could be
trusted to run the economy. so far that has not faced any real challenge but
independent analysts now claim a third new labour government would be forced to
either increase taxation or taxes to plug a black hole it has at the centre of its
finances. meanwhile the liberal democrats are committed to increasing taxes for
the most well off to finance their spending proposals launched earlier in the day.
so mr howard hopes his message will start to hit home during this unofficial
election campaign and that his poll ratings might finally lift off the floor. and
while other issues like the iraq war and trust will play a major part in that
campaign it is likely - and the prime minister probably hopes - that the economy
will be the deciding factor.
joy division story to become film the life of late joy division singer ian curtis
is to be made into a film it has been announced. the manchester-based production
is called touching from a distance after a book by curtis s widow deborah which
forms the basis for the film. music mogul tony wilson who headed the record
company joy division were signed to will be co-executive producer. the musician
committed suicide in 1980 aged 23 shortly before the band were due to go on tour
in the us. mr wilson who has remained friends with curtis s widow and daughter
natalie who he says asked for his involvement to make the film official . people
have different ideas as to why ian committed suicide so maybe the film will
reflect those different views he told the bbc news website. plans for a separate
joy division film had been announced at the cannes film festival earlier this year
but the project did not get off the ground as it failed to get the backing of
curtis s family. mr wilson who was also involved with joy division s sucessor band
new order as well as the happy mondays said he would rather not appear in the
film. he made a cameo appearance in 24 hour party people in which his leading role
was played by steve coogan. i m not an actor and i did a lousy job playing my part
in 24 hour party people said the factory records founder who has been associated
with the manchester music scene since the 1970s. film people have a tendency to
mess up when they touch music but i hope this one works. this is much more than
the music - they want to do the real story of ian he said. the film is to be
directed by dutch-born anton corbijn who has made music movies for depeche mode
and u2. it will be produced by a us production company while the widow of ian
curtis will also be an executive producer.
industrial revival hope for japan japanese industry is growing faster than expected
boosting hopes that the country s retreat back into recession is over. industrial
output rose 2.1% - adjusted for the time of year - in january from a month earlier.
at the same time retail sales picked up faster than at any time since 1997. the
news sent tokyo shares to an eight-month high as investors hoped for a recovery
from the three quarters of contraction seen from april 2004 on. the nikkei 225
index ended the day up 0.7% at 11 740.60 points with the yen strengthening 0.7%
against the dollar to 104.53 yen. weaker exports normally the engine for japan s
economy in the face of weak domestic demand had helped trigger a 0.1% contraction
in the final three months of last year after two previous quarters of shrinking
gdp. only an exceptionally strong performance in the early months of 2004 kept the
year as a whole from showing a decline. the output figures brought a cautiously
optimistic response from economic officials. overall i see a low risk of the
economy falling into serious recession said bank of japan chief toshihiko fukui
despite warning that other indicators - such as the growth numbers - had been
worrying. within the overall industrial output figure there were signs of a
pullback from the export slowdown. among the best-performing sectors were key
overseas sales areas such as cars chemicals and electronic goods. with us growth
doing better than expected the picture for exports in early 2005 could also be one
of sustained demand. electronics were also one of the keys to the improved domestic
market with products such as flat-screen tvs in high demand during january.
robinson answers critics england captain jason robinson has rubbished suggestions
that the world champions are a team in decline. england were beaten 11-9 by wales
in their six nations opener in cardiff last week and face current champions france
at twickenham on sunday. robinson said: we are certainly not on the decline. you
lose one game and it doesn t make you a bad team. i have no doubt in the players
we ve got. we have still got the team to go out and beat anyone on our day.
england find themselves striving to avoid a third successive championship defeat
for the first time since 1987. but full-back robinson believes the new-look england
team can stop the rot against france. last weekend we should have won the game
he said. but if we can under-perform and lose by only two points then i am sure if
we play well this week we will get the win we need. we proved that in the autumn -
when we put in some excellent performances - and we just need to build on that.
it was a disappointing start against wales and we might be down on that. but we
are certainly not out. we will come out fighting this week. robinson also had
words of comfort for 18-year-old newcastle centre mathew tait who made his
international debut against wales but has been demoted from the squad to face
france. i have had a word with mathew said robinson. i still believe in him.
he is an outstanding player but we have gone for olly (barkley) because of the
kicking. mathew has just got to take it on the chin keep working hard like he is
doing and i m sure he will feature in some of the games.
markets signal brazilian recovery the brazilian stock market has risen to a record
high as investors display growing confidence in the durability of the country s
economic recovery. the main bovespa index on the sao paolo stock exchange closed
at 24 997 points on friday topping the previous record market close reached the
previous day. the market s buoyancy reflects optimism about the brazilian economy
which could grow by as much as 4.5% in 2004. brazil is recovering from last year s
recession - its worst in a decade. economic output declined 0.2% in 2003 and
president luiz inacio lula da silva - elected as brazil s first working-class
president in 2002 - was strongly criticised for pursuing a hardline economic
policy. investors have praised his handling of the economy as foreign investment
has risen unemployment has fallen and inflation has been brought under control.
analysts believe the stock market will rise above the 25 000 mark for the first
time before too long. there should be more space for gains until the end of the
year somewhere up to 27 000 points said paschoal tadeu buonomo head of equities
trading at brokers tov. brazil s currency the real also rose to its highest level
against the dollar in more than two years on friday. although interest rates still
stand at a punitive 17.25% inflation has fallen from 9% to 7% while exports are
booming particularly of agricultural products. for the first time in decades we
have all three economic policy pillars in line during a recovery finance minister
antonio palocci told the associated press news agency. government accounts are in
surplus we have a current account surplus and inflation is under control.
investors were deeply suspicious of president da silva a former trade union leader
who campaigned on a programme of extensive land redistribution and a large rise in
the minimum wage. however mr da silva has stuck to an orthodox monetary policy
inherited from his predecessor even in the face of last year s economic crisis.
this has earned him the disapproval of rural farm workers thousands of whom who
took to the streets of brasilia on thursday to protest against government policies.
president da silva has defended his policies arguing that brazil cannot afford to
continue the cycle of boom and bust which afflicted it in recent decades.
india widens access to telecoms india has raised the limit for foreign direct
investment in telecoms companies from 49% to 74%. communications minister
dayanidhi maran said that there is a need to fund the fast-growing mobile market.
the government hopes to increase the number of mobile users from 95 million to
between 200 and 250 million by 2007. we need at least $20bn (£10.6bn) in
investment and part of this has to come as foreign direct investment said mr
maran. the decision to raise the limit for foreign investors faced considerable
opposition from the communist parties which give crucial support to the coalition
headed by prime minister manmohan singh. potential foreign investors will however
need government approval before they increase their stake beyond 49% mr maran
said. key positions such as those of chief executive chief technology officer and
chief financial officer are to be held by indians he added. analysts and
investors have welcomed the government decision. it is a positive development for
carriers and the investment community looking to take a longer-term view of the
huge growth in the indian telecoms market said gartner s principal analyst kobita
desai. the fdi relaxation coupled with rapid local market growth could really
ignite interest in the indian telecommunication industry added ernst and young s
sanjay mehta. investment bank morgan stanley has forecast that india s mobile
market is likely to grow by about 40% a year until 2007. the indian mobile market
is currently dominated by four companies bharti televentures which has allied
itself with singapore telecom essar which is linked with hong kong-based hutchison
whampoa the sterling group and the tata group.
holmes is hit by hamstring injury kelly holmes has been forced out of this weekend
s european indoor athletics championships after picking up a hamstring injury
during training. the double olympic champion said: i am very disappointed that i
have been forced to withdraw. i can hardly walk at the moment and i won t be able
to do any running for two or three weeks although i ll be keeping fit as best i
can. holmes will have now have intensive treatment in south africa. the 34-year-
old made a cautious start to the season but looked back to her best when she
stormed to the 1 000m title at the birmingham grand prix 10 days ago. after that
race and more progress in training holmes revealed she had decided to compete at
the european indoors before her plans were wrecked last weekend. on saturday night
i pulled my hamstring running the last bend on my final 200m of the night said
holmes. i was going really really well when i felt a massive spasm in my left leg
and my hamstring blew. i saw the doctor here and he has said it is not serious but
it s frustrating missing madrid when i knew i was in great shape. holmes has now
been advised by her coach margot jennings not to rush back into training and it is
unlikely she will compete again until the summer. helen clitheroe now goes to
madrid as the only british competitor in the women s 1500m while there will be no
representative in the 800m.
tsunami to hit sri lanka banks sri lanka s banks face hard times following
december s tsunami disaster officials have warned. the sri lanka banks
association said the waves which killed more than 30 000 people also washed away
huge amounts of property which was securing loans. according to its estimate as
much as 13.6% of the loans made by private banks to clients in the disaster zone
has been written off or damaged. state-owned lenders may be even worse hit it
said. the association estimates that the private banking sector has 25bn rupees
($250m; £135m) of loans outstanding in the disaster zone. on one hand banks are
dealing with the death of their customers along with damaged or destroyed
collateral. on the other most are extending cheap loans for rebuilding and
recovery as well as giving their clients more time to repay existing borrowing.
the combination means a revenue shortfall during 2005 slba chairman - and
commercial bank managing director - al gooneratne told a news conference. most
banks have given moratoriums and will not be collecting interest at least in this
quarter he said. in the public sector more than one in ten of the state-owned
people s bank s customers in the south of sri lanka were affected a bank spokesman
told reuters. he estimated the bank s loss at 3bn rupees.
lawyer attacks anti-terror laws a senior barrister who has resigned in protest over
the government s anti-terror laws says the current system is giving britain a bad
name. ian macdonald qc quit when the government failed to recognise a house of
lords ruling that detaining terror suspects indefinitely is unlawful. he was part
of a 19-strong panel who have special security clearance to act for suspected
terrorists. five more barristers are now reported to be threatening to resign. mr
macdonald told bbc news: the reason why i am resigning is because i fundamentally
disagree with locking people up without any trial for an indefinite period on
reasonable suspicion. the current legal system is certainly having a very adverse
effect on the muslim community in britain and the whole asian community. i think
it is giving britain a bad name internationally . under the anti-terrorism crime
and security act introduced by the government in 2001 in response to the 11
september attacks foreign nationals suspected of involvement in terrorism who
cannot be deported can be held indefinitely without trial. but mr macdonald
believes that detainees currently being held should be entitled to a trial by jury.
my own view is we need to have a full return to trial by jury a proper criminal
trial with proper accusations. as far as i m concerned the government have to
start all over again and rethink their whole strategy for dealing with this. he
added. the attorney general lord goldsmith will receive a letter of resignation
from mr macdonald on monday. according to the independent his resignation is
expected to be followed by those of five other barristers - nicholas blake qc
andrew nicol qc manjit singh gill qc rick scannell and tom de la mare. they are
all believed to be carefully considering their positions on the panel of special
advocates who represent detainees before the special immigration appeals commission
(siac) - a secure court without a jury which tries terror suspects. mr macdonald
said he had no idea whether further resignations would follow. but barry hugill
a spokesman for the campaign group liberty told radio 4 s today programme that
more lawyers may go. i can assure that there is a distinct possibilty that more
lawyers may be resigning he said. they are now in a situation where everything
they have been trained to believe in the right to trial by jury has been
abandoned and that is what gives some of them sleepless nights. helena kennedy a
labour peer and a human rights lawyer said the special advocates main concern was
that once they had seen any special intelligence they were not allowed to speak to
the detainees. when this whole procedure was being considered immediately after 11
september there was a great deal of argument particularly in the house of lords
about whether there really was a process that could be considered a judicial review
she said. without that you are having detention with no habeus corpus and really a
blot as ian mcdonald has said on our legal landscape something really quite
shocking with regard to the rule of the law.
burglar defence guidelines issued householders who injure or even kill intruders
are unlikely to be prosecuted - providing they were acting honestly and
instinctively new guidelines say. the law also protects those who use something
to hand as a weapon. the leaflet published by police and prosecutors aims to
combat confusion about current legislation which lets people use reasonable force
. the guidance relating to england and wales follows a recent decision by
ministers not to change the law. doing what you honestly and instinctively
believed was necessary would be the strongest evidence of acting lawfully the
guidance said. and the law protects those who use something to hand as a weapon
said the leaflet published jointly by the crown prosecution service (cps) and
association of chief police officers (acpo). as a general rule the more extreme
the circumstances and fear felt the more force can be used lawfully in self-
defence it said adding that householders do not have to wait to be attacked
before defending themselves. but knocking someone unconscious then killing them or
hurting them further or setting a trap for an intruder without involving the
police were given as examples of excessive and gratuitous force. the tories have
called for a change in the law so householders are only prosecuted if they use
grossly disproportionate force. their demands have been backed by former
metropolitan police commissioner sir john stevens. tory frontbencher patrick mercer
is now pursuing the proposal through a private member s bill in parliament. the
government instead mounted a publicity campaign to clear up public uncertainty
after a review concluded no law change was necessary. home secretary charles clarke
said: i believe in that old adage an englishman s home is his castle . that s
exactly what should be the case and i believe the current law provides that. an
informal trawl of cps records found 11 people had been prosecuted after attacking
intruders in the past 15 years five of whom were convicted. they included a man
who laid in wait for a burglar on commercial premises in cheshire before beating
him up throwing him into a pit and setting him on fire. a cps spokesperson said
the figures were not definitive because prosecutions are not listed according to
whether they were committed by a householder on an intruder. in one of britain s
highest profile cases norfolk farmer tony martin was jailed for life for murdering
16-year-old burglar fred barras in 1999. the conviction was later reduced to
manslaughter on appeal and the sentence cut to five years. mr martin was freed from
prison in july 2003. the guidance published on tuesday said the police had a duty
to investigate all incidents involving a death or injury. in cases involving
householders attacking intruders prosecutors and police were determined they
would be dealt with as swiftly and as sympathetically as possible it said.
lib dems bold election policy charles kennedy has told voters his liberal
democrats will offer them an honest choice at the next general election. with
the other two big parties battling over which will impose the lowest taxes mr
kennedy is going into the looming election pledged to increase taxation. it is a
bold policy and certainly ensures there is that choice between the lib dems and the
other two. with his party s previous pledge to increase taxes by one penny in the
pound to spend on public services already adopted by the government he has
switched tack. now he is promising to levy a modest increase of the same amount
on earnings over £100 000 a year to allow him to finance a series of pledges. they
are to scrap student fees finance free long term care for the elderly and replace
the council tax with a local income tax. that last policy will also see about 3% of
the most well off paying more while others pensioners in particular will pay
less. labour and the tories have attacked his policies as both unworkable and not
properly costed. inevitably they insist there is no need to raise taxes to fund
improvements in services. the tories claim they can improve services and cut taxes
through £35bn efficiency savings while labour has offered £22bn savings but has
yet to map out precise tax proposals although there is little chance they will
propose increases. in many ways the argument between the lib dems and the others
over taxation and spending echo the sort of arguments that raged between labour and
the tories in the 1980s and early 1990s. but unlike the old tory-labour debate he
believes voters are ready to see modest tax increases on the well off in order to
fund improvements in services. that is a view partly endorsed by recent polls
suggesting people would rather have cash spent on public services than tax cuts.
similarly there is a different tone to the lib dem approach to asylum and
immigration with mr kennedy stressing politicians should not foment an artificial
debate about immigration and attacking michael howard s proposals for quotas. once
again with the two other big parties singing similar songs on immigration mr
kennedy is stressing the different more liberal approach of his party. mr kennedy
was also in buoyant mood over his party s election chances declaring the tories
were not going to be significant players in the poll. he repeated his pledge not
to do post-election deals with either party after the election. mr kennedy went on
to suggest the re-election of a labour government with a small majority would
amount to a massive vote of no confidence in tony blair s government. that
suggests the lib dem leader believes he may well find himself in a powerful even
pivotal position in a vastly different house of commons after the next election. it
is a dream the third party has dreamed many times before.
double injury blow strikes wales wales centre sonny parker and number eight ryan
jones will miss saturday s game with italy because of injury. parker has not
recovered from a trapped nerve in his neck that kept him out of the win over
england and tom shanklin is expected to continue at centre. jones damaged his
collar bone after coming on as a replacement against england and joins flanker
colin charvis (foot injury) on the sidelines. meanwhile mike ruddock may make
gavin henson his first-choice kicker in rome. the centre was wales hero in the 11-
9 six nations win over england landing a huge late penalty from wide out to clinch
the game. first-choice kicker stephen jones handed over responsibility because of
henson s greater kicking range but the fly-half had already missed a number of
shots at goal. our first aim was to get gavin settled into the team but giving
him the kicks is something we ll talk about in selection this week wales coach
mike ruddock told bbc sport wales. henson himself says he is relishing all the
media hype that has been heaped on him since last saturday s game. i thrive on it
and think it makes me perform better he said. i m glad it s a short week before
the italy game. there was so much build-up before england but we fly out to rome
on thursday and we ll be back playing again.
progress on new internet domains by early 2005 the net could have two new domain
names. the .post and .travel net domains have been given preliminary approval by
the net s administrative body. the names are just two of a total of 10 proposed
domains that are being considered by the internet corporation for assigned names
and numbers icann. the other proposed names include a domain for pornography asia
mobile phones an anti-spam domain and one for the catalan language and culture.
the .post domain is backed by the universal postal union that wants to use it as
the online marker for every type of postal service and to help co-ordinate the e-
commerce efforts of national post offices. the .travel domain would be used by
hotels travel firms airlines tourism offices and would help such organisations
distinguish themselves online. it is backed by a new york-based trade group called
the travel partnership. icann said its early decision on the two domains was in
response to the detailed technical and commercial information the organisations
behind the names had submitted. despite this initial approval icann cautioned that
there was no guarantee that the domains would actually go into service. at the same
time icann is considering proposals for another eight domains. one that may not win
approval is a proposal to set up a .xxx domain for pornographic websites. a similar
proposal has been made many times in the past. but icann has been reluctant to
approve it because of the difficulty of making pornographers sign up and use it. in
2000 icann approved seven other new domains that have had varying degrees of
success. three of the new so-called top level domains were for specific industries
or organisations such as .museum and .aero. others such as .info and .biz were
intended to be more generic. in total there are in excess of 200 domain names and
the majority of these are for nations. but domains that end in the .com suffix are
by far the most numerous.
warnings about junk mail deluge the amount of spam circulating online could be
about to undergo a massive increase say experts. anti-spam group spamhaus is
warning about a novel virus which hides the origins of junk mail. the program makes
spam look like it is being sent by legitimate mail servers making it hard to spot
and filter out. spamhaus said that if the problem went unchecked real e-mail
messages could get drowned by the sheer amount of junk being sent. before now many
spammers have recruited home pcs to act as anonymous e-mail relays in an attempt to
hide the origins of their junk mail. the pcs are recruited using viruses and worms
that compromise machines via known vulnerabilities or by tricking people into
opening an attachment infected with the malicious program. once compromised the
machines start to pump out junk mail on behalf of spammers. spamhaus helps to block
junk messages from these machines by collecting and circulating blacklists of net
addresses known to harbour infected machines. but the novel worm spotted recently
by spamhaus routes junk via the mail servers of the net service firm that infected
machines used to get online in the first place. in this way the junk mail gets a
net address that looks legitimate. as blocking all mail from net firms just to
catch the spam is impractical spamhaus is worried that the technique will give
junk mailers the ability to spam with little fear of being spotted and stopped.
steve linford director of spamhaus predicted that if a lot of spammers exploit
this technique it could trigger the failure of the net s e-mail sending
infrastructure. david stanley uk managing director of filtering firm ciphertrust
said the new technique was the next logical step for spammers. they are adding to
their armoury he said. the amount of spam in circulation was still growing said
mr stanley but he did not think that the appearance of this trick would mean e-
mail meltdown. but kevin hogan senior manager at symantec security response said
such warnings were premature. if something like this mean the end of e-mail then
e-mail would have stopped two-three years ago said mr hogan. while the technique
of routing mail via mail servers of net service firms might cause problems for
those that use blacklists and block lists it did not mean that other techniques for
stopping spam lost their efficacy too. mr hogan said 90% of the junk mail filtered
by symantec subsidiary brightmail was spotted using techniques that did not rely on
looking at net addresses. for instance said mr hogan filtering out e-mail
messages that contain a web link can stop about 75% of spam.
russian oil merger excludes yukos the merger of russian gas giant gazprom and oil
firm rosneft is to go ahead but will not include yugansk which was
controversially bought last year. the merger backed by russian authorities will
allow foreigners to trade in gazprom shares. gazprom chief alexei miller confirmed
rosneft-owned yugansk was not part of the deal and will instead be spun off. under
the agreement the state will get a controlling share of gazprom in exchange for
rosneft. the state wanted to control gazprom before allowing foreigners to trade.
speaking on ntv television which is controlled by gazprom mr miller added that
yugansk which was swallowed up by rosneft late last year will operate as a
separate state-owned oil firm headed by current rosneft chief sergei bogdanchikov.
according to reports from russian news agency interfax the deal should go through
in the next two to three months. obtaining majority control over gazprom is the
beginning of the liberalisation of the market in gazprom shares mr miller added.
by opening up trading in gazprom to foreigners the firm will become a top emerging
market play for traders. currently foreigners can only trade in gazprom via a
small issue of london-listed proxy shares. this is positive news for the
international investment community global asset management investment chief david
smith said. the majority of investors are going to be happy he added. however
analysts were disappointed that yugansk would not be included in the deal. yugansk
is a heavy cashflow generator and would have been a much better asset for gazprom
renaissance capital energy analyst adam landes told reuters news agency. but he
said the latest development was simply an interim step to allow foreigners to trade
in gazprom. ultimately and industrially gazprom needs yugansk he added.
analysts said the deal would give gazprom control of 8% of russia s total oil
production an improvement on its current 2.5% but still far less than the 20%
share it would have gained had it also taken over yugansk. however the merged
group will still remain outside russia s top five oil producers - led by lukoil
with 11% of the market followed by tnk-bp which is half owned by bp and
surgutneftegaz. instead the merged gazprom-rosneft group will rank alongside
sibneft with 7% of the market. yugansk was sold to a little-known shell company in
a disputed auction in december following what many thought was a politically-
motivated attack on yukos. the shell company was then snapped up by rosneft. yukos
unsuccessfully sought to halt the auction by applying for bankruptcy through the us
courts. the unit was auctioned by russian authorities to help pay off a $27.5bn
back-tax bill.
bt boosts its broadband packages british telecom has said it will double the
broadband speeds of most of its home and business customers. the increased speeds
will come at no extra charge and follows a similar move by internet service
provider aol. many bt customers will now have download speeds of 2mbps although
there are usage allowances of between one gigabyte and 30 gigabytes a month. the
new speeds start to come into effect on 17 february for home customers and 1 april
for businesses. britain is now broadband britain said duncan ingram bt s
managing director broadband and internet services. he added: ninety percent of
our customers will see real increases in speed. these speed increases will give
people the opportunity to do a lot more with their broadband connections he said.
upload speeds - the speed at which information is sent from a pc via broadband -
will remain at the same speed said mr ingram. despite the increases bt will
continue to have usage allowances for home customers. the allowances are extremely
generous said mr ingram for what we are seeing in the market place - they are
really not an issue. bt will begin enforcing the allowances in the summer.
customers who exceed the amounts will either be able to pay for a bigger allowance
or see their download speeds reduced. bt now has a 36% share of the broadband
market - down from 39% - which is becoming increasingly competitive. in the last
few months many rival isps have begun to offer 2mbps services including aol
plusnet and uk online. but britain continues to lag behind some countries -
especially japan and south korea - which offer broadband speeds of up to 40mbps.
but mr ingram said it was important to separate hype from reality . he said that a
limited number of people with those connections consistently received speeds of
40mbps. customers will not see their connections double immediately on 17 february.
mr ingram said there would be a roll out across the network in order to prevent any
problems.
o gara revels in ireland victory ireland fly-half ronan o gara hailed his side s
19-13 victory over england as a special win. the munster number 10 kicked a
total of 14 points including two drop goals to help keep alive their grand slam
hopes. he told bbc sport: we made hard work of it but it s still special to beat
england. i had three chances to win the game but didn t. we have work to do after
this but we never take a victory over england lightly. ireland hooker shane byrne
echoed o gara s comments but admitted the game had been england s best outing in
the six nations. byrne said: it was a really really hard game but from one to 15
in our team we worked really really hard. we just had to stick to our defensive
pattern trust ourselves and trust those around us. all round it was fantastic.
ireland captain brian o driscoll who scored his side s only try said: we are
delighted we felt if we performed well then we would win but with england also
having played very well it makes it all the sweeter. we did get the bounce of the
ball and some days that happens and you ve just got to jump on the back of it.
ireland coach eddie o sullivan was surprised that england coach andy robinson said
he was certain mark cueto was onside for a disallowed try just before the break.
andy was sitting two yards from me and i couldn t see whether he was offside or not
so i don t know how andy could have known said o sullivan. what i do know is
that england played well and when that happens it makes a very good victory for us.
we had to defend for long periods and that is all good for the confidence of the
team. i think our try was very well worked it was a gem as good a try as we have
scored for a while. o sullivan also rejected robinson s contention england
dominated the forward play. i think we lost one lineout and they lost four or five
so i don t know how that adds up to domination he said. o driscoll also insisted
ireland were happy to handle the pressure of being considered favourites to win the
six nations title. this season for the first time we have been able to play with
the favourites tag he said. hopefully we have proved that today and can
continue to keep doing so. as for my try it was a move we had worked on all week.
there was a bit of magic from geordan murphy and it was a great break from denis
hickie.
berlin honours s korean director south korean film director im kwon-taek has
received an honorary golden bear at the berlin film festival. im who has made
more than 100 films in a 40-year career was hailed for his remarkable visual
beauty technical innovation and intellectual depth . twenty of his films are
screening in a special retrospective during the festival which runs until 20
february. the veteran film-maker 68 won the best director prize at the cannes
film festival in 2002 for chihwaseon. although his films vary in style they all
bear his unmistakable stamp: they are forceful and charged cinematographically as
well as reticent stylised and musical organisers said in a statement. meanwhile
a film version of bizet s opera carmen - translated into the south african language
xhosa - has received a warm reception at the festival. u-carmen ekhayelitsha
(carmen in khayelitsha) which is one of 21 films up for berlin s top prize the
golden bear is british director mark dornford-may s first feature film. it s the
first time any opera has been translated into a black south african language. xhosa
works brilliantly it s such a musical language said music director charles
hazlewood.
bush to get tough on deficit us president george w bush has pledged to introduce
a tough federal budget next february in a bid to halve the country s deficit in
five years. the us budget and its trade deficit are both deep in the red helping
to push the dollar to lows against the euro and fuelling fears about the economy.
mr bush indicated there would be strict discipline on non-defence spending in the
budget. the vow to cut the deficit had been one of his re-election declarations.
the federal budget deficit hit a record $412bn (£211.6bn) in the 12 months to 30
september and $377bn in the previous year. we will submit a budget that fits the
times mr bush said. it will provide every tool and resource to the military
will protect the homeland and meet other priorities of the government. the us has
said it is committed to a strong dollar. but the dollar s weakness has hit european
and asian exporters and lead to calls for us intervention to boost the currency. mr
bush however has said the best way to halt the dollar s slide is to deal with the
us deficit. it s a budget that i think will send the right signal to the financial
markets and to those concerned about our short-term deficits mr bush added. as
well we ve got to deal with the long-term deficit issues.
terror powers expose tyranny the lord chancellor has defended government plans to
introduce control orders to keep foreign and british terrorist suspects under house
arrest where there isn t enough evidence to put them on trial. lord falconer
insists that the proposals do not equate to a police state and strike a balance
between protecting the public against the threat of terrorism and upholding civil
liberties. but thriller writer frederick forsyth tells bbc news of his personal
response to the move. there is a mortal danger aimed at the heart of britain. or
so says home secretary charles clarke. my reaction so what it is not that i am
cynical or just do not care. i care about this country very much. but in the 66
years that i have been alive there has not been one hour of one day of one month
of one year when there has not been a threat aimed at us. my point is the british
have always coped without becoming a dictatorship. we have coped with fear without
becoming a state based on fear; we have coped with threat without turning our
country into a land of state threat. but that is what the blair government now
seeks to do - create a tyranny to defend us from the al-qaeda tyranny. i was born
on 25 august 1938. the mortal threat back then was a scruffy little austrian
called adolf hitler. a week after my first birthday the threat had become reality.
we were at war. my father wore a uniform for five years. after 1945 we yearned for
peace at last. but in 1946 winston churchill told us - from the baltic to the
adriatic an iron curtain has descended across europe. behind the iron curtain
another genocidal psychopath another threat. josef stalin triggered the cold war
with the berlin blockade in 1948. my whole generation was blighted by it. we were
threatened by the nuclear holocaust the nuclear wind the nuclear winter. we built
shelters that would have sheltered nothing. we spent our treasure on weapons
instead of hospitals. we took silly precautions. some fought it; some marched
futilely against it. some pretended it was not there. the cold war lasted 43 years
but we remained a parliamentary democracy. by the early seventies it was terrorism
as well. al fatah black september red brigades but most of all for us the ira
and the inla. thirty more years; 300 policemen and women over 600 soldiers more
than 3 000 civilians dead but we won because even ira bombs could not force us to
become a tyranny. that was why the tyrants lost. civil rights were infringed as
little as humanly possible. evidence had to be taken in secret to protect covert
sources; yes and one judge no-jury courts had to be instituted when juries were
terrorised. informants had to be given immunity from their own crimes to win the
bigger battle. but habeas corpus did not die; right of appeal was not abolished.
now the threat is islamic fundamentalism. its leaders want to destroy our society;
so did the ira. it is based and funded abroad; so was the ira. it has sleeper
fanatics inside our society; so did the ira. it is extremely hard to penetrate with
our agents; so was the ira. the prime movers are not easy to bring to trial;
neither were the ira. but we did. and without becoming a tyranny. now the blair
government proposes the law system of fascism and communism. the citizen can be
arrested and held without charge or trial not even on the careful consideration of
an experienced judge but the whim of a political activist called a government
minister. to be protected from terror the government says we must become a
tyranny. but a tyranny is based on the citizen s terror. this is not victory; this
is defeat before a shot is fired. an interesting article - its good to see
widening participation in the debate - but i suggest we move one step further. our
own bombs and bullets will can only shatter peace because invading foreign nations
imprisoning the innocent and hunting in the shadows cannot destroy an evil of
the mind and hatred within the heart. rather than focusing upon effect we should
consider the cause because terrorism does not begin with bombs. why not try a
foreign policy of compassion it can only enhance our democracy and share our
freedom. i agree with frederick forsyth. we really can t deal with terrorism by
turning britain into a fascist state. what we really need is more honesty from our
security services and our politicians. if they do not have evidence to bring these
people to trial there probably isn t any. our security services behave like the
detective who having decided that a certain person is guilty rakes over all kinds
of obscure and flimsy evidence to try and prove it while the real villain gets
away. remember there were no wmd in iraq. just because a person may have made some
stupid and naive decisions in life does not make them a terrorist. in this overly
politically correct society it is good to see someone like mr. forsyth speak out.
yes there has been oppression by the british government in the past and
overstepping the mark in places like ireland but yes we are still a democracy
where it is rare to be arrested without charge/trial etc. (apart from a number of
prisoners in belmarsh goal for example).this country signs up to human rights and
then pretends that they only apply to the people with nothing to fear the innocent
people (defined by whom ). when id cards become mandatory the data collected will
not be protected by the data protection act and will be readily available to
people like gchq with no control by the person whose id is being checked. the
threat now is new. you cannot compare the threats of past years with now. forsyth
says 3000 died over 30 years or terrorism; 3000 people died in one morning in ny on
september 11th 2001. the threat today is that terrorists will acquire nuclear or
biological technology. a kilo of semtex will flatten a building a kilo of
plutonium will flatten a city. you now have a combination of people who will
perform terrorist acts with technology that is rapidly becoming accessible. i agree
the government is probably encouraging a degree of mass-hysteria and talking up the
threat; but talking-down the threat and doing nothing is unacceptable too. the
problem with this issue is not that it isn t important but the fact that in
general we brits can be so politically apathetic some times that we will just let
this go without telling the government no. however as the nation that gave the
world the common law and a true sense of the rights of individual liberty i hope
this will prove to be one step too far. as somebody of chinese origin i can say
that this country used to be a good place to migrate and start a new life. whilst
life wasn t perfect we could make better for ourselves. now we are riddled with
red tape and be told what we can or cannot do. we have to be politically-correct
and we are not allowed to have beliefs or opinions. we have a prime minister who
spends too much time meddling in us politics and affairs which have little to do
with the lives of british citizens at home or abroad. mr forsyth has done a good
job in voicing his opinions. let s hope the bbc doesn t get gagged for letting
people express their views. the people have the right to know and the bbc s role is
to inform educate and entertain... i agree. terrorists intend to spread fear but
in reality it is the government which has spread the fear by its constant
publicising of the this invisible enemy so dangerous that we must allow them to
ride roughshod over our rights and liberties. in the end the very thing we seek to
protect is what we are giving up in the name of safety from this invisible enemy.
the terrorists have already won. i absolutely agree with frederick forsyth. yes we
have to defend ourselves against terrorism but existing laws seem to be more than
adequate. the idea that the new terrorism demands new powers is erroneous. the
evidence of any real terrorist capability in the uk is scant. ricin for example
is a dangerous poison but it is not a weapon of mass destruction. what is really
worrying is the enthusiasm of mr blair and his government for authoritarian
reactions and attempts to manipulate the electorate through fear. if the
government has its way with id cards tracking and so on then totalitarianism has
won and as such it then matters little whether we give in to the terrorists demands
or not. we will have lost the precious freedom which bush and blair constantly
tells us we have and that they seek to bring to others. i agree wholeheartedly
with mr forsyth. i am shocked at the ease with which this government is prepared to
wipe out a major portion of the liberties that british people have enjoyed for
centuries - the right not to be deprived of our liberty without a trial in open
court. that goes right back to magna carta and ordinary people have spilled their
blood to enforce that right against governments who thought they knew best . when
you look at today s britain you realise george orwell was only wrong about one
thing: the date. frederick forsyth puts it beautifully. the government is seeking
to introduce a police state. the new powers of home internment without trial follow
a pattern which includes the introduction of surveillance via compulsory id cards
and the linking of data bases together with the un-british idea that we will have
to swear allegiance to the state at the age of 18 years. we are sleep-walking into
this. wake up! an interesting view but missing two crucial facts of this new
threat: 1) if these terrorists acquire weapons of mass destruction they will use
them without fear of mutually assured destruction that kept the cold war in a state
of tense balance. these people will use devastating force against us without fear
of any consequence. 2) the terrorists are prepared to use suicide bombers
which means they could kill innocent people on the london underground and we could
do very little to stop it. because these terrorists are potentially so deadly we
have to come up with new tougher responses. it will be a little late in the day
when people outside london wake up one morning to find out that london has been
nuked. we won t have much of a society left to debate ! he s correct in most of
what he says. mind you he does seem to have forgotten that disgraceful internment
policy in northern ireland which probably caused many idealistic if misguided young
catholics to join the ira. administrative detention of muslims could have a similar
effect now. surely we the public would be better protected if the security
services rather than alerting a suspect terrorist by placing them under house
arrest (and for how long )they were to place suspect terrorist under surveillance
and maybe acquire sufficient evidence to prosecute or even better prevent a
terrorist attack. i don t usually have much time for mr forsyth s largely right
wing views but this time he has got it spot on. there is no doubt that there are
terrorist organisations who would like to do harm to the u.k. but it is very
doubtful whether al-qaeda is a global organisation co-ordinating this. the rise of
surveillance cameras id cards the plan to charge for road use by tracking every
vehicle at all times this is the stuff of nightmares. add to this this new
legislation which effectively means that the protection of the law will be removed
from anyone at the whim of the home secretary and i genuinely wonder what sort of
world my two children will inherit. where will this end. as it stands terrorists do
not need to attack the u.k. it s government will soon have it s people terrorised
more that they could very achieve with a few bombs. mr forsyth has expressed
exactly what my gut fears and reservations were about this proposed legislation
but could not verbalise. thank you. mr forsyth seems to forget that killings in
the troubles occurred on both sides of the religious divide and was carried out by
killers from both sides. he also forgets basic human rights were suspended then as
now. experienced judges sat over some of the greatest miscarriages of justice
during those times. for very little return and maximum alienation. these laws and
the emphasis on the islamic threat will just do the same. forsyth is wrong. the
nature of the current threat is new. it is no longer to our armed forces as the
soviet threat in the eastern bloc was. it is to you and i. the terrorist aim to
kill indiscriminately. the best comparison is therefore the blitz 1941. at this
time let us not forget suspects (foreign and british were routinely rounded up
and interned for the duration of the war without any complaints from the public.
we must not forget we are at war. i d say that that the likelihood of an attack by
a sleeper cell of fundamentalist lunatics against a major uk target is a when not
an if probability. i ll bet any money you like that the day after any such attack
freddie forsyth will be saying that the government didn t do enough to protect the
uk. people like forsyth can only see one side of any argument and for him it is the
side that is opposite new labour and tony blair. i agree wholeheartedly with mr
forsyth. the very reason this country has been such a wonderful place to live is
under attack not from terrorists but from this government. the perpetuation of
the perceived terrorist threat is not because of what the alleged terrorists are
doing but from our own government. i believe what this government is doing is at
the very least highly questionable and at worst sinister. at what point will they
feel they have enough control over every single person in the british isles; when
we are all tagged and monitored constantly our freedom is being craftily and
surreptitiously whittled away by this government and we are gaining nothing. it
should be of great concern to everyone. i am slightly older than mr forsyth and
therefore have lived through the same history as him. i am against a police state
and would not like to think that i lived in one. i think that the attack on iraq
made the international situation worse and may have provoked further acts of
terrorism. how true. there are extremely worrying parallels between britain now
and germany during the 30 s. i never thought it would be so easy to take over a
country from within. mr forsyth has forgotten one key point; the terrorists who
threaten britain today are well aware that hitler stalin and the ira all failed.
as a result modern day terrorists are willing to do things their predecessors did
not. that does not mean that the civil liberties of modern britain must be eroded
to counter the threat; that should always be the absolute last resort. but to meet
the new threat to defeat the sinister fanaticism of today s terrorists we may
need to do things a little differently. let us hope not. frederic forsythe s
comments seem to me to be a well-thought-out analysis of why we (human society as a
whole and britain in particular) should resist the temptation to over-protect
through fear. it is this fear which enables terrorists to succeed in the end and
terrorists can come in all forms as mr. forsythe s opening comments suggest. i am
reminded of a quote attributed to thomas jefferson. a nation that limits freedom
in the name of security will have neither. the government are faced with an
incredibly difficult task and have made a policy to deal with it. it s all very
well criticising that policy but if mr forsythe can t draw on his years of
experience to offer an alternative i say so what to his opinions. frederick
forsyth s rhetoric is absurd and his conclusions laughable. he distorts reality to
serve his own prejudice against new labour. this government seeks to balance
protection of our democracy with minimum loss of civil rights. it is frederick
forsyth who is the extremist because he does not appreciate the need for balance.
i rarely find myself agreeing with my forsyth but in this instance i think he is
correct. the rule of law must prevail civil liberties are worth defending. if the
government can hold suspects without charge or trial what s next i agree
absolutely. by introducing fascist type laws we loose the moral high ground in our
fight against terror. our democratic system is not perfect but as churchill points
out it is better than all the others that have been tried . terrorist attacks will
take place but for many reasons we should take that personal risk in return for
personal freedom. i do not usually agree with mr. forsyth but he is spot on here.
the single biggest threat we face is that of a government dedicated to acting
illegally and manipulating international and national law to suit its own purpose.
totalitarianism always requires an outside threat justifying a range of
extraordinary powers leaders want. the british government is a far greater threat
that and terrorist organisation. although in principle i agree with him
frederick forsyth fails to address one key point- al-qaeda attacks (though
obviously there have been none yet in the uk) seek to kill the maximum number of
people. the ira wanted to limit the death toll of their attacks so as to maintain
support among the republican movement. yes i agree with mr. forsyth s views. i do
not believe the government s plans are justified. there is over reaction to and the
negative influence of the us president s interpretation of democracy and freedom.
he uses the same arguments that were current before the wwii the wars to liberate
iraq afghanistan with syria and iran to come. we are leaving a poor inheritance
for the future generations. mr forsyth is a wonderful writer and should keep his
fiction where it belongs. the british government is not going down the road that mr
forsyth suggests. sadly comments such as his will make a lot of people believe that
they are governed by people who are fast becoming tyrants instead of being
genuinely committed to stopping tyranny even if the method employed to do that is
at the moment alien to the british people who have lived in a democracy protected
by tony blair and others of like mind who mr. forsyth seems to be putting along
side the scruffy little austrian. thomas hobbes would be smiling in his grave at
labour s propositions. like new labour he called himself a libertarian. like new
labour he believed he was promoting the people s best interests. but as forsythe
criticises this government hobbes has been criticised by most subsequent
philosophers for arguing his way into the hands of the totalitarians. simply put
he argued that in favour of the ultimate liberty - the liberty to live - man should
be prepared to surrender all other liberties to a supreme sovereign as protection
against his fellow barbaric man. hobbes has been roundly condemned by posterity
and rightly so. i hope new labour suffers the same treatment. i agree with mr
forsyth s views. the governments approach is totally against the spirit of british
democracy. they must not be allowed to get away with it. of course frederick is
wrong about britain winning the war against the ira and he s wrong too about the
country not becoming a tyranny. has he forgotten about shoot to kill torture
internment without trial collusion with loyalist death squads etc my background
is somewhat similar to freddie s so i am persuaded to agree with many of his
sentiments. we can have no moral justification for imposing our system of
government on anyone while we are systematically depriving our own citizens of
basic individual and collective freedoms. whilst the principle of keeping
potential terrorists under house arrest might seem superficially attractive it is
unfortunately
also the first step towards totalitarianism. who is to decide whom is a suspect
why should we believe them who can have faith in the honesty integrity and
competence of our intelligence services and politicians in light of the events of
recent years what is to stop false denunciations what of those falsely accused
who will lose their careers who will support their families will their children
still go to school it smacks to me of the methods of nazi germany stalin s russia
ceausescu s romania - the list goes on. it looks as if a new dark age is coming. i
see that opinion on mr forsyth s remarks are divided. the problem i see is that
those who support imprisonment without trial believe it will never happen to them
or their family only to people they don t like or are scared of. but history has
shown that if you have laws like that they always get abused by those in power.
after all today you may be scared of the same people as those in power but someday
those in power may be scared of you! and that day you ll be the one imprisoned
without the chance of justice. our laws are such that you cannot just be imprisoned
at the whim of our police forces you have to be shown to be deserving of it. if we
imprison people without trial for an indeterminate period we are no better that
those we are fighting. i never thought it possible for me to agree with a single
word uttered by frederick forsyth but i m in wholehearted agreement with him on
this one. we as a nation are in grave danger of being duped by pro us propaganda
which of course also means we ll inherit most if not all of their total paranoia
and allow our governments of any political persuasion incidentally to gradually
and insidiously impose a police state by well tried & tested back door methods. i
grieve for the future of my children it s no wonder they re adamant they don t
ever want any of their own. this government with much fanfare signs us up to the
european convention on human rights but now wants to introduce indefinite house
arrest without trial. this puts it on a par with the government of burma. like
many of your respondents i wouldn t usually think of mr forsyth as someone whose
views i share but in the instance of opposing charles clark s proposals for house
arrest i agree wholeheartedly with mr forsyth/ i agree with mr forsyth. just look
at the facts - our government (along with the us) invaded another sovereign country
(iraq) by selecting intelligence that backed it s case based on fear. the facts
turned out to be very different. if individuals are treated in the same distorted
way then we ve done ourselves more damage than any terrorist organisation could
with bombs. we become animals too. i agree in many ways with what mr forsyth has
said - if we are to be respected and have influence within the world we must be
seen to be walking the walk as well as talking the talk - how can we accuse
countries such as zimbabwe and burma of human rights abuses when we are locking up
people who may be totally innocent it is hypocrisy of the highest order. mr
forsyth links islamic fundamentalism to the new threat . however it appears that
he has misunderstood the term islamic fundamentalism . it should be pointed out
that a muslim who adheres to the true fundamentals of the qur aan and the teachings
of the last prophet muhammad is an islamic fundamentalist. this person does not
commit suicide in any shape or form nor does she/he kill innocent women men and
children. this person is self-reflective and constantly tries to better her/his
actions by being good to others. the people who mr forsyth labels the new threat
are those who do not follow the correct teachings of islam. they have arrived at
their own interpretations and assumptions with regards their actions. on top of
that they claim to be following islam in its true form! i accept that the
intentions of these policies are to make britain a safer place but i cannot think
of a single example from history where doing this sort of thing has ever made any
difference - in northern ireland internment certainly didn t achieve anything - the
bombings didn t stop and it could be argued that all it achieved was to just
supply the ira with yet more angry and resentful republicans willing to take up
arms against the british. being eight years older than frederick forsyth and a
survivor of the blitz on london it is easy to agree with him he is absolutely
spot on. during the ira bombings there were massive explosions in canary wharf to
the right of where i write this and also to the left in the city of london.
notwithstanding these and the attempted and nearly successful assassination
attempts on prime minister thatcher in brighton and on later occupants of 10
downing street there was no retaliatory blitz on belfast or dublin as there has
been on afghanistan and iraq. even when england was in true peril in 1940 apart
from some detentions there were no wholesale derogation of habeas corpus and the
like. we have to see off these latest attempts on our liberties including id cards
which winston churchill decided had to go since he said the average bobby on the
beat could not be relied on to not be tempted to take undue advantage against the
citizen going about their lawful activities (incidentally i can still remember my
old id card number). hence it is clear that the far too great police state powers
set for the statute books have to be resisted and neutered. what can i add to mr.
forsyth s eloquently put arguments... except applause! well done that man for
standing up and being counted in the war against tyranny .
eu aiming to fuel development aid european union finance ministers meet on thursday
to discuss proposals including a tax on jet fuel to boost development aid for
poorer nations. the policy makers are to ask for a report into how more
development money can be raised the eu said. the world s richest countries have
said they want to increase the amount of aid they give to 0.7% of their annual
gross national income by 2015. airlines have reacted strongly against the proposed
fuel levy. profits have been under pressure in the airline industry with low-cost
firms driving down prices and demand dipping after the 11 september terrorist
attacks and the outbreak of the killer sars virus. things have picked up but some
european and us companies are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. at present the
fuel used by airlines enjoys either a very low tax rate or is untaxed in eu member
states. of course we applaud humanitarian initiatives but why target the airlines
said ulrich schulte-strathaus secretary general of the association of european
airlines. our industry is in the midst of a fundamental crisis...only to be once
again confronted with a measure designed to increase our costs he continued. the
eu sought to allay the airlines fears stressing that thursday s meeting was only
a first step and that other proposals were also under consideration. it added that
any plan to levy taxes on jet fuel should not hinder the competitiveness of the
airlines and that they themselves will not be solely funding development . any tax
would only be implemented after full consultation with the airlines the eu said.
there is thought to be widespread support for the plan - tabled by france and
germany following the recent g7 meeting of the world s richest nations - from eu
ministers. the issue of poverty in africa and south asia has forced itself to the
top of the politicial agenda with politicians and campaigners calling for more to
be done. at their meeting in london g7 finance ministers backed plans to write off
up to 100% of the debts of some of the world s poorest countries.
bollywood dvd fraudster is jailed a major distributor of pirated dvds of bollywood
films has been sent to prison for three years. jayanti amarishi buhecha from
cambridge was found guilty of two trademark offences last month and sentenced at
harrow crown court london on tuesday. buhecha who made £26 000 per month from
his illegal trade was called one of the biggest bollywood pirates in the uk by
the sentencing judge. the british phonographic industry (bpi) worked for two years
on the case. an operation was launched against buhecha in 2002 after complaints
were received about his activities. the judge in the case which lasted seven days
said that a heavy penalty was called for because of the enormous damage buhecha
caused to legitimate business . fake dvds were manufactured in pakistan and
malaysia and sold on wholesale to shops by buhecha who traded in conterfeit dvds
in 2002 and 2003. in december 2002 he was stopped in his car by trading standards
officers who uncovered 1 000 pirated dvds and faked inlay cards printed with
registered trademarks. despite being arrested and bailed buhecha was caught a
second time at the end of 2003. his home and a lock-up in cambridge were found to
contain 18 000 counterfeit dvds and further faked inlay cards. buhecha was
previously a legitimate distributor of bollywood films but was suspended and sued
by his employers for dealing in illegal copies of bollywood classic mohabbatein.
legitimate bollywood film distributors have hailed the conviction as a major boost
. bollywood music and film suffers piracy at the rate of 40% which is more than
that suffered by mainstream productions. the bpi welcomed the news of the prison
sentence but warned there are plenty of other active counterfeiters of bollywood
films. the organisation s anti-piracy director david martin said: the problem
simply will not disappear with buhecha. others and more will take his place so it
s vital that keep up our efforts in this field.
dutch bank to lay off 2 850 staff abn amro the netherlands largest bank is to
cut 2 850 jobs as a result of falling profits. the cuts - amounting to 3% of the
bank s workforce - will result in a one-off charge of 790m euros ($1.1bn). about 1
100 jobs will go in investment banking while 1 200 and 550 will go in it and human
resources respectively. abn amro is the third large european bank to announce
cutbacks in the past month following deutsche bank and credit suisse group. its
profitability has been hit by a fall in mortgage lending in the united states - the
bank s largest single market - following recent interest rate rises. abn amro s
operations in the netherlands and the united kingdom will be hardest hit. jobs will
also be lost in the us - which accounted for 46% of profit in the first half of
2004 - and across its operations in the americas and asia-pacific regions. the
restructuring is designed to improve efficiency by reducing administrative costs
and increasing focus on client service. the bank said it was on course for a 10%
rise in net income this year but operating profits are set to fall because of a
fall in us revenues. abn amro currently has more than 100 000 staff. to get any
profit growth in the coming years they will have to lower costs so shedding jobs
makes total sense ivo geijsen an analyst with bank oyens & van eeghen told
bloomberg. europe s leading banks seem set for a period of retrenchment. deutsche
bank said earlier this month it would reduce its german workforce by 1 920 while as
many as 300 jobs will be lost at credit suisse first boston.
blair labour s longest-serving pm tony blair has become the labour party s longest-
serving prime minister. the 51-year-old premier has marked his 2 838th day in the
post overtaking the combined length of harold wilson s two terms during the 1960s
and 1970s. if mr blair wins the next election and fulfils his promise to serve a
full third term he will surpass margaret thatcher s 11 years by the end of 2008.
in 1997 mr blair became the youngest premier of the 20th century when he came to
power at the age of 43. the last prime minister to be installed at a younger age
was lord liverpool who was a year his junior in 1812. mr blair s other political
firsts include becoming the first labour leader to win two successive full terms in
power after the 2001 labour landslide. and the birth of the blairs fourth child
leo on 20 may 2000 was the first child born to a serving prime minister in more
than 150 years. the last downing street dad was lord john russell in 1848. labour
won a huge majority of 167 over the conservatives in 2001 but mr blair has since
been criticised by many in his own party. the war in iraq and reforms of the health
service and education system have provoked dissent from backbenchers. gordon brown
chancellor of the exchequer under mr blair became britain s longest-serving
chancellor of modern times in 2004. former labour leader lord kinnock said the
chancellor would be best placed to take over from mr blair. when asked about the
future leadership of the party he told itv wales waterfront programme: that
contest is a long way away and it will occur only when the prime minister tony
blair decides he s subscribed all he can and then wants to go. i think that the
main contender will be gordon brown who is a man of virtually unmatched capability
and now great experience. both mr brown and mr blair rose to prominence when lord
kinnock led labour between 1983 and 1992.
artists secret postcards on sale postcards by artists including damien hirst and
tracey emin have sold just hours after the opening of the royal academy of arts
annual secrets sale. the identity of the artist remains unknown until each work is
bought and the signature is revealed on the back. there are still some big names
left such as mario testino said rca spokeswoman sue bradburn. all postcards are
priced at £35. the sale opened at 8am on friday and will close at 6pm on saturday.
ms bradburn said there was a big queue at the start of the sale but it had now gone
down. she said the people that had bought the famous name postcards had arrived
early and had spent time studying each work. they would have known what to look
for. the exhibition has been open for viewing since 19 november. film director ken
loach fashion designer hussein chalayan and former blur guitarist graham coxon
have all designed postcards for the sale. some of the contributing artists are
students or recent graduates of the royal college of art and other leading art
colleges. money raised from the sale will go towards the rca s fine art student
award fund which supports students with grants and bursaries. the famous sale is
now in its 11th year.
brown and blair face new rift claims for the umpteenth time tony blair and gordon
brown are said to have declared all out war on each other. this time the alleged
rift is over who should take the credit for the government s global aid and debt
initiatives particularly in the wake of the tsunami disaster - an issue many hoped
and believed was above such things. it dominated the prime minister s monthly news
conference which saw mr blair start in full irritation mode as he was forced to
bat away question after question about his relationship with his neighbour. as he
told journalists: i am not interested in what goes in and out of newspapers. there
is a complete unity of purpose. and he again heaped praise on mr brown saying he
was doing a great job and would continue doing it - although he would not commit
to any job for mr brown after the election. so why did he arrange his press
conference at the last moment so it coincided with mr brown s long-arranged keynote
speech on aid and debt he was asked by now mr blair had moved from irritation
mode to his barely disguised fury setting. he snapped back that the hacks knew very
well what the operational reasons were for the timing of his press conference. well
not really as it happens. and he repeated what a great man gordon was and how
united they were before again sneering that he took absolutely no notice of what
went in and out of the newspapers preferring to get on with the job of doing the
best for the country and the world. although in the next breath he declared: i get
increasingly alarmed by what i read in the newspapers before catching himself on
and quickly adding: in so far as i read them of course. he probably had good
reason to be alarmed because the newspapers had been full of stories about the
claimed open warfare between the two men. as far as the timing of the prime
minister s press conference is concerned there are two options. the first is that
it was a calculated attempt to upstage the chancellor and seize back the initiative
on the big issue of the moment. if that is the case it suggests that even the fear
of seriously negative newspaper headlines is not enough to stop the squabbling. the
second option is that it was an unavoidable coincidence which would suggest the
government has lost its once-famed ability to strictly co-ordinate announcements -
through the infamous downing street grid - to avert just such allegations. either
way the effect was the same - to overshadow the big announcements of government
policy on a hugely pertinent issue. and there had been previous suggestions that
the new year had started with a fresh outbreak of the warfare between the two men.
firstly the prime minister insisted on wednesday that he had been intimately
involved in the development of the proposals to get g8 countries to freeze debt
repayments from the tsunami-hit countries. it was claimed he had been embarrassed
by the fact that gordon brown appeared to have taken the initiative over the
government s response to the disaster while mr blair was still on holiday in egypt.
then as if to pour fuel on the flames both men separately spoke about working on
tsunami or wider aid and development policy with their cabinet colleagues foreign
secretary jack straw aid minister hilary benn and deputy prime minister john
prescott - without mentioning the other. all this came amid fresh claims that mr
brown was still seething that he had been excluded from a prominent role in general
election planning and had as a result started to set out his own platform. the
fact that he used an article in the guardian newspaper to set out what he believed
should be in the manifesto has embarked on a mini tour of britain to set out his
aid plans and will next week visit africa on the same mission - often seen as the
prime minister s turf - has only added to the impression of rival camps operating
entirely independently of each other. the prime minister denied all that as well
repeating his insistence that it was inconceivable the economy and the chancellor
would not be at the centre of the election campaign. but the big fear with many on
the labour benches now is that unless a lid can be put on the speculation over the
rivalry it may even threaten to undermine the election campaign itself.
wmc profits up amid bid criticism australian mining firm wmc resources has seen a
fivefold rise in profits while continuing to be the target of a hostile takeover
bid. wmc said it made net profits of 1.33bn australian dollars ($1bn; £550m) in
2004 up from a$246bn the year before. it is currently arguing against an offer
from swiss xstrata which the firm raised to a$8.4bn last week after wmc said it
was an undervaluation. now reports say that the australian government is against
the deal. trade minister mark vaile has said that the bid may be against the
national interest . mr vaile who was quoted in the australian financial review
compared xstrata s attempt to take over wmc to a similar bid by oil giant shell for
australia s woodside petroleum in 2001. the bid was thrown out by treasurer peter
costello on national interest grounds. wmc s interests in uranium deposits were a
contributing factor mr vaile said. wmc itself however has no objection in
principle to being bought out having spun off its aluminium operations in 2002 to
make itself a more tempting target - as long as the price is right. its stellar
performance in 2004 has been built on sky-high prices for metals. copper and nickel
in particular have been in high demand thanks to china s booming economy which
expanded more than 9% in each of the past two years. nickel prices rose 43% during
the year with copper up 36%.
microsoft releases patches microsoft has warned pc users to update their systems
with the latest security fixes for flaws in windows programs. in its monthly
security bulletin it flagged up eight critical security holes which could leave
pcs open to attack if left unpatched. the number of holes considered critical is
more than usual. they affect windows programs including internet explorer (ie)
media player and instant messaging. four other important fixes were also released.
these were considered to be less critical however. if not updated either
automatically or manually pc users running the programs could be vulnerable to
viruses or other malicious attacks designed to exploit the holes. many of the flaws
could be used by virus writers to take over computers remotely install programs
change and delete or see data. one of the critical patches microsoft has made
available is an important one that fixes some ie flaws. stephen toulouse a
microsoft security manager said the flaws were known about and although the firm
had not seen any attacks exploiting the flaw he did not rule them out. often when
a critical flaw is announced spates of viruses follow because home users and
businesses leave the flaw unpatched. a further patch fixes a hole in media player
windows messenger and msn messenger which an attacker could use to take control of
unprotected machines through .png files. microsoft announces any vulnerabilities in
its software every month. the most important ones are those which are classed as
critical . its latest releases came the week that the company announced it was to
buy security software maker sybari software as part of microsoft s plans to make
its own security programs.
firms pump billions into pensions employers have spent billions of pounds propping
up their final salary pensions over the past year research suggests. a survey of
280 schemes by incomes data services (ids) said employer contributions had
increased from £5.5bn to £8.2bn a year a rise of 49.7%. companies facing the
biggest deficits had raised their pension contributions by 100% or more ids said.
many firms are struggling to keep this type of scheme open because of rising costs
and increased liabilities. a final salary scheme also known as a defined benefit
scheme promises to pay a pension related to the salary the scheme member is
earning when they retire. the rising cost of maintaining such schemes has led many
employers to replace final salary schemes with money purchase or defined
contribution schemes. these are less risky for employers. under money purchase
schemes employees pay into a pension fund which is used to buy an annuity - a
policy which pays out an income until death - on retirement. ids said there were
some schemes in good health. but in many cases firms had been forced to top up
funds to tackle yawning deficits . the level of contributions paid by employers
has increased gradually since the late 1990s. in 1998/99 for example
contributions rose by 4.7% and in 2002/03 by 8.6%. in contrast between 1996 and
1998 some employers cut their contribution levels. helen sudell editor of the ids
pensions service said the rise in contributions was staggering and the highest
ever recorded by ids. we have warned before that the widespread closure of final
salary schemes to new entrants is just the beginning of a much bigger movement away
from paternalistic provision said ms sudell. with figures like this there can be
little doubt that many employers will have to reduce future benefits at some point
for those staff still in these schemes.
mirza makes indian tennis history teenager sania mirza completed a superb week at
the hyderabad open by becoming the first indian in history to win a wta singles
title. in front of a delirious home crowd the 18-year-old battled past alyona
bondarenko of the ukraine 6-4 5-7 6-3. mirza ranked 134 in the world sunk to her
knees in celebration after serving out the match against bondarenko. it is a big
moment in my career and i would like to thank everyone who has been a part of my
effort she said. this win has made me believe more in myself and i can now hope
to do better in the coming days. i wanted to win this tournament very badly since
it was in my hometown. at the australian open in january mirza became the first
indian woman to reach the third round of a grand slam before losing to eventual
champion serena williams. and a year ago she became the youngest indian to win a
professional title by claiming the doubles at the hyderabad open. mirza playing in
her first wta final began nervously in front of a raucous home crowd - committing
three double faults in her opening service game. but from 0-2 down mirza broke
serve twice in a row and held on to her advantage to take the first set. in a see-
saw second set bondarenko raced into a 5-2 lead and though mirza hauled herself
level the ukrainian broke again before finally levelling the match. mirza
rediscovered the aggressive strokes that took her to the first set in the decider
established a 5-2 lead. at 5-3 the stadium erupted in celebration when mirza
thought she had delivered an ace to secure victory but the serve was ruled to have
clipped the net. mirza eventually lost the point but to the relief of the crowd
she broke bondarenko again in the next game to clinch the title.
celtic unhappy over bulgaria date martin o neill hopes to block stilian petrov s
call-up by bulgaria during celtic s busy festive programme. the celtic manager
does not view the friendly against valenciana - a region of spain - on 28 december
as important. i can t say i was overly pleased at the fixture being played just
after christmas said o neill. we will have to speak with the bulgarian fa. it s
their prerogative for them to arrange a fixture and our prerogative how we handle
it. bulgaria s game comes between celtic s boxing day meeting with hearts and
their 2 january fixture against livingston. o neill believes the extra game will
not help a midfielder whose season has already been affected by injury. they have
organised a game at a rather awkward time he added. when we were out playing
barcelona i spoke with the bulgarian manager hristo stoichkov and he mentioned
this game to me. we pay his wages we are the ones that if an awkward fixture is
going to be played at some stage or another it should be to our benefit rather
than anyone else. i have said this before but bulgaria are the one nation who
seem to organise a lot of friendly games.
small firms hit by rising costs rising fuel and materials costs are hitting
confidence among the uk s small manufacturers despite a rise in output business
lobby group the cbi says. a cbi quarterly survey found output had risen by the
fastest rate in seven years but many firms were seeing the benefits offset by
increasing expenses. the cbi also found spending on innovation training and
retraining is forecast to go up over the next year. however firms continue to
scale back investment in buildings and machinery. the cbi said companies are
looking to the government to lessen the regulatory load and are hoping interest
rates will be kept on hold. smaller manufacturers are facing an uphill struggle
said hugh morgan williams chair of the cbi s sme council. the manufacturing
sector needs a period of long-term stability in the economy. the cbi found some
firms managed to increase prices for the first time in nine years - but many said
increases failed to keep up the rise in costs. of the companies surveyed 30% saw
orders rise and 27% saw them fall. the positive balance of plus 3 compared with
minus 10 in the previous survey. when firms were questioned on output volume the
survey returned a balance of plus 8 - the highest rate of increase for seven years
- and rose to plus 11 when looking ahead to the next three months.
spurs to sign iceland u21 star tottenham are primed to snap up iceland under-21
international emil hallfredsson after he impressed on trial at white hart lane.
the 20-year-old midfielder who plays for fh hafnarfjordur also starred in the
uefa cup match against scottish side dunfermline earlier this season. spurs have
agreed a fee for the player who has yet to agree personal terms. he had offers
from two other clubs but he decided to come to tottenham said spurs sporting
director frank arnesen. he is a left-sided player a position we have been looking
at and he showed so much talent in his time here that we decided to take him. it s
down the road of bringing in talent good prospects and giving them a place at
tottenham where they can improve.
scots suffer another injury blow scotland s back row crisis has worsened ahead of
the rbs six nations with news that scott gray will miss out on the opening matches.
the borders flanker has a knee injury and joins donnie macfadyen and allister hogg
on the sidelines. star number eight simon taylor will miss at least the first two
games after damaging an ankle during his comeback. scott macleod (ankle ligaments)
and jon petrie (cartilage) are also doubtful for the opener in paris on 5 february.
gray 26 who won his first cap against australia at murrayfield last year was
hurt in club action at the weekend. scotland doctor james robson said: a scan has
shown damage to the medial ligaments of scott s right knee ruling him out of the
first part of the championship. we will seek further specialist advice in due
course to determine just how long scott may be out for. another potential option
glasgow flanker andrew wilson has been ruled out for a month after damaging
ligaments in both knees against northampton recently. flanker jason white and prop
tom smith have also been suffering from flu and missed this week s training
sessions. we have got plenty of good young players coming through and we have got
to look at the opportunities it represents for them rather than the negatives
williams added. williams could now turn to edinburgh pair alasdair strokosch and
simon cross. leeds tykes flanker jon dunbar also trained with the squad but is
still awaiting verification of his eligibility to qualify for scotland.
little britain two top comic list little britain stars matt lucas and david
walliams have been named the most powerful people in tv comedy in a poll by
listings magazine radio times. the duo kept phoenix nights creator peter kay at
number two and the office star ricky gervais in third place. a radio times panel
compiled the list taking the comedians critical acclaim and financial success
into account. newcomers to the annual list included nighty night star julia davis
at seven and black books tamsin greig at 19. lucas and walliams won numerous
awards for little britain in 2004 including national television royal television
society and british comedy awards. more than 1.8 million people watched the first
episode of the latest series of little britain on bbc three in october giving the
digital channel its highest rating ever. they topped the radio times list after
rising from 10th position last year. other big risers over the past year included
presenting duo ant and dec at five up from 13 in 2004 stephen fry rising nine
places to 15 and bbc three controller stuart murphy who moves to number 18 from 32
last year. last year s winner chat show host graham norton fell to number 16
following relatively few television appearances in 2004. production companies also
featured in the top 50 including steve coogan s baby cow which created nighty
night among others hat trick - behind the kumars at number 42 - and the vicar of
dibley production company tiger aspect.
strachan turns down pompey former southampton manager gordon strachan has rejected
the chance to become portsmouth s new boss. the scot was pompey chairman milan
mandaric s first choice to replace harry redknapp who left fratton park for rivals
saints earlier in december. i think it s a fantastic job for anybody apart from
somebody who has just been the southampton manager strachan told the bbc. club
director terry brady held initial talks with strachan on saturday. the former
scotland international added that joining southampton s local rivals would not be a
wise move. it s got everything going for it but i ve got too many memories of the
other side and i don t want to sour those memories he said. everything s right -
it s 10 minutes away there are good players there a good set-up a good
atmosphere at the ground. there s lots to do but it s not right for somebody who
has just been the southampton manager. since redknapp s departure executive
director velimir zajec and coach joe jordan have overseen first-team affairs. the
duo had gone five matches unbeaten until sunday s 1-0 defeat at home to champions
arsenal but the club are still in a respectable 12th place in the premiership
table. strachan left st mary s in february after earlier announcing his intention
to take a break from the game at the end of the 2003-04 season. his previous
managerial experience came at coventry whom he led for five years from 1996 to
2001.
england coach faces rap after row england coach andy robinson is facing
disciplinary action after criticising referee jonathan kaplan in his side s six
nations defeat to ireland. the rugby football union (rfu) will investigate
robinson after deciding not to lodge a complaint against kaplan. robinson may even
have to apologise for his comments in order to avoid sanction from the
international rugby board. robinson had said he was livid about kaplan s
decisions on saturday to disallow two england tries. the england coach went on to
claim that only one side was refereed . after reviewing tapes of the match the
rfu decided not to formally complain to the irb over the standard of kaplan s
refereeing. instead the rfu said in a statement they would set out any concerns
the england team management may have in a confidential manner . an irb spokesman
said on the matter: we take all breaches of the code very seriously. should the
rfu resolve the issue to our satisfaction as happened last month when the scotland
coach matt williams apologised for remarks made it would be the end of the matter.
kaplan has vigorously defended his performance in england s 19-13 defeat at
landsdowne road and admitted he was very disappointed with robinson s remarks.
and the south african has been appointed to take charge of scotland s match against
wales on 13 march. the rfu recently fined northampton coach budge pountney £2 000
and imposed a six-week ban for his criticism of referee steve lander after a
premiership match.
bortolami predicts dour contest italy skipper marco bortolami believes saturday s
six nations contest against scotland will be a scrappy encounter. with both sides
looking for their first win of the championship the third-round game at
murrayfield has been billed as a wooden-spoon decider. and bortolami feels the
edinburgh contest could end up being a bruising battle of the packs. it will not
be a pretty game because both teams are desperate to gain their first win said
the lock forward. italy have only recorded three wins since they joined the six
nations in 2000 but two of those have come against scotland. this year italy
opened up with a stubborn display against ireland but ended up losing 28-17.
however they were thoroughly outplayed by an impressive welsh side in rome last
time out. now the italians travel to edinburgh hoping to claim their first away win
in the six nations. scotland played extremely well against france in paris but not
so well when ireland came to edinburgh said bortolami. we are still very
disappointed with our last game against wales in rome and we are thoroughly
determined to right the wrongs. as a nation our quest is to be respected as a
team worthy of a place in this tournament and we can only do this by winning games.
microsoft takes on desktop search microsoft has entered the desktop search fray
releasing a test version of its tool to find documents e-mails and other files on
a pc hard drive. the beta program only works on pcs running windows xp or windows
2000. the desktop search market is becoming increasingly crowded with firms touting
programs that help people find files. search giant google launched its desktop
search tool in october while yahoo is planning to release similar software in
january. our ambition for search is to provide the ultimate information tool that
can find anything you re looking for said yusuf mehdi corporate vice president
at microsoft s msn internet division. microsoft s program can be used as a toolbar
on the windows desktop the internet explorer browser and within the outlook e-mail
program. the software giant is coming late to the desktop search arena competing
with a large number of rivals. google has already released a desktop tool. yahoo is
planning to get into the game in january and aol is expected to offer desktop
searching early next year. small firms such as blinkx copernic enfish x1
technologies and x-friend offer tools that catalogue the huge amounts of
information that people increasingly store on their desktop or home computer. apple
will release a similar search system for its computers called spotlight that is due
to be released with the tiger operating system.
china suspends 26 power projects china has ordered a halt to construction work on
26 big power stations including two at the three gorges dam on environmental
grounds. the move is a surprising one because china is struggling to increase
energy supplies for its booming economy. last year 24 provinces suffered black
outs. the state environmental protection agency said the 26 projects had failed to
do proper environmental assessments. topping the list was a controversial dam on
the scenic upper yangtze river. construction of these projects has started without
approval of the assessment of their environmental impact... they are typical
illegal projects of construction first approval next said sepa vice-director pan
yue in a statement on the agency s website. some of the projects may be allowed
to start work again with the proper permits but others would be cancelled he
said. altogether the agency ordered 30 projects halted. other projects included a
petrochemicals plant and a port in fujian. the bulk of the list was made up of new
power plants with some extensions to existing ones. the stoppages would appear to
be another step in the central government s battle to control projects licensed by
local officials. however previous crackdowns have tended to focus on projects for
which the government argued there was overcapacity such as steel and cement. the
government has encouraged construction of new electricity generating capacity to
solve chronic energy shortages which forced many factories onto part-time working
last year. in 2004 china increased its generating capacity by 12.6% or 440 700
megawatts (mw). the biggest single project to be halted was the xiluodi dam project
designed to produce 12 600 mw of electricity. it is being built on the jinshajiang
- or river of golden sand as the upper reaches of the yangtze are known. second
and third on the agency s list were two power stations being built at the $22bn
three gorges dam project on the central yangtze - an underground 4 200 mw power
plant and a 100 mw plant. the three gorges dam has proved controversial in china -
where more than half a million people have been relocated to make way for it - and
abroad. it has drawn criticism from environmental groups and overseas human rights
activists. the damming of the upper yangtze has also begun to attract criticism
from environmentalists in china. in april 2004 central government officials
ordered a halt to work on the nearby nu river which is part of a united nations
world heritage site the three parallel rivers site which covers the yangtze
mekong and nu (also known as the salween) according to the uk-published china
review. that move reportedly followed a protest from the thai government about the
downstream impact of the dams and a critical documentary made by chinese
journalists. china s energy shortage influenced global prices for oil coal and
shipping last year.
venezuela identifies idle farms venezuelan authorities have identified more than
500 farms including 56 large estates as idle as it continues with its
controversial land reform policy. under a 2001 land law the government can tax or
seize unused farm sites. a further 40 000 farms are yet to be inspected the state
s national land institute has told associated press. vice president jose vicente
rangel has said farmers and ranchers with their titles in order and their lands
productive have nothing to fear. critics of the land reform policy claim
president hugo chavez is trying to enforce a communist-style economic programme
that ignores property rights and will damage the country. land owners claim the
national land institute has made mistakes in classifying lands as public or
private. but the government - venezuela s largest land owner - say they are
proceeding cautiously to prevent conflicts. in a statement mr rangel said the land
reform is not against the constitution which permits private property while
stressing the efforts are to vindicate social and economically years of
inequality in the country. one property in conflict with the government is the el
charcote cattle ranch run by agroflora a subsidiary of the uk food group vestey.
agriculture minister arnoldo marquez told reuters news agency the site s documents
do not guarantee that this is a private land . administrators of the ranch however
have complained that pro-chavez squatters have taken over 80% of the property in
the last four years and the uk government has asked venezuelan authorities to
resolve the conflict. you should ask the company when they are going to put their
papers in order and hand over the land that is not theirs said mr marquez.
s korea spending boost to economy south korea will boost state spending next year
in an effort to create jobs and kick start its sputtering economy. it has
earmarked 100 trillion won ($96bn) for the first six months of 2005 60% of its
total annual budget. the government s main problems are slumping consumption and a
contraction in the construction industry . it aims to create 400 000 jobs and will
focus on infrastructure and home building as well as providing public firms with
money to hire new workers. the government has set an economic growth rate target
of 5% for next year and hinted that would be in danger unless it took action.
internal and external economic conditions are likely to remain unfavourable in 2005
the finance and economy ministry said in a statement. it blamed continuing
uncertainties such as fluctuating oil prices and foreign exchange rates and
stagnant domestic demand that has shown few signs of a quick rebound . in 2004
growth will be between 4.7% and 4.8% the ministry said. not everyone is convinced
the plan will work. our primary worry centres on the what we believe is the
government s overly optimistic view that its front loading of the budget will be
enough to turn the economy around consultancy 4cast said in a report. the
problem facing south korea is that many consumers are reeling from the effects of a
credit bubble that only recently burst. millions of south koreans are defaulting on
their credit card bills and the country s biggest card lender has been hovering on
the verge of bankruptcy for months. as part of its spending plans the government
said it will ask firms to roll over mortgage loans that come due in the first half
of 2005 . it also pledged to look at ways of helping families on low incomes. the
government voiced concern about the effect of redundancies in the building trade.
given the economic spill over and employment effect in the construction sector a
sharp downturn in the construction industry could have other adverse effects the
ministry said. as a result south korea will give private companies also will be
given the chance to build schools hospitals houses and other public buildings. it
also will look at real estate tax system. other plans on the table include
promoting new industries such as bio-technology and nano-technology as well as
offering increased support to small and medium sized businesses. the focus will be
on job creation and economic recovery given that unfavourable domestic and global
conditions are likely to dog the korean economy in 2005 the ministry said.
blair backs pre-election budget tony blair has backed chancellor gordon brown s
pre-budget report amid opposition claims he was too bullish about the state of the
uk economy. in a speech in edinburgh the prime minister said thursday s report
reinforced stability and opportunity. and that would be central to labour s next
election campaign planning for which was already well advanced. mr brown earlier
denied his economic forecasts were too optimistic - but refused to rule out future
tax rises. he told bbc radio 4 s today programme: no politician should make the
mistake that john major and his colleagues made in 1992 of saying no matter what
the circumstances are they can make all sorts of guarantees on every individual
thing. that is not what politicians should do it would not be responsible to do.
mr brown insisted his spending plans were affordable and he could afford to be
optimistic because britain was now a stable low-inflation economy and house prices
were now stabilising. mr blair praised his chancellor for his role in creating
economic stability which he said was the cornerstone of labour s programme. in
a speech at edinburgh s napier university he said labour would publish over the
next few months a rich agenda for future policy in any possible third term . in
every area of work there is a detailed plan for the future much clearer than those
in 1997 or 2001. all of it fits together around common themes of opportunity
security and stability for all mr blair said. in his pre-budget report mr brown
surprised some city experts by forecasting uk growth at between 3% and 3.5% for
next year. many believe the figure is more likely to be under 3% - and fear tax
rises or spending cuts saying tax receipts have been overestimated. carl emmerson
from the institute for fiscal studies told bbc news: he thinks everything will
come out in the wash and it will in fact be ok. we re not so sure. david page
of investec securities said: his forecast that he will meet the golden rule with
a margin of £8bn is way too optimistic. it s going to take a significant
turnaround in the economy to meet these targets. conservative shadow chancellor
oliver letwin said: i can t find a single economic forecaster from the imf to the
institute of fiscal studies who believes anything other than the chancellor has got
a black hole in his finances. in order to deal with that he will have to raise
taxes after the next general election. mr letwin accused the chancellor of using
fancy statistics to hide public service failures. vincent cable for the liberal
democrats called on mr brown to open up the government s books to the national
audit office to see if he had met his golden rule . it is very clear that there
are some serious loose ends in government public spending mr cable told mps.
england 17-18 france england suffered an eighth defeat in 11 tests as scrum-half
dimitri yachvili booted france to victory at twickenham. two converted tries from
olly barkley and josh lewsey helped the world champions to a 17-6 half-time lead.
but charlie hodgson and barkley missed six penalties between them while yachvili
landed six for france to put the visitors in front. england could have won the game
with three minutes left but hodgson pushed an easy drop goal opportunity wide. it
was a dismal defeat for england coming hard on the heels of an opening six nations
loss in wales. they should have put the game well beyond france s reach but
remarkably remained scoreless for the entire second half. a scrappy opening quarter
saw both sides betray the lack of confidence engendered by poor opening displays
against wales and scotland respectively. hodgson had an early opportunity to settle
english nerves but pushed a straightforward penalty attempt wide. but a probing
kick from france centre damien traille saw mark cueto penalised for holding on to
the ball in the tackle yachvili giving france the lead with a kick from wide out.
france twice turned over england ball at the breakdown early on as the home side
struggled to generate forward momentum one ben kay charge apart. a spell of tit-
for-tat kicking emphasised the caution on both sides until england refused a
possible three points to kick a penalty to the corner only to botch the subsequent
line-out. but england made the breakthrough after 19 minutes when a faltering move
off the back of a scrum led to the opening try. jamie noon took a short pass from
barkley and ran a good angle to plough through yann delaigue s flimsy tackle before
sending his centre partner through to score at the posts. hodgson converted and
added a penalty after one of several french infringements on the floor for a 10-3
lead. the fly-half failed to dispense punishment though with a scuffed attempt
after france full-back pepito elhorga scragged by lewsey threw the ball into
touch. barkley also missed two longer-range efforts as the first half drew to a
close but by then england had scored a second converted try. after a series of
phases lock danny grewcock ran hard at the french defence and off-loaded out of
sylvain marconnet s tackle to lewsey. the industrious wing cut back in on an angle
and handed off hooker sebastien bruno to sprint over. after a dire opening to the
second half france threw on three forward replacements in an attempt to rectify
the situation wing jimmy marlu having already departed injured. yachvili nibbled
away at the lead with a third penalty after 51 minutes. and when lewis moody was
twice penalised - for handling in a ruck and then straying offside - the scrum-half
s unerring left boot cut the deficit to two points. barkley then missed his third
long-range effort to increase the tension. and after seeing another attempt drop
just short yachvili put france ahead with his sixth penalty with 11 minutes left.
england sent on ben cohen and matt dawson and after barkley s kick saw christophe
dominici take the ball over his own line the stage was set for a victory platform.
but even after a poor scrummage hodgson had the chance to seal victory but pushed
his drop-goal attempt wide. england threw everything at the french in the final
frantic moments but the visitors held on for their first win at twickenham since
1997. j robinson (capt); m cueto j noon o barkley j lewsey; c hodgson h ellis;
g rowntree s thompson p vickery; d grewcock b kay; j worsley l moody m corry.
a titterrell a sheridan s borthwick a hazell m dawson h paul b cohen. p
elhorga; c dominici b liebenberg d traille j marlu; y delaigue d yachvili; s
marconnet s bruno n mas; f pelous (capt) j thion s betsen j bonnaire s
chabal. w servat j milloud g lamboley y nyanga p mignoni f michalak j-p
grandclaude. paddy o brien (new zealand)
benitez issues warning to gerrard liverpool manager rafael benitez has ordered
captain steven gerrard not to play down their champions league ambitions and be
more positive. gerrard told the bbc liverpool were unlikely to win the trophy this
year. benitez responded: i spoke to steven and said to him that in future it s
better to think we can win the champions league. why not he said: we need
winners here and everyone thinking only of winning. i always want to win. benitez
added: when we lose i only think of solutions. if you only think about winning the
next game you don t know what the draw will be. if we can win the next game
maybe we will draw a side that isn t so strong or a side with injuries or
suspensions. benitez is hoping to win his first trophy since arriving at liverpool
from valencia when they play chelsea in the carling cup on sunday in cardiff.
s korean lender faces liquidation creditors of south korea s top credit card firm
have said they will put the company into liquidation if its ex-parent firm fails to
back a bail-out. lg card s creditors have given lg group until wednesday to sign
up to a $1.1bn rescue package. the firm avoided bankruptcy thanks to a $4.5bn bail-
out in january 2004 which gave control to the creditors. lg group has said any
package should reflect the firm s new ownership and it will not accept an unfair
burden. at least seven million people in south korea use lg card s plastic for
purchases. lg card s creditors have threatened parent group lg group with
penalties if it fails to respond to their demands. creditors would seek strong
financial sanctions against lg group if lg card is liquidated said yoo ji-chang
governor of korean development bank (kdb) - one of the card firm s major creditors.
lg group has said providing further help to the credit card issuer could hurt its
corporate credibility and could spark shareholder lawsuits. it says it wants fair
and reasonable guidelines on splitting the financial burden with the creditors
who now own 99.3% of lg card. the creditors have asked the government to mediate to
avoid any risk to the stability of financial markets kdb said. analysts believe a
compromise is likely. lg group knows the impact on consumer demand and the
national economy from a liquidation of lg card said kim yungmin an equity
strategist at dongwon investment trust management. lg card almost collapsed in
2003 due to an increase in overdue credit card bills after the bursting of a credit
bubble. the firm returned to profit in september 2004 but now needs a capital
injection to avoid being delisted from the korea stock exchange. the exchange can
delist a company if its debt exceeds its assets for two years running. lg card s
creditors fear that such a move would triggered massive debt redemption requests
that could bankrupt the firm which owes about $12.05bn. eventually lg group will
have to participate but they have been stalling to try to earn better concessions
said mr kim.
mac mini heralds mini revolution the mac mini was launched amid much fanfare by
apple and great excitement by apple watchers last month. but does the latest
macintosh justify the hype let us get a few things dealt with at the outset - yes
the mac mini is really really small and yes it is another piece of inspired
apple design. there is more to be said on the computer s size and design but it is
worth highlighting that the mac mini is a just a computer. inside that small box
there is a g4 processor a cd/dvd player a hard drive some other technical bits
and bobs and an operating system. a dvd burner wireless and bluetooth technologies
can be bought at extra cost. and if you do not have a monitor keyboard or mouse
then you will need to purchase those also. it is not the fastest computer for the
money but for under £400 you are getting something more interesting than mere
technical specifications - apple software. the mac mini comes bundled with mac os x
the operating system as well as ilife 05 a suite of software which includes
itunes web browser safari iphoto garage band and idvd. i doubt many pc lovers
would seriously argue that windows xp comes with a better suite of programs than
mac os x. of course users of open source operating system linux draw up their own
menu of programs. for people who want to do interesting things with their music
photos and home movies then a mac mini is an ideal first computer or companion to a
main computer. it s a good little machine with a reasonable amount of power and
just perfect for the average computer user who wants to leave the tyranny of window
and viruses said mark sparrow technical and reviews editor at mac format
magazine. he added: in essence it s a laptop in a biscuit tin minus the screen
and the keyboard. the software bundle that comes with the mini makes your average
budget pc look a bit sick. the relatively low price of the machine has also
encouraged the more technically-savvy to experiment with their macs. one user has
already created a dock to enable him to plug in and out his mac mini in his car.
the small size of the machine makes it a practical solution for in-car
entertainment - playing movies and music - as well as navigation. another user has
mounted his mac mini to the back of his large plasma screen and then controls the
computer via a wireless keyboard and mouse. when it was first announced some
pundits thought the mini was designed as a sort of stealth media centre - ie the
machine would be used to serve tv programmes music films and photos - partly due
to its small living room friendly design. but there are obvious reasons why this
is not the case - at least not in the here and now the hard drive - at 80gb for the
larger model - is too small to be realistically used as media centre. while
commercial personal video recorders are on the market with smaller than 80gb hard
drives it is worth remembering that they only store tv content. a media centre
computer has to store music files and photos and as such 80gb just seems too
small. most pcs running windows media center have at least 120gb hard disks.
coupled with the lack of a tv tuner card a digital audio out and any kind of media
centre software bundled with the machine then the mac mini should be judged on what
it is not what it is not. but that has not stopped more enterprising users from
adapting the mac mini to media centre uses. so - is the mac mini just another
computer or a revolution in computing graham barlow editor of mac format
understandably has a rather partisan viewpoint. it s just a mac but we should be
very excited - it s revolutionary in its size (smaller than pcs) looks (looks
better than pcs) and the fact that it s the first mac designed to really go for
the low-cost pc market. the design of the mac mini is further evidence of a future
when pcs are more than just bland bulky boxes. there are a number of companies who
already produce miniature pcs based on mini-itx motherboards. but at the moment
these pcs tend to be either for the home-build enthusiast or expensive pre-built
options based around microsoft s media center software. but for the value the mac
mini offers bringing some of the best software packages within reach of more
consumers than ever before apple is to be congratulated. let us say then that if
the mac mini is not a fully fledged revolution - it is a mini revolution.
slowdown hits us factory growth us industrial production increased for the 21st
month in a row in february but at a slower pace than in january official figures
show. the institute for supply management (ism) index fell to 55.3 in february
from an adjusted 56.4 in january. although the index was lower than in january the
fact that it held above 50 shows continued growth in the sector. february was
another good month in the manufacturing sector said ism survey chairman norbert
ore. while the overall rate of growth is slowing the overall picture is
improving as price increases and shortages are becoming less of a problem. exports
and imports remain strong he said. analysts had expected february s figure to be
stronger than january s and come in at 57. of the 20 manufacturing sectors surveyed
by ism 13 reported growth. they included the textiles apparel tobacco chemicals
and transportation sectors. the ism s index of national manufacturing activity is
compiled from the responses of purchasing executives at more than 400 industrial
companies.
whitehall shredding increasing - tories civil servants have drastically stepped up
the shredding of official documents figures compiled by the tories suggest. some
government departments had doubled the number of documents being shredded ahead of
the freedom of information act s implementation on 1 january. departments for
defence environment and trade which had all increased file destruction said they
were following rules governing public records. but the tories want the information
commissioner to investigate. the freedom of information act will for the first time
give members of the public access to government records previously kept secret for
30 years. but bbc political correspondent james hardy said the prospect of
outsiders poking their noses into the inner workings of whitehall appeared to be
causing jitters among the mandarins. liberal democrat alan beith - who chairs the
select committee which monitors the department of constitutional affairs - said if
the claims were true whitehall was acting entirely against the spirit of the new
act . both the information commissioner and the select committee will have to keep
this issue under very close scrutiny. fellow lib dem norman baker said the episode
painted an unflattering picture of the inner workings of government . it is clear
that the government s initial enthusiasm for open government has turned to self-
serving cynicism. dr julian lewis the conservative spokesman for the cabinet
office said he had discovered a huge acceleration in shredding from a series of
parliamentary answers. the department of work and pensions destroyed nearly 37 000
files last year - up 22 000 on four years ago when the act was passed. the number
of files destroyed by the ministry of defence and the departments of environment
food and rural affairs and trade and industry has also risen dramatically. dr lewis
has called for an investigation by the information commissioner richard thomas.
earlier this week mr thomas said he was looking into cabinet office orders telling
staff to delete e-mails more than three months old. he said he totally condemned
the deletion of e-mails to prevent their disclosure under freedom of information
laws coming into force on 1 january. government guidance said e-mails should only
be deleted if they served no current purpose mr thomas said. a cabinet office
spokeswoman said the move was not about the new laws or the destruction of
important records . the freedom of information act will cover england wales and
northern ireland from next year. similar measures are being brought in at the same
time in scotland. it provides the public with a right of access to information held
by about 100 000 public bodies subject to various exemptions.
sa return to mauritius top seeds south africa return to the scene of one of their
most embarrassing failures when they face the seychelles in the cosafa cup next
month. last year bafana bafana were humbled in the first by minnows mauritius who
beat them 2-0 in curepipe. coach stuart baxter and his squad will return to
curepipe face the seychelles in their first game of the new-look regional
competition. the format of the event has been changed this year after the entry of
the seychelles who have taken the number of participants to 13. the teams are now
divided into three group of four and play knock-out matches on successive days to
determine the group champions. mauritius host the first group and their opponents
are madagascar the seychelles and south africa. bafana bafana play the seychelles
before mauritius take on madagascar in a double-header on 26 february. the two
winners return to the new george v stadium the next day and the victor of the group
decider advances to august s final mini-tournament. the second group will be hosted
in namibia in april. it comprises zimbabwe botswana mozambique and the hosts. in
june former champions zambia will host lesotho malawi and swaziland in the third
group in lusaka. the three group winners will then join title holders angola for
the last of the mini-tournaments in august where the winners will be crowned.
seychelles v south africa mauritius v madagascar winners meet in final match
mozambique v zimbabwe namibia v botswana winners meet in final match lesotho v
malawi zambia v swaziland winners meet in final match
lib dems to target stamp duty the liberal democrats are promising to raise the
stamp duty threshold if they win the general election in a bid to court first-time
house buyers. vince cable the party s treasury spokesman said raising the
threshold to £150 000 would prevent over 400 000 home-buyers from paying the tax.
he said first-time buyers were being squeezed out of the housing market. the
labour party said the liberal democrats needed to explain how they would pay for
the plan. the plan forms part of a wider lib dems policy to encourage first time
buyers and those on lower incomes into the market. under the proposals the
average saving for a new buyer would be more than £1 000 according to mr cable.
first time buyers are being squeezed out of the housing market not only by higher
house prices but also by being swept into the stamp duty net he said. by failing
to uprate the stamp duty threshold gordon brown has hit first time buyers and those
on low incomes the hardest. by pledging to increase the threshold to £150 000 the
liberal democrats will make it possible for many first time buyers to buy a
property without facing this tax. paul boateng mp labour s chief secretary to the
treasury said: the lib dems sums don t add up. they can have no credibility
until they can say how they would fund their ever growing list of tax and spending
commitments. mr cable will publish his alternative budget on monday.
lasers help bridge network gaps an indian telecommunications firm has turned to
lasers to help it overcome the problems of setting up voice and data networks in
the country. tata teleservices is using the lasers to make the link between
customers offices and its own core network. the laser bridges work across
distances up to 4km and can be set up much faster than cable connections. in 12
months the lasers have helped the firm set up networks in more than 700 locations.
in this particular geography getting permission to dig the ground and lay the pipes
is a bit of a task said mr r. sridharan vice president of networks at tata.
heavy traffic and the layout under the ground mean that digging is uniquely
difficult he said. in some locations he said permission to dig up roads and lay
cables was impossible to get. he said it was far easier to secure permission for
putting networking hardware on roofs. this has led chennai-based tata to turn to
equipment that uses lasers to make the final mile leap between tata s core network
and the premises of customers. the lightpointe laser bridges work over distances of
up to 4km and are being used to route both voice and data from businesses on to the
backbone of the network. the hardware works in pairs and beam data through the air
in the form of laser pulses. the laser bridges can route data at speeds up to
1.25gbps (2 000 times faster than a 512kbps broadband connection) but tata is
running its hardware at more modest speeds of 1-2mbps. the lasers are also ideal
for india because of its climate. it s particularly suitable as the rain rate is a
little low and it s hardly ever foggy he said. in places where rain is heavy and
fog is common laser links can struggle to maintain good connection speeds. the
laser links also take far less time to set up and get working said mr sridharan.
once we get the other permissions normal time period for set up is a few hours
he said. by contrast he said digging up roads and laying cables can take weeks or
months. this speed of set up has helped tata with its aggressive expansion plans.
just over 12 months ago the firm had customers in only about 70 towns and cities.
but by the end of march the firm hopes to reach more than 1 000. speed is very
important because of the pace of competition said mr sridharan.
news corp eyes video games market news corp the media company controlled by
australian billionaire rupert murdoch is eyeing a move into the video games
market. according to the financial times chief operating officer peter chernin
said that news corp is kicking the tires of pretty much all video games
companies . santa monica-based activison is said to be one firm on its takeover
list. video games are big business the paper quoted mr chernin as saying. we
would like to get into it . the success of products such as sony s playstation
microsoft s x-box and nintendo s game cube have boosted demand for video games.
the days of arcade classics such as space invaders pac-man and donkey kong are
long gone. today games often have budgets big enough for feature films and look to
give gamers as real an experience as possible. and with their price tags reflecting
the heavy investment by development companies video games are proving almost as
profitable as they are fun. mr chernin however told the ft that news corp was
finding it difficult to identify a suitable target. we are struggling with the gap
between companies like electronic arts which comes with a high price tag and the
next tier of companies he explained during a conference in phoenix arizona.
these may be too focused on one or two product lines.
scotland 18-10 italy six chris paterson penalties gave scotland victory in a dour
but clinical encounter against italy at murrayfield. coach matt williams side
were outmuscled and outplayed in a tense first half but led 6-3 at the break.
paterson slotted four more second-half penalties and scotland were denied a try
when wing sean lamont s touchdown was ruled out for a forward pass. a late andrea
masi try was small consolation for italy chasing their first away win in the six
nations. scotland came out on top of the early exchanges and took a quick 3-0 lead
through the boot of full-back paterson. but the more powerful azzurri pack
eventually rumbled into life. a series of drives into scottish territory set up a
penalty attempt missed by full-back roland de marigny and a wayward drop-goal
effort from luciano orquera. scotland defended the initial thrusts but on 20
minutes italy after coming up yards short of the line equalised through a de
marigny penalty. italy were offered another penalty when scottish flanker simon
taylor was offside but the left-footed de marigny pushed his kick wide. scotland
finally made the most of a rare foray into the italian half and snatched three
points from paterson when an italian forward handled the ball in a ruck. as the
half wore on both sides squandered promising spells of momentum with sloppy
penalties and the period fizzled out with scotland numerically if not
psychologically on top. italy s de marigny narrowly missed a chance to level the
scores again shortly after the break but his long-range kick shaved the right
upright. and scotland capitalised with a third paterson penalty on 50 minutes.
williams side seemed to have found a spark from somewhere and after a couple of
probing attacks paterson was able to slot another three points to widen the gap.
with the pendulum of possession swinging towards scotland lamont thought he had
wriggled over in the left corner after 65 minutes but play was recalled for a
marginal forward pass from paterson. another paterson penalty on 70 minutes kept
the pressure on the wilting visitors. but john kirwan s men had the last laugh when
gordon ross attempted clearance was charged down and masi pounced for the try
converted by de marigny. : c paterson; s webster a craig h southwell s lamont;
d parks c cusiter; t smith g bulloch (capt) g kerr; s grimes s murray; s taylor
j petrie a hogg. r russell b douglas n hines j dunbar m blair g ross b
hinshelwood. r de marigny; mirco bergamasco c stoica a masi l nitoglia; l
orquera a troncon; a lo cicero f ongaro m castrogiovanni; s dellape m bortolami
(capt); a persico d dal maso s parisse. g intoppa s perugini ca del fava s
orlando p griffen r pedrazzi kp robertson.
levy tipped for whitbread prize novelist andrea levy is favourite to win the main
whitbread prize book of the year award after winning novel of the year with her
book small island. the book has already won the orange prize for fiction and is
now 5/4 favourite for the £25 000 whitbread. second favourite is a biography of
mary queen of scots by john guy. a panel of judges including sir trevor mcdonald
actor hugh grant and writer joanne harris will decide the overall winner on
tuesday. the five writers in line for the award won their respective categories -
first novel novel biography poetry and children s book - on 6 january. small
island levy s fourth novel is set in post-war london and centres on a landlady
and her lodgers. one is a jamaican who joined british troops to fight hitler but
finds life difficult out of uniform when he settles in the uk. what could have
been a didactic or preachy prospect turns out to hilarious moving humane and eye-
popping. it s hard to think of anybody not enjoying it wrote the judges. the
judges called guy s my heart is my own: the life of mary queen of scots an
impressive and readable piece of scholarship which cannot fail but leave the
reader moved and intrigued by this most tragic and likeable of queens . guy has
published many histories including one of tudor england. he is a fellow at clare
college cambridge and became a honorary research professor of the university of st
andrews in 2003. the other contenders include susan fletcher for eve green which
won the first novel prize. fletcher has recently graduated from the university of
east anglia s creative writing course. the fourth book in the running is corpus
michael symmons roberts fourth collection of poems. as well as writing poetry
symmons roberts also makes documentary films. geraldine mccaughrean is the final
contender having won the children s fiction category for the third time for not
the end of the world. mccaughrean who went into magazine publishing after studying
teaching previously won the category in 1987 with a little lower than angels and
in 1994 with gold dust.
peugeot deal boosts mitsubishi struggling japanese car maker mitsubishi motors has
struck a deal to supply french car maker peugeot with 30 000 sports utility
vehicles (suv). the two firms signed a memorandum of understanding and say they
expect to seal a final agreement by spring 2005. the alliance comes as a badly-
needed boost for loss-making mitsubishi after several profit warnings and poor
sales. the suvs will be built in japan using peugeot s diesel engines and sold
mainly in the european market. falling sales have left mitsubishi motors with
underused capacity and the production deal with peugeot gives it a chance to
utilise some of it. in january mitsubishi motors issued its third profits warning
in nine months and cut its sales forecasts for the year to march 2005. its sales
have slid 41% in the past year catalysed by the revelation that the company had
systematically been hiding records of faults and then secretly repairing vehicles.
as a result the japanese car maker has sought a series of financial bailouts. last
month it said it was looking for a further 540bn yen ($5.2bn; £2.77bn) in fresh
financial backing half of it from other companies in the mitsubishi group. us-
german carmaker daimlerchrylser a 30% shareholder in mitsubishi motors decided in
april 2004 not to pump in any more money. the deal with peugeot was celebrated by
mitsubishi s newly-appointed chief executive takashi nishioka who took over after
three top bosses stood down last month to shoulder responsibility for the firm s
troubles. mitsubishi motors has forecast a net loss of 472bn yen in its current
financial year to march 2005. last month it signed a production agreement with
japanese rival nissan motor to supply it with 36 000 small cars for sale in japan.
it has been making cars for nissan since 2003.
hunt ban support is in decline support for a ban on hunting has fallen in the
past six years a poll suggests. less than half the uk wants a ban compared to
almost two-thirds in 1999 the mori survey of 2 000 adults for bbc one s
countryfile programme suggests. the number opposed to a ban remains constant but
those neither supporting nor opposing has increased by 11%. most city-dwellers
support the ban but rural people were evenly split between supporters opponents
and undecided. polling company mori carried out both surveys. in july 1999 they
asked 801 adults if they supported the ban for the mail on sunday. for countryfile
they asked 2 234 adults across the country the same question. the mail on sunday
survey found that 63% supported a hunting ban compared with 24% against. in the
countryfile survey 47% said they supported the legislation with 26% against. but
the programme makers suggest the british public are becoming increasingly neutral
to the issue because around one quarter said they neither support nor oppose a
ban.
broadband challenges tv viewing the number of europeans with broadband has exploded
over the past 12 months with the web eating into tv viewing habits research
suggests. just over 54 million people are hooked up to the net via broadband up
from 34 million a year ago according to market analysts nielsen/netratings. the
total number of people online in europe has broken the 100 million mark. the
popularity of the net has meant that many are turning away from tv say analysts
jupiter research. it found that a quarter of web users said they spent less time
watching tv in favour of the net the report by nielsen/netratings found that the
number of people with fast internet access had risen by 60% over the past year.
the biggest jump was in italy where it rose by 120%. britain was close behind
with broadband users almost doubling in a year. the growth has been fuelled by
lower prices and a wider choice of always-on fast-net subscription plans. twelve
months ago high speed internet users made up just over one third of the audience in
europe; now they are more than 50% and we expect this number to keep growing said
gabrielle prior nielsen/netratings analyst. as the number of high-speed surfers
grows websites will need to adapt update and enhance their content to retain
their visitors and encourage new ones. the total number of europeans online rose
by 12% to 100 million over the past year the report showed with the biggest rise
in france italy britain and germany. the ability to browse web pages at high
speed download files such as music or films and play online games is changing what
people do in their spare time. a study by analysts jupiter research suggested that
broadband was challenging television viewing habits. in homes with broadband 40%
said they were spending less time watching tv. the threat to tv was greatest in
countries where broadband was on the up in particular the uk france and spain
said the report. it said tv companies faced a major long-term threat over the next
five years with broadband predicted to grow from 19% to 37% of households by 2009.
year-on-year we are continuing to see a seismic shift in where when and how europe
s population consume media for information and entertainment and this has big
implications for tv newspaper and radio said jupiter research analyst olivier
beauvillian.
weak data buffets french economy a batch of downbeat government data has cast doubt
over the french economy s future prospects. official figures showed on friday that
unemployment was unchanged at 9.9% last month while consumer confidence fell
unexpectedly in october. at the same time finance minister nicolas sarkozy warned
that high oil prices posed a threat to french growth. [oil prices] will weigh on
consumer spending in the short term and potentially on confidence he said. world
oil prices have risen by more than 60% since the start of the year as production
struggles to keep pace with soaring demand. analysts said french companies keen
to protect their profit margins at a time of rising energy costs were reluctant to
take on extra staff. [the unemployment figures] show the main problem of the
french economy: we have growth but without an improvement in employment said marc
touati an economist at natexis banques populaires. politicians must have the will
and guts to solve structural unemployment with thorough reforms otherwise in five
or ten years it will be too late. obligatory employer contributions to worker
welfare programmes mean that it costs more to hire staff in france than in many
other european economies. many economists have urged the government to stimulate
employment by reducing non-wage payroll costs and by scrapping restrictions on
working hours. the french statistics agency insee expects the economy to grow by
about 2.4% this year buoyed by strong consumer spending and business investment.
that is above the projected eurozone average of just above 2%.
collins calls for chambers return world 100m champion kim collins says suspended
sprinter dwain chambers should be allowed to compete in the olympics again.
chambers was banned for two years after testing positive for the anabolic steroid
thg and his suspension runs out in november this year. but collins says the british
olympic association should reverse the decision to ban him from the olympics for
life. it was too harsh collins told radio five live. they should reconsider.
chambers has been in america learning american football but has not ruled out a
return to the track. collins added: he is a great guy and i have never had any
problems with him. we are friends. i would like to see dwain come back and compete
again. he is a good person. even though he made a mistake he understands what he
did and should be given a chance once more.
nasdaq planning $100m-share sale the owner of the technology-dominated nasdaq stock
index plans to sell shares to the public and list itself on the market it operates.
according to a registration document filed with the securities and exchange
commission nasdaq stock market plans to raise $100m (£52m) from the sale. some
observers see this as another step closer to a full public listing. however nasdaq
an icon of the 1990s technology boom recently poured cold water on those
suggestions. the company first sold shares in private placements during 2000 and
2001. it technically went public in 2002 when the stock started trading on the otc
bulletin board which lists equities that trade only occasionally. nasdaq will not
make money from the sale only investors who bought shares in the private placings
the filing documents said. the nasdaq is made up shares in technology firms and
other companies with high growth potential. it was the most potent symbol of the
1990s internet and telecoms boom nose-diving after the bubble burst. a recovery in
the fortunes of tech giants such as intel and dot.com survivors such as amazon has
helped revive its fortunes.
labour in constituency race row labour s choice of a white candidate for one of the
uk s most multi-racial seats proves the need for all-black short lists says a race
group. local councillor lyn brown was selected for west ham east london in a
contest between two white and five ethnic minority women. an operation black vote
spokesman said they now wanted to meet labour party chairman ian mccartney for
discussions. mr mccartney recently announced party consultation on all-black
shortlists. however labour has so far unable been unable to comment on the
implications of the west ham result. ashok vishwanathan of operation black vote
which aims to increase ethnic minorities participation in the political process
and their representation said the result again showed all-women shortlists were
not effective in getting minority women selected. i think all-black shortlists are
the only way to cut to the chase and address the lack of minority candidates mr
vishwanathan said. last month the chairman of the commission for racial equality
(cre) also called for ethnic minority shortlists in certain circumstances. a cre
spokesman said the organisation had nothing to add on the shortlist issue
specifically but would be working with all the political parties to address the
under-representation of ethnic minorities in parliament. we will be raising it
with each of the party leaders on a formal basis and helping them find the most
appropriate way forward the spokesman said. ethnic minorities make up 8% of the
united kingdom population but only 2% of mps - 13 out of 659 - are from a visible
minority group. twelve of them represent labour and one is a liberal democrat. if
ethnic minorities were represented in the house of commons in proportion to their
numbers in the population there would be 42 ethnic minority mps.
mg rover china tie-up delayed mg rover s proposed tie-up with china s top
carmaker has been delayed due to concerns by chinese regulators according to the
financial times. the paper said chinese officials had been irritated by rover s
disclosure of its talks with shanghai automotive industry corp in october. the
proposed deal was seen as crucial to safeguarding the future of rover s longbridge
plant in the west midlands. however there are growing fears that the deal could
result in job losses. the observer reported on sunday that nearly half the
workforce at longbridge could be under threat if the deal goes ahead. shanghai
automotive s proposed £1bn investment in rover is awaiting approval by its owner
the shanghai city government and by the national development and reform commission
which oversees foreign investment by chinese firms. according to the ft the
regulator has been annoyed by rover s decision to talk publicly about the deal and
the intense speculation which has ensued about what it will mean for rover s
future. as a result hopes that approval of the deal may be fast-tracked have
disappeared the paper said. there has been continued speculation about the
viability of rover s longbridge plant because of falling sales and unfashionable
models. according to the observer 3 000 jobs - out of a total workforce of 6 500
- could be lost if the deal goes ahead. the paper said that chinese officials
believe cutbacks will be required to keep the mg rover s costs in line with
revenues. it also said that the production of new models through the joint venture
would take at least eighteen months. neither rover nor shanghai automotive
commented on the reports.
ask jeeves tips online ad revival ask jeeves has become the third leading online
search firm this week to thank a revival in internet advertising for improving
fortunes. the firm s revenue nearly tripled in the fourth quarter of 2004
exceeding $86m (£46m). ask jeeves once among the best-known names on the web is
now a relatively modest player. its $17m profit for the quarter was dwarfed by the
$204m announced by rival google earlier in the week. during the same quarter yahoo
earned $187m again tipping a resurgence in online advertising. the trend has
taken hold relatively quickly. late last year marketing company doubleclick one
of the leading providers of online advertising warned that some or all of its
business would have to be put up for sale. but on thursday it announced that a
sharp turnaround had brought about an unexpected increase in profits. neither ask
jeeves nor doubleclick thrilled investors with their profit news however. in both
cases their shares fell by some 4%. analysts attributed the falls to excessive
expectations in some quarters fuelled by the dramatic outperformance of google on
tuesday.
preview: ireland v england (sun) lansdowne road dublin sunday 27 february 1500
gmt bbc1 radio 4 lw and this website ireland are going for their first grand
slam since 1948 after two opening wins and england represent their sternest test
of the championship so far. england were sloppy and leaderless in the defeats
against wales and france and another loss would be unthinkable. the pressure is on
coach andy robinson and his side have to deliver. despite england s dramatic dip
in form since the world cup final - they have lost eight of their last 13 matches -
ireland coach eddie o sullivan says his side should not underestimate the visitors.
had they kicked their points they would have beaten france and that would have
created a different landscape for sunday he said. this is england we are talking
about. they have a depth of talent and a very good record against ireland. they
will target a victory in dublin as the turning point in their six nations. the
differences between the sides is also highlighted in the team selections for the
dublin encounter. ireland despite having gordon d arcy still out injured have
been boosted by the return of star skipper brian o driscoll who missed the scotland
game with a hamstring injury. the knowledge that the england game was coming up
really helped during rehabilitation he said. the will to play in this game was
enormous. it doesn t get much bigger than england at home. as well as entering the
tournament without players like jonny wilkinson mike tindall and richard hill
england have now lost two tighthead props in julian white and phil vickery while
blind-side flanker lewis moody is a major concern. robinson who received a lot of
flak for the inclusion and then dropping of centre mathew tait has kept faith with
kicking fly-half charlie hodgson despite his horror show at twickenham. if england
slump in dublin it will be their worst run of results in the championship since
1987. but robinson was bullish during the week about the game saying that his
side are going there to get in their faces and has identified the line-out and
tackle area as the key to england s chances. and despite the recent results
skipper jason robinson believes there is nothing wrong with the mood in the camp.
there is no lack of confidence in the team said the sale full-back. we have had
a good week s training and we are all looking forward to the challenge. i still
believe in this team. i know if we get our game right we will win the games. g
murphy; g dempsey b o driscoll s horgan d hickie; r o gara p stringer; r
corrigan s byrne j hayes; m o kelly p o connell; s easterby j o connor a
foley. f sheahan m horan d o callaghan e miller g easterby d humphreys k
maggs. j robinson (capt); m cueto j noon o barkley j lewsey; c hodgson h
ellis; g rowntree s thompson m stevens; d grewcock b kay; j worsley l moody m
corry. a titterrell d bell s borthwick a hazell m dawson a goode o smith.
tv station refuses adoption show a tv station in the us has refused to show a
controversial new series where adopted children try and pick their birth father -
and win a cash prize. the wraz-tv fox affiliate in north carolina was the only one
of 182 stations to refuse monday s show. who s your daddy promises $100 000 (£52
000) to the contestant if she correctly identifies her father. it was met with
protests by the national council for adoption which said it exploits sensitive
emotions. it exploits the sensitive emotions of adoption said thomas atwood
president of the national council for adoption. it trivialises them. adoption is a
very personal meaningful experience and it should not be commercialised like this.
on the pre-taped programme the contestant is presented with eight men who may or
may not be her natural father. if she picks the correct man from the line-up the
contestant wins the jackpot prize of us$100 000 (£52 590). however if she picks
the wrong man then the impostor takes the money. fox producers defended the show
saying it was a positive experience . they have made six specials though only one
episode has so far been broadcast. the special was thoroughly vetted by our
standards and practices department to ensure that it was appropriate for broadcast
said a fox spokesman. however any network affiliate that feels the programming
may be inappropriate for their individual market has the right to pre-empt the
schedule. wraz-tv instead chose to air an independently-produced film i have
roots and branches... personal reflections on adoption a documentary about
families with adopted children. we just don t think adoption is a game show said
tommy schenck wraz-tv s general manager though he said his decision had not been
influenced by public protests.
uk net users leading tv downloads british tv viewers lead the trend of illegally
downloading us shows from the net according to research. new episodes of 24
desperate housewives and six feet under appear on the web hours after they are
shown in the us said a report. web tracking company envisional said 18% of
downloaders were from within the uk and that downloads of tv programmes had
increased by 150% in the last year. about 70% were using file-sharing program
bittorrent the firm said. it s now as easy to download a pirate tv show as it is
to programme a vcr said ben coppin from envisional. a typical episode of 24 was
downloaded by about 100 000 people globally said the report and an estimated 20
000 of those were from within the uk. fans of many popular us tv programmes like
24 usually have to wait weeks or months until the latest series is shown in the
uk. but in some cases said the report people were able to watch the new episodes
in britain before us audiences on the west coast of the country. missing a
television show presents little problem to anyone with a basic knowledge of the
internet explained mr coppin. two clicks and your favourite programme is
downloading. in effect the internet is now a global video recorder. exact figures
are difficult to pin down but it is thought that about 80 000 to 100 000 people in
the uk download tv programmes. some may just want the odd episode others are
downloading regularly. many broadcast analysts agree that the net is radically
altering the way people get content like tv programmes. this presents a challenge
to broadcasters who are concerned that channel schedules may become less important
to people. it is also of concern to them because advertisements are usually cut out
of the downloaded programmes. the industry has coined the term time-shifting to
describe this trend of being able to watch what you want when you want. the
increased popularity of personal digital video recorders tivo-type boxes which
automatically record programmes like sky+ have also contributed to the trend.
there are also numerous programs available on the net which automatically search
and store tv programmes for viewers effectively creating a personal video recorder
on a computer. within half an hour recorded episodes can be uploaded - or posted
- onto file-sharing networks or other download sites. because they tend to be
shorter then full-length films they can be processed - digitised - quickly. more
people with high-speed broadband connections in the uk also means that episodes can
be downloaded quickly. according to jupiter research 40% of homes with broadband
say it helps them pick and choose the programmes they want to see or that friends
have recommended. the envisional reports said that the tv industry should consider
offering a legal way to download shows. the bbc ran a trial of what it calls the
interactive media player (imp) last year which was based on a peer-to-peer
distribution model. it let people download programmes it held the rights to up to
eight days after they had already aired. it is looking to do a more expansive trial
later this year. the bbc already allows radio fans to hear programmes they missed
online up to a week after broadcast. about six million people in the uk now have a
fast always-on net connection via cable or phone lines.
boothroyd calls for lords speaker betty boothroyd has said the house of lords needs
its own speaker and that peers should lead the way on reforming the upper chamber.
baroness boothroyd who was the first woman to be commons speaker said she
believed tony blair initiated reforms without a clear outcome in mind. now we have
to take care of it ourselves and make the best of it she told the bbc s breakfast
with frost. in 1999 labour removed all but 92 of the lords 750 hereditary peers.
that was billed as the first stage of reform of the institution. the lord
chancellor hinted further reforms could be unveiled in the next labour manifesto.
i think we need to look very carefully at the relationship between the lords and
the commons lord falconer told bbc1 s breakfast with frost. how it interacts
with the commons is a very very important issue. we need to address the issue in
the manifesto but you will have to wait for when the manifesto comes. the lord
chancellor currently has the role of house of lords speaker. he is also head of the
judiciary and a member of the cabinet as constitutional affairs secretary. lady
boothroyd said she believed it was unacceptable for the lord chancellor to have the
role of speaker. i would really like to see a speaker of the house of lords she
said. i don t go for the idea of somebody - a lord chancellor - who is head of the
judiciary a senior cabinet minister and speaker of the lords. i want somebody
there who is going to look after that house and do a job there.
podcasts mark rise of diy radio an apple ipod or other digital music players can
hold anything up to 10 000 songs which is a lot of space to fill. but more and
more ipod owners are filling that space with audio content created by an
unpredictable assortment of producers. it is called podcasting and its strongest
proponent is former mtv host and vj (video jockey) adam curry. podcasting takes its
name from the apple ipod although you do not need an ipod to create one or to
listen to a podcast. a podcast is basically an internet-based radio show which
podcasters create usually in the comfort of their own home. they need only a
microphone a pc and some editing software. they then upload their shows to the
internet and others can download and listen to them all for free. using technology
based on xml computer code and rss - really simple syndication - listeners can
subscribe to podcasts collected automatically in a bit of software which mr curry
has pioneered. the latest mp3 files of shows can then be picked up by a music
playing device automatically. mr curry records hosts edits and produce a daily
40 minute podcast called the daily source code. he wants to make podcasting the
next big thing and says it is an extension of his childhood love of radio
gadgetry. i was always into technologies and wires he explains. my parents gave
me the radio shack 101 project kit which allows you to build an am transmitter and
subsequently an fm transmitter. i had my mom drive me around the block see how
far it would reach on the car radio. mr curry is american but he grew up in the
netherlands where he hosted illegal pirate radio shows in the dutch capital. he
tried university in the us and ended up back in holland where he hosted a music
video show. he spent the next seven years in new york where he worked at mtv
hosting the top 20 video countdown but spent most of his hours tinkering with this
new thing called the internet. at a certain point in 1995 i was driving in on a
friday afternoon beautiful blue sky one of those beautiful days thinking this is
so stupid. you know i m going do the top 20 countdown take the cheque go home
and sit on the internet until three in the morning. so after i finished the show
i quit. i said on air it s been great i ve been here for seven years at that
point there s something on the internet i ve got to go find it and i ll see you
later. but mr curry s technology and broadcast interests started to gel a couple
of years ago when computer storage was growing exponentially and high-speed
internet connections were becoming more widely available. the mp3 format also meant
that people could create and upload audio more cheaply and efficiently than ever
before. most importantly mr curry says people across the globe were bored with
the radio they were hearing. listen to 99% of the radio that you hear today it s
radio voices and it s fake it s just fake. he wanted to make it easier for
people to find real voices on the internet. he wanted software that would
automatically download new audio content directly onto players like ipods. mr
curry is not a computer programmer so he asked others to create one for him. no
one did so he tried to write one himself. he finished it a few months ago and says
it totally sucked. he put it up on the net as open source software and now dozens
of coders and audio junkies are refining it; the result is a work in progress
called ipodder . doug kaye a california-based podcaster praises the former mtv
vj for what he has done. adam created a simple script that solved what we call the
last mile problem. ipodder takes audio from the web and brings it all the way down
to the mp3 player he explains. people can wake up in the morning pick up their
ipods as they go to work or before they go exercise and discover that there s all
this new content automatically put onto their players. it is created an explosion
in podcasting content and podcasters are springing up in australia finland brazil
even malaysia. one couple broadcasts theirs the dawn and drew show from wisconsin
in the us sometimes even from the comfort of their own bed. topics range from the
comfort of their bed to the latest films or music and have thousands of listeners.
already websites are springing up that point listeners in the right direction of
good podcasts. chris mcintyre runs podcast alley and says that there are good
sites out there but that not everyone has the technological know-how to simply
listen. if i were to tell my mom or my mother-in-law to copy an xml or rss file
to their podcast aggregator they would think i was speaking a foreign language
mr mcintyre says. along with technical challenges there may be legal challenges to
podcasters who air their favourite albeit copyrighted music. some in podcasting
also worry that too much attention may turn what they see as the anti-radio into
something that is more like conventional broadcasting. already there is interest in
podcasting from the corporate world. heineken is doing its own podcast now and so
is playboy. for his part adam curry s pressing ahead with his own vision of what
podcasting should be. he loves doing the daily source code because it is about
introducing good music and cool ideas to new audiences. he has even been called the
ed sullivan or johnny carson of podcasting which he says is a badge i ll wear
with great honour. to be the johnny carson or ed sullivan of anything is
wonderful. and you know what you don t need a hell of a lot of talent. you just
have to be nice have your ears open and let people shine. and that s good for me.
clark boyd is technology correspondent for the world a bbc world service and wgbh-
boston co-production.
india s reliance family feud heats up the ongoing public spat between the two heirs
of india s biggest conglomerate reliance group has spilled over to the board
meeting of a leading company within the group. anil ambani vice-chairman of india
petrochemicals limited (ipcl) stayed away from a gathering of senior managers on
thursday. the move follows a decision earlier this month by anil - the younger
brother of reliance group president mukesh ambani - to resign from his post. his
resignation was not accepted by his brother who is also the boss of ipcl. the ipcl
board met in mumbai to discuss the company s results for the october-to-december
quarter. it is understood that the board also considered anil s resignation and
asked him to reconsider his decision. however anil s demand that anand jain -
another ipcl board member accused by anil of creating a rift in the ambani family -
be thrown out was not met. anil has accused anand jain a confidant of his brother
mukesh of playing a negative role in the ambani family and being responsible for
the trouble between the brothers. on wednesday the board of reliance energy
another reliance group company reaffirmed its faith in anil who is the company s
chief. reliance group acquired the government s 26% stake in ipcl - india s second-
largest petrochemicals company - in 2002 as part of the privatisation drive.
meanwhile the group s flagship company reliance industries has its board meeting
on friday to consider its financial results. mukesh is the company s chairman and
anil its deputy and it is expected that both brothers will come face to face in
the meeting. the ambani family controls 48% of the group which is worth $17bn
(£9.1bn; 745bn indian rupees). it was founded by their father dhiru bhai ambani
who died two years ago.
fuming robinson blasts officials england coach andy robinson insisted he was livid
after his side were denied two tries in sunday s 19-13 six nations loss to ireland
in dublin. mark cueto s first-half effort was ruled out for offside before the
referee spurned tv replays when england crashed over in the dying minutes. [i m]
absolutely spitting. i m livid. there s two tries we ve been cost robinson told
bbc sport. we ve got to go back to technology. i don t know why we didn t. south
african referee jonathan kaplan ruled that cueto was ahead of charlie hodgson when
the fly-half hoisted his cross-field kick for the sale wing to gather. kaplan then
declined the chance to consult the fourth official when josh lewsey took the ball
over the irish line under a pile of bodies for what could have been the game-
winning try. i think mark cueto scored a perfectly legal try and i think he should
have gone to the video referee on josh lewsey said robinson. it is how we use
the technology. it is there and it should be used. i am still trying to work out
the cueto try. i have looked at both and they both looked tries. we are very
disappointed and this will hurt there is no doubt about that. we are upset now
but the referee is in charge and he has called it his way and we have got to be
able to cope with that. we did everything we could have done to win the game. i
am very proud of my players and with a couple of decisions this could have been a
very famous victory. i thought we dominated. matt stevens had an awesome game at
tighthead prop while the likes of charlie hodgson martin corry and lewis moody
all came through well. josh lewsey was awesome and every one of the forwards
stood up out there. given the pressure we were under credit must go to all the
players. we have done everything but win a game of rugby but ireland are a good
side. they defended magnificently and they ve got every chance of winning this six
nations. england have lost their first three matches in this year s six nations
and four out of their six games since robinson took over from sir clive woodward in
september.
monsanto fined $1.5m for bribery the us agrochemical giant monsanto has agreed to
pay a $1.5m (£799 000) fine for bribing an indonesian official. monsanto admitted
one of its employees paid the senior official two years ago in a bid to avoid
environmental impact studies being conducted on its cotton. in addition to the
penalty monsanto also agreed to three years close monitoring of its business
practices by the american authorities. it said it accepted full responsibility for
what it called improper activities. a former senior manager at monsanto directed
an indonesian consulting firm to give a $50 000 bribe to a high-level official in
indonesia s environment ministry in 2002. the manager told the company to disguise
an invoice for the bribe as consulting fees . monsanto was facing stiff
opposition from activists and farmers who were campaigning against its plans to
introduce genetically-modified cotton in indonesia. despite the bribe the official
did not authorise the waiving of the environmental study requirement. monsanto also
has admitted to paying bribes to a number of other high-ranking officials between
1997 and 2002. the chemicals-and-crops firm said it became aware of irregularities
at a jakarta-based subsidiary in 2001 and launched an internal investigation before
informing the us department of justice and the securities and exchange commission
(sec). monsanto faced both criminal and civil charges from the department of
justice and the sec. companies cannot bribe their way into favourable treatment by
foreign officials said christopher wray assistant us attorney general. monsanto
has agreed to pay $1m to the department of justice adopt internal compliance
measures and co-operate with continuing civil and criminal investigations. it is
also paying $500 000 to the sec to settle the bribe charge and other related
violations. monsanto said it accepted full responsibility for its employees
actions adding that it had taken remedial actions to address the activities in
indonesia and had been fully co-operative throughout the investigative process.
poppins musical gets flying start the stage adaptation of children s film mary
poppins has had its opening night in london s west end. sir cameron mackintosh s
lavish production which has cost £9m to bring to the stage was given a 10-minute
standing ovation. lead actress laura michelle kelly soared over the heads of the
audience holding the nanny s trademark umbrella. technical hitches had prevented
mary poppins flight into the auditorium during preview performances. a number of
celebrities turned out for the musical s premiere including actress barbara
windsor comic graham norton and sir richard attenborough. the show s director
richard eyre issued a warning earlier in the week that the show was unsuitable for
children under seven while under-threes are barred. mary poppins was originally
created by author pamela travers who is said to have cried when she saw disney s
1964 film starring julie andrews. travers had intended the story to be a lot darker
than the perennial family favourite. theatre impresario sir cameron mackintosh has
said he hopes the musical is a blend of the sweet-natured film and the original
book.
musical future for phones analyst bill thompson has seen the future and it is in
his son s hands. i bought my son max a 3g phone partly because they are so cheap
and he needed a phone and partly because i am supposed to know about the latest
technology and thought i should see how they work in real life. after using it for
a while i am not at all tempted to get rid of my sonyericsson p800 smart phone.
that has a relatively large screen even if it does only have slower gprs access to
the network. i can read my e-mail surf the web using a proper browser and write
stuff using the stylus on its touch screen. last week someone e-mailed me a
document that had been compressed into a zip file and i was pleasantly surprised
to discover that my phone even knew how to decompress it for me. by contrast the
confusing menus complicated keyboard and truly irritating user interface of max s
3g phone simply get in the way and i did not see much value in the paid-for
services especially the limited web access. the videos of entertainment news
horoscopes and the latest celebrity gossip did not appeal and i did not see how
the small screen could be useful for any sort of image never mind micro-tv. but
then max started playing and i realised i was missing the point entirely. it is
certainly not a great overall experience but that is largely due to the poor menu
system and the phone layout: the video content itself is compelling. the quality
was at least as good as the video streaming from the bbc website and the image is
about the same size. max was completely captivated and i was intrigued to discover
that i had nearly missed the next stage of the network revolution. it is easy to be
dismissive of small screens and indeed anyone of my generation with failing
eyesight and the view that there s never anything worth watching on tv is hardly
going to embrace these phones. but just as the world wide web was the killer
application that drove internet adoption music videos are going to drive 3g
adoption. with vodafone now pushing its own 3g service and 3 already established
in the uk video on the phone is clearly going to become a must-have for kids
sitting on the school bus adults waiting outside clubs and anyone who has time to
kill and a group of friends to impress. this will please the network operators
who are looking for some revenue from their expensively acquired 3g licences. but
it goes deeper than that: playing music videos on a phone marks the beginning of a
move away from the download and play model we have all accepted for our ipods and
mp3 players. after all why should i want to carry 60gb of music and pictures
around with me in my pocket when i can simply listen to anything i want whenever i
want streamed to my phone oh - and of course you can always use the phone to make
voice calls and send texts something which ensures that it is always in someone s
pocket or handbag available for other uses too. i have never really approved of
using the internet protocol (ip) to do either audio or video streaming and i
think that technically it is a disaster to make phone calls over the net using
voice over ip . but i have to acknowledge that the net at least here in the
developed western countries is fast and reliable enough to do both. i stream
radio to my computer while i work and enjoy hearing the bizarre stations from
around the world that i can find online but nowhere else. i am even playing with
internet telephony despite my reservations and i appear on go digital on the
world service streamed over the web each week. but 3g networks have been designed
to do this sort of streaming both for voice and video which gives them an edge
over net-based ip services. the 3g services aren t quite there yet and there is a
lot to be sorted out when it comes to web access and data charges. vodafone will
let you access its services on vodafone live! as part of your subscription cost but
it makes you pay by the megabyte to download from other sites - this one for
example. this will not matter to business users but will distort the consumer
market and keep people within the phone company s collection of partner sites
something that should perhaps be worrying telecoms regulator ofcom. but we should
not see these new phones simply as cut-down network terminals. if i want fast
access to my e-mail i can get a 3g card for my laptop or hook up to a wireless
network. the phone is a lot more and it is as a combination of mini-tv personal
communications device and music/video player that it really works. there is
certainly room in the technology ecosystem for many different sorts of devices
accessing a wide range of services over different networks. 3g phones and ipods can
co-exist at least for a while but if i had to bet on the long term i would go for
content on demand over carrying gigabytes in my pocket. or perhaps some
enterprising manufacturer will offer me both. an mp3g player anyone bill
thompson is a regular commentator on the bbc world service programme go digital.
dozens held over id fraud site twenty-eight people including a briton have been
arrested after a global operation against a website allegedly involved in identity
fraud. those arrested are accused of operating shadowcrew.com which investigators
claim was a global clearing house for criminals involved in credit card fraud. a
19-year-old man from camberley surrey was arrested by the national hi-tech crime
unit but has been bailed. operation firewall led by the us secret service
involved seven nations. the british teenager was arrested on wednesday but details
only emerged on friday. he has now been bailed to return to a surrey police station
in december. all 28 people detained globally are suspected of being involved in an
internet-based network which stole people s identities and used computers and
websites to defraud credit card companies. the authorities in the us who have
indicted 19 people in newark new jersey estimate the fraud caused losses of more
than $4m. assistant us attorney scott christie said several people had been
arrested in argentina bulgaria canada estonia poland and sweden. mr christie
said one of the ringleaders was believed to be a russian anatoly tyukanov.
investigators from 30 law enforcement agencies worldwide spent 15 months looking
into the activities of three websites - shadowcrew carderplanet and darkprofits.
the us secret service was first tipped off in july 2003. an nhtcu spokeswoman said
the american investigators went undercover on the shadowcrew website and discovered
some of the site s 4 000 members were using it for organised crime purposes. she
said criminals were using the websites to traffic counterfeit credit cards and
false identification information and documents such as credit cards driver s
licences passports and birth certificates. the websites shared tips on how to
commit fraud and provided a forum by which people could buy the information and
tools they needed to commit such crime she said. the shadowcrew site which has
now been taken over by the us secret service listed several discussion groups in
english and russian including one on hacking spam and online anonymity tools. the
head of the nhtcu acting detective chief superintendent mick deats said: this
investigation has resulted in the significant disruption of organised criminals
using the internet for profit. we believe that the suspects have trafficked at
least 1.7 million stolen credit card numbers leading to losses by financial
institutions running into the millions. chief supt deats went on to warn: the
internet offers huge legitimate benefits for modern society; however with it brings
powerful opportunities for those seeking to abuse those benefits for criminal gain.
your identity is one of the most precious commodities. criminals who try to steal
the personal and financial information of ordinary citizens as well as the
confidential and proprietary information of companies engaged in e-commerce will
be targeted by law enforcement.
metlife buys up citigroup insurer us banking giant citigroup has sold its travelers
life & annuity insurance arm to metlife for $11.5bn (£6.1bn). the sale is a
further move by citigroup away from its 1990s strategy of offering every financial
service - insurance broking and banking. profit growth in the insurance market has
not matched expansion at citigroup s other businesses. for metlife the us s
leading insurance company the purchase gives it access to a much larger
distribution network. robert benmosche metlife s chairman and chief executive
said that it was a great opportunity for the brand of metlife to be distributed
through citigroup . under the agreement metlife will be able to sell its products
through citigroup over the next 10 years. the deal includes smith barney retail
brokerages and citibank branches. the company will pay between $1bn and $3bn in
metlife stock with the rest being made up of cash. travelers had sales of $5.2bn in
2004 and made a profit of $901m. it has total net assets of $96bn. this deal
employs some of metlife s excess capital in a potentially higher-return business
and gives it more distribution said stuart quint an analyst at gartmore.
philippoussis doubt over open bid mark philippoussis is almost certain to miss the
australian open after suffering a groin injury during the hopman cup loss to the
netherlands. the 28-year-old suffered two tears to the adductor muscle and was
unable to play in the deciding mixed doubles. he is now unlikely to be fit in time
for the australian open which begins on 17 january in melbourne. he has to
strengthen it enough to cope with repetitive days of tennis said hopman cup
doctor hamish osborne. it would be very unlikely in my opinion for him to do a
five-setter once let alone two days in a row inside two weeks. the injury is
more common in australian rules football and a fit footballer would normally take
three to four weeks to recover fully although mark s injury is slightly different.
the australian has suffered a host of injury problems throughout his career but is
still holding out slim hope that he can make the event. it s something i ll have
to go by feel. i ll start treatment as soon as possible and try to strengthen it
without tearing it any more he said. what doesn t kill you makes you stronger. i
know i can come back from this and that s all that matters. - former world number
two tommy haas is also a doubt for the australian open after picking up a thigh
injury playing for germany in the hopman cup. the 26-year-old had treatment on his
left thigh while leading argentine guillermo coria 7-5 2-2. he played one more game
but his movement was hampered and he quit.
healey targets england comeback leicester wing austin healey hopes to use sunday s
return heineken cup clash with wasps as a further springboard to an england recall
for the six nations. healey who won 51 caps prior to the 2003 world cup has been
in good form in the tigers resurgence this season. i definitely still have
ambitions to play for england healey told the bbc. we will have to see what
happens after the previous (autumn) tests but when i look at the current squad i
definitely feel there is a place there for me. healey who has also played both
half-back positions and full-back during his career has reverted to the wing
where he won most of his england caps. after recovering from a trapped nerve in his
back sustained at the end of september the 31-year-old is relishing his role in
the tigers revival. i had six weeks out but fortunately i have resumed the sort of
form i had before he said. i am basically playing where it best suits
leicester. obviously i can play scrum-half fly-half or full-back at a moment s
notice. but playing on the wing actually gives me a bigger free role to come in
where i am not expected and influence things. that has been apparent in parts one
and two of the wasps-leicester trilogy in recent weeks. first healey came off his
flank with an angled run to score an injury-time try that earned the tigers a 17-17
draw in their premiership meeting on 21 november. then in the first of their
heineken cup double header last sunday healey slotted in at stand-off and
delivered a superb cross-kick for martin corry to score the tigers third try. i
caught cozza s eye a couple of phases before that and was hoping to get it to him
on the full but fortunately even with the bounce he managed to score healey
recalled. healey twice a heineken cup winner believes last sunday s match was
up there with some of the biggest club contests he has played in. it was a very
intense occasion and a very destructive game he recalled. there was not a huge
amount of rugby played but it was a great game to be involved in. after about 15
minutes i thought we might stride away with it but wasps really came back into it
and in the last couple of minutes it could have gone either way. the same outcome
this sunday would put leicester in pole position to top their heineken pool with a
home game against biarritz and away trip to calvisano to come. but healey insists
the tigers must summon the same desire if they are to deliver the knockout blow in
what has been dubbed rugby s version of rocky ii . there was a lot of
satisfaction in the dressing room aftewards but it is really only a case of a job
half done he added. it was the first of a two-leg trip and if we lose at welford
road it will negate all the positives we can take from result. i think it came
down to who wanted it more and in the end i think we did. we have got to show the
same desire again this week.
dirty den s demise seen by 14m more than 14 million people saw dirty den watts
killed off on friday marking eastenders 20th anniversary according to unofficial
figures. den s death came 16 years after he was supposedly shot in 1989. but he
came back to the show in september 2003. the audience for bbc one s one-hour
special averaged 13.7 million and peaked at 14.2 million in the last 15 minutes
overnight figures showed. den died after being confronted by zoe chrissie and sam
in the queen vic. if the ratings are confirmed the episode will have given the
soap its highest audience for a year. the overnight figures showed almost 60% of
the viewing public tuned into eastenders between 2000 and 2100 gmt leaving itv1
with about 13%. we are very pleased with the figures a bbc spokesman said. it
shows viewers have really enjoyed the story of den s demise. the show s highest
audience came at christmas 1986 when more than 30 million tuned in to see den
played by leslie grantham hand divorce papers to wife angie. two years later 24
million saw him apparently shot by a man with a bunch of daffodils by a canal. more
than 16 million viewers watched his return in 2003. the show s ratings have since
settled down to about 12 million per episode. grantham hit the headlines in may
after a newspaper printed photographs of him apparently exposing himself via a
webcam from his dressing room. he also allegedly insulted four co-stars. he
apologised for his deplorable actions and a moment s stupidity .
guantanamo four free in weeks all four britons held by the us in guantanamo bay
will be returned to the uk within weeks foreign secretary jack straw told the
commons on tuesday. moazzam begg from birmingham and martin mubanga richard
belmar and feroz abbasi from london have been held by the us for almost three
years. they were detained in the cuban camp as part of the us-led war on terror .
mr straw said the us had agreed to release the four after intensive and complex
discussions over security. he said the government had been negotiating the return
of the detainees since 2003. all four families have been informed of their return
and have been involved in regular discussions with the government mr straw said.
but he added: once they are back in the uk the police will consider whether to
arrest them under the terrorism act 2000 for questioning in connection with
possible terrorist activity. the shadow foreign secretary michael ancram
welcomed the return of the four detainees. but he said there were still serious
questions both over the possible threat the four pose to the uk and the treatment
they received while detained. liberal democrat foreign affairs spokesman sir
menzies campbell said the four had been rescued from a legal no-man s land .
their civil rights were systematically and deliberately abused and they were denied
due process. azmat begg father of moazzam thanked his lawyers and the british
people for the support he had received while campaigning for his son s release. he
added: if they have done something wrong of course they should be punished but
if they haven t they shouldn t have been there. lawyer louise christian who
represents mr abbasi and mr mubanga said the government should have acted sooner.
she said: they should at the outset have said quite clearly to the american
government that they were behaving in breach of international law and that the
british government wanted no part of it and wanted guantanamo bay shut down. they
didn t do that. they colluded with it. moazzam begg s labour mp roger godsiff
welcomed his release but said questions remained unanswered particularly about
charges. asked about possible damages mr begg and the other detainees could bring
against the us mr godsiff said: people get released from prison when it s found
that their prosecution was unsustainable and they are quite rightly awarded
sizeable sums of money. i don t see any difference in this case. human rights
campaigners have been outraged at the treatment of the detainees in cuba. amnesty
international has called camp delta a major human-rights scandal and an icon of
lawlessness . both amnesty and the lobby group guantanamo human rights commission
described the release as long overdue . civil rights group liberty said it was
delighted but called on the government to release men indefinitely detained in the
uk without charge or trial. director shami chakrabarti called on the government to
practise what it preaches and either free or charge 12 detainees at belmarsh and
woodhill prisons. law lords ruled last month that the 12 were being held in
contravention of human rights laws but they are still behind bars. the us has also
announced that 48-year-old australian mamdouh habib previously accused of
terrorist offences will be released without charge from camp delta. five british
detainees released from guantanamo in march last year were questioned by uk police
before being released without charge.
howard attacks cost of asylum michael howard has launched an attack on the cost of
britain s chaotic asylum system under tony blair. the tory leader said english
local authorities have spent more than £3bn - or £140 per household - on asylum
since labour won power in 1997. mr howard is expected to tell activists in kent
that voters tolerance and desire to help others are being abused. other parties
and refugee agencies have already attacked tory plans for annual limits on numbers.
mr howard said britain should take its fair share of the world s genuine
refugees . the anniversary of the liberation of auschwitz - where my grandmother
was murdered along with over a million others - has reminded all of us that we have
a moral responsibility to those fleeing persecution he was due to say. but if we
are to fulfil responsibility we have to get a grip of the system. fair play
matters. people want a government that upholds the rules - not one that turns a
blind eye when they are bent and abused he said. and let s be clear. our asylum
system is being abused - and with it britain s generosity. earlier this week mr
howard said his party s plans to cut immigration were not racist arguing they
would make the asylum system fairer for genuine refugees. if elected his party
would institute an annual limit on asylum and all claims would be processed
overseas. that prompted some charities to say the plans would put refugees lives
at risk if they were turned away once quotas were filled. if we have a moral
responsibility towards people fleeing persecution then these policies will not
provide a safe haven said hannah ward of the refugee council. if people turn up
in the uk asking for help they will be turned away. michael howard s policy
effectively means there is no safe haven in the uk. when it comes to costs then
perhaps we should start with how decisions are made on asylum seekers. so many of
them are shown to be wrong - one in five decisions that are appealed are
successfully overturned rising to half for some nationalities. we need good
quality decision-making on asylum applications because it is delays in the system
which cost so much. tony blair said labour would set out workable plans for
tackling immigration abuse in the next few weeks and attacked the tory plans. by
cutting the number of front-line immigration staff at our borders they will
actually make the problem worse said mr blair. liberal democrat chairman matthew
taylor said there needed to be a quick fair and firm asylum system. but he said it
was absolutely disgusting to propose a system which could turn away genuine
refugees. the conservatives say there is little risk of this happening as demand
for asylum will be considered when quotas are set. on monday mr howard said: it s
not racist as some people to claim to talk about controlling immigration far from
it.
citizenship event for 18s touted citizenship ceremonies could be introduced for
people celebrating their 18th birthday charles clarke has said. the idea will be
tried as part of an overhaul of the way government approaches inclusive
citizenship particularly for ethnic minorities. a pilot scheme based on ceremonies
in australia will start in october. mr clarke said it would be a way of recognising
young people reaching their voting age when they also gain greater independence
from parents. britain s young black and asian people are to be encouraged to learn
about the nation s heritage as part of the government s new race strategy which
will also target specific issues within different ethnic minority groups. officials
say the home secretary wants young people to feel they belong and to understand
their other cultural identities alongside being british. the launch follows a row
about the role of faith schools in britain. on monday school inspection chief david
bell accused some islamic schools of failing to teach pupils about their
obligations to british society. the muslim council of britain said ofsted boss mr
bell s comments were highly irresponsible . the home office started work on its
community cohesion and race equality strategy last year and the outcome launched
on wednesday is called improving opportunity strengthening society . it is aimed
at tackling racism exclusion segregation and the rise in political and religious
extremism. it represents a move away from the one-size-fits-all approach to focus
on specifics within cultural groups said a home office spokesman. it is not
right to say that if you are from a black or ethnic minority group you must be
disadvantaged. the spokesman highlighted specific issues that affect particular
communities - for example people of south asian origin tend to suffer from a high
incidence of heart disease. it is about drilling down and focusing on these sorts
of problems the spokesman added. launching the initiative mr clarke said enormous
progress had been made on race issues in recent years. he added: but while many
members of black and minority ethnic communities are thriving some may still find
it harder to succeed in employment or gain access to healthcare education or
housing. this strategy sets out the government s commitment to doing more to
identify and respond to the specific needs of minorities in our society. some 8%
of the uk population described themselves as coming from a non-white ethnic
minority in the 2001 census. the downing street strategy unit in 2003 said people
from indian and chinese backgrounds were doing well on average often outperforming
white people in education and earnings. but those of pakistani bangladeshi and
black caribbean origin were significantly more likely to be unemployed and earn
less than whites it said. the home office wants more initiatives which try to
promote a sense of belonging by encouraging young people to take part in voluntary
work. the programmes are designed to support the citizenship lessons already taking
place in schools.
parry puts gerrard above money listen to the full interview on sport on five and
the bbc sport website from 1900 gmt. but parry speaking exclusively to bbc sport
also admits gerrard who has been constantly linked with chelsea will have the
final say on his future. he told bbc five live: steven is above money. he is the
future of liverpool. it doesn t matter if it s £30m £40m or £50m we will not
accept offers. but we are also realistic enough to know we can t keep steven
against his will. on the subject of liverpool s finances parry also revealed the
club is ready to explore the possibility of a sponsorship deal for its proposed new
stadium. and responding to criticism from bbc sport pundit and former liverpool
stalwart alan hansen he insisted talks on new investment are ongoing but added
the door has not closed on shareholder and lifelong fan steve morgan. parry joined
liverpool as chief executive in july 1998 from a similar role at the premier
league. there have been several highs and lows during his time in charge at anfield
- and he had a busy summer overseeing the arrival of new manager rafael benitez
and managing to hold on to steven gerrard. on the subject of liverpool s captain
and prize asset parry revealed real madrid did ask for an option on the england
midfield man during negotiations for striker fernando morientes. he said: they
were looking for ways of saying they got more out of the deal for fernando
morientes but the response to real madrid was the same - steven is not for sale.
but when asked if gerrard would be a liverpool player on the first day of next
season parry said: i sincerely hope he will be. steven knows my views. he knows
rafa s views. we have re-affirmed recently to steven that we are trying to build a
team around him. we crave success as much as he does. we know he s ambitious and
nobody can argue with that. i think steven would dearly love to win things with
liverpool more than he d like to do anything else. we all want to see progress by
next season. he s not alone in that. there are a lot of other players who feel the
same so we all have a common aim. it is expected chelsea will test liverpool with
a £30m-plus bid in the summer - but parry claims he will be in no mood to listen.
there have been a lot of open secrets about steven most of which have been
complete myths. it is suggested we had a deal tied up last summer. we didn t had an
offer last summer parry explained. we had told chelsea that as far as we were
concerned he was not for sale and we didn t want to sell him. in reality it didn t
go beyond that. maybe there will be an offer in the summer. maybe there won t.
our position is we want steven to stay but we are also realistic enough and have
enough respect for steven - and he has enough respect for us - to know that it is
his decision that will be crucial. you are not going to keep a player like steven
against his will. that just doesn t work but any idea we are going to accept
offers for steven and then tell him by the way we ve decided to sell you is not
on the agenda. you can forget that. parry is currently in the process of
finalising funding for liverpool s new stadium in stanley park which is set to
open in 2007. and he confessed arsenal s £100m deal with emirates to sponsor their
new ground - complete with naming rights - has given the anfield club serious food
for thought. he said: i have to say historically it is something i have been
against and i have been on record as saying that but i think the size of the
arsenal deal is a real eye-opener. i would say in the past deals have been done
frankly far too cheaply and it just hasn t even been worth contemplating. but the
arsenal deal is the sort of deal that causes you to draw breath and say wow - that
s interesting. my personal point of view is that i would find it a hell of a lot
more palatable than a shared stadium. some liverpool fans would find such a move
highly controversial but parry countered: i recognise it would be an emotive
issue for many supporters but you look at the amount of money available and it
could go into the team. if it was the right partner how strong an issue is it
time will tell. i think the stadium will always be anfield not least because of
where it is but do we need to investigate the possibilities of sponsorship i
think it would be remiss not to. that s not to say we have made a decision that we
will go down that road but i think it is clearly something we have to explore.
on the subject of possible new investment parry revealed liverpool are still in
negotiations with a mystery investor with rumours of interest from the middle
east. that prompted the withdrawal of tycoon steve morgan who got frustrated by
failed bids and what he claimed was indecision by the board. he also accused
liverpool of using him as a stalking horse to attract other bids but parry
explained: steve has never been used as a stalking horse. there s no need and
that is not the way we do business. we had discussions with steve over the course
of 2004. i think we came close to concluding a deal in the summer but it didn t
happen. quite genuinely the new interest did appear relatively late in the day
just prior to the agm in december and as i have said it was of such potential
magnitude and that potential is so exciting we felt we had to evaluate it. we are
still evaluating it. steve s interest was taken very much on its own merits. his
enthusiasm for the club is there for all to see and who knows what the next few
months will hold the door isn t closed on anything. we had a perfectly sensible
dialogue with steve last year. we have a common interest in making liverpool
successful. that s a dream we all share so as far as i m concerned the door is not
closed. i would take £50m if we had no investment but if we did keep him. as
for the stadium if it gets us cash what difference does it make really £50m for
gerrard i don t care who you are the directors would take the money and it is the
way it should be. we cannot let that sum of money go despite gerrard s quality.
through a cleverly worded statement the club has effectively forced gerrard to
publicly make the decision for himself which i think is the right thing to do.
critical time for liverpool with regards to gerrard. ideally we would want to
secure his future to the club for the long term. i am hoping he doesn t walk out of
the club like michael owen did for very little cash. £50m realistically would
allow rafa to completely rebuild the squad however if we can afford to do this
and keep gerrard we will be better for it. i would however be happy with gerrard s
transfer for any fee over £35m. parry s statements are clever in that any future
gerrard transfer cannot be construed as a lack of ambition by the club to not try
and keep their best players. upping the ante is another smart move by parry. i
would keep gerrard. no amount of money could replace his obvious love of the club
and determination to succeed. the key is if gerrard comes out and says that he is
happy. clearly if he isn t then we would be foolish not to sell. the worrying
thing is who would you buy (or who would come) pending possible non-champions
league football.
anti-terror plan faces first test plans to allow home secretary charles clarke to
place terror suspects under house arrest without trial are set for their first real
test in parliament. tories lib dems and some labour mps are poised to vote
against the plans. mr clarke says the powers are needed to counter terror threats.
opponents say only judges not politicians should be able to order detention of uk
citizens. the government is expected to win wednesday s vote in the commons but
faces a battle in the house of lords. the prevention of terrorism bill was
published on tuesday. it proposes control orders which would mean house arrest
in the most serious cases and curfews electronic tagging and limits on telephone
and internet access for other suspects. the two opposition parties are
particularly worried that the control orders would initially be imposed on the say-
so of the home secretary rather than a judge. tory shadow home secretary david
davis warned of the potential for miscarriages of justice like the guildford four
- for which tony blair recently apologised - as a result of the pressure on
politicians to lock up terror suspects. those pressures would be much more for a
politician than they would on a judge and that s why we have serious concerns abut
that approach he told bbc radio 4 s today programme. mr clarke says he does not
intend to use the house arrest powers now - even for the 11 current terror
detainees. he also said that any decision he made would be reviewed by a judge
within seven days. the foreign terror suspects currently detained are mostly held
at london s belmarsh prison. they are held under laws which the law lords have
ruled break human rights rules - and which are due to expire on 14 march. the new
powers designed to replace the existing laws and meet the law lords concerns
would apply to british as well as foreign terror suspects. critics say that giving
politicians the power to deprive uk citizens of their freedom is the biggest attack
on civil liberties for 300 years. opposition mps are also angry they will have only
two days - wednesday and next monday - to debate the new plans before they pass to
the house of lords. but the government says the existing powers run out soon so
must be replaced urgently. in a rare move the tories and lib dems have jointly
tabled a motion opposing the new bill saying the house arrest plans are excessive
. it argues decisions should be taken on a higher standard of proof and the plan
wrongly infringes the right to liberty by failing to bring terrorists to trial
where there is evidence. mr davis told today: it gives a minister for the first
time in modern history the right to detain without trial without showing the
evidence and indeed in some respects almost the allegation against the individual
concerned. he questioned why there was such a rush to introduce the legislation
when mr clarke had indicated he was not planning to use the house arrest powers
straight away. liberal democrat home affairs spokesman mark oaten said: we believe
it should be the judge that takes decisions not politicians. mr clarke said the
security services and police backed his measures and it would be rash and
negligent to ignore their advice. nobody should doubt that terrorists at home and
abroad wanted to attack the uk and its interests he argued.
broadband steams ahead in the us more and more americans are joining the internet s
fast lane according to official figures. the number of people and business
connected to broadband jumped by 38% in a year said the us federal communications
commission (fcc). in a report it said there were more than 32 million broadband
connections by the end of june 2004. but the us is still behind compared to other
nations ranked 13th in the world by a un telecoms body. during his 2004 re-
election campaign president george w bush pledge to ensure that affordable high-
speed net access would be available to all americans by 2007. according to the
report by the fcc broadband is becoming increasingly popular with people using it
for research and shopping as well as downloading music and watching video. the
total number of people and businesses on broadband rose by to 32.5 million in the
year ending june 2004 compared to 23.5 million in june 2003. whereas in the uk
most people hook up to broadband via asymmetric digital subscriber line (adsl)
technology which lets ordinary copper phone lines support high data speeds. but in
the us cable leads the way accounting for 18.6 million lines. broadband over the
phone line makes up 11.4 million connections according to the fcc figures.
nintendo adds media playing to ds nintendo is releasing an adapter for its ds
handheld console so it can play music and video. the add-on for the ds means
people can download tv programmes film clips or mp3 files to the adaptor and then
play them back while on the move. the release of the media add-on is an attempt by
the japanese games giant to protect its dominance of the handheld gaming market.
nintendo said the media adapter will be available from february in japan. the
nintendo ds is the successor to the hugely successful gameboy handheld game console
and went on sale in japan on 2 december. the ds has two screens one of which is
touch sensitive and also has on-board a short-range wireless link that lets people
play against each other. the launch of the media adapter and the attempt to
broaden the appeal of the device is widely seen as a response to the unveiling of
the sony psp which was built as a multi-purpose media player and game gadget from
the start. sony is thought to be preparing pre-packaged movies and music for the
psp. the add-on will also work with the gameboy advance sp. nintendo dominates the
handheld gaming console world thanks to successive versions of the gameboy. more
than 28 million gameboy advance handhelds have been sold around the world. the
dual-screen ds is also thought to be selling well with more than 2.5 million
expected to be sold by the end of 2004. nintendo said it had no plans to sell the
media adapter outside japan. when it goes on sale the adapter is expected to cost
about 5000 yen (£25) roughly the difference in price between the ds and the
higher-priced sony psp.
prince crowned top music earner prince earned more than any other pop star in
2004 beating artists such madonna and elton john in us magazine rolling stone s
annual list. the singer banked $56.5m (£30.4m) from concerts album and publishing
sales with his musicology tour and album. he kept madonna in second place as she
earned $54.9m (£29.5m) while embarking on her global re-invention tour. veterans
simon and garfunkel were in 10th place their comeback tour helping them earn
$24.9m (£13.4m) last year. prince returned to centre stage after a decade in the
commercial wilderness the magazine reported. the singer s 2004 tour took $90.3m
(£48.5m) in ticket sales and he sold 1.9 million copies of his latest album
musicology. although she grossed more than prince last year madonna remained in
second place because of the monumental production costs of her tour. heavy metal
band metallica s madly in anger with the world tour helped push their 2004 earnings
up to $43.1m (£23.1m). they were ahead of sir elton john who took fourth place and
almost $42.7m (£23m) from performances including a debut on the las vegas strip.
other seasoned performers in the list included rod stewart whose sold-out shows
and third volume of the great american songbook covers album helped net him £35m
(£19m). the highest-ranking rap act in the list was 50 cent who at number 19 took
$24m (£13m) to the bank.
new foot and mouth action urged a senior tory mp has criticised agriculture
department defra s lackadaisical approach to planning for a future foot and mouth
outbreak. public accounts committee chairman edward leigh was giving his reaction
to a report by a government watchdog on lessons to be learnt from the crisis. the
national audit office said defra had improved its capacity to deal with future
livestock disease outbreaks. but mr leigh said the department was dragging its
heels . that comment referred to the setting up of a scheme to share any future
compensation costs with industry. he also said defra had been dreadfully slow in
paying some of its bills dating from the foot and mouth crisis. the outbreak
which began in 2001 led to the slaughter of 6.5 million animals devastated many
farms and rural businesses and is estimated to have cost the uk up to £8bn. four
years after the outbreak defra is yet to begin its planned review of some of its
contractors costs and £40m of invoices remain unpaid mr leigh said. mr leigh
also pointed out that the introduction of an it system to help control future
outbreaks had been delayed. in november it emerged european commission compensation
amounted to just over a third of the money the uk government had hoped to get as
reimbursement for the billions lost through the foot and mouth crisis. ministers
had hoped to get £900m from the european union vet fund to help with animal
slaughter and other costs but in the end was granted £349m. that was because the uk
had valued the culled animals at between two and three times the commission s
assessment of their likely market value. national audit office chief sir john bourn
said a new compensation scheme was now being looked at. on the issue of the unpaid
invoices sir john said defra had paid 97% of the £1.3bn submitted by contractors
since 2001 but has not agreed a final settlement with 57 contractors pending the
results of its investigations . mr leigh said being better prepared would also
help avoid the need for mass funeral pyres which provided an unsettling images of
the 2001 outbreak . a defra spokesman said: we welcome the report. it acknowledges
the progress the department has made since 2001 - particularly on contingency
planning and our improved capacity and preparedness for combating another major
disease outbreak. however the department is aware that there are some areas
requiring further work and we are working to resolve them as soon as is
practicable.
britons fed up with net service a survey conducted by pc pro magazine has revealed
that many britons are unhappy with their internet service. they are fed up with
slow speeds high prices and the level of customer service they receive. 17% of
readers have switched suppliers and a further 16% are considering changing in the
near future. it is particularly bad news for bt the uk s biggest internet supplier
with almost three times as many people trying to leave as joining. a third of the
2 000 broadband users interviewed were fed up with their current providers but this
could be just the tip of the iceberg thinks tim danton editor of pc pro magazine.
we expect these figures to leap in 2005. every month the prices drop and more and
more people are trying to switch he said. the survey found that bt and tiscali
have been actively dissuading customers from leaving by offering them a lower price
when they phone up to cancel their subscription. some readers were offered a price
drop just 25p more expensive than that offered by an alternative operator making
it hardly worth while swapping. other found themselves tied into 12-month
contracts. broadband has become hugely competitive and providers are desperate to
hold on to customers. 12% of those surveyed found themselves unable to swap at all.
we discovered a huge variety of problems but one of the biggest issues is the
current supplier withholding the information that people need to give to their new
supplier said tim danton editor of pc pro. this breaks the code of practice
but because that code is voluntary there s nothing we or ofcom can do to help he
said. there is a vast choice of internet service providers in the uk now and an
often bewildering array of broadband packages. with prices set to drop even further
in coming months mr danton advises everyone to shop around carefully. if you just
stick with your current connection then there s every chance you re being ripped
off he warned.
rap feud in 50 cent s g-unit crew us rap star 50 cent has said he has thrown
protege the game out of his g-unit gang in a feud that has apparently involved two
shootings. in a radio interview on monday 50 cent said the newcomer was disloyal
in conflicts with other rappers. a man was shot in the thigh outside new york s hot
97 studios while 50 cent was on air. more shots were fired outside his management
offices two hours later. 50 cent appeared on the game s debut album which was
number one in the us. 50 cent whose second album is about to be released after his
debut made him one of hip-hop s biggest stars has been involved in recent
rivalries with fellow artists including fat joe nas and jadakiss. he has claimed
credit for the success of the game who has become the hottest new star on the rap
scene. both were drug dealers and were shot before turning to music. in an
interview with hot 97 on saturday the game described some of 50 cent s rivals as
my friends and said he would not turn on them. nas is one of my friends and jada
s really a homie he said. 50 s beef is 50 s beef and i really don t know where
all this stems from. when 50 cent appeared on the same station two days later he
said the game was no longer a member of g-unit. every record he s selling is based
on me being on his record with him he said. when the shooting took place outside
the studio the interview was ended and the rapper was escorted out of the building
by security personnel. an unidentified 24-year-old los angeles man is stable with
a gunshot wound to the upper thigh. police say the game s associates may have heard
the interview and gone to the studio where they confronted 50 cent s entourage.
officers are also investigating a later shooting in which eight bullets were fired
into the door of 50 cent s management company violator. no arrests have been made
in relation to either incident. 50 cent s second album the massacre is released
on thursday five weeks after the game s debut documentary went to number one.
elliott wilson editor-in-chief of hip-hop magazine xxl said the feud would boost
publicity for 50 cent s release. it helps him obviously in terms of exposure. you
can t ask for better promotion he said. but he added: i think he s making more
and more enemies. you definitely feel like is he doing too much of a tupac spiral
like me against the world. you bring more people wanting to see you fail. tupac
shakur was shot dead in 1996.
train strike grips buenos aires a strike on the buenos aires underground has caused
traffic chaos and large queues at bus stops in the argentine capital. tube workers
walked out last week demanding a 53% pay rise and in protest against the
installation of automatic ticket machines. metrovias the private firm which runs
the five tube lines in the city has offered an 8% increase in wages. the firm
promised no jobs would be lost as a result of new ticket machines. it said it would
put this commitment on paper. underground staff have warned they will continue
with the protests until the management put an acceptable offer on the table. the
argentine work ministry has been mediating in the conflict and it could call an
obligatory conciliation which would force both sides to find a solution and put
an end to the conflict. some tube commuters have not hidden their frustration at
the ongoing strike and have broken the windows of the underground trains according
to the local press. we are taken as hostages. i don t know who is right but the
harm ones are us said accountant jose lopez.
edwards tips idowu for euro gold world outdoor triple jump record holder and bbc
pundit jonathan edwards believes phillips idowu can take gold at the european
indoor championships. idowu landed 17.30m at the british trials in sheffield last
month to lead the world triple jump rankings. it s all down to him but if he
jumps as well as he did in sheffield he could win the gold medal said edwards.
his ability is undoubted but all his best performances seem to happen in domestic
meetings. idowu made his breakthrough five years ago but so far has only a
commonwealth silver medal to his name. edwards himself kept idowu off top spot at
the manchester games. but he believes the european indoors in madrid represent a
chance for the 26-year-old to prove his credentials as britain s top triple jumper.
he has to start producing at international level and here is the beginning said
edwards. phillips still needs to be much more consistent. i m sure a victory in
madrid will build up his confidence and self-belief that he can be best in the
world. the qualifying round of the men s triple jump in madrid takes place on
friday with the final scheduled for saturday. olympic champion christian olsson
will not be taking part as he is out for the entire indoor season with an ankle
injury.
thomas out of six nations wales captain gareth thomas has been ruled out of the
rest of the six nations with a broken thumb. the full-back will have surgery on
monday after fracturing his thumb in the 24-18 win over france on saturday. but
welsh legend phil bennett insisted wales can cope without thomas as they chase a
first grand slam in 27 years. bennett told bbc sport: such is the spirit in the
camp they ll put kevin morgan at 15 rhys williams at wing and just carry on.
thomas will miss the match against scotland on 13 march and what promises to be a
huge encounter against the irish six days later. bennett added: it s a setback. he
s a great captain he leads from the front and the boys love him. thomas was
replaced at half-time by williams as his side turned around a 15-6 deficit in
paris. with gareth missing i would think michael owen will be our captain said
wales coach mike ruddock. he did a great job in the second half in france. he has
been vice-captain all along throughout the championship. wales travel to edinburgh
to take on scotland in a fortnight and then host ireland in cardiff in the final
round of matches in what could be the grand slam and championship decider. bennett
an inspirational fly-half for llanelli and wales in the 1970s insisted the
national team were entering a new golden period. it was a great game and a
magnificent result for wales bennett told bbc radio five live s sportsweek
programme. the way this young team are blending the glory days are on their way
back. we couldn t get possession early on and france dominated and scored two
tries. had they been ruthless wales could have gone into the interval 30 points
down. but they didn t take their chances. wales defended fairly well but you
cannot give that sort of quality ball to good sides. the all blacks would have
been ruthless and buried us in the first half. but the character we showed in the
second half was quite outstanding.
losing yourself in online gaming online role playing games are time-consuming but
enthralling flights from reality. but are some people taking their fantasy lives
too seriously when video game world of warcraft hit the shops in europe last week
fans wrote in to the bbc website to express their delight - and to offer a warning.
an addiction to a game like this is far more costly in time than any substance
could impair - keep track of time wrote travis anderson in texas. some of the
comments were humorous: this game is so good i m not going to get it there s no
way i could limit the hours i d spend playing it wrote charles macintyre from
england. but some struck a more worrying tone about the massively multiplayer
online role playing game (mmorpg): you need to get out more could be the motto
of any mmorpg. shame they are getting more popular as you know this problem is
just going to mushroom wrote stuart stanton-davies in huddersfield. scare-
mongering articles about addictive video games have existed since the days the
first game of pong stopped everyone from working at the atari offices. gaming is
like any other pastime - it can quickly become an unhealthy obsession whether it
is spending too much time in the gym in front of the television or reading
poetry. unfortunately gaming and addiction is a far too easy association to make.
however stories about gamers spending 10 to 15 hours a day in front of some video
games are becoming more frequent. and the impact that is having on their families
is quite distressing for some. massively multiplayer online role playing games -
mmorpgs - allow thousands of gamers to share a common experience of sharing fantasy
or science fiction worlds. the scope of these games - like warcraft everquest
ultima among others - is epic and exploration and adventure is almost infinite.
part of the problem is grinding - by which gamers have to perform long-winded
mindless tasks to bring up their levels and gain access to more adventure. such
open-endedness brings with it a desire to keep playing; not for no reason is
everquest (eq) nicknamed evercrack. e hayot writing in the culture blogzine print
culture said recently: i used to play the online role-playing game everquest a
lot. by a lot i mean probably 15 to 20 hours a week on average and on weeks
where i didn t have to work as many as 30 or 40 hours. he says that in the world
of online gaming such behaviour wasn t that unusual; lots of people i knew in the
game played eq that much . you lie; you don t go into work because you had stuff
to do at home ; you cancel or refuse invitations to dinner you spend much less
time watching tv (a good thing presumably) he wrote explaining how everquest
took over his time. he quit the game he says because he realised life was more
fun than everquest. let us be clear - such obsession is rare. but the huge growth
in online gaming means a growth in the numbers of people who take their passion for
a hobby too far. almost 400 000 people bought a copy of world of warcraft in the
first two days on sale earlier this month. only a fraction will descend into
obsessives. the thoughts of families and friends of gamers who have been affected
by everquest can be found on one blog everquest daily grind. jane who runs the
website compiles a chronicle of heart-rending stories. i am actually convinced at
this point that there are more than some people who spend more times in mmoprgs
than in reality she said. one unnamed correspondent - all are anonymous - wrote:
on the rare nights when my husband does come to bed at the same time as i do i
find that i am so used to sleeping by myself that it is difficult to get to sleep
with another body laying next to me. i can t talk to him while he is playing.
there is absolutely no point as he doesn t hear me or is so distracted that i get a
ummm... ya a few minutes after i ask him a question. gaming widows has become
a comedic term for women who have been shut out by male gamers. but for some it is
not in the least funny. another correspondent wrote: i believe that he is addicted
to the online gaming and that is the cause of his depression and restlessness.
and some of them are even sadder: today our son was five days old. the sad truth
is my husband spent 11 hours today playing his warcraft game. he did not interact
with our sweet tiny baby because there were important quests waiting online. video
game fans often complain that their hobby is misunderstood or marginalised. but as
gaming becomes ever more mainstream and games ever more immersive there will be
no hiding place for social problems. i wish 30-40 hours a week was unusual but i
think it probably isn t. an 11 hour stretch isn t that surprising - i ve known
people to play 15+ hours at a stretch. i know of people who are spending their week
s holiday from work playing warcraft. i know of people who would play ever[crack]
in shifts...waking at 3am to take over from their friends and resume waiting for an
item they needed to appear. i understand that the key sign of an addiction is if
you alter your life around it rather than fit it into your life. by all standards
many of us are addicts. so is the solution to force ourselves to stop playing..or
do we just need to make real life a bit more interesting sadly with all the talk
of people becoming obsessed with gaming i find myself longing to have the time to
join them. i have been in a long term relationship for over 4 years - since that
began games have become more and more complex. and more and more so i find i have
less and less time to play them with and marriage and work being the main drag on
my time. i think the line between playing a game a lot and a gaming addiction is
really quite distinct. i play games a lot definately over 20 hours a week but i
don t go missing work or other commitments in order to play games. i have about a
year ago deleted every game on my computer. rpgs are the worst - the real world
fades and all your worries sorround a new magic staff or mighty sword. unlike books
or perhaps even tv you gain absolutely nothing. when you stop playing you re at
the same point as when you started; all the achievements of your 10 hour session
are irretrievably locked in the game and since you ve gained nothing in the real
world you may as well pile on more achievement in the fake one. despite having
little monetary value the rewards and encouragement offered by these mmorpgs is
enough to hook games for hours daily. if only business could learn to leverage that
very simply human need for easily measurable progress and recognition. perhaps the
unhealthily obsessed simply need more recognition for their achievements in reality
my advice to gaming widows is if you can t beat em join em . that is try
playing it yourself. if he wants to play as well well at least you ll be together
somewhere... i was an addict and it cost me my relationship. i still play now but
without the guilt hehe how long have i played in one sitting from morning till
the early hours of the next day the birds were singing out side and i had to
hobble to the bath room cos my bladder was so full i was in pain i would hardly
eat perhaps some toast smoke endlessly and drink. now thankfully the fascination
has worn off and i have a girlfriend but still no job. for the most part online
gaming give me an adiction to illusory achievement and as there is no end in sight
you keep going for the mirage of the ultimate. obsessive behaviour is of course
always cause for concern but it always bothers me when articles about gaming talk
in terms of reality . obviously somebody who spends thirty hours a week playing
everquest has a problem. this problem however has nothing to do with a
dysfunctional sense of reality. an obsessive eq player does not consider the game
to be real any more than - for example - an obsessive automotive tinkerer
considers their car to be human. if mmorpgs have a unique danger in terms of
encouraging obsessive behaviour it is not that they create an absorbing virtual
world but rather that they can be easily accessed 24/7. the problem here does not
lie with the nature of gaming but with the nature of modern 24 hour culture. the
problem with these so called mmorpgs is that you can never really complete them
there s always another quest to do. a few of my friends have only had about 10
hours sleep since it was released friday... championship manager consumed my life
for years. one particular session started at about 2pm on a sunday paused for a
brief sleep at 5am on the monday and after visit to university for classes
restarted at about midday for another 10 hour session. the people who tend to hark
on about about the problems of hardcore gaming seem to be those who have rarely
allowed themselves to become immersed in a game. i would expect their perspective
to change if they were to do that. i used to be an everquest addict while i was in
college. it came to the point where the gaming world felt more real than the real
one. i failed alot of my courses and was able to barely graduate. i was lucky that
i came to my senses when i did others were less fortunate and dropped out of
college. now that i am holding a job i avoid online rpgs like the plague. when i
was made redundant i told my partner i had a new job for three months whilst every
day i played everquest from 7:30am till 5:pm. when she came home i pretended i had
just got in as well hence justifying playing it all evening. i have since quit
playing mmorpg and have a good job. when i got to the point where i was eating my
dinner in front of the pc i realised things were getting silly so i m trying not to
spend so much time on there. it s not easy. i feel as if i ve got a real addiction
going
on here. for me the problem is that i love to complete a goal. once it is
completed that is it i am finished time to move on. i become obsessed to complete
the goal so from that standpoint it is an addiction. in a game where you will
never complete an ultimate goal well it would be like falling into a black pit.
it is easier to escape into a controlled fantasy world than face reality at times -
in other words the goal offered in the pc game are easier and more fun than the
real world. pretty scary implications if you think about it. i can t buy world of
warcraft as it would destroy my marrage i just know it!! i played star wars
galaxies for about a year and can attest to the addictiveness of these games. they
are all engineered in such a way that early on in the game you progress quickly
but this progress becomes exponentially slower requiring more and more time to
reach the next level. i m sad to say that at the peak of my addiction i was
spending entire weekends in front of my monitor slowly building up my character
stopping only for food and toilet breaks. thankfully i made a clean break and
actually managed to sell my jedi account for £800 - which is my only sanity check
in an otherwise completely unproductive time vacuum. seven years ago i began
playing ultima online. this game dominated 2 years of my life. they were 2
wonderful years and i still have vivid memories of the experiences and friends i
had. online gaming can be a world of escapism where you can be yourself without
fear of the thoughts of others. something that cannot always be achieved in the day
to day running of a normal life. whilst i would warn against people giving to much
of there life to these games i believe they are a better way to spend your time
than say watching tv. gaming is addictive and should be made a recognised
addiction. when i was single i used to play upto eight hours a night after work
every night for about a year building up my stats completing evermore quests and
battling ogres. but somehow i found time to get out even met someone and got
married! has my life changed hell no! i still cast spells and battle till the
early hours of the morning. on with the fun! online gaming should be enjoyed just
as much as you would enjoy watching television or going to the cinema or the pub
with your mates. many people use recreational drugs on an occasional basis and are
able to lead succesfull lives with families relationships and good careers. a
minority allow drugs to take over and destroy their lives and become addicted.
according to this article the same is true of mmorpgs. the message to the
government is clear either legalise drugs or outlaw online gaming!! sounds like
there are some sad stories here - and i can believe them all. i play alot of
warcraft myself and know full well how addictive it is. i am resolute that it will
not take over my life. it certainly gets in the way though. i think that some
people simply do not know how to draw this line or lack the willpower to stop
themselves stepping over it. i think i m obsessed with gaming in general i spend
far too much time playing games like everquest 2 and football manager rather than
going out and interacting with real people and when i do try to i m always
thinking in the back if my mind that i d rather be in front of the computer winning
the league with cambridge united. i am obsessed with online role playing games. it
s not so much quests but it has the adrenaline of a real life situation - goals to
achieve etc. i spend about five hours per day online playing it and i rarely get
more than four to five hours sleep before getting up for work the next morning...
as many of the players spend their time in mmorpgs rather than in front of the tv i
fail to see how it will affect players social lives negatively. furthermore these
types of games contain a huge social aspect whereas other games and some other
pursuits (such as being a couch potato) the players could be indulging in are
solitary by nature. these games are like most things -- too much of anything is a
bad thing but as long as you can walk away from the computer to do other things
too they can be great fun. living in korea at the moment they have lots pc bangs
(internet cafes). nearly most of south koreans are addicted to online games and
one korean died because of the lack of food and water he had through playing online
games. i play xbox live every day. i find my self lying and rescheduling
everything around my gaming fix. the longest i played was a 24 hour straight
session. i know i play for to long but it s an obsession that i can t control. can
you reccomend a counsellor - this is not a wind up... but something i m
increasingly concerned with... me and my mate play online for an hour or two a day
we re both aware of how much time can disappear by sitting in front of a tv trying
to frag some individual. it s getting the balance between getting home and
relasing the stress of a day by an hour or so gaming and enjoying real life...
i bought the us version of world of warcraft when it came out. the longest period i
played was 23 hrs straight. i gave up the game after a month because it was so
addictive but have subsequently just bought the european version (couldn t help
myself). in future i m going to regulate my time far more strictly. great game!
having played mmorpg games for some years i agree that these type of games can be
life sucking. but my concern is for the younger generation of gamers that play for
hours on end in an adult enviroment. most mmorpg games you need a credit card to
play but i dont think parents know just what they are letting there children into.
unless there is undeniable medical proof that staring at a computer screens for
hours at a time can damage a person¿s health you can expect this not to
decline but to get worse. these people are pathetic. they need to get off their
machines and notice that our world is being swiftly overcome by issues and troubles
that make the trifling worries of and online universe absolutely meaningless.
24hours when i was a kid at school and i was on half term ultima online was the
game ahhhh them was the days ! lol
mixed reaction to man utd offer shares in manchester united were up over 5% by noon
on monday following a new offer from malcolm glazer. the board of man utd is
expected to meet early this week to discuss the latest proposal from the us tycoon
that values the club at £800m ($1.5bn). manchester united revealed on sunday that
it had received a detailed proposal from mr glazer. a senior source at the club
told the bbc: this time it s different . the board is obliged to consider this
deal. but the man utd supporters club urged the club to reject the new deal.
manchester united past and present footballers eric cantona and ole gunnar
solskjaer and club manager sir alex ferguson have lent their backing to the
supporters group shareholders united. they have all spoken out against the bid.
a spokesman for the supporters club said: i can t see any difference (compared to
mr glazer s previous proposals) other than £200m less debt. he isn t bringing any
money into the club; he ll use our money to buy it. mr glazer s latest move is
being led by mr glazer s two sons avi and joel according to the financial times.
a proposal was received by david gill united s chief executive at the end of last
week pitched at about 300p a share. david cummings head of uk equities for
standard life investments said he believed a well funded 300p a share bid would
be enough for mr glazer to take control of the club. i do not think there is
anything that manchester united fans can do about it he told the bbc. they can
complain about it but it is curtains for them. they may not want him but they are
going to get him. the us tycoon who has been wooing the club for the last 12
months has approached the united board with detailed proposals it has
confirmed. mr glazer who owns the tampa bay buccaneers team hopes this will lead
to a formal bid being accepted. he is believed to have increased the amount of
equity in the new proposal though it is not clear by how much. for his proposal to
succeed he needs the support of united s largest shareholders the irish
horseracing tycoons jp mcmanus and john magnier. they own 29% of united through
their cubic expression investment vehicle. mr glazer and his family hold a stake of
28.1%. but it is not yet known whether mr mcmanus and mr magnier would support a
glazer bid. nm rothschild the investment bank is advising mr glazer according to
the financial times. his previous adviser jpmorgan quit last year when mr glazer
went ahead and voted against the appointment of three united directors to the board
against its advice. but the ft said it thought jp morgan may still have had some
role in financing mr glazer s latest financial proposal.
lewis-francis eyeing world gold mark lewis-francis says his olympic success has
made him determined to bag world championship 100m gold in 2005. the 22-year-old
pipped maurice greene on the last leg of the 4x100m relay in athens to take top
honours for team gb. but individually the birchfield harrier has yet to build on
his world junior championship win four years ago. the gold medal in athens has
made me realise that i can get to the top level and i want to get there again. it
can happen i don t see why not he said. lewis-francis has still to decided what
events will feature in his build-up to the worlds - with one exception. he has
confirmed his participation in the norwich union grand prix in birmingham on 18
february where he will take on another member of britain s victorious men s relay
team - jason gardener - over 60m. he added: it s a bit too early to make any
predictions for helsinki but i have my eyes open and i know i can be the best in
the world.
hantuchova in dubai last eight daniela hantuchova moved into the quarter-finals of
the dubai open after beating elene likhotseva of russia 7-5 6-4 and now faces
serena williams. australian open champion williams survived an early scare to beat
russia s elena bovina 1-6 6-1 6-4. world number one lindsay davenport and anastasia
myskina also progressed. davenport defeated china s jie zheng 6-2 7-5 while french
open champion myskina sailed through after her opponent marion bartoli retired
hurt. american davenport will now face fellow former wimbledon champion conchita
martinez of spain who ousted seventh-seeded nathalie dechy of france 6-1 6-2.
myskina will face eighth-seed patty schnyder from switzerland who defeated china s
li na 6-3 7-6 (10-8). the other quarter final pits wild card sania mirza of india
against jelena jankovic of serbia and montenegro who both won on tuesday. before
her meeting with martinez davenport believes there is some room for improvement in
her game. i started well and finished well but played some so-so games in the
middle she said. williams was also far from content. i don t know what i was
doing there she said. it was really windy and i hadn t played in the wind. all
my shots were going out of here. but hantuchova is in upbeat mood ahead of her
clash with the younger williams sister who was handed a first-round bye. i feel i
have an advantage (over serena) because i have already played two matches on these
courts she said. it is a difficult court to play on. very fast and sometimes you
feel you have no control over the ball.
kennedy looks to election gains they may not know quite how to describe their
position in british politics - the real opposition the valid opposition the
effective opposition or the authentic opposition. but the liberal democrats are
entering the expected 2005 election campaign determined to prove it is they not
the tories who are now the real threat to labour. as tory leader michael howard
kicked off his election campaign the lib dem leader charles kennedy dismissed the
conservatives as a fading force. and he insisted there was no limit to his
party s ambitions in the coming poll. and he can produce some pretty impressive
recent election results to back up his optimism for an election which he believes
might just see his party doing big things. sensible third party leaders are usually
cautious about making any predictions about how they will do come the big test.
and mr kennedy was not falling into that trap when he fired up his campaign from
the party s westminster hq. he would make no predictions other than that he
expected the lib dems to increase both their votes and their commons seats at the
election. the gap between labour and the tories was now so narrow - as proved he
claimed by the defection to labour of robert jackson - that only his party offered
a genuine alternative. on the war on iraq identity cards student fees and the
council tax there was nothing to chose between the two big parties whereas the
liberal democrats offered costed sensible alternatives. he was also happy to break
the two party consensus on taxation by promising to increase income tax on those
earning more than £100 000 a year to pay for the scrapping of student fees the
introduction of free personal care for the elderly and replacing the council tax
with a local income tax. he was also happy to offer a pledge that he would be doing
no deals to prop up either of the other big parties after the election. there
was a time when such optimistic sounds coming from the third party could be
dismissed as self-delusion. that is no longer the case with the liberal democrats.
the other parties will still insist that the lib dems are no hopers whose greatest
effect on the poll will be to boost the hopes of their opponents by denying them
otherwise winnable seats. labour in particular fears that disillusioned
supporters may switch to the lib dems allowing the tories to win some seats. but mr
kennedy is clearly hoping for a more significant outcome than that. he will not
talk about the big breakthrough although there are those who believe this could
well be the election that sees his party crossing some sort of symbolic threshold.
they would argue that by the time of the election after next the liberal
democrats may genuinely have replaced the tories as the party challenging labour
for power. the lib dems will hope to have made advances because of their consistent
stand against the war on iraq. but mr kennedy believes his new manifesto will also
offer sensible costed and achievable policies on things like the council tax
crime and asylum that will underpin his claim that his party really is the only
opposition worth the name.
wolves appoint hoddle as manager glenn hoddle will be unveiled as the new wolves
manager on tuesday. the club have confirmed that the former england coach will be
unveiled as the successor to dave jones at a news conference at molineux at 1100
gmt. hoddle has been linked with a return to former club southampton but wolves
have won the race for his services. he has been out of the game since being sacked
at spurs in september 2003 and worked alongside wolves caretaker boss stuart gray
at southampton. hoddle began his managerial career as player-boss with swindon
before moving on to chelsea and then taking up the england job. his spell in
charge of the national side came to an end after the 1998 world cup when he made
controversial remarks about the disabled in a newspaper interview. the 47-year-old
later returned to management with southampton where he again succeeded jones - as
he has now done at wolves. he engineered an upturn in saints fortunes before being
lured to white hart lane by tottenham - the club where he made his name as a
player. that relationship turned sour at the start of the last campaign and he left
the london club early last season. since then he has applied unsuccessfully for the
post of france manager and had also been linked with a return to southampton.
wolves are currently 17th in the championship and have a home game against millwall
on tuesday.
pavey focuses on indoor success jo pavey will miss january s view from great
edinburgh international cross country to focus on preparing for the european indoor
championships in march. the 31-year-old was third behind hayley yelling and
justyna bak in last week s european cross country championships but she prefers to
race on the track. it was great winning bronze but i m wary of injuries and must
concentrate on the indoor season she said. because of previous injuries i don t
even run up hills in training. pavey who came fifth in the 5 000m at the athens
olympics helped the british cross country team win the team silver medal in
heringsdorf last week. she is likely to start her 3 000m season with a race in
either boston or stuttgart at the end of january.
cairn shares slump on oil setback shares in cairn energy a uk oil firm have
closed down 18% after a disappointing drilling update and a warning over possible
tax demands. the company said tests had shown no significant finds in one of its
indian oil fields but was upbeat about the potential of other areas. it also said
the indian government had told it to pay a production tax for which cairn argues
it is not liable. cairn s shares have jumped by almost 400% this year. investors
had piled into cairn after the company announced significant oil finds in india
this year. chief executive bill gammell said on friday he was disappointed with
exploration in the so-called n-c extension area in rajasthan. investors had held
high hopes of major oil finds in this area. but cairn said estimates had been
revised in what was a significant downgrade of the initial expectation . cairn
also said that the government believed the company was liable to pay taxes under
its production-sharing contract. the company said the rate would be about 900
rupees ($20.40; £10.50) per tonne or seven barrels of oil. a spokesman for the
firm said that the tax would wipe 5% of the field s current value. cairn refutes
the government s position mr gammell said. he insisted that the contract made it
clear that the tax should be shouldered by the licensee - india s state-run oil &
natural gas corp (ongc) - and not the contractor. we have a pretty strong legal
case here he added saying it would only become an issue once the firm started
production. investors took a dim view of the statements though. the shares closed
down 247p or 18% at 1115 pence. i think people were slightly over-ambitious for
how quickly cairn would be able to develop and potentially offload these reserves
said analyst jason kenney at ing. the disappointments overshadowed increased
production targets for cairn s existing oilfields. the company raised targets for
its mangala and aishwariya fields in india from 60 000 barrels a day to between 80
000 and 100 000 barrels a day. its mangala field thought to contain a billion
barrels is its biggest find to date. these two fields will provide the core of
the future developments in rajasthan mr gammell said. cairn added that it would
be appraising another field early next year. mr gammell set up the company in the
1980s and has successfully switched its focus to south asia from interests in the
us and europe. cairn which also operates in nepal and bangladesh was catapulted
into the ftse 100 index of leading uk shares earlier this year after the sharp rise
in its share price.
giggs handed wales leading role ryan giggs will captain wales as he wins his 50th
cap in wednesday s friendly against hungary in cardiff. john toshack in his first
game as coach after succeeding mark hughes admits he is surprised that giggs has
only just reached the landmark. with the games he s played for united
proportionately it doesn t seem that many for wales toshack said. but he s one
of the greatest of all welsh internationals and on his 50th cap it s appropriate he
s captain. giggs admits he had briefly considered retirement from the
international game but is now targetting playing for wales in the 2008 european
championships. the manchester united wing revealed how club manager sir alex
ferguson talked him into extending his wales career. i briefly discussed my
international future with sir alex but he urged me to carry on giggs said. he
feels like myself that i have no weight problems and keep myself fit so in three
or four years time i will be able to play in the european finals if we get there.
the manager has always wanted me to play for my club and country and he was keen
for me to continue because i am fit enough. giggs admits he was wavering and
considering joining the likes of former wales skipper gary speed and united team-
mate paul scholes in committing the remaining years of his career to club football.
but giggs is now focussed on making the toshack era even more successful than the
time hughes spent at the helm. the manchester united winger won his first cap as a
17-year-old in 1991 an away loss to germany and now faces his landmark appearance
at the age of 31. with giggs leading wales out against hungary there is every
chance that he will become the permanent successor to speed. however toshack
refused to reveal whether he sees giggs as a long-term option. for this particular
game i think it is appropriate that ryan giggs will be captain it s his 50th cap
and he s known for some time about that toshack said. on wednesday night toshack
takes charge of his first match since replacing hughes and giggs said: it s my
50th cap and i am looking forward to it and i hope to play a lot more times from
here on in. it s important to be here all the players feel the same. it s a new
start and all the top players certainly see it as important. i see myself leading
by example it is something i have taken on for wales as well as united these past
few seasons. the way john is looking at things he is aiming to build his side
around the experienced lads right up to the next tournament the euro 2006 event.
i have told john i will be around for the next european tournament by then i will
be 35 so hopefully i will still be okay. a lot can happen but i m hoping to be
around. giggs own personal future at old trafford is still up in the air as he
has yet to reach agreement on a new contract with manchester united offering one
extra year and giggs seeking two. i have put the contract thing to the back of my
mind at the moment said giggs. it is an important period for the club and i am
just concentrated on that. i ve heard the suggestions hopefully there is a two-
year deal about to be offered because that is what i am looking for to get it
sorted out. i m enjoying my football the way united have been playing and my own
form you have to enjoy it. we have massive games coming up: manchester city this
week then the everton cup tie followed by ac milan in the champions league and
my first wales game under john toshack so it s an important time.
new york rockers top talent poll new york electro-rock group the bravery have come
top of the bbc news website s sound of 2005 poll to find the music scene s most
promising new act. the bravery who have been compared to the cure and new order
were the most heavily-tipped act in the survey of 110 impartial critics and
broadcasters. rock band keane won sound of 2004 while us rapper 50 cent topped
sound of 2003. other new artists in this year s list include london indie group
bloc party at second and uk rapper kano third. the bravery played their first gig
in 2003 and have since supported bands including the libertines interpol and echo
and the bunnymen. they were the subject of a record company bidding war in 2004
and their debut single unconditional caused a huge buzz when it was released in
the uk in november. singer sam endicott said he felt great about coming top of
the sound of 2005 list. anyone that says they don t want a zillion screaming fans
is a jackass a liar he said. one of the experts to tip the bravery was the times
music critic paul connolly who said they were spiky but in love with pop . chris
hawkins host of bbc 6 music s chart show said the band had great guitars and a
mastery of the electro-clash sound . the bravery are proof alone that new york
city is still home to hot new talent he said. nigel harding head of music at
london rock radio station xfm said every track from their live set sounded like a
potential single . unconditional reached the summit of the station s listeners
chart within a fortnight of its first play which mr harding described as an
unheard of achievement for a debut single . q magazine reviews editor ted kessler
said they were pretty-boy new york clothes horses with an unusually nimble ear
for concise yearning pop in the mould of duran duran or the strokes . other
pundits to take part in the survey included bbc radio 1 dj trevor nelson nme
editor conor mcnicholas top of the pops presenter fearne cotton glastonbury
organiser emily eavis and bbc radio 2 music editor colin martin. elsewhere on the
top 10 second-placed rock band bloc party began their rise after supporting franz
ferdinand and uk garage mc kano in third is signed to the streets record label.
us rapper the game is hip-hop great dr dre s latest protege while leeds group
kaiser chiefs came fifth with a promise to lead a britpop revival. in last year s
survey keane were followed by franz ferdinand razorlight and joss stone in the
top five - all of whom were virtually unknown outside the music industry at that
point. boy band mcfly were sixth while scissor sisters who had the uk s best-
selling album of 2004 were seventh. in the survey the pundits were asked for tips
for three acts they thought were capable of reaching the top in their chosen genre
either in terms of sales or critical acclaim. the artists could be from any country
and any musical genre but must not have had a uk top 20 single been a contestant
on a tv talent show or already be famous for doing something else such as a soap
actor. those tips were then counted and compiled to make the top 10.
sony psp tipped as a must-have sony s playstation portable is the top gadget for
2005 according to a round-up of ultimate gizmos compiled by stuff magazine. it
beats the ipod into second place in the top ten essentials list which predicts what
gadget-lovers are likely to covet this year. owning all 10 gadgets will set the
gadget lover back £7 455. that is £1 000 cheaper than last year s list due to
falling manufacturing costs making gadgets more affordable. portable gadgets
dominate the list including sharp s 902 3g mobile phone the pentax optio sv
digital camera and samsung s yepp yh-999 video jukebox. what this year s
essentials shows is that gadgets are now cheaper sexier and more indispensable
than ever. we ve got to the point where we can t live our lives without certain
technology said adam vaughan editor of stuff essentials. the proliferation of
gadgets in our homes is inexorably altering the role of the high street in our
lives thinks mr vaughan. take digital cameras who would now pay to develop an
entire film of photos or legitimate downloads who would travel miles to a record
shop when they could download the song in minutes for 70p he asks. next year will
see a new set of technologies capturing the imaginations of gadget lovers stuff
predicts. the xbox 2 high-definition tv and mp3 mobiles will be among the list of
must-haves that will dominate 2006 it says. the spring launch of the psp in the uk
is eagerly awaited by gaming fans.
brown outlines third term vision gordon brown has outlined what he thinks should be
the key themes of new labour s next general election bid. he said ensuring every
child in britain had the best start in life could be a legacy to match the nhs s
creation. the chancellor has previously planned the party s election strategy but
this time the role will be filled by alan milburn - a key ally of tony blair. the
premier insisted mr brown will have a key role in labour s campaign and praised
his handling of the economy. writing in the guardian newspaper mr brown outlined
his view of the direction new labour should be taking. as our manifesto and our
programme for the coming decade should make clear labour s ambition is not simply
tackling idleness but delivering full employment; not just attacking ignorance
disease and squalor but promoting lifelong education good health and sustainable
communities. bbc political editor andrew marr said that mr brown s article was a
warning shot to mr blair not to try and cut him out of the manifesto writing
process. it was as always coded and careful... but entirely deliberate was mr
marr s assessment. the prime minister was asked about mr brown s article and about
his election role when he appeared on bbc radio 4 s today programme. mr blair said
a decision had yet to be taken over how the election would be run but the
chancellor s role would be central . mr blair argued that under new labour the
country had changed for the better and that was in part because of mr brown s
management of the economy. and he pledged childcare would be a centrepiece of
labour s manifesto. he also predicted the next general election will be a tough
tough fight for new labour. but the prime minister insisted he did not know what
date the poll would take place despite speculation about 5 may. mr blair said he
was taking nothing for granted ahead of the vote - warning that the tory strategy
was to win power via the back door by hinting they were aiming to cut labour s
majority instead of hoping for an outright win.
arnesen denies rift with santini tottenham sporting director frank arnesen has
denied that coach jacques santini resigned because of a clash of personalities at
white hart lane. there had been newspaper speculation that santini had felt
undermined by arnesen s role at the club. it is absolutely not true arnesen told
bbc radio five live. there is only one thing that made him resign and that is his
own personal problems. he has talked to me recently and said this matter is
absolutely for himself. arnesen said he was unable to throw any light onto the
problems that caused santini to quit after just 13 games in charge. he added:
jacques has never gone into exactly what it was. but i trust him in that; you have
to accept it. i think we should respect it. the plan is now that over the weekend
we will have talks with the board and then on monday we will clarify the situation.
arnesen countered criticism at the timing of the announcement coming less than 24
hours before tottenham s premiership fixture with charlton. when it comes down to
personal problems i don t think we should talk about timing he said. and he also
denied reports that santini had been given a £3m pay-off. that is absolute
nonsense. he is the one who said i will go and so he went said the spurs
sporting director. tottenham s structure of having a sporting director working
alongside a coach is based on a continental model and arnesen sees no reason why
they should change it. i have confidence in this structure. i am confident that
we have started something here in july and i still have a lot of confidence in
tottenham and what we are doing he said. however former spurs and england
defender gary stevens said he would not be surprised if the system had caused a
rift. i think the problems go a lot deeper between the director of football at
white hart lane and santini stevens told five live. on paper they could have
worked together. but frank arnesen was a very creative forward-thinking and
expansive player - whereas i think santini was very much the opposite more a case
of being organised disciplined and happy not conceding goals. that sort of
arrangement can work if the two people have the same principles and ideals and work
very closely. but it seems that has not happened.
thousands join strike in wales thousands of civil servants were on strike across
wales on friday in protest at planned job cuts. a range of services in wales were
affected as civil servants in wales joined the uk-wide strike. the strike called
by the public and commercial services union was the biggest by civil servants in a
decade. the action follows chancellor gordon brown s announcement in july that 104
000 jobs would be cut with around 6 000 of those expected in wales. the worst-
affected area in wales will be the department of work and pensions where 2 000 jobs
are threatened. across wales pickets were held by striking civil servants with
protests in towns and cities including cardiff bangor aberystwyth and wrexham.
gordon brown issued a defiant statement about the strike saying the action would
not affect the government s determination to make savings in order to increase
investment in healthcare education transport and the fight against crime. our
decisions mean more police more teachers more doctors and more nurses he said.
we will provide help with information relocation and retraining to help staff move
into frontline work within the public sector but we will not be diverted from
these necessary changes so that we can make this essential investment. the uk-wide
action hit jobcentres benefit agencies pensions offices and driving test centres.
the strike also affected the welsh assembly building in cardiff bay where only
pass-holders were allowed in. pickets were in place across wales with protests
around the country. pcs union spokesman jeff evans said: in wales the civil
service is major employer there are more civil servants employed in wales
proportionately than in any other part of the country. our protest is about
defending jobs and also local services across the country. parts of objective one
areas and welsh-speaking areas will be particularly affected by these cuts. the
chancellor has said that the cuts will allow funding for more teachers and police.
piers freelove is senior benefit officer on the picket line at companies house in
cardiff. he said: the majority of people have decided not to come in because of
the threat to their jobs. i joined the civil service to provide services as well
as get a decent pension as we thought and pay and it s those services that are
being threatened as well as our jobs. people like pensioners need a face-to-face
service not an impersonal service on the phone which is what they want to impose.
pcsu deputy general secretary hugh lanning who was on the same picket line said:
we re asking for them to negotiate not just to make announcements. there s a
sensible way to do things and at the moment they re not even talking about how to
go about it sensibly. the ballot was for one day s action. no further action is
anticipated without a further ballot of staff. the welsh assembly government said:
this is a strike about national civil service issues. it is not about specific
issues local to wales or the assembly.
microsoft gets the blogging bug software giant microsoft is taking the plunge into
the world of blogging. it is launching a test service to allow people to publish
blogs or online journals called msn spaces. microsoft is trailing behind
competitors like google and aol which already offer services which make it easy
for people to set up web journals. blogs short for web logs have become a popular
way for people to talk about their lives and express opinions online. msn spaces
is free to anyone with a hotmail or msn messenger account. people will be able to
choose a layout for the page upload images and share photo albums and music
playlists. the service will be supported by banner ads. this is a simple tool for
people to express themselves said msn s blake irving. this is microsoft s first
foray into blogging which has taken off as a web phenomenon in the past year.
competitors like google already offer free services through its blogger site while
aol provides its members with journals. accurate figures for the number of blogs in
existence are hard to come by. according to blog analysis firm technorati the so-
called blogosphere has doubled every five and a half months for the last 18
months. it now estimates that the number of blogs in existence has exceeded 4.8
million although some speculate that less than a quarter are regularly maintained.
putin backs state grab for yukos russia s president has defended the purchase of
yukos key production unit by state-owned oil firm rosneft saying it followed free
market principles. vladimir putin said it was quite within the rights of a state-
owned company to ensure its interests were met. rosneft bought 100% of baikal
finance group in a move that amounts to the renationalisation of a major chunk of
russia s booming oil industry. rosneft will now control about 16% of russia s total
crude oil output. yukos share jumped in moscow climbing as much as 50% before
being suspended. rosneft is already in the process of merging with gazprom the
world s biggest gas company a move that will see gazprom return to majority state-
ownership. baikal was the surprise buyer of oil and gas giant yukos s main
production division at a forced auction on sunday. everything was done by market
methods mr putin said at his year-end press conference in moscow. shedding some
light on the kremlin s motivation mr putin referred to a period of so-called
cowboy capitalism that followed the collapse of the soviet union. he said
privatisations carried out in the early 1990s had involved trickery including law
breaking by people seeking to acquire valuable state property. now the state
using market methods is safeguarding its interests. i think this is quite normal
the russian president said. a rosneft spokesman has said the acquisition is part of
its plan to build a balanced national energy corporation. the latest
announcement comes after more than a year of wrangling that has pushed yukos one
of russia s biggest companies to the brink of collapse. the russian government put
yukos s yuganskneftegas subsidiary up for sale last week after hitting the company
with a $27bn (£14bn) bill for back taxes and fines. analysts say that yukos s
legal attempts to block the auction by filing for bankruptcy protection in the us
are probably what caused this week s cloak-and-dagger dealings. gazprom the
company originally tipped to buy yuganskneftegas was banned from taking part in
the auction by a us court injunction. by selling the yukos unit to little-known
baikal and then to rosneft russia is able to circumvent a host of tricky legal
landmines analysts said. you cannot sue the russian government said eric kraus
a strategist at moscow s sovlink securities. the russian government has sovereign
immunity. the government is renationalising yuganskneftegas. even so analysts
reckon that the saga still has a long way to go. the rosneft announcement came just
hours after yukos accused gazprom of illegally taking part in sunday s auction. it
has said it will be seeking damages of $20bn. the claim was made at the latest
hearing in the us bankruptcy court in houston texas where yukos had filed for
chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. if found in contempt of the us court order
blocking the auction gazprom could face having foreign assets seized. yukos
lawyers had also been expected to try to have baikal s assets frozen. lawyers
claimed the auction was illegal because yukos - with an office in houston - had
filed for bankruptcy and therefore its assets were under the protection of us law
which has worldwide jurisdiction. further muddying the waters is a merger between
rosneft and gazprom which authorities have said will go ahead as planned.
g7 backs africa debt relief plan g7 finance ministers have backed plans to write
off up to 100% of the debts of some of the world s poorest countries. uk
chancellor gordon brown said the london meeting of the world s seven richest
nations would be remembered as the 100% debt relief summit . some 37 countries
could benefit after a case-by-case review by bodies including the world bank and
the imf he said. but the us says it cannot support mr brown s international
finance facility to boost aid to developing countries. bbc correspondents said the
meeting had produced some movement towards the uk s ambitions but much work was
needed. mr brown said it was a major breakthrough for the international
organisations to offer up to 100% multilateral debt relief - the vast bulk of
money owed by the poorest countries. we could be at the beginning of the final
stage of the process where the debts that were owed by the poorest countries built
up over 20 or 30 years debts that are simply unpayable in the real world are
finally taken care of he said. he added: it is the richest countries hearing the
voices of the poor. but he said they would insist on government reforms and the
need for transparency tackling corruption and openness from both the poorest and
richest nations. bbc correspondent patrick bartlett said while it was an agreement
in principle the organisations involved now have to look at how it would work in
practice. oxfam senior policy adviser max lawson welcomed the statement and said g7
ministers had passed the first hurdle of 2005 . but he added: they need to move
quickly to turn their proposals into real change for the world s poorest. two
million children will die needlessly between now and the next meeting in april. if
rich countries are going to keep their promises to tackle obscene poverty they need
deliver - and deliver quickly. talks are continuing on how to finance increased
overseas development assistance. the international monetary fund (imf) is to look
at a proposal to use its gold supplies to help the debt relief effort when it meets
in april. mr brown said g7 ministers had agreed to defer debt interest payments and
repayments for some countries affected by the tsunami until the end of 2005. but uk
plans for an international finance facility (iff) to help deal with debt in the
developing world have not been agreed. mr brown wanted to provide $10bn (£5.38bn) a
year over a decade using g7 backing so the money could be borrowed up front on
financial markets. it is a key element of his proposals for a modern version of
the marshall plan which brought us aid to rebuild europe after world war ii for
the developing world. mr brown said it was winning support every day and said a
programme had been agreed to draw up more details in time for the g8 summit in
july. but us treasury under-secretary john taylor said the us could not support the
iff because of its legislative process . the us is completely committed to
poverty reduction and providing financing to do that he said. but this
particular mechanism does not work for the united states. it works for other
countries and that is fine. earlier he told bbc radio 4 s today programme the us
had increased support for africa in the past four years from $1.1bn per year to
$4.6bn per year. but south africa finance minister trevor manuel told the bbc s
talking point programme what was needed was one approach with all wealthy nations
on board. he said much of the money pledged by the us had not yet been dispensed.
the uk has made poverty in the poorest nations a key theme for its 2005 presidency
of the group of eight (g8) which comprises the g7 and russia. the g8 countries
will meet at gleneagles in scotland. at a dinner on friday night former south
african president nelson mandela backed mr brown s plan when he urged the finance
chiefs to write-off african debt and provide an extra $50bn (£26.69bn) a year in
aid for the next decade. talks also centred on the impact of the rising economies
of china and india the us budget and trade deficits how the us europe and japan
can act to boost global economic growth and hiv/aids. g7 ministers called for more
flexibility in international exchange rates and said excess volatility would
impede economic growth. representatives from china india russia south africa and
brazil were invited to attend some of the sessions. a g8 summit is set to take
place in july.
argentina closes $102.6bn debt swap argentina is set to close its $102.6bn
(£53.51bn) debt restructuring offer for bondholders later on friday with the
government hopeful that most creditors will accept the deal. the estimated loss to
bondholders is up to 70% of the original value of the bonds yet the majority are
expected to accept the government s offer. argentina defaulted on its debt three
years ago the biggest sovereign default in modern history. yesterday argentina s
economy minister roberto lavagna said that he estimated that the results of the
restructuring would be ready around next thursday (3 march). argentina s president
nestor kirchner said on friday: a year ago when we started the swap
(negotiations) they told us we were crazy that we were irrational. but he added
that his government was close to achieving: the best debt renegotiation in
history. the country has been in default on the $102.6bn - based on an original
debt of $81.8bn plus interest - for the past three years. if the offer does not go
ahead international lawsuits on behalf of aggrieved investors could follow but
analysts are optimistic that it will go through despite the tough terms for
bondholders. about 70% to 80% of bondholders are expected to accept the terms of
the offer. by 18 february creditors holding $41bn - or 40% of the total debt - had
accepted the offer. sorting out its debt would enhance the country s credibility on
international markets and enable it to attract more foreign investment. of
argentina s bondholders 38.4% reside in argentina 15.6% in italy 10.3% in
switzerland 9.1% in the united states 5.1% in germany and 3.1% in japan.
investors in the uk holland and luxembourg have about 1% each and the remainder
were not broken down by country. the deal is likely to be taken up most
enthusiastically by domestic investors who will benefit if argentina s economy
becomes more stable.
global digital divide narrowing the digital divide between rich and poor
nations is narrowing fast according to a world bank report. the world bank
questioned a united nation s campaign to increase usage and access to technology in
poorer nations. people in the developing world are getting more access at an
incredible rate - far faster than... in the past said the report. but a spokesman
for the un s world summit on the information society said the digital divide
remained very real. the digital divide is rapidly closing the world bank report
said. half the world s population now has access to a fixed-line telephone the
report said and 77% to a mobile network. the report s figures surpass a wsis
campaign goal that calls for 50% access to telephones by 2015. the un hopes that
widening access to technology such as mobile phones and the net will help eradicate
poverty. developing countries are catching up with the rich world in terms of
access [to mobile networks] the report said. africa is part of a worldwide trend
of rapid rollout... this applies to countries rich and poor reformed or not
african asian european and latin american. a spokesman for the world summit for
the information society (wsis) which is meeting this week in geneva told the bbc
news website: the digital divide is very much real and needs to be addressed.
some financing has to be found to help narrow the divide. on tuesday a meeting of
the wsis in geneva agreed to the creation of a digital solitary fund. the fund is
voluntary and will help finance local community-based projects said the wsis
spokesman. under the proposals agreed voluntary contribution of 1% on contracts
obtained by private technology service providers could be made to the digital
solidarity fund. the exact financing mechanism of the fund is to be ironed out in
the coming days said the wsis. sixty percent of resources collected by the fund
will be made available for projects in least developed countries 30% for projects
in developing countries and 10% for projects in developed countries.
axa sun life cuts bonus payments life insurer axa sun life has lowered annual bonus
payouts for up to 50 000 with-profits investors. regular annual bonus rates on
former axa equity & law with-profits policies are to be cut from 2% to 1% for 2004.
axa blamed a poor stock market performance for the cut adding that recent gains
have not yet offset the market falls seen in 2001 and 2002. the cut will hit an
estimated 3% of axa s policyholders. the rest will know their fate in march. the
cuts on axa s policies will mean a policyholder who had invested £50 a month into
an endowment policy for the past 25 years would see a final maturity payout of £46
998. this equated to a annual investment growth rate of 8% axa said. with-profits
policies are designed to smooth out the peaks and troughs of stock market
volatility. however heavy stock market falls throughout 2001 and 2002 forced most
firms to trim bonus rates on their policies. the stock market has grown over the
past 18 months however not enough to undo the damage that occurred during 2001 and
2002 axa spokesman mark hamilton axa spokesman told bbc news. axa cut payouts
for the same investors last january.
kraft cuts snack ads for children kraft plans to cut back on advertising of
products like oreo cookies and sugary kool-aid drinks as part of an effort to
promote healthy eating. the largest us food maker will also add a label to its
more nutritional and low-fat brands to promote the benefits. kraft rival pepsico
began a similar labelling initiative last year. the moves come as the firms face
criticism from consumer groups concerned at rising levels of obesity in us
children. major food manufacturers have recently been reformulating the content of
some calorie-heavy products. kraft s new advertising policy which covers
advertising on tv radio and in print publications is aimed at children between
the ages of six and 11. it means commercials for some of its most famous snacks and
cereals shown during early morning cartoon shows on tv will now be replaced by food
and drink qualifying for kraft s new sensible solution label. but the firm said
it would continue to advertise all its products in media seen by parents and all
family audiences. we re working on ways to encourage both adults and children to
eat wisely by selecting more nutritionally balanced diets said lance friedmann
kraft senior vice president.
greek duo cleared in doping case sprinters kostas kenteris and katerina thanou have
been cleared of doping offences by an independent tribunal. the duo had been
provisionally suspended by the iaaf for allegedly missing three drugs tests
including one on the eve of the athens olympics. but the greek athletics federation
tribunal has overturned the bans - a decision which the iaaf can now contest at the
court of arbitration for sport. the pair s former coach christos tzekos has been
banned for four years. kenteris 31 and thanou 30 had been charged with avoiding
drug tests in tel aviv chicago and athens and failing to notify anti-doping
officials of their whereabouts before the olympics. they withdrew from the olympics
after missing a drugs test at the olympic village on 12 august. the pair then
spent four days in a hospital claiming they had been injured in a motorcycle
crash. it was the international olympic committee s demand that the iaaf
investigate the affair that led to the hearing of the greek tribunal. the head of
that tribunal kostas panagopoulos said it had not been proven that the athletes
refused to take the test in athens. the charge cannot be substantiated he said.
in no way was he (kenteris) informed to appear for a doping test. the same goes for
thanou. kenteris s lawyer gregory ioannidis said: the decision means mr
kenteris has been exonerated of highly damaging and unfounded charges which have
been extremely harmful for his career. he has consistently maintained his
innocence and this was substantiated by further evidence we were able to submit to
the tribunal following its deliberations in january. this evidence shows mr
kenteris was never asked to submit to a test by the international olympic committee
so he could not possibly have been guilty of deliberately avoiding one. it shows he
has no case to answer. mr kenteris should now be given the opportunity he deserves
to rebuild his career in the full knowledge that there is no stain on his
character. he has suffered greatly throughout this ordeal that has exposed both
himself and his family to enormous pressures. but the iaaf said it was very
surprised by the verdict. spokesman nick davies said: we note the decision of the
greek authorities with interest. our doping review board will now consider the
english version of the decision.
kerr frustrated at victory margin republic of ireland manager brian kerr admitted
he was frustrated his side did not score more than one goal in their friendly win
over croatia. robbie keane took his republic record to 24 with a first-half goal
which proved enough for victory. we had more good chances. it is just a shame we
did not take them against such a technically gifted team said kerr. but given
the conditions and the standard of the croatian team we should be very happy with
the win. the republic side kept a clean sheet for the eighth time in 11 matches
and are unbeaten in 14 home games since kerr succeeded mick mccarthy. kerr
applauded the decisive move which earned the victory. it was a brilliant goal
fantastic skill by damien duff. robbie might have scuffed it a little but it was a
good goal. matchwinner keane was another full of praise for duff s role in the
goal. it was great play from damien said the tottenham striker. i always try
to be sniffing around because you know nine times out of 10 duffer is going to get
it in the box. playing three up was something different. brian kerr wanted to try
it out and it was good to see young stephen elliott getting a run-out. the
conditions were difficult but he did well and is definitely one for the future. it
is nice to see young players coming through. man-of-the-match duff explained what
went wrong when he fluffed a chance to make it 2-0 midway through the second half.
he opted to bring steve finnan s cross down and shoot against the bar when a close-
range header looked the best option. i would have headed that every time but i
completely lost it in the lights said the chelsea star. i was desperate to get
on the scoresheet myself but the result is the important thing. we have had a good
year and are going nicely in the qualifiers. hopefully that can continue in 2005.
gallas sees two-horse race chelsea s william gallas believes they will battle it
out with arsenal for the premiership in the coming months. it ll be a two-horse
race all the way to the end of the season because we are both going to give it
everything he told bbc sport. you need to be good and you need a lot of luck.
you need a bit of both but it will be as hard for the arsenal players as it is for
the chelsea boys. we know that we have got the power in our hands just now
added gallas. but you never know what is going to happen in football - two
seasons ago manchester united picked up so many points towards the end of the
season when they won the title. obviously nobody at chelsea wants to come second
but you never know what happens in football. we will be challenging to come first
as much as every arsenal player will be challenging to come first. gallas has been
given extra confidence by the impact manager jose mourinho has had since taking
over as manager during the summer. and the french international defender believes
mourinho is perfectly suited to boss the squad of chelsea stars and says his
managerial expertise will prevent any player revolt. it s only normal when you
have got a team put together of such big names that you put the finishing touch to
it and the finishing touch at chelsea is a fantastic manager like mourinho he
said. he is the icing on the cake at the club. he has this fantastic knack of
thinking of everything. another incredible quality that mourinho has is that every
player even though the fans may consider them to be a stars within the dressing-
room they are absolutely equal. mourinho reminds everyone but he doesn t have to
because he has created a wonderful atmosphere where everybody is playing and
laughing every day. it is a changed dressing-room from the atmosphere there was
last year.
chelsea clinch cup in extra-time (after extra-time - score at 90 mins 1-1) john
arne riise volleyed liverpool ahead after 45 seconds but steven gerrard scored a
79th-minute own goal. blues boss jose mourinho was sent off for taunting liverpool
fans after the goal and he watched on television as his side went on to win the
game. drogba and kezman scored from close range before antonio nunez s header made
for a tense finale. it was an amazing climax which gave mourinho his first
silverware as chelsea manager. yet it was controversial too after mourinho s
sending off apparently for putting his finger to his lips to hush the liverpool
fans. there was no hushing them after the extraordinary opening in which the reds
took a stunning lead inside the first minute. riise could not have connected any
better with morientes cross as he smashed a left-foot volley past petr cech. the
goal the quickest-ever in a league cup final stunned a blues side whose
previously rock-solid confidence had been shaken by consecutive losses to newcastle
and barcelona in the previous week. the blues attacking chances were limited and
jerzy dudek was equal to frank lampard s powerfully-struck drive and drogba s low
shot. despite their frustration chelsea began to dominate midfield without
seriously threatening to break liverpool s well-organised defence. joe cole had a
shot blocked and a promising damien duff break was halted by a good tackle from
djimi traore but the reds reached half-time without any major scares. the blues
began the second half with more urgency and pegged liverpool back. nevertheless
liverpool were living dangerously and they needed a fantastic double save from
dudek on 54 minutes first at full stretch from gudjohnsen s header then to
smother william gallas follow-up. and despite chelsea s possession it was
liverpool who fashioned the next clear opportunity as luis garcia fed dietmar
hamann whose shot forced a superb save from cech. and the blues increasingly
adventurous approach saw liverpool earn another chance on the break on 75 minutes
as paulo ferreira denied gerrard with a last-ditch tackle. but gerrard was on the
scoresheet minutes later - in the most unfortunate fashion - as he inadvertently
deflected ferrerira s free-kick past his own keeper and in off the post to bring
chelsea level. that prompted mourinho s reaction which saw him sent off but
chelsea still pressed and duff had a chance to win the game with seven minutes
remaining. dudek saved bravely at the irishman s feet while milan baros shot
wildly at the other end to ensure extra time. drogba almost headed chelsea in front
two minutes into extra-time but the striker saw the ball rebound off the post. but
seconds after the half-time interval drogba made no mistake picking the ball up
from glen johnson s long throw inside the six-yard box and sidefooting home. and
kezman appeared to have made the game safe as he netted from close range after
gudjohnsen s cross in the 110th minute. there was still drama as nunez beat cech to
a high ball with six minutes remaining to head his side level but despite
liverpool s desperate attacks chelsea clung on to win. dudek finnan carragher
hyypia traore (biscan 67) luis garcia gerrard hamann riise kewell (nunez 56)
morientes (baros 74). subs not used: pellegrino carson. hyypia traore hamann
carragher. riise 1 nunez 113. cech paulo ferreira ricardo carvalho terry
gallas (kezman 74) jarosik (gudjohnsen 45) lampard makelele cole (johnson 81)
drogba duff. subs not used: pidgeley tiago. lampard kezman drogba duff.
gerrard 79 og drogba 107 kezman 112. 78 000 s bennett (kent).
gm in crunch talks on fiat future fiat will meet car giant general motors (gm) on
tuesday in an attempt to reach agreement over the future of the italian firm s
loss-making auto group. fiat claims that gm is legally obliged to buy the 90% of
the car unit it does not already own; gm says the contract signed in 2000 is no
longer valid. press reports have speculated that fiat may be willing to accept a
cash payment in return for dropping its claim. both companies want to cut costs as
the car industry adjusts to waning demand. the meeting between fiat boss sergio
marchionne and gm s rick wagoner is due to take place at 1330 gmt in zurich
according to the reuters news agency. mr marchionne is confident of his firm s
legal position saying in an interview with the financial times that gm s argument
has no legs . the agreement in question dates back to gm s decision to buy 20% of
fiat s auto division in 2000. at the time it gave the italian firm the right via
a put option to sell the remaining stake to gm. in recent weeks fiat has
reiterated its claims that this put is still valid and legally binding. however
gm argues that a fiat share sale made last year which cut gm s holding to 10%
together with asset sales made by fiat have terminated the agreement. selling the
fiat s car-making unit may not prove so simple analysts say especially as it is a
company that is so closely linked to italy s industrial heritage. political and
public pressure may well push the two firms to reach a compromise. we are not
expecting fiat to exercise its put of the auto business against an unwilling gm at
this point brokerage merrill lynch said in a note to investors adding that any
legal battle would be protracted and damaging to the business. as far as we are
aware the agnelli family which indirectly controls at least 30% of fiat has not
given a firm public indication that it wants to sell the auto business. fiat may
be willing to cancel the put in exchange for money.
when invention turns to innovation it is unlikely that future technological
inventions are going to have the same kind of transformative impact that they did
in the past. when history takes a look back at great inventions like the car and
transistor they were defining technologies which ultimately changed people s lives
substantially. but says nick donofrio senior vice-president of technology and
manufacturing at ibm it was not the thing itself that actually improved people s
lives. it was all the social and cultural changes that the discovery or invention
brought with it. the car brought about a crucial change to how people lived in
cities giving them the ability to move out into the suburbs whilst having
mobility and access. when we talk about innovation and creating real value in the
21st century we have to think more like this but faster mr donofrio told the
bbc news website after giving the royal academy of engineering 2004 hinton
lecture. the invention discovery is likely not to have the same value as the
transistor had or the automobile had. the equivalent of those things will be
invented or discovered but by themselves they are just not going to able to
generate real business value or wealth as these things did. these are not
altogether new ideas and academics have been exploring how technologies impact
wider society for years. but what it means for technology companies is that a new
idea method or device will have to have a different kind thinking behind it so
that people see the value that innovative technology has for them. we are in a
different phase now when it comes to technology argues mr donofrio industry week
s 2003 technology leader of the year. the hype and over-promise is over and now
technology leaders have to demonstrate that things work make sense make a
difference and life gets better as a result. in the dotcom era there was
something that was jumping up in your face every five minutes. somebody had a new
thing that would awe you. you weren t quite sure that it did anything you weren t
quite sure if you needed it you weren t quite sure if it had value for it but it
was cool. but change and innovation in technology that people will see affecting
their daily lives he says will come about slowly subtlety and in ways that will
no longer be in your face . it will creep in pervasively. nanotechnologies will
play a key part in this kind of pervasive environment in all sorts of ways through
new superconducting materials to coatings power and memory storage. i am a very
big believer in the evolution of this industry into a pervasive environment in an
incredible network infrastructure says mr donofrio. pervasive computing is where
wireless computing rules and where jewellery clothes and everyday objects become
the interfaces instead of bulky wires screens and keyboards. the net becomes a
true network that is taken for granted and just there like air. people will not
have to do anything to stay connected. people will know their lives are just better
says mr donofrio. trillions of devices will be connected to the net in ways people
will not know. natural interfaces will develop devices will shape your persona
and our technologically underused voices could be telling our jewellery to sort out
the finances. ultimately there will be says mr donofrio no value in being
computer illiterate . to some it sounds like a technological world gone mad. to mr
donofrio it is a vision innovation that will happen. behind this vision should be
a rich robust network capability and deep computing says mr donofrio. deep
computing is the ability to perform lots of complex calculations on massive amounts
of data and integral to this concept is supercomputing. it has value according to
ibm because it helps humans work out extremely complex problems to come up with
valuable solutions like how to refine millions of net search results finding
cures for diseases or understanding of exactly how a gene or protein operates.
but pervasive computing presumably means having technologies that are aware of
diversity of contexts commands and requirements of a diverse world. as computing
and technologies become part of the environment part of furniture walls and
clothing physical space becomes a more important consideration. this is going to
need a much broader range of skills and experience. i am confident that the set
[science engineering and technology] industry is going to be short on skills he
says. if i am right about what innovation is you need to be multidisciplinary and
collaborative. women tend to have those traits a lot better than men. eventually
women could win out in both life and physical sciences he says. in the uk a dti-
funded resource centre for women has set a target to have 40% representation on set
industry boards. ibm according to mr donofrio has 30%. our goal is for our
research team to become the preferred organisation for women in science and
technology to begin their career. the whole issue of global diversity is as much a
business matter as it is a moral and social concern to mr donofrio. we believe in
the whole issue of global diversity he says. our customers are diverse our
clients are diverse. they expect us to look like them. as more and more women or
underrepresented minorities succeed into leadership positions it becomes and
imperative for us to constantly look like them.
dutch watch van gogh s last film the last film to be made by the slain dutch
director theo van gogh called 06/05 has been premiered in the hague. members of
van gogh s family and celebrities attended the screening of 06/05 based on the
murder of the anti-immigration politician pim fortuyn. van gogh was shot and
stabbed to death in amsterdam six weeks ago. a dutch-moroccan man suspected of
radical islamist links has been charged. the killing and fortuyn s death in 2002
convulsed the netherlands. many dutch people have questioned their country s self-
image as a peaceful tolerant nation in the wake of the murders which triggered
heated debate about immigration. an animal rights activist was sentenced to 18
years in prison last year for killing fortuyn. earlier this year van gogh made a
film accusing islam of promoting violence against women. it caused outrage among
muslims and death threats were made against him. the film 06/05 will become
available on the internet on wednesday and go on general release in dutch cinemas
in january. van gogh s movie mixes real images of the day of fortuyn s murder with
a fictional plot about dutch intelligence services conspiring to silence the
politician. the story unfolds through the eyes of a freelance photographer who
unwittingly takes pictures revealing the involvement of dutch authorities in
fortuyn s murder. photographer jim de booy then goes on the run from secret service
agents who burgle his home and threaten his family.
davenport hits out at wimbledon world number one lindsay davenport has criticised
wimbledon over the issue of equal prize money for women. reacting to a disputed
comment by all england club chairman tim phillips the american said: i think it
is highly insulting if prize money is taken away. somebody i think it was mr
phillips said they won t have money for flowers at wimbledon. that s insulting.
an all england club spokesperson denied phillips made the remark insisting: he
definitely didn t say it. the statement added: it was said by someone else and
was a humorous aside at the end of a radio interview when the conversation had
moved to talking about the wimbledon grounds. davenport was speaking following
the announcement that this week s dubai duty free event will join the us and
australian opens in offering equal prize money for women. you hear about women
playing only three sets while men play five said daveport. and the best women
are never going to beat the best men. but it s a different game you go to watch
with the women - it doesn t make it better or worse. hopefully we will be able to
change people s minds. serena williams who is also in dubai added: i m
obviously for equal prize money. women s tennis is exciting. men s tennis is
exciting as well but the women have it right now. if you are bringing in the
spectators you should be able to reap what everyone else is able to reap.
big guns ease through in san jose top-seeded americans andy roddick and andre
agassi survived minor scares to reach the last eight of the sap open. agassi
endured early problems against left-handed dane kenneth carlsen before sealing a 7-
5 6-1 victory. and world number three roddick dropped a set to korean player hyung-
taik lee before pulling out a 6-3 3-6 6-2 win in san jose california. seventh
seed jurgen melzer came through 6-3 6-3 against xavier malisse - winner in delray
beach last week. frenchman cyril saulnier meanwhile fired 19 aces to secure a 6-1
7-6 win over czech qualifier tomas zib. roddick broke a racket in frustration in
the third game of the second set. and afterwards was unimpressed with his form. i
m not playing great he said. but i m through and i m going to keep battling. a
lot of people are under the assumption that it s easy to play well every week and
it s not. it is the 12th time in 13 appearances at the event that agassi now 34
has progressed to the quarter-final stage. he came from 0-40 down in the opening
game to hold serve and gradually wore carlsen down after attacking his backhand.
agassi also employed several lobs and charged to the net to unsettle the 31-year-
old dane ranked 88th in the world. as the match went on i got real patient and
waited for my opportunities and felt pretty good said agassi.
digital guru floats sub-$100 pc nicholas negroponte chairman and founder of mit s
media labs says he is developing a laptop pc that will go on sale for less than
$100 (£53). he told the bbc world service programme go digital he hoped it would
become an education tool in developing countries. he said one laptop per child
could be very important to the development of not just that child but now the
whole family village and neighbourhood . he said the child could use the laptop
like a text book. he described the device as a stripped down laptop which would
run a linux-based operating system we have to get the display down to below $20
to do this we need to rear project the image rather than using an ordinary flat
panel. the second trick is to get rid of the fat if you can skinny it down you
can gain speed and the ability to use smaller processors and slower memory. the
device will probably be exported as a kit of parts to be assembled locally to keep
costs down. mr negroponte said this was a not for profit venture though he
recognised that the manufacturers of the components would be making money. in 1995
mr negroponte published the bestselling being digital now widely seen as
predicting the digital age. the concept is based on experiments in the us state of
maine where children were given laptop computers to take home and do their work
on. while the idea was popular amongst the children it initially received some
resistance from the teachers and there were problems with laptops getting broken.
however mr negroponte has adapted the idea to his own work in cambodia where he
set up two schools together with his wife and gave the children laptops. we put in
25 laptops three years ago only one has been broken the kids cherish these
things it s also a tv a telephone and a games machine not just a textbook. mr
negroponte wants the laptops to become more common than mobile phones but conceded
this was ambitious. nokia make 200 million cell phones a year so for us to claim
we re going to make 200 million laptops is a big number but we re not talking
about doing it in three or five years we re talking about months. he plans to be
distributing them by the end of 2006 and is already in discussion with the chinese
education ministry who are expected to make a large order. in china they spend $17
per child per year on textbooks. that s for five or six years so if we can
distribute and sell laptops in quantities of one million or more to ministries of
education that s cheaper and the marketing overheads go away.
brazil buy boosts belgium s inbev belgian brewing giant inbev has seen its profits
soar thanks to its acquisition of brazil s biggest beer firm ambev last year.
inbev which makes stella artois said pre-tax profits for 2004 rose 56% to 1.16bn
euros ($1.5bn; £800m) and said it expected solid growth in 2005. the performance
comes on sales up 21% at 8.6bn euros. the firm formerly interbrew became the
world s biggest brewer by volume when it bought ambev in august 2004. the
acquisition meant its sales by volume grew 57% in 2004 with four months of ambev
sales accounting for almost all of the increase. us beermaker anheuser-busch sells
less beer by volume than inbev but is bigger in terms of the value of its sales.
continuing demand for inbev s products in the south american markets where its
brazilian arm is most popular means it expects to keep boosting its turnover. it s
the brazil business that s doing it said ing analyst gerard rijk of inbev s
strong performance. ambev boosted its share of brazil s beer market from 62% at the
end of 2003 to more than 68% by december 2004 inbev reported. in contrast inbev s
european business saw volume sales fall 2.5% although central and eastern european
sales rose 12%. overall net profits were up 42% to 719m euros.
net regulation still possible the blurring of boundaries between tv and the
internet raises questions of regulation watchdog ofcom has said. content on tv
and the internet is set to move closer this year as tv-quality video online becomes
a norm. at a debate in westminster the net industry considered the options. lord
currie chairman of super-regulator ofcom told the panel that protecting audiences
would always have to be a primary concern for the watchdog. despite having no remit
for the regulation of net content disquiet has increased among internet service
providers as speeches made by ofcom in recent months hinted that regulation might
be an option. at the debate organised by the internet service providers
association (ispa) lord currie did not rule out the possibility of regulation.
the challenge will arise when boundaries between tv and the internet truly blur and
then there is a balance to be struck between protecting consumers and allowing them
to assess the risks themselves he said. adopting the rules that currently exist
to regulate tv content or self-regulation which is currently the practice of the
net industry will be up for discussion. some studies suggest that as many as
eight million households in the uk could have adopted broadband by the end of 2005
and the technology opens the door to tv content delivered over the net. more and
more internet service providers and media companies are streaming video content on
the web. bt has already set up an entertainment division to create and distribute
content that could come from sources such as bskyb itv and the bbc. head of the
division andrew burke spoke about the possibility of creating content for all
platforms. how risque can i be in this new age with celebrity chefs serving up
more expletives than hot dinners surely i can push it to the limit he said. in
fact he said if content has been requested by consumers and they have gone to
lengths to download it then maybe it should be entirely regulation free. internet
service providers have long claimed no responsibility for the content they carry on
their servers since the law commission dubbed them mere conduits back in 2002.
this defence does not apply if they have actual knowledge of illegal content and
have failed to remove it. the level of responsibility they have has been tested in
several high-profile legal cases. richard ayers portal director at tiscali said
there was little point trying to regulate the internet because it would be
impossible. huge changes are afoot in 2005 he predicted as companies such as the
bbc offer tv content over the net. the bbc s planned interactive media player which
will give surfers the chance to download programmes such as eastenders and top gear
will make net tv mainstream and raise a whole new set of questions he said. one
of these will be about the vast sums of money involved in maintaining the network
to supply such a huge quantity of data and could herald a new digital licence fee
said mr ayers. as inappropriate net content most obviously pornography viewed by
children continues to dominate the headlines internet regulation remains a
political issue said mp richard allan liberal democrat spokesman on it. mr allan
thinks that the answer could lie somewhere between the cries of impossible to
regulate and just apply offline laws online . in fact instead of seeing
regulation brought online the future could bring an end to regulation as we know
it for all tv content. after lord currie departed the panel agreed that this could
be a reality and that for the internet people power is likely to reign. if content
is on-demand consumers have pulled it up rather than had pushed to them then it
is the consumers choice to watch it. there is no watershed on the net said mr
burke.
india to deport bollywood actress india has ordered the deportation of iranian-born
model and actress negar khan to norway after saying she was working illegally on
her visa. khan has had raunchy roles in music videos and bollywood films over the
past two years. the distressed actress told media she was being driven straight to
the airport after a routine appointment at the bombay immigration office.
immigration officials said she had been warned about her visa last year. khan told
an indian news channel on her mobile phone: they are not even letting me go home
to get my bags. i have no clothes or money on me. they did not give me any notice.
i don t know why they are taking me away like this. there is nothing wrong with my
visa. it says i work here... they are not allowing me to even call a lawyer. bipin
bihari deputy police chief in bombay said khan was being sent back to norway
from which she holds a passport on the first available flight. she was on a
visitor s visa but she has engaged in several commercial ventures he said. we
issued notices last year in view of which she had gone back to norway but she has
returned again this year to work. one of khan s biggest successes was the steamy
hindi song chadti jawani (rising youth). khan was involved in controversy when
topless photos alleged to be of her appeared in a norwegian magazine.
labour mp praises tory campaign the conservatives have been a lot smarter in the
way they have conducted the general election campaign a labour backbencher has
said. derek wyatt said having a five month campaign turned off voters and
suggested people were already rather bored of the thing . he wants a greater
campaigning role for chancellor gordon brown. labour said the economy was at the
heart of the campaign and mr brown therefore had a prominent role. but mr wyatt
argued: by some way he is currently the figure in all of the polls that people
trust and see that has delivered over eight years an economy unmatched anywhere in
the world. so it would be a tad foolish of the labour party if we did not use him
as we have done over the past three elections. labour s election chief alan
milburn denied there was an attempt to sideline mr brown after facing criticism for
letting the tories set the agenda. however mr wyatt predicted the campaign would
get under way properly once the chancellor delivered his budget. the mp for
sittingbourne and sheppey said prime minister tony blair had been trying very hard
to improve his own standing with the electorate through a sort of campaign of
trust . but mr blair had been hurt by the iraq controversy he added. a labour
party spokesman played down differences with mr wyatt and said mr brown already had
a prominent campaign role. this election is a choice between labour taking britain
forward and the conservatives taking us back.
ireland 17-12 south africa ronan o gara scored all ireland s points as the home
side claimed only their second ever win over south africa on an emotional day at
lansdowne road. o gara s first-half try poached after a quick tap-penalty helped
the irish to a 8-3 lead at half-time. three further o gara penalties extended
ireland s lead to 17-6 as the game entered the final quarter. two percy montgomery
penalties set up a frantic finish but ireland held out to claim a famous victory.
ireland began strongly and were never led but the match was tense and closely
fought throughout. aware of the threat posed by the south africans ireland pressed
hard from the outset and played some impressive rugby while searching for a
breakthrough. early on denis hickie thought he was in for a try after a delightful
backline move but shane horgan s pass was adjudged to have gone forward by referee
paul honiss. ireland continued to press and they showed their intent by opting for
a line-out in the 19th minute when three straight-forward points were on offer.
another south african infringement a minute later led to ireland s first points - o
gara took a quick tap-penalty and charged over the opposition line for an irish
try. the springboks could feel hard done by as captain john smit had his back to
the play when o gara pounced after referee honiss had told the skipper to warn his
own players after consistent infringements. stung by the score the south africans
almost replied with a try of their own within 60 seconds with geordan murphy s
ankle-tap tackle denying a certain try for percy montgomery. however the
springboks did win a penalty a minute later which montgomery easily slotted to cut
ireland s lead to 5-3. ireland got out of jail when the south africans had a
three-to-one overlap near the irish line only to waste the chance. after the
sustained springboks pressure the irish produced an attack of their own in the
34th minute which culminated with o gara s clever drop-goal to restore his side s
lead to five points which remained the margin at half-time. sustained irish
pressure immediately after half-time was rewarded by another o gara penalty.
however montgomery responded quickly by slotting over a superb penalty from near
the right touchline to cut ireland s lead to five points again. montgomery then
burst through the irish defence in the 48th minute and it took a superb girvan
dempsey tackle to prevent a try. the south africans suffered a double-blow in the
52nd minute when schalk burger was sin-binned for the second week in a row after
killing the ball and o gara punished the transgression by notching another penalty.
in the 61st minute hickie was left frustrated by a poor pass from girvan dempsey
as a chance to seal the match was wasted. however a late tackle on brian o
driscoll enabled o gara to notch another penalty in the 63rd minute which extended
ireland s lead to 17-6. however two montgomery penalties had ireland s lead in
peril again as the springboks closed to within five points with seven minutes
remaining. south africa produced a huge effort in the closing minutes but ireland
held on to claim a deserved victory. g dempsey; g murphy b o driscoll (capt) s
horgan d hickie; r o gara p stringer; r corrigan s byrne j hayes m o kelly p
o connell s easterby j o connor a foley. f sheahan m horan d o callaghan e
miller g easterby d humphreys k maggs. : p montgomery; b paulse m joubert de
wet barry a willemse j van der westhuyzen; f du preez; o du randt j smit
(captain) e andrews b botha v matfield s burger aj venter j van niekerk. : h
shimange cj van der linde g britz d rossouw m claassens j de villiers g du
toit/j fourie. paul honiss (new zealand)
yukos drops banks from court bid russian oil company yukos has dropped the threat
of legal action against five banks it had accused of involvement in the sale of its
key yugansk unit. state-owned rosneft bought the unit for $9.3bn (£5bn) after
yukos was forced to sell assets to meet a $27.5bn tax bill. yukos says the sale was
illegal and is pursuing damages in a us court. its lawyers now accept abn amro bnp
paribas calyon jp morgan chase bank and dresdner kleinwort wasserstein were not
involved in the sale financing. however yukos still has an outstanding complaint
against deutsche bank which it alleges to be the leader of a consortium that was
behind a bid for yugansk by state gas monopoly gazprom. the company has also
accused gazprom the russian federation and two other russian firms. gazprom had
been expected to win the december auction but ended up not bidding. yugansk was
sold to a little-known shell company which in turn was bought by rosneft. yukos
claims its downfall was punishment for the political ambitions of its founder
mikhail khodorkovsky. the firm whose finance chief is now based in the us filed
for bankruptcy in houston texas and sought a court injunction against the sale.
but deutsche bank has suggested yukos artificially manufactured a legal case to
stop the sale of its main asset. a hearing scheduled for february 16 and 17 will
rule on whether the us court has jurisdiction in the case.
no to royal succession shake-up a labour peer has withdrawn proposals to give
female members of the royal family the same rights as males. the legislation would
have ended the right of male heirs with older sisters to succeed to the crown. it
would also have torn up ancient legislation banning heirs to the throne marrying
roman catholics. but the government refused to back lord dubs succession to the
crown bill saying it was too complex and raised too many constitutional issues.
the lord chancellor lord falconer agreed the 1701 act of settlement which
governs the succession was discriminatory but added that for all practical
purposes its effects are limited . the changes proposed by lord dubs were a
complex and controversial undertaking raising major constitutional issues he
said. lord falconer said there were 22 members of the royal family in the line of
succession after the prince of wales - all of who were eligible to succeed and had
been unaffected by the act. it is not a simple matter that can be tinkered with
lightly. while we wish to remove all forms of discrimination... this isn t the
proper form he added. he did not rule out change in the future but said if lord
dubs private member s bill was passed by peers he would urge mps to oppose it in
the commons. lord dubs agreed to withdraw his bill after its second reading in the
house of lords but urged the government to think again at a later stage. we
cannot forever say we don t want to change things because it is too difficult he
told peers. during the debate the labour peer and former minister said: the
monarchy should symbolise the values of this country. what we don t want is a
situation where the values of the country have moved on and the monarchy is
centuries behind the times. we are surely all opposed to discrimination on the
grounds of gender and we are surely also opposed to discrimination against
catholics. but opponents of the bill including tory lord campbell of alloway and
the bishop of winchester the rt rev michael scott-joynt said it would separate
the state from both the church of england and the christian faith. such a secular
state would be markedly less tolerant rt rev scott-joynt argued.
fiat chief takes steering wheel the chief executive of the fiat conglomerate has
taken day-to-day control of its struggling car business in an effort to turn it
around. sergio marchionne has replaced herbert demel as chief executive of fiat
auto with mr demel leaving the company. mr marchionne becomes the fourth head of
the business - which is expected to make a 800m euro ($1bn) loss in 2004 - in as
many years. fiat underperformed the market in europe last year seeing flat sales.
the car business has made an operating loss in five of the last six years and was
forced to push back its break-even target from 2005 to 2006. the management changes
are part of a wider shake-up of the business following fiat s resolution of its
dispute with general motors. as part of a major restructuring fiat is to integrate
the maserati car company - currently owned by ferrari - within its own operations.
ferrari in which fiat owns a majority stake could be separately floated on the
stock market in either 2006 or 2007. mr marchionne who only joined the company
last year said fiat auto was now the principal focus of his attention. i have
made the decision to take on the post of chief executive of the auto unit to speed
up the company s recovery he said. a profound cultural transformation is
underway following a management reorganisation that has delivered a more agile and
efficient structure he added. although mr marchionne does not have a background
in the car industry he has been playing an increasing role in the group s
activities. last year he said that a series of new models launched as part of the
group s recovery plan had not boosted revenues as much as hoped. the car business
best known for its alfa romeo marque is expected to make a loss of about 800m
euros in 2004. sales are expected to fall in 2005 fiat said this week as it exits
unprofitable areas such as the rental car market. mr demel a car industry veteran
took the helm in november 2003 after being recruited by former fiat chief executive
giuseppe morchio. mr morchio made a bid last year to become chairman after the
death of president umberto agnelli. however this was rejected by the founding
agnelli family and mr morchio subsequently resigned. earlier this week fiat
reached an agreement with gm to dissolve an alliance which could have obliged gm to
buy the italian firm outright. gm will pay fiat $2bn as part of the settlement.
bt offers free net phone calls bt is offering customers free internet telephone
calls if they sign up to broadband in december. the christmas give-away entitles
customers to free telephone calls anywhere in the uk via the internet. users will
need to use bt s internet telephony software known as bt communicator and have a
microphone and speakers or headset on their pc. bt has launched the promotion to
show off the potential of a broadband connection to customers. people wanting to
take advantage of the offer will need to be a bt together fixed-line customer and
will have to sign up to broadband online. the offer will be limited to the first 50
000 people who sign up and there are limitations - the free calls do not include
calls to mobiles non-geographical numbers such as 0870 premium numbers or
international numbers. bt is keen to provide extra services to its broadband
customers. people already using bt communicator have found it by far the most
convenient way of making a call if they are at their pc said andrew burke
director of value-added services at bt retail. as more homes get high-speed access
providers are increasingly offering add-ons such as cheap net calls. broadband and
telephony are attractive to customers and bt wants to make sure it is in the first
wave of services said ian fogg an analyst with jupiter research. bt
communicator had a quiet launch in the summer and now bt is waving the flag a bit
more for it he added. bt has struggled to maintain its market share of broadband
subscribers as more competitors enter the market. reports say that bt has lost
around 10% of market share over the last year down from half of broadband users to
less than 40%. bt is hoping its latest offer can persuade more people to jump on
the broadband bandwagon. it currently has 1.3 million broadband subscribers.
mobiles double up as bus tickets mobiles could soon double up as travel cards with
nokia planning to try out a wireless ticket system on german buses. early next
year travellers in the city of hanau near frankfurt will be able to pay for
tickets by passing their phone over a smart-card reader already installed on the
buses. passengers will need to own a nokia 3220 handset which will have a special
shell attached to it. the system would reduce queues and make travelling easier
said nokia. transport systems around the world are seeing the advantage of using
ticketless smartcards. using a mobile phone is the next step said gerhard romen
head of market development at nokia. the ticketless trial will start early in 2005
and people will also be able to access transport information and timetables via
their phones. nokia has worked with electronics giant philips to develop a shell
for the mobile phone that will be compatible with hanau s existing ticketing
system. the system opens up possibilities for mobile devices to be interact with
everyday environments said mr romen. it could be used in shops to get product
information at bus-stops to get information about the next bus or for example by
being passed over an advert of a rock star to find out details of concerts or get
ringtones he told the bbc news website. he is confident that the trial being run
in germany could be extended to transport systems in other countries. the
technology offers access to a lot of services and makes it easy to get the
information you want he said.
tory leader cleared over work scottish conservative party leader david mcletchie
claims he has been cleared over a potential conflict of interest. the edinburgh
msp earns up to £30 000 a year from the law firm tods murray where he is a
partner. mr mcletchie said he has taken advice from holyrood officials about what
details he needs to declare. he was advised to exercise judgement to avoid the
perception of a conflict and said he had done nothing wrong. as an msp mr
mcletchie signed a parliamentary motion questioning expansion plans for edinburgh
airport. it then emerged tods murray has a client which opposes the development.
mr mcletchie then sought guidance from the standards committee to clarify his
position. bbc scotland s political correspondent glenn campbell said no complaint
had been made against mr mcletchie but questions were raised about his dual role.
glenn said msps are advised to guard against a conflict of interests and a
perception of a conflict. mr mcletchie said: i m quite clear that no conflicts of
interest arise in my case that the judgement i took has effectively been
vindicated when you look at the advice that has been given to me and that these
allegations are unfounded. he said nothing had changed in respect of his work with
the law firm and it was a matter he would have to discuss with the other partners
at tods murray. the firm and i have a very good working relationship and we have
done for the last six years said mr mcletchie. i don t suppose i ll be working
forever as a lawyer or a politician. i deserve to retire from both but i m not
willing to put time limits on them.
disney backs sony dvd technology a next generation dvd technology backed by sony
has received a major boost. film giant disney says it will produce its future dvds
using sony s blu-ray disc technology but has not ruled out a rival format
developed by toshiba. the two competing dvd formats blu-ray developed by sony and
others and toshiba s hd-dvd have been courting top film studios for several
months. the next generation of dvds promises very high quality pictures and sound
as well as a lot of data. both technologies use a blue laser to write information.
it has a shorter wavelength so more data can be stored. disney is the latest studio
to announce which technology it is backing in a format battle which mirrors the
1980s betamax versus vhs war. sony lost out to jvc in that fight. the current
battle for hollywood s hearts and minds is a crucial one because high-definition
films will bring in billions of revenue and the studios would prefer to use one
standard. last month paramount universal and warner brothers said they were
opting for the toshiba and nec-backed format hd-dvd high-definition discs. those
studios currently produce about 45% of dvd content. sony pictures entertainment and
mgm studios have already staked their allegiance with the blu-ray disc association
whose members also include technology companies dell samsung and matsushita.
twentieth century fox is still to announce which technology it will be supporting.
if fox decided to go with blu-ray too it would mean the format would have a 47%
share of dvd content. disney said its films would be available on the blu-ray
format when dvd players for the standard went on sale on north america and japan
expected in 2006. universal is to start producing films on the hd-dvd format in
2005 and paramount will start releasing titles using the standard in 2006. toshiba
expects sales of hd-dvds to reach 300bn yen ($2.9bn £1.5bn) by 2010.
air jamaica back in state control the jamaican government is regaining control of
air jamaica in an bid to help the ailing company out of its financial difficulties.
the firm has failed to make money since the state sold a majority stake to hotel
tycoon gordon stewart in 1994. in common with many carriers air jamaica with
debts of $560m (£291m) has been hit by high fuel costs and the impact of the 11
september attacks. the company will be restructured with the aim of finding a new
buyer. the administration is committed to a viable national airline that will
serve as a major catalyst for our economy said finance minister omar davies. the
35-year-old airline transports about 55% of all passengers to the island and its
pilots are reportedly among the best paid in the industry with senior members of
staff earning in excess of $234 000 a year.
mourinho defiant on chelsea form chelsea boss jose mourinho has insisted that sir
alex ferguson and arsene wenger would swap places with him. mourinho s side were
knocked out of the fa cup by newcastle last sunday before seeing barcelona secure a
2-1 champions league first-leg lead in the nou camp. but he denied his club was
suffering a dip in form which league rivals arsenal and manchester united could
exploit. they cannot speak to us about blips because they re not in a better
position than us mourinho said. do they want to change positions with us we are
top of the league by nine points and in the carling cup final. the only thing they
can say they are in a better position than us in is the fa cup. in the champions
league all three teams can either go through or go out but the one team that is in
the best position is still chelsea. mourinho said it was important to keep his
team s results in perspective. don t try to put pressure on me because i am never
under pressure he warned. we have lost one important game this week - at
newcastle - and we re out of the fa cup but i don t think a defeat in a first-leg
tie is a real defeat. we are just 2-1 down at half-time. asked if his chelsea
honeymoon was now over mourinho replied: i have had 20 years of honeymoons with
my wife. the day that this club is not happy with me is the day that i go.
bank payout to pinochet victims a us bank has said it will donate more than $8m to
victims of former chilean military ruler augusto pinochet s regime under a madrid
court settlement. riggs bank will put money in a special fund to be managed by a
madrid-based charity the salvador allende foundation which helps abused victims.
the bank had been accused of illegally concealing gen pinochet s assets. more than
3 000 people were killed for political reasons under gen pinochet s regime an
official report says. last month in a us court riggs bank pleaded guilty to
failing to report suspicious activity relating to accounts held by gen pinochet and
the government of equatorial guinea. on that occasion it was ordered to pay a fine
of $16m. gen pinochet himself has never been put on trial for human rights
violations under his 1973-90 rule despite several high-profile cases against him.
he is now facing charges relating to the murder of one chilean and the
disappearance of nine others. he is also being investigated for tax evasion tax
fraud and embezzlement of state funds. the general s opponents rejoiced at the
settlement which was agreed in a court in the spanish capital madrid. a lawyer
for the victims eduardo contreras told reuters news agency: this demonstrates
that the horrors of the pinochet dictatorship are not a mystery to anyone and that
the whole world knows his victims deserve reparations. riggs spokesman mark
hendrix said the settlement details of which will be announced next week was an
opportunity to move on. this enables the institution to put the matter behind us
he told reuters. the settlement follows a legal complaint filed against the bank by
spanish judge baltasar garzon alleging that it had illegally concealed assets. the
bank agreed to create a fund for the victims but the charges were dropped.
us charity anthem is re-released we are the world the american charity anthem
inspired by the success of band aid has been re-issued to raise money for aids
research and tsunami victims. more than 40 stars sang as group usa for africa
including lionel richie diana ross ray charles bob dylan michael jackson and
bruce springsteen. it topped the charts in the us and uk raising millions of
dollars for african famine relief. the re-release also marks the 20th anniversary
of the original recording. it has been re-issued as part of a two-disc dvd set
which will also feature footage from the recording session of the track in january
1985. the single was originally released in the us on 7 march 1985 and sold 800 000
copies in its first week. it went on to win grammys for song of the year and record
of the year.
newcastle line up babayaro newcastle manager graeme souness is closing in on
signing chelsea defender celestine babayaro when the transfer window reopens.
souness is bidding to bolster his defence and according to reports contract
negotiations are at an advanced stage with the player. babayaro has been in the
premiership since 1997 when he moved to chelsea for £2.25m from anderlecht. but the
26-year-old has been surplus to requirements this season. souness would not be
drawn on specifics over individual players. but he said: all i can tell you is
that the chairman has worked really hard in the last couple of months to try to do
deals. we have said from day one we want to strengthen and that is what we are
hoping to do in the coming weeks.
labour s core support takes stock tony blair has told labour supporters he s back
and still hungry for the job of prime minister - but does that sum up the mood at
the party s spring conference in gateshead the electorate are keener on the
government than some labour party members is the dry assessment of graham lane
leader of the labour group on newham council. the problem according to mr lane is
not continuing divisions over iraq foundation hospitals or tuition fees or even
voter apathy but mr blair himself. i have a new slogan. vote blair get brown.
that s what i am telling people on the doorstep. don t worry he will be gone soon.
his friend saxon spence leader of devon county labour group lays the blame for
any lack of campaigning zeal on one issue above all others. you cannot
underestimate the impact of the war in iraq. we lost people from our local party
who had some key roles. but the two friends were fired up by gordon brown s
speech on saturday with its appeal to core labour values on social justice health
and education. there was real passion. i think we have all felt a little jaded
but it reminded us why we joined the party in the first place said mrs spence.
if he hadn t have walked off the stage they would still be clapping added mr
lane. but for every brownite at the spring conference there was an equally ardent
fan of mr blair. stephen douglas 26 from wales said after the pm s speech on
sunday: i think it was a bit of a turning point given the roasting he has had on
some issues. the guy still has it. tony martin of burnley said: he is the
first leader who has won us two terms. this bloke has delivered for us. malcolm
shipley of shipley said it was as if he is coming round to the right approach
again . katrina bull a prospective parliamentary candidate said mr blair had shown
he could rouse the party s grassroots: i think if every voter was able to spend
time in a room with tony the way we have today we will have no problem with
turnout. she had just emerged from a q&a session in which mr blair - tieless and
supremely at ease - answered questions posed via the party s website. a party of
councillors from nottingham agreed that there was nothing wrong with mr blair s
leadership - and they were adamant that the campaigning strength of the party in
their city was as strong as ever. iraq they insisted would not be a factor for
most voters. the biggest problem we have got at the moment is that we keep getting
all these polls saying we are going to run away with the election. it might sound
great but it does create this sense of complacency among our own voters and i
think that is the greater problem than iraq said nottingham city councillor brian
parbutt. and even mr blair s most vocal critics seemed to agree on one thing - he
is a master of the sort of glossy high-profile campaigning that has become labour
s hallmark epitomised by friday s whistle-stop tour of marginal seats. a group of
shop stewards from the swan hunter shipyard who said they were facing redundancy
could barely suppress their anger at mr blair s failure to as they saw it shake
off his tory leanings and stand up for manufacturing in the north east. they were
also scathing about the alleged benefits of showpiece projects such as conference
venue sage centre heralded by john prescott and others this weekend as a symbol of
labour s success in urban regeneration. it is no good having the sage or baltic
if you haven t got the money for the entrance fee said terry telford. but when
asked about mr blair s bravura performance on friday the men agreed he was
brilliant . and they would all be out on the doorstep pushing the labour message
come election time. if you are not fired up about the election then what s the
point there is no complacency as far as i can see in the labour party. we are
fired up. we are up for this election said richie porterhouse. mr telford agreed
but added it was becoming increasingly difficult to think of an answer when people
asked what has labour done for the north east i have had doors slammed in my
face he said. every activist i spoke to said they were proud of what they
believed labour had achieved in their local communities - the new hospitals and
schools the better life chances for young people. the problem they faced they
said was converting this local feelgood factor into votes. but they could at least
rely on one secret weapon as one activist put it - tory leader michael howard.
rapper films music video in jail a us rapper awaiting trial for murder has filmed
part of a music video in jail angering a sheriff who says he was tricked into
letting tv crews in. c-murder a former member of rap group tru was filmed in his
orange prison suit for the video for his y all heard of me single in a new orleans
jail. he is awaiting a second trial after an original conviction was thrown out. i
m not pleased jefferson parish sheriff harry lee said. he will not make another
video in my jail. footage for the video was filmed by two crews who had permission
to interview c-murder - one from court tv and one from a local cable show. but mr
lee said he did not know the rapper had filmed the video and made an album behind
bars and said he was fooled into letting the cameras in. the rapper s lawyer ron
rakosky said: the bottom line is we didn t do anything wrong. mr rakosky said it
was better than c-murder real name corey miller just sitting there wasting away
. here s a guy in jail making constructive use of his time instead of withering
away he said. he s lost more than three years of his life locked up for a crime
he did not commit. but local group victims and citizens against crime said he
should not be working behind bars. he is a suspect in a murder case. i don t think
he should be allowed these privileges especially earning money until his name is
totally cleared the group s president beverly siemssen said. in 2003 c-murder
was found guilty of killing a 16-year-old in a nightclub but that decision was
thrown out last april. he is now facing a second trial on a charge of second-degree
murder. with two brothers in the group tru he had two us top 10 albums in the late
1990s before going solo when he scored another three top 10 albums.
england s defensive crisis grows england s defensive worries have deepened
following the withdrawal of tottenham s ledley king from the squad to face holland.
chelsea s john terry and wayne bridge are also out leaving coach sven-goran
eriksson with a real problem for wednesday s match at villa park. injured rio
ferdinand and sol campbell were both left out of the squad and matthew upson has
already pulled out. wes brown and jamie carragher are likely to be the makeshift
partnership. terry the captain of chelsea as they push for the premiership title
would have been a certain starter in the absence of campbell and ferdinand. but now
he has pulled out with a bruised knee and is likely to be replaced by carragher
alongside brown. manchester united s brown last played for england in the defeat
by australia at upton park in february 2003. the 25-year-old was only called into
the squad on sunday night as cover following the enforced withdrawal of upson who
has a hamstring injury. and brown now looks certain to add to his tally of seven
senior appearances for england. king was forced to pull out after his groin injury
was assessed by england s medical staff. eriksson has still not decided whether to
call up any further back-up having already summoned phil neville after bridge
pulled out with a foot injury.
campbell to extend sprint career darren campbell has set his sights on running
quicker than ever after deciding not to retire from sprinting. campbell who won
olympic 4x100m relay gold had been unsure about his future. but he told five live
s sportsweek: i had to get back into training before i could decide because if i
didn t have the same hunger i d have to walk away. i ve started back and i m
thoroughly enjoying it. i m looking forward to it. i ve got to run under 10 seconds
(for 100m) and under 20 seconds (for 200m). campbell was part of the british
quartet who shocked the americans to win relay gold in athens in august. the
newport-based athlete and team-mates jason gardener marlon devonish and mark
lewis-francis were rewarded with mbes in the new year honours list. campbell s
relay triumph made up for his disappointing displays in the individual 100m and
200m events in athens when he failed to reach the finals. the 31-year-old who won
olympic 200m silver in sydney in 2000 said during the games that a hamstring
injury had stopped him from running at his best. he was criticised at the time by
former olympic champion michael johnson who cast doubt on campbell s injury
claims. to go to athens and finally get the gold i ve been trying to get for 24
years was a big relief said campbell. it was a chance for me to prove that if i
d been fit i would have been challenging for the (individual) medals. every season
i go and challenge for the medals so why would last season have been any different
it s just unfortunate that i picked up that injury just before the olympics.
campbell set his 100m personal best of 10.04secs when he won the european title in
budapest in 1998. and he ran 20.13secs in the quarter-finals of the 200m in sydney
on the way to olympic silver.
scots smoking ban details set out smoke-free areas will save lives and improve
scotland s health first minister jack mcconnell has insisted. he told the
scottish parliament on wednesday that a comprehensive ban on smoking in public
places would be introduced by the spring of 2006. mr mcconnell said the country s
health rates were lamentable not least because of smoking. he said fines of up to
£2 500 would be levied on employers and licences would be removed for non-
compliance. earlier the scottish executive considered a range of options but
agreed unanimously to introduce an all-out ban on smoking in public places. in a
statement to parliament mr mcconnell said that the licensed trade would be asked
to join an expert committee prior to the ban coming into force. the health
arguments far outweighed lingering public disquiet about a complete ban and claims
by the licensed trade that jobs would be lost he told msps. he said there would be
an international marketing campaign whereby tourists can enjoy smoke free
environment and the sick man of europe image becomes a thing of the past . there
are still national habits which hold us back - the time has come for this
parliament to accelerate improvements in health he declared. health rates are
lamentable because of a lack of exercise drugs abuse excessive drinking and over-
eating. they all make us one of the most unhealthy countries in europe and too
many smoke. it is clear that scotland must not be held back by poor public health
- the single biggest contribution devolved government can make is to reduce the
toll of preventable death caused by smoking. the legislation will be introduced as
part of the health service (miscellaneous provisions) bill which will be
considered by parliament before christmas. main points of the plan: - a
comprehensive ban on smoking in all enclosed public places in scotland - the
legislation will be enforced by environmental health and local licensing officers
- licensees or employers who fail to enforce the law will face fines up to a
maximum of £2 500 - licensees who persistently refuse to comply with the law will
face the ultimate sanction of losing their liquor licence - a system of issuing
fixed penalty notices for those individuals who break the law will be examined -
individuals who persistently break the law will face a maximum fine of £1 000.
mr mcconnell claimed there was evidence that smoking bans had helped smokers to
either give up quicker or smoke less. he said there had been falling cigarette
sales of 13% in new york and 16% in ireland. mr mcconnell added that there had been
a near nine per cent rise in tax revenues from new york bars and restaurants and
in ireland only a one point three per cent volume sales fall where they were
declining before the ban. the afternoon announcement following a cabinet meeting
on wednesday morning won broad support from opposition parties. the scottish
national party s holyrood leader nicola sturgeon welcomed the move but added that
the public should be consulted as the clock ticked towards the ban date. she said:
the time has come for a ban on smoking in public places. there is evidence a ban
can cut deaths from passive smoking and makes it easier for the 70% of smokers who
desperately want to give up the habit. but we must also recognise that some people
have concerns and reservations - there are people who are yet to be persuaded. the
scottish conservative party leader david mcletchie questioned what would be
exempted from the ban. he was keen to know if inmates in scottish prisons would
continue to be allowed to smoke. mr mcletchie asked: would it not be ironic and
perhaps entirely typical of the first minister s brave new scotland that the
criminals can be smokers but the smokers will become criminals the scottish green
party s health spokeswoman eleanor scott said she was pleased scotland would be
following the success stories of new york and ireland . she believed the majority
of people in scotland wanted to go out without having to breathe in harmful tobacco
smoke.
pc ownership to double by 2010 the number of personal computers worldwide is
expected to double by 2010 to 1.3 billion machines according to a report by
analysts forrester research. the growth will be driven by emerging markets such as
china russia and india the report predicted. more than a third of all new pcs
will be in these markets with china adding 178 million new pcs by 2010 it said.
low-priced computers made by local companies are expected to dominate in such
territories forrester said. the report comes less than a week after ibm a pioneer
of the pc business sold its pc hardware division to china s number one computer
maker lenovo. the $1.75bn (£900m) deal will make the combined operation the third
biggest pc vendor in the world. today s products from western pc vendors won t
dominate in those markets in the long term simon yates a senior analyst for
forrester said. instead local pc makers like lenovo group in china and aquarius
in russia that can better tailor the pc form factor price point and applications
to their local markets will ultimately win the market share battle he said. there
are currently 575 million pcs in use globally. the united states europe and asia-
pacific are expected to add 150 million new pcs by 2010 according to the study.
the report forecast that there will be 80 million new pc users in india by 2010 and
40 million new users in indonesia.
itunes now selling band aid song ipod owners can now download the band aid single
from itunes after apple reached agreement with the charity. apple had been
unwilling to raise the cost of the single in line with other download services
said band aid. but the single is now on sale for 79p - the usual cost of a song
from itunes - with apple donating a further 70p to the charity for each song
downloaded. a copy of the original 1984 song is also available for download at 79p
- with all proceeds going to the charity. more than 72 000 copies of the new band
aid single were sold on its first day of release on monday according to sales
figures. the track has become the fastest-selling single of the year so far
shifting more copies than the rest of the top 30 combined hmv claimed. dido
robbie williams and chris martin are among those featured on the new version of do
they know it s christmas which is raising money to fight hunger in africa. if the
track sold 500 000 copies more than £1m would be raised for charity. the cd is
being sold for £3.99 with hmv virgin and woolworths all donating their profits.
santy worm makes unwelcome visit thousands of website bulletin boards have been
defaced by a virus that used google to spread across the net. the santy worm first
appeared on 20 december and within 24 hours had successfully hit more than 40 000
websites. the malicious program exploits a vulnerability in the widely used phpbb
software. santy s spread has now been stopped after google began blocking infected
sites searching for new victims. the worm replaces chat forums with a webpage
announcing that the site had been defaced by the malicious program. soon after
being infected sites hit by the worm started randomly searching for other websites
running the vulnerable phpbb software. once google started blocking these search
queries the rate of infection tailed off sharply. a message sent to finnish
security firm f-secure by google s security team said: while a seven hour response
for something like this is not outrageous we think we can and should do better.
we will be reviewing our procedures to improve our response time in the future to
similar problems the google team said. security firms estimate that about 1m
websites run their discussion groups and forums with the open source phpbb program.
the worst of the attack now seems to be over as a search conducted on the morning
of the 22 december produced only 1 440 hits for sites showing the text used in the
defacement message. people using the sites hit by santy will not be affected by the
worm. santy is not the first malicious program to use google to help it spread. in
july a variant of the mydoom virus slowed down searches on google as the program
flooded the search site with queries looking for new e-mail addresses to send
itself to.
radcliffe eyes hard line on drugs paula radcliffe has called for all athletes found
guilty on drugs charges to be treated as criminals. the marathon world record
holder believes more needs to be done to rid athletics of the suspicions and
innuendoes which greet any fast time. doping in sport is a criminal offence and
should be treated as such the 30-year-old told the sunday times. it not only
cheats other athletes but also cheats promoters sponsors and the general public.
radcliffe s comments come at a time when several american sports stars are under
suspicion of steroid use. being caught in possession of a performance-enhancing
drugs should carry a penalty she added. the current system does not detect many
of the substances being abused by athletes. this means that often athletes do not
know if they are competing on a level playing field if their hard work and
sacrifice is being trumped by an easier scientific route. often when an athlete
puts in a good performance they are subjected to suspicions and innuendoes instead
of praise. having been on the receiving end of accusations like this i can testify
as to how much this hurts.
more to do on adult literacy the government will only hit its target for improving
adult maths and literacy skills if courses are made more attractive a report says.
the national audit office praised ministers for reaching the benchmark of 750 000
adults in england gaining basic qualifications by this year. but a target of 1.5
million more by 2010 needed creative ideas. some 26 million adults lack maths or
english skill levels expected of school-leavers. according to the report more
than half the qualifications achieved were by learners aged 16 to 18. these are
defined as adults by the government for the purpose of compiling these figures.
normally adults are defined as being aged over 19. the number of these people
gaining qualifications was rising slowly . auditor general sir john bourn said:
higher levels of literacy and numeracy will benefit england both socially and
economically. more people will have the opportunity to live richer lives. in 2001
the government launched the get on scheme - aimed at reducing illiteracy and
innumeracy. sir john said substantial progress had been made since adding that
this was only the beginning . the government and its partners would need to be
creative and responsive . some £3.7bn will be spent on implementing the programme
by 2006. the report recommends gathering more details on the educational needs of
areas so courses can be set to meet local demand. existing adult learners could
use their enthusiasm commitment and local knowledge to attract other people. the
department for education and skills could also use more personalised learning and
work with voluntary groups councils and employers. it should also assess adult
learners progress at frequent intervals the report adds. when the government
announced it had reached its 2004 target earlier this month prime minister tony
blair said it was only the start of the journey . an estimated 5.2 million adults
have worse literacy than that expected of 11 year olds while 14.9 million have
numeracy skills below this level. this is thought to cost the uk economy hundreds
of millions of pounds each year. the qualifications achieved by those taking part
in the government s scheme range up to gcse equivalents. get on s participation
target has been set at 2.25 million by 2010 with an interim figure of 1.5 million
by 2007. education minister ivan lewis said: we will continue to use creative ways
of involving people with the lowest skill levels and the report shows that our
efforts are gathering pace. shadow education secretary tim collins said: this is
the third report in two days to highlight labour s failure to ensure young people
acquire the necessary levels of literacy and numeracy for their working life.
employers and business leaders have repeatedly voiced concern over the number of
school-leavers without these basic skills but all the government have offered is
more talk. liberal democrat education spokesman phil willis added: far too little
has been done to enable adult learners to fit learning into their busy lives.
bank holds interest rate at 4.75% the bank of england has left interest rates on
hold again at 4.75% in a widely-predicted move. rates went up five times from
november 2003 - as the bank sought to cool the housing market and consumer debt -
but have remained unchanged since august. recent data has indicated a slowdown in
manufacturing and consumer spending as well as in mortgage approvals. and retail
sales disappointed over christmas with analysts putting the drop down to less
consumer confidence. rising interest rates and the accompanying slowdown in the
housing market have knocked consumers optimism causing a sharp fall in demand for
expensive goods according to a report earlier this week from the british retail
consortium. the brc said britain s retailers had endured their worst christmas in a
decade. today s no change decision is correct said david frost director
general of the british chambers of commerce (bcc). but if there are clear signs
that the economy slows the mpc should be ready to take quick corrective action and
cut rates. dismal reports from the retail trade about christmas sales are worrying
if they indicate a more general weakening in consumer spending. mr frost added:
the housing market outlook remains highly uncertain. it is widely accepted that
if house prices start falling more sharply the risks facing the economy will
worsen considerably. cbi chief economist ian mccafferty said the economy had
slowed in recent months in response to rate rises but that it was difficult to
gauge from the christmas period the likely pace of activity through the summer.
the bank is having to juggle the emergence of inflationary pressures driven by a
tight labour market and buoyant commodity prices against the risk of an over-
abrupt slowdown in consumer activity he said. interest rates are likely to
remain on hold for some time. on thursday there was more gloomy news on the
manufacturing front as the office for national (ons) statistics revealed british
manufacturing output unexpectedly fell in november - for the fifth month in the
past six. the ons said manufacturing output dropped 0.1% in november matching a
similar unrevised fall in october and confounding economists expectations of a
0.3% rise. manufacturers organisation the eef said it expected the hold in
interest rates to continue in the near future. it also said there was evidence that
manufacturers confidence may be waning as the outlook for the world economy
becomes more uncertain. so far the evidence suggests that last year s rate
increases have helped to rebalance the economy without damaging the recovery in
manufacturing said eef chief economist steve radley. however should the
business outlook start to deteriorate the bank should stand ready to cut rates.
some economists have predicted rates will drop later in the year although others
feel the bank may still think there is a need for a rise to 5% before that happens.
the bank remains concerned about the long-term risks posed by personal debt - which
is rising at 15% a year - if economic conditions worsen.
mumbai bombs movie postponed the release of a film about the mumbai (bombay) blasts
in 1993 has been postponed following protests by those on trial for the bombings.
investigating the blasts which killed more than 250 people and wounded 1 000 the
film black friday had been due to open across india on friday. but 36 people
accused in connection with the blasts said it should not be screened until the
trial is over. mumbai high court postponed the film s launch until 3 february.
black friday is based upon the novel of the same name written by journalist s
hussain zaidi which looks at the 15 explosions which rocked mumbai on 12 march
1993. director anurag kashyap said the film s release should not be delayed as the
book has already been on sale for two years. if you have not gone against the book
then how can you go against the movie mr kashyap s lawyer mihir desai said. this
is the second time that those accused in connection with the blasts have sought
legal intervention regarding the film. they previously asked that a line from the
movie s poster which claimed the film portrayed the true story of the bombay bomb
blasts be removed. their lawyer majeed memon said: we had argued that how can
a film say it is telling the true story when the court itself is struggling to find
the truth so we said they should remove the line from their promotional posters
and they did give us an assurance that they would do so. the mumbai bombings case
is one of india s longest-running trials. a special court was set up to hear the
case and regular hearings have taken place there for the last nine years with more
than six hundred witnesses questioned.
act on detention ruling uk urged the government must act quickly on the law lords
ruling that detention of foreign terror suspects without trial is unlawful mary
robinson has said. the former un commissioner for human rights and irish president
told radio 4 s today the government s response would be scrutinised
internationally. it would be very troubling if the government did not accept the
judgement and then work within it she said. home secretary charles clarke has
said detainees will not be freed at present. speaking to parliament on his first
day in office as home secretary following david blunkett s resignation mr clarke
said: i will be asking parliament to renew this legislation in the new year. in
the meantime we will be studying the judgement carefully to see whether it is
possible to modify our legislation to address the concerns raised by the house of
lords. mrs robinson said the law lords ruling was in line with international
legal opinion and praised their very decisive eight to one majority. what the
law lords did was acknowledge the role of the government but say that there had
been a disproportionate use that it amounted to executive detention and it was
discriminatory because it didn t apply to british citizens she said. mrs
robinson warned that a lack of action by the british government could lead to
further action in legal arenas such as the european court of human rights in
strasbourg. if the government were not to accept this ruling then there is further
redress including possible damages for the individuals who could claim that the
government either was tardy or was resisting the implications of the judgement of
the law lords. she said a meeting of the club of madrid - a group of former world
leaders - to be held in the spanish capital on the march anniversary of the train
bombings there would probably discuss the ruling and its implications. i have no
doubt that this judgement will be looked at both as a very positive step in
clarifying the law and restating the fundamental principles but also the response
of the british government will be under quite a clear international scrutiny there.
the detainees took their case to the house of lords after the court of appeal
backed the home office s powers to hold them without limit or charge. the
government opted out of part of the european convention on human rights concerning
the right to a fair trial in order to bring in anti-terrorism legislation in
response to the 11 september attacks in the us. any foreign national suspected of
links with terrorism can be detained or can opt to be deported. the law lords said
the rules were incompatible with the european convention on human rights as they
allowed detentions in a way that discriminates on the ground of nationality or
immigration status . the case was heard by a panel of nine law lords rather than
the usual five because of the constitutional importance of the case.
economy strong in election year uk businesses are set to prosper during the next
few months - but this could trigger more interest rate rises according to a
report. optimism is at its highest since 1997 and business will reap the benefits
of a continuing rise in public spending say researchers at bdo stoy hayward. the
bank of england is expected to keep rates on hold this week - but they could go up
later in the year. rates are likely to rise after the anticipated general election
in may. the bdo optimism index - a leading indicator of gdp growth two quarters
ahead edged up in january to 102.5 from 102.2 in october. the rise is due in part
to an increase in public spending and increased merger and acquisition activity.
the only thing blighting business optimism this year will be uncertainties
associated with the general election bdo said. its bdo s output index - which
predicts gdp movements a quarter in advance - remained at 100.8 for january
implying gdp growth at 2.9% in the second quarter of 2005. however the output
index is being held back by recent interest rate rises sterling s strength against
the dollar and high oil prices the group noted. its inflation index which has
risen continuously over the last 8 months climbed to 110.0 in january from 108.0
in october last year. the uk is looking strong going into the general election
but businesses need to prepare themselves for a jolt ahead as the bank of england
reacts to growth and inflationary pressures said peter hemington partner at bdo
stoy hayward. growth will probably slow by the end of 2005 and it is likely that
we will see higher interest rates or a sharp drop in demand for products and
services.
bening makes awards breakthrough film actress annette bening is up for an oscar for
her starring role in the award-winning film being julia. bening who was born in
texas in 1958 has gained prominence for a string of key roles. although an oscar
has so far eluded her her status as one of hollywood s favourite actresses remains
solid. one of the biggest oscars buzzes in recent years was for bening s role as
troubled carolyn burnham in 1999 s american beauty. but her deliciously neurotic
portrayal of surburban life turning sour was overlooked in favour of hilary swank s
leading role in boys don t cry. after opening her career in the theatre - and
gaining a tony award nomination in 1986 - bening had a low-key spell in television.
she then made her film debut as a sex-starved wife in 1988 s the great outdoors
opposite comics dan akroyd and john candy. following a cameo in postcards from the
edge bening s breakthrough role came in 1990 playing seductive con artist myra
langtry in the grifters - a role that won her an oscar nomination. despite some
rave reviews bening did not win the best supporting actress academy award.
however the high-profile performance enabled bening to capture roles in a number of
big budget hollywood productions co-starring with some of hollywood s greatest
players including robert de niro and harrison ford. but it was her role opposite
warren beatty in 1991 gangster flick bugsy which had the greatest impact. bening
played virginia hill another role which won her high critical acclaim but the
film only picked up two of a staggering 12 oscar nominations. bugsy was the start
of a very significant liaison for bening - she married beatty with whom she had a
child as the couple promoted the film in europe. the couple now have four children
together. a pair of contrasting yet successful performances peppered bening s
career in the mid-1990s. she played michael douglas opposite number in romantic
comedy the american president and as a fiery queen elizabeth i in a contemporary
adaptation of shakespeare s richard iii. bening was the first choice to play the
female lead in american beauty director sam mendes film debut which was a
critical and commercial success - but the actress had to be content with a bafta
award for her strong performance. but current film being julia has made bening an
award-winning actress rather than the perennial nominee with success at the golden
globes. the witty tale of revenge and love set in 1930s london sees the eponymous
theatrical diva - played by bening - grow tired of her success and fall for a young
american - and could be the role which finally wins her the coveted academy award.
rusedski forced out in marseille greg rusedski was forced to withdraw from the open
13 in marseille on thursday with a rib injury. the british number two had been
scheduled to play qualifier sebastien de chaunac who beat world number five
guillermo coria 6-4 7-5 in round one. but rusedski was unable to take to the court
because of a problem with the left-hand side of his rib-cage. american taylor dent
caused a shock with a 7-6 6-2 victory over second seed david nalbandian. but third
seed joachim johansson made it through after beating frenchman gilles simon 7-6 6-3
while in the first match of the day sixth seed feliciano lopez defeated ivo
karlovic. there were also wins for slovakia s karol beck and croatian duo ivan
ljubicic and mario ancic.
radcliffe enjoys winning comeback paula radcliffe made a triumphant return to
competitive running with victory in the new york marathon. the briton running for
the first time since dropping out of the olympic marathon and 10 000m held off
kenyan susan chepkemei in a thrilling finish. the pair were locked together for the
last few miles before radcliffe finally sprinted clear to win in two hours 23
minutes and 10 seconds. it s a good way to end the year she said. i m ready for
a good rest now. radcliffe decided only recently to run in the race and many had
doubted whether she had sufficiently recovered from her olympic ordeal just 11
weeks ago. but the world record-holder was prominent at the head of the field for
the whole race as her rivals slowly dropped off the pace. just chepkemei and
radcliffe were left in contention as the race came into the final few miles. the
kenyan put in several bursts of speed to throw off radcliffe but the briton managed
to hang in. both runners looked to be suffering as they reached the final mile in
central park. but it was radcliffe who managed to dredge up a final sprint to see
off chepkemei in the closest finish in the race s history and in the process make a
huge step in erasing the disappointment she suffered in athens.
ink helps drive democracy in asia the kyrgyz republic a small mountainous state
of the former soviet republic is using invisible ink and ultraviolet readers in
the country s elections as part of a drive to prevent multiple voting. this new
technology is causing both worries and guarded optimism among different sectors of
the population. in an effort to live up to its reputation in the 1990s as an
island of democracy the kyrgyz president askar akaev pushed through the law
requiring the use of ink during the upcoming parliamentary and presidential
elections. the us government agreed to fund all expenses associated with this
decision. the kyrgyz republic is seen by many experts as backsliding from the high
point it reached in the mid-1990s with a hastily pushed through referendum in 2003
reducing the legislative branch to one chamber with 75 deputies. the use of ink is
only one part of a general effort to show commitment towards more open elections -
the german embassy the soros foundation and the kyrgyz government have all
contributed to purchase transparent ballot boxes. the actual technology behind the
ink is not that complicated. the ink is sprayed on a person s left thumb. it dries
and is not visible under normal light. however the presence of ultraviolet light
(of the kind used to verify money) causes the ink to glow with a neon yellow light.
at the entrance to each polling station one election official will scan voter s
fingers with uv lamp before allowing them to enter and every voter will have
his/her left thumb sprayed with ink before receiving the ballot. if the ink shows
under the uv light the voter will not be allowed to enter the polling station.
likewise any voter who refuses to be inked will not receive the ballot. these
elections are assuming even greater significance because of two large factors - the
upcoming parliamentary elections are a prelude to a potentially regime changing
presidential election in the autumn as well as the echo of recent elections in
other former soviet republics notably ukraine and georgia. the use of ink has been
controversial - especially among groups perceived to be pro-government. widely
circulated articles compared the use of ink to the rural practice of marking sheep
- a still common metaphor in this primarily agricultural society. the author of
one such article began a petition drive against the use of the ink. the greatest
part of the opposition to ink has often been sheer ignorance. local newspapers have
carried stories that the ink is harmful radioactive or even that the ultraviolet
readers may cause health problems. others such as the aggressively middle of the
road coalition of non-governmental organizations have lauded the move as an
important step forward. this type of ink has been used in many elections in the
world in countries as varied as serbia south africa indonesia and turkey. the
other common type of ink in elections is indelible visible ink - but as the
elections in afghanistan showed improper use of this type of ink can cause
additional problems. the use of invisible ink is not without its own problems. in
most elections numerous rumors have spread about it. in serbia for example both
christian and islamic leaders assured their populations that its use was not
contrary to religion. other rumours are associated with how to remove the ink -
various soft drinks solvents and cleaning products are put forward. however in
reality the ink is very effective at getting under the cuticle of the thumb and
difficult to wash off. the ink stays on the finger for at least 72 hours and for up
to a week. the use of ink and readers by itself is not a panacea for election ills.
the passage of the inking law is nevertheless a clear step forward towards free
and fair elections. the country s widely watched parliamentary elections are
scheduled for 27 february. david mikosz works for the ifes an international non-
profit organisation that supports the building of democratic societies.
lib dems unveil women s manifesto the liberal democrats are attempting to woo
female voters with the launch of their manifesto for women. charles kennedy is
pledging a maternity income guarantee and a pension system based on years of
residence rather than national insurance payments. he also thinks women will back
plans to end university tuition fees and for free long-term care for the elderly.
both labour and the conservatives have said they also plan to boost pensions and to
improve childcare support. mr kennedy says he wants to deal with policy areas that
disadvantage women. two million pensioners in britain currently live below the
government s own poverty line - two-thirds of whom are women he said. he says
that pensions based on the number of years worked ignore the contribution women
make caring for children. the lib dem s citizen s pension based on length of
residency not on national insurance contributions would address that imbalance mr
kennedy argues. under the package new mothers would be offered minimum guaranteed
maternity pay of £170 a week for the first six months after the birth of their
first child. mr kennedy also believes the party s plans to use the money saved from
not introducing illiberal id cards to boost police numbers by 10 000 would appeal
to women too. the policies are not new announcements but the way they are
structured as a package to appeal to women is. mr kennedy also points to the fact
that 40% of the party s candidates set to stand in winnable or target seats are
women. party strategists claim that where women candidates replace men turnout
rises by 4%. mr kennedy began the pitch for female support with an interview on bbc
radio 4 s women s hour on monday. during the interview mr kennedy revealed that he
planned to structure the party s general election campaign around the birth of his
first child which is expected in april. the baby and his wife sarah would be
priority number one even if it arrived in the middle of the election campaign he
said. party strategists believe winning over a significant proportion of women
voters is key to electoral success. a party spokesman said it was courting female
votes because they tended to vote more than men and are believed to be more
considered and open-minded in deciding who they vote for. labour s deputy minister
for women jacqui smith accused the lib dems of offering false promises to women
and said their sums did not add up. she said: these proposals would increase the
costs to the public purse drastically year on year and hard working families will
pay dearly through either increased taxes or reduced spending on public services .
the labour party has committed itself to universal affordable and flexible
childcare for parents of all 3 to 14 year-olds including childcare centred on
schools to be available from 8am to 6pm. in september trade and industry secretary
patricia hewitt said she would like to see longer paid maternity leave higher
paternity pay and the extension of flexible working rights to carers if labour won
a third term. the conservatives are yet to unveil their manifesto plans for
childcare but said in november they would increase maternity pay and pay the child
tax credit in cash to parents to spend as they like on a nanny au pair or even a
family member such as a grandparent acting as a carer. they were also consulting
on making childcare costs tax deductible.
berlin celebrates european cinema organisers say this year s berlin film festival
which opens on thursday with period epic man to man will celebrate a revitalised
european cinema. of the 21 films in competition for the golden and silver bear
awards more than half are from europe with france particularly well represented.
festival director dieter kosslick says this strong showing signals a new
consciousness for european films . they re on an incredible winning streak he
told the reuters agency. this isn t to say there aren t any good american films
he continued. it s just that there are more good european films. however mr
kosslick refused to accept that widespread opposition to the iraq war had turned
audiences against hollywood imports. there is no anti-american mood he said.
some 350 films will be screened at this year s festival with a further 300 shown
at the european film market that runs alongside it. more than a dozen celebrities
are scheduled to attend among them will smith kevin spacey and keanu reeves. but
mr kosslick says more would be coming had the academy awards not been brought
forward to 27 february. i m not worried that we won t be able to fill the red
carpet with stars he said though he admitted the festival may be moved to
january next year to avoid a similar clash. the 10-day berlinale runs until 20
february.
labour accused of broken pledge labour has already broken its pre-election promise
on immigration before the ink has dried on its new pledge card the tories have
claimed. home secretary charles clarke has been quoted as telling labour members
he wants more migrants to come to the uk. tory co-chairman liam fox said the
comments were at odds with tony blair s prediction of a net cut in immigration. but
mr clarke accused him of trying to score cheap political points by muddling
immigration with asylum. london s evening standard quoted mr clarke telling labour
activists at a question and answer session in gateshead that he wanted britain to
offer refuge for those fleeing tyranny. that s not only a moral duty and a legal
duty but something which is part of the essence of this country he said. we
want more migration more people come to study and to work. we want more people
coming to look for refuge. mr blair s was asked last wednesday if the government s
new immigration plans including a point system for economic migrants would reduce
net migration. the prime minister told mps: the abusers will be weeded out and as
a result of the end of chain migration [where families have an automatic right to
settle] the numbers will probably fall. on monday dr fox told reporters: the
prime minister has broken his word so many times in the past but now his promises
do not even last a week. the labour party election pledges even when they are so
incredibly vague do not even last four days. the tories want quotas for economic
migrants and refugees and on tuesday will outline more details of their plans for
health checks on migrants. mr clarke dismissed the latest tory attack. this is
simply a scurrilous attempt by the tories to score cheap political points he
said. the tories are purposely mixing together two separate issues of immigration
and asylum. mr clarke said he had made clear the uk would welcome genuine
economic migrants for key jobs on a strict points based system. and only asylum
seekers genuinely fleeing death or persecution would be admitted. under our plans
we expect unfounded applications to continue to fall he added. earlier dr fox
accused mr blair and other cabinet ministers of telling lies about tory policies
and then attacking the lies. he told bbc radio: if you are willing to lie about
the reasons for going to war i guess you are going to lie about anything at all.
the latest pre-election spats come after mr blair told labour members the tories
offered a hard right agenda which would take britain backwards. lib dem leader
charles kennedy accelerating lib dem election preparations this week as he visits
manchester liverpool leicester somerset basingstoke shrewsbury dorset and
torbay.
casino royale is next bond movie casino royale author ian fleming s first james
bond book is to be the next bond film with goldeneye director martin campbell
behind the camera. it will be the 21st james bond film to hit the big screen and
speculation has been rife over who will play the lead. casino royale was turned
into a spoof spy movie by john huston in 1967 with david niven in the lead role.
pierce brosnan led the past four bond films but said producers axed him after
offering him the chance to return. among the favourites to take over the coveted
role are scottish actor dougray scott oscar nominee clive owen and australian star
hugh jackman. producers say no decision has yet been made on who will become the
seventh actor including niven to play bond on film. kill bill director quentin
tarantino had talked of wanting to take on the casino royale project and said he
had spoken to brosnan about it. shooting on casino royale is expected to begin
once campbell has finished work on the legend of zorro a sequel to the mask of
zorro starring catherine zeta jones and antonio banderas. producers barbara
broccoli and michael g wilson expect the film to be released in 2006. the script
will once again be developed by neal purvis and robert wade who have both worked on
two previous bond movies. fleming s book saw the introduction of bond pitted
against a russian spy in a game of baccarat. simultaneously a woman arrives on the
scene to take his eye off the game. the novel is one of fleming s most violent and
sadistic stories with 007 suffering a savage beating from his nemesis le chiffre.
in addition to the 1967 film it was also adapted for television in 1954 with actor
barry nelson as an americanised jimmy bond. mgm vice chairman chris mcgurk said:
martin (campbell) is an incredibly exciting film-maker. goldeneye was a wonderful
movie and helped reinvigorate the bond franchise. we re thrilled to have him back
to direct the newest bond. new zealand-born campbell moved to the uk in 1966 and
directed tv series such as the professionals minder and bergerac. his film credits
include edge of darkness vertical limit and beyond borders which starred angelina
jolie and clive owen.
the memory driving brown s mission the memory gordon brown says keeps returning to
him - the one that he says is burnt into him - is that of a 12 year-old girl whose
parents died of aids and who is hiv positive herself. mr brown seems haunted by
her eyes desolate of all hope. and then he talks of those eyes that do inspire
optimism: an extraordinary performance by schoolgirls of kenya s largest slum
advancing with crowded menace flicking their hips in a manner almost as disturbing
before the finale of a clenched fist salute and shout of free education - free
education for all . mr brown s message generally that compassion must become
action before that hope is squandered. but he is such a pivotal figure in british
politics it is almost impossible not to ask him why he is doing this. his answer
in part is because of the missionaries that used to come to his father s church.
ever since he says africa has been important to him. i ve absolutely no doubt
whatsoever this is heartfelt. but he also believes it is time for the world to see
a new gordon brown. not the dull reassuring bank manager but a man driven by a
moral passion - and it just so happens the labour party feels an awful lot happier
ridding the world of debt than ridding the world of dictators. there s also a
sense of liberation. if mr blair won t allow him to run the election campaign then
he can at least pretend it was all getting tedious and he d much rather be out
examining social problems in the raw. it also goes some way to solving one of the
overarching problems for all politicians of all parties: scepticism sliding into
cynicism about politics itself. if he can help the world s poor just a little then
it shows politics isn t worthless. but is his vision for africa too grand can
poverty in the continent really be halved brown replies that no one thought the
berlin wall would ever come down either. he s still got to overcome - not only the
reluctance of other finance ministers in the world - but also the cynicism of
experts who wonder whether debt relief will just be squandered by governments that
just won t in the end spend wisely.
games win for blu-ray dvd format the next-generation dvd format blu-ray is winning
more supporters than its rival according to its backers. blu-ray backed by 100
firms including sony is competing against toshiba and nec-backed hd-dvd to be the
format of choice for future films and games. the blu-ray association said on
thursday that games giants electronic arts and vivendi would both support its dvd
format. the next generation of dvds will hold high-definition video and sound. this
offers incredible 3d-like quality of pictures which major hollywood studios and
games publishers are extremely keen to exploit in the coming year. in a separate
press conference at the consumer electronics show in las vegas toshiba announced
that dvd players for its technology would be on the market by the end of 2005. as
we move from standard definition video images to high-definition images we have a
much greater need for storage richard doherty from panasonic s hollywood
laboratories one of the pioneers of blu-ray told the bbc news website. so by
utilising blue laser-based technology we can make an optical laser disc that can
hold six times as much as today s dvd. a blu-ray disc will be able to store 50gb
of high-quality data while toshiba s hd-dvd will hold 30gb. mr doherty added that
it was making sure the discs could satisfy all high-definition needs including the
ability to record onto the dvds and smaller discs to fit into camcorders. both
toshiba and blu-ray are hopeful that the emerging dvd format war akin to the
betamax and vhs fight in the 1980s can be resolved over the next year when next-
generation dvd players start to come out. when players do come out they will be
able to play standard dvds too which is good news for those who have huge
libraries of current dvds. but the support from vivendi and electronics arts is a
big boost to blu-ray in the battle for supremacy. gaming is a $20 billion industry
worldwide so is as crucial as the film industry in terms of money to be made. the
technical requirement for game development today demands more advanced optical-disc
technologies said michael heilmann chief technology officer for vivendi
universal. blu-ray offers the capacity performance and high-speed internet
connectivity to take us into the future of gaming. ea a leading games developer
and publisher added that the delivery of high-definition games of the future was
vital and blu-ray had the capacity functionality and interactivity needed for the
kinds of projects it was planning. sony recently announced it would be using the
technology in its next generation of playstations. mr doherty said gamers were
ravenous for high-quality graphics and technology for the next generation of
titles. gamers especially those working on pcs are always focused on more
capacity to deliver textures deeper levels for delivering higher-resolution
playback. he added: the focus for games moving forward on increased immersion.
gaming companies really like to focus on creating a world which involves creating
complicated 3d models and textures and increasing the resolution increasing the
frame rate - all of these are part of getting a more immersive experience. fitting
these models on current dvd technologies means compressing the graphics so much
that much of this quality is lost. as games move to more photo-real capability the
current technology is limiting. they are thrilled at the advanced capacity to
start to build these immersive environments said mr doherty. currently graphics-
intensive pc games also require multiple discs for installation. high-definition
dvds will cut down on that need. likewise consoles rely on single discs so dvds
that can hold six times more data mean much better high-resolution games. blu-ray
has already won backing from major hollywood studios such as mgm studios disney
and buena vista as well as top technology firms like dell lg samsung and
phillips amongst others. while toshiba s hd-dvd technology has won backing from
paramount universal and warner bros. the real world benefits (of hd-dvd) are
apparent and obvious said jim cardwell president of warner home video. mr
cardwell added that rapid time to market and dependability were significant factors
in choosing to go with hd-dvd. both formats are courting microsoft to be the format
of choice for the next generation xbox but discussions are still on-going. next
generation dvds will also be able to store images and other data. ces is the
largest consumer electronics show in the world and runs from 6 to 9 january.
bnp leader nick griffin arrested the leader of the british national party has been
arrested as part of a police inquiry following the screening of a bbc documentary.
a party spokesman said nick griffin was arrested on tuesday morning on suspicion of
incitement to commit racial hatred. west yorkshire police confirmed they had
arrested a 45-year-old man from outside their area. bnp founding chairman john
tyndall was arrested on sunday on the same charge. in july the bbc documentary
secret agent featured covertly-filmed footage of bnp activists. mr griffin is the
twelfth man to be arrested following the documentary. nine men from west yorkshire
and another man from leicester have been arrested and freed on bail. seven of the
men had been held variously in connection with suspected racially aggravated public
order offences conspiracy to commit criminal damage and possession of a firearm.
two men both from keighley were arrested in september on suspicion of conspiracy
to commit criminal damage. a 24-year-old man from leicester was detained on monday
on suspicion of incitement to commit racial hatred. a bnp spokesperson said mr
tyndall from brighton was arrested following a speech he made in burnley
lancashire and was released on police bail.
the sound of music is coming home the original stage production of the sound of
music is to be performed for the first time in the austrian capital 40 years after
the film was released. the first full-scale theatrical production of the musical
will make its debut in vienna on saturday. julie andrews starred in the 1965 film
version of the rogers and hammerstein classic set in the alpine country. but
despite being one of the most successful musicals of all time it is barely known
inside austria. the film was never shown in any cinema in austria and was not
broadcast on television until the early 1990s. the musical is based on the true
story of the von trapp family who formed a singing troupe and escaped from nazi-
occupied austria in 1938. sensitivities about nazism during wartime austria and
issues towards the von trapp family themselves could explain austria s reluctance
to embrace the musical. another source of irritation for austrians is the song
edelweiss which is considered an traditional folk song by many filmgoers. the song
was actually an invention by rodgers and hammerstein. many also consider the film
to portray a kitsch image of austria including yodelling goat-herds and
lederhosen. the production is being staged at a viennese opera house the volksoper
beginning on saturday. maria the novice nun who falls in love with baron von trapp
will be played by austro-australian actress and singer sandra pires.
barbarians 19-47 new zealand new zealand proved too strong for an australian-
dominated barbarians to round off their unbeaten northern hemisphere tour with an
easy win. rico gear ran in two of the all blacks seven tries in what was a
predominantly second-string line-up. the baa-baas did threaten scoring tries
through albert van den bergh xavier rush and andrea lo cicero but never looked
like winning. all black aaron mauger was in good form with the boot adding 10
points. the all blacks featured only two of the side which started last weekend s
emphatic test victory over france in paris while the baa-baas had nine wallabies
in their starting line-up. and new zealand coach graham henry said: it was a
quality performance against a very experienced side and a number of young guys came
through very well. they learnt from the older players and this was a way of
thanking the guys who had been mentoring them on the tour. but the running rugby
the crowd had been hoping for rarely materialised. marty holah got the all blacks
onslaught under way with his fifth-minute try before rush hit back moments later.
but new zealand went ahead once more as gear made use of the space vacated by a
temporarily injured chris latham to slide in. ma a nonu then found his way through
the barbarians defence to give his side a 19-7 half-time lead. the hosts failed to
ignite in the second half and the moment gear scored his second just after the
interval there was only ever going to be one winner. lo cicero the sole european
for the barbarians bundled over for a try to briefly curtail the deficit. but the
match was blighted by controversy moments later when justin marshall was felled
with a high tackle by jimmy cowan. referee andy turner waved play on and casey
laulala coasted in for his side s fifth try. jermoe keino and piri weepu both added
tries to the all blacks tally before the final whistle while van den bergh gained
some consolation for the baa-baas. after the match barbarians coach bob dwyer
warned that south african flanker schalk burger needed a proper off-season break to
maintain his standards. burger 21 was recently crowned player of the year by both
his peers and the international rugby board but has struggled for form in recent
weeks. it s his first year at that level and he was phenomenal up until the end of
the southern hemisphere season. i don t think he s played anywhere near that level
on tour he said.
us bank boss hails genius smith us federal reserve chairman alan greenspan has
given a speech at a scottish church in honour of the pioneering economist adam
smith. he delivered the 14th adam smith lecture in kirkcaldy fife. the adam smith
lecture celebrates the author of 1776 s wealth of nations which became a bible of
capitalism. dr greenspan was invited by chancellor gordon brown whose minister
father john used to preach at the st bryce kirk church. mr brown introduced dr
greenspan to the 400 invited guests as the the world s greatest economist . dr
greenspan 79 who has been in the uk to attend the g7 meeting in london said the
world could never repay the debt of gratitude it owed to smith whose genius he
compared to that of mozart. he said the philosopher was a towering contributor to
the modern world . kirkcaldy the birthplace in 1723 of adam smith and by
extension of modern economics is also of course where your chancellor was
reared. i am led to ponder to what extent the chancellor s renowned economic and
financial skills are the result of exposure to the subliminal intellect-enhancing
emanation in this area. he continued: smith reached far beyond the insights of
his predecessors to frame a global view of how market economics just then emerging
worked. in so doing he supported changes in societal organisation that were to
measurably enhance standards of living. dr greenspan said smith s revolutionary
philosophy on human self-interest laissez-faire economics and competition had been
a force for good in the world. the incredible insights of a handful of
intellectuals of the enlightenment - especially with smith toiling in the environs
of kirkcaldy - created the modern vision of people free to choose and to act
according to their individual self-interest he said. following his lecture dr
greenspan - who received an honorary knighthood from the queen at balmoral in 2002
- was awarded an honorary fellowship of the royal society of edinburgh. he later
opened an exhibition dedicated to smith in the atrium of fife college of further
and higher education. joyce johnston principal of the college said: it is very
fitting that the world s premier economist delivered this lecture in tribute to the
world s first economist. dr greenspan - who became chairman of the federal reserve
for an unprecedented fifth term in june 2004 - will step down in january next year.
he has served under presidents george w bush bill clinton george bush and ronald
reagan. he was also chairman of the council of economic advisors to gerald ford.
mcilroy continues winning streak james mcilroy stormed to his second international
victory in less than a week claiming the men s 800m at the teag indoor meeting in
erfurt. the northern ireland runner set a new personal best of one minute 46.68
seconds - a time good enough to qualify for the european indoor championships. i m
qualified now and that s what matters most said the 28-year-old. mcilroy is now
hoping to gain a late entry into sunday s international indoor meeting in leipzig.
the northern irishman is hoping manager ricky simms can swing it for him to compete
after he initially withdrew after contracting a cold. after three successive wins
over the past fortnight mcilroy is brimming with confidence. i ve been waiting
over six years for this to happen and now i m certain my career has turned the
corner. on friday mcilroy delivered an impressive run despite suffering from his
bad cold. the aaa indoor and outdoor champion accelerated away from the field in
the final 300m beating german wolfram mulle by 0.90 seconds. mcilroy set a world-
leading mark for 1 000m at the sparkassen cup in stuttgart last weekend. and his
time in erfurt makes him third fastest over 800m in the world this year.
box office blow for alexander director oliver stone s historical epic alexander has
failed in its bid to conquer the box office entering the us film charts at number
six. the swords and sandals blockbuster rumoured to have cost more than $150m
(£79m) to make earned just $13.5 (£7m) over three days at the us box office. due
to the thanksgiving holiday the film opened on wednesday bringing its total
takings to $21.6m (£11.4m). top of the box office for a second week was action
movie national treasure. the family adventure starring nicolas cage took $33.1m
(£17.m) ahead of animated comedy the incredibles - now in its fourth week in the
charts - which took $24.1m (£12.7m). last week oliver stone s film met with
scathing reviews from us critics. the film stars irish actor colin farrell as one
of history s most celebrated leaders - a relentless and arrogant warrior who
conquered much of the known world by the age of 25. in particular its portrayal of
alexander as a bisexual has met with a hostile reception and the threat of legal
action from greek lawyers. though the battles have the blood-and-sinew bravado you
expect from oliver stone this three-hour buttnumbathon is hamstrung by a hectoring
grandiosity wrote one reviewer in rolling stone magazine. others poured scorn on
farrell s bleached hair and angelina jolie s unwieldy accent which variety called
a combination of mata hari and count dracula . but novelist gore vidal defended
the film saying it was barrier-breaking for its frank depiction of bisexuality.
in sweden last thursday to pick up a lifetime achievement award at the stockholm
international film festival stone expressed the hope that alexander might be
better appreciated in europe. one of the reasons i am being honoured here is
europeans tend to see me a little differently than they do in the us said the
director behind jfk platoon and born on the fourth of july. he added alexander
was not an easy movie but then i ve never made easy movies .
candela completes bolton switch bolton boss sam allardyce has signed roma defender
vincent candela on a five-month deal. the 31-year-old former france international
gave his last press conference as a roma player on monday anouncing his move to
bolton. i have signed a five-month contract with bolton said candela who will
travel to england on tuesday. in june i will decide whether to continue to play
for bolton or retire from professional football. allardyce hopes candela s arrival
will relieve bolton s injury crisis after defender nicky hunt limped out injured
during oldham s 1-0 win against oldham in the fa cup on sunday. in light of what
has happened to nicky hunt with his injury it might be a blessing in disguise
that we can bring in a highly-experienced full-back to help with our injuries at
the back allardyce said. he has an outstanding pedigree in the game and has won
honours at the highest level including the world cup in 1998. he has not played
regular football this year but is eager to impress in the premiership. he can play
in any position at the back and despite him being predominately right-footed he has
played the majority of his career at left-back. candela who was a member of the
roma side that won the title in 2001 has made only seven league appearances this
season for luigi del neri s side.
totp turns to elvis impersonator top of the pops has turned to the star of elvis
presley musical jailhouse rock after the late rock legend scooped the uk s 1 000th
number one single. mario kombou who plays the presley role on stage will sing
one night on friday s bbc one show as producers are unable to use presley video
footage. it is his second number one in a row. the show used presley photos last
week. presley will feature in the charts for several more months as all 18 of his
original uk chart-toppers are reissued. a top of the pops spokesperson said: it s
a very special number one as it s the uk s 1 000th. we wanted to pay tribute to
elvis in the best way we knew how so we thought getting a professional would be
the best way for top of the pops to do that. kombou is likely to appear on the
show again next week as the next presley re-release a fool such as i is on course
to give him his third number one in three weeks. kombou plays vince everett in
jailhouse rock - the same role presley played in the 1957 film of the same name.
cable offers video-on-demand cable firms ntl and telewest have both launched video-
on-demand services as the battle between satellite and cable tv heats up. movies
from sony pictures walt disney touchstone miramax columbia and buena vista will
be among those on offer. the service is similar to sky plus as users can pause
fast forward and rewind content but they cannot store programmes on their set top
box - yet. it could sound the death knell for some tv channels telewest predicts.
it allows us to demonstrate a clear competitive advantage over sky for the first
time in many years said telewest chief executive eric tveter. video-on-demand
will offer a deeper range of content than currently exists on tv. there will be
less compromising around the tv schedule and some of the less popular channels may
go by the wayside said philip snalune director of products at telewest. telewest
customers in bristol and ntl viewers in glasgow will be the first to test the new
service which sees a raft of movies on offer for 24 hour rental. during the year
the service will be extended to all cable regions. films will range in price from
£1 or £2 for archived movies to £3.50 for current releases. new releases initially
on offer will include 50 first dates kill bill: volume 2 gothika and the station
agent. in addition ntl is offering children s programmes adult content music
video and concerts. telewest will launch similar services later in the year. ntl is
also offering viewers the chance to catch up with programmes they have missed. its
pick of the week service will offer a selection of bbc programmes from the previous
seven days such as eastenders casualty top gear and antiques roadshow. the bbc is
trialling a similar service offering broadband users the chance to watch
programmes already broadcast on their pc. for telewest it is the beginning of a
£20m investment in tv-on-demand which will also see the launch of a personal video
recorder (pvr). pvr has been a big success for sky because it gives customers
control over programmes. satellite customers without pvr cannot pause rewind or
fast forward their programmes. with both services on offer from telewest mr
tveter is confident the cable firm can dent not just the viewing figures for
terrestrial tv but also gain a huge competitive advantage over sky. we offer the
best of both worlds and most households have an interest in having both video-on-
demand and pvr he said. video rental stores may also have to watch their back.
video-on-demand is better than having a video-store in your living room and is more
convenient he said. ntl said it had not ruled out the possibility of offering a
pvr but for the moment is concentrating on video-on-demand. pvr is a recording
mechanism whereas what we are offering is truly on demand said a spokesman for
the company. video-on-demand has the added advantage of not requiring a separate
set-top box or extra remote controls he added. adam thomas an analyst at research
firm informa media believes the time is ripe for video-on-demand to flourish.
while sky will remain the dominant force in uk pay tv for some time to come ntl
and telewest seem well placed to successfully ride this second wave of vod
enthusiasm and if marketed correctly this could help them eat into sky s lead
he said.
saab to build cadillacs in sweden general motors the world s largest car maker
has confirmed that it will build a new medium-sized cadillac bls at its loss-making
saab factory in sweden. the car unveiled at the geneva motor show is intended to
compete in the medium-sized luxury car market. it will not be sold in the us said
gm europe president carl-peter forster. as part of its efforts to make the us
marque appeal to european drivers the car will be the first cadillac with a diesel
engine. gm s announcement should go some way to allay fears of the saab factory s
closure. the factory in trollhaettan has been at the centre of rumours about gm s
planned severe cutbacks in its troubled european operations. but the group s new
commitment to the swedish factory may not be welcomed by the group s opel workers
in ruesselsheim germany. they may now have to face a larger proportion of gm s
cuts. neither will the announcement be seen as unalloyed good news in sweden
since it reflects saab s failure to make significant inroads into the lucrative
european luxury car market. for years saab has consistently said it is competing
head-on with bmw mercedes and jaguar. the segment s leaders do not agree. gm s
plans to build the american marque in sweden is part of its efforts to push it as
an alternative luxury brand for european drivers. in the us it has long been
established as an upmarket brand - even the presidential limousine carries the
badge. yet it could prove tough for cadillac to steal market share from the majors
in europe. other luxury car makers most notably the toyota subsidiary lexus have
enjoyed tremendous success in the us without managing to make significant inroads
in europe. there german marques mercedes benz and bmw have retained their
stranglehold on the luxury market. bringing cadillac production to sweden should
help introduce desperately-needed scale to the saab factory which currently
produces fewer than 130 000 cars per year. that is about half of what major car
makers consider sufficient numbers for profitable operations and saab is losing
money fast - albeit with losses halved in 2004 to $200m (£104m; 151m euros) from
$500m the previous year. beyond the 12 000 job cuts announced last year at its
european operations gm is reducing expenditure by building saabs opels - badged
as vauxhalls in the uk - and now cadillacs on the same framework and by allowing
the different brands to share parts. another way to further reduce saab s losses
could be to shift some of the production of saabs to the us a market where drivers
have adopted it as an upmarket european car. doing so would remove the exposure to
the weak us dollar which is making saabs more expensive to us consumers. but not
everyone in the industry agree that it would be the best way forward. we know that
in five years the us dollar will be stronger than it is today the chief executive
of a leading european car maker told bbc news. the current trend towards us
production was stupid he said. in a separate announcement gm unveiled a new
scheme to allow european consumers the chance to test drive its opel and vauxhall
models. it is to deploy a fleet of 35 000 test cars across 40 countries inviting
potential buyers to try out a vehicle for 24-hours. it follows a similar initiative
by gm in the us. gm said it wanted to change customers perceptions about opel
and vauxhall cars showing them that the quality had improved in recent years.
dawson set for new wasps contract european champions wasps are set to offer matt
dawson a new deal. the 31-year-old world cup winning scrum-half has impressed
since joining the london side from northampton this summer on a one-year contract.
wasps coach warren gatland told the daily mirror: we have not yet offered matt a
new contract but we will be doing so. i m very happy with his contribution and i
think he s good enough to play for another couple of years. dawson played a vital
part in england s world cup win last year but has fallen out of favour with new
coach andy robinson after missing a training session in september. however he hopes
the new deal will help him regain his england place. rugby is still my priority
and there s still a burning desire within me to play the best rugby i possibly can
he said. i know within myself if i was given the chance i could play for england
again. i know i m fit enough i m strong enough i m skilful enough.
howard attacks pay later budget tory leader michael howard has dismissed gordon
brown s budget as vote now pay later spending plans. the simple fact was that
under a new labour government taxes would go up after the election to plug a
financial black hole mr howard said. everyone could see the chancellor s
sweeteners but these hid tax rises for hard working families he said. labour s
faltering election campaign would not be helped by the package of measures mr
howard added. mr brown s budget was not about what was good for the country but
all about the interests of the labour party the tory leader said after mockingly
welcoming the chancellor back to the election campaign. he went on to accuse mr
brown of giving with one hand while taking away with the other. he urged the
chancellor to admit he had been responsible for dragging millions of people in to
the net to pay stamp duty and inheritance tax. we can all see the sweeteners but
they hide the crippling tax rises for hard-working families that are inevitable if
labour wins. he also accused the government and the chancellor of running out of
solutions to the problems britain faced. their only answer is to tax to spend and
to waste - to get people to vote now and pay later. mr brown liked to rattle off
magical balances conjured out of thin air in a bid to convince people there was no
black hole in the nation s finances the tory leader said. this dodgy government
that brought us the dodgy dossier is now publishing a dodgy budget based on dodgy
numbers he said. you now propose to borrow over the next six years no less
than £168 billion; so much for prudence. the chancellor s forecasts of surpluses
are no better than the prime minister s forecasts of weapons of mass destruction.
mr brown s council tax rebate for pensioners was £300 less than what the tories
were offering mr howard said. there was nothing in the budget that would put more
police on the streets make hospitals cleaner or give parents and teachers the
discipline and skills they wanted in schools. people would face a clear choice at
the election either more waste and higher taxes under labour or lower taxes and
value for money with the conservatives he said. that s the battleground of this
election. that s what this election is going to be all about and i say bring it on
he concluded to loud tory cheering.
spark heads world booker list dame muriel spark is among three british authors who
have made the shortlist for the inaugural international booker prize. doris
lessing and ian mcewan have also been nominated. mcewan and margaret atwood are the
only nominees to have previously won the main booker prize. the new £60 000 award
is open to writers of all nationalities who write in english or are widely
translated. the prize commends an author for their body of work instead of one
book. gabriel garcia marquez saul bellow milan kundera and john updike also
feature on the 18-strong list of world literary figures. but other past winners of
the regular booker prize such as salman rushdie jm coetzee and kazuo ishiguro
have failed to make the shortlist. the prize which will be awarded in london in
june will be given once every two years. it will reward an author - who must be
living - for continued creativity development and overall contribution to fiction
on the world stage . an author can only win once. the international award was
started in response to criticisms that the booker prize is only open to british and
commonwealth authors. margaret atwood (canada) saul bellow (canada) gabriel
garcia marquez (colombia) gunter grass (germany) ismail kadare (albania) milan
kundera (czech republic) stanislaw lem (poland) doris lessing (uk) ian mcewan (uk)
naguib mahfouz (egypt) tomas eloy martinez (argentina) kenzaburo oe (japan) cynthia
ozick (us) philip roth (us) muriel spark (uk) antonio tabucchi (italy) john updike
(us) abraham b yehoshua (israel)
brown hits back in blair rift row gordon brown has criticised a union leader who
said conflict between himself and tony blair was harming the workings of
government. jonathan baume of the top civil servants union spoke of competing
agendas between mr brown and mr blair. but the chancellor said mr baume was never
at meetings between himself and the prime minister so could not judge. he said the
union leader was trying to block civil service reform which threatened his members
jobs. it suited the purpose of mr baume s union the first division association to
suggest there were two agendas battling against each other because the union was
trying to resist the planned reforms mr brown told bbc radio 4 s today programme.
under the plans unveiled in the gershon report some 84 000 civil servants jobs
will be axed or changed and the savings ploughed back into frontline services. mr
brown said: to be honest i don t think you can rely on his [mr baume s] judgement
on this matter when it comes to the decisions that the government are making. mr
blair and i are making exactly the same decisions on civil service reforms. we are
determined to go on with the gershon reforms. he also said that as mr baume was
never present at meetings between himself and the prime minister he was not in a
position to judge. on wednesday ahead of the chancellor s pre-budget report mr
baume told bbc news there were sometimes conflicting and competing agendas for
government between number 10 and the treasury. what the chancellor wanted was
not by any means what alan milburn and the prime minister want to see mr baume
said. government departments get their money from the treasury on the basis of
public service agreements they sign up to but at the same time the prime minister
also has an agenda and that s not necessarily the same as the treasury s and the
prime minister is of course a very powerful figure in any government. he also
sends instructions and messages and directions to departments about how he would
like each secretary of state and each department to implement a policy agenda. the
problem is that on many occasions these two don t add up and individual cabinet
ministers as well as departments have to make sense of this battle. number 10 said
ministers were interested in governing and not a soap opera about mr blair and mr
brown. tory shadow chancellor oliver letwin said: the battle royal that the top
civil servants are now reporting on between the chancellor and tony blair is
preventing them both from getting on with the business of getting taxpayers value
for money.
singer s film to show at festival a documentary which takes a candid look at the
life of chart-topping singer george michael will be shown at this year s berlin
film festival. a different story will screen in the panorama section of the
festival which runs from 10-20 february. it features the singer talking about both
his career and his personal life from his days in wham! through to more recent
events. michael will attend the festival to introduce the screening on 16 february.
director southan morris and executive producer andy stephens will also attend the
festival. the 93 minute film will see michael discussing his early days in wham!
along with his later career including his legal battles with record label sony and
his stance against the iraq war and american politics. it will also touch upon his
turbulent personal life including his arrest in a beverly hills park toilet in
1998 for lewd behaviour and the death of his boyfriend anselmo feleppa from
aids. the film which includes previously unseen footage of the singer also
features contributions from michael s former wham! partner andrew ridgeley as well
as ex-wham! backing singers pepsi and shirlie. other contributors include sting
mariah carey elton john noel gallagher geri halliwell and simon cowell. this
year s festival will open with man to man a historical epic starring joseph
fiennes and kristin scott-thomas. it will be one of 21 films competing for the
festival s top prize the golden bear. other films in competition will include the
life aquatic a quirky comedy starring bill murray and the biopic kinsey which
features liam neeson. the full programme will be announced on 1 february.
shark tale dvd is us best-seller oscar-nominated animation shark tale has raked in
$80m (£42.4m) in the first week of its us dvd release becoming the year s best-
selling home video so far. the tally for its dvd and video sales soared past the
film s opening week us box office takings of $56m (£29.7m). shark tale is now the
sixth-highest earning dvd for first week sales. the all-time first-week record is
held by 1995 s lion king followed by shrek 2 finding nemo the original shrek and
monster s inc. shark tale whose voice cast includes will smith robert de niro
renee zellweger and martin scorsese sold more than 6 million dvds and videos
across the united states and canada. it becomes the highest first-week earner for
february outshining my big fat greek wedding which sold four million units in
2003. films which are expected to earn strong home video returns are usually timed
for release in the busiest retail season which falls before christmas. the best-
selling home video of last year was the dreamworks hit shrek 2 which took an
estimated $458 m (£242.7m) in north america alone.
us actor found with gun residue actor robert blake had gunshot residue on his
hands and clothes the night his wife was shot dead a court has heard. but it may
not have come from the shot that killed bonny lee bakley in 2001 mr blake s murder
trial was told by criminalist steven dowell. mr dowell told a los angeles court the
residue may have come from mr blake s revolver his gun collection his presence at
the crime scene or police. the 71-year-old former star of us tv drama baretta has
denied murder. mr blake said he found ms bakley 44 dead in a car after they left
a restaurant. he said he briefly returned to the restaurant to collect a gun he
had left behind and discovered her body when he returned. the gun he collected was
not the murder weapon. it could also have been picked up if he touched or leant on
the car when he found the body or from a police box in which his clothes were
later stored. the box had come from an area where officers went after being on the
firing range. but mr dowell also said the residue would have been present if mr
blake fired a gun that night. witnesses have already told the trial mr blake stood
out as being quite nervous and agitated at the restaurant before the murder. the
actor who won an emmy for playing a maverick detective in the 1970s tv cop drama
baretta could face life in prison if convicted.
tories urge change at the top tory delegates are gathering for what is expected
to be their last conference before the general election declaring britain needs a
change at the top . the party goes into its spring forum trying to highlight what
it sees as a clear choice between it and labour. tory co-chairman liam fox has
opened proceedings with a speech criticising tony blair s record in government.
labour s rule has been characterised by lost trust and failure to deliver he
told the brighton conference. he also attacked the government s failure to
control immigration and asylum and criticised its record on the nhs telling
delegates labour cannot be trusted on education or crime. a tory government would
sort out the shambles of immigration put patients before statistics and bring
discipline to schools he said. dr fox also underlined tory promises to cut tax by
£4bn. bbc political correspondent shaun ley says opinion polls suggest the tories
still lag some way behind labour on the issues of health education and the
economy. conservative leader michael howard who had been due to welcome delegates
to the conference on friday will address them in a lunchtime speech. his welcome
address had to be postponed after he stayed in london to lead the party s
opposition to the prevention of terrorism bill in its lengthy progress through
parliament. the bill was finally passed on friday evening after more than 30 hours
of debate. mr howard is likely to defend his party s handling of the bill which
was only passed after the conservatives accepted prime minister tony blair s
promise that mps would be able to review it within a year.
russian film wins bbc world prize russian drama the return (vozvrashchenie) has
been named winner of the bbc four world cinema award. the film tells the story of
two adolescent boys who are subjected to a harsh regime when their strict father
returns after a 10-year absence. directed by andrey zvyagintsev the return
previously won the 2003 golden lion award at the venice film festival. the prize
was presented at an awards ceremony held in london on thursday and hosted by
jonathan ross. the winner was chosen by a panel which included x files actress
gillian anderson critic roger clarke and touching the void director kevin
mcdonald. ross who is the presenter of bbc one s film 2005 was also involved in
the deliberations. a shortlist of six films from around the world had been drawn up
from which the panel chose. other nominees included the motorcycle diaries
zatoichi and hero. a viewer poll saw director zhang yimou s martial arts epic hero
emerge as the favourite with 32% of votes cast. tragedy struck the production of
the return when one of the young stars 15-year-old vladimir girin drowned in a
lake where some of the film s scenes were set. the winner of the world cinema award
last year was the french animated feature belleville rendezvous
how to smash a home computer an executive who froze his broken hard disk thinking
it would be fixed has topped a list of the weirdest computer mishaps. although
computer malfunctions remain the most common cause of file loss data recovery
experts say human behaviour still is to blame in many cases. they say that no
matter how effective technology is at rescuing files users should take more time
to back-up and protect important files. the list of the top 10 global data
disasters was compiled by recovery company ontrack. careless - and preventable -
mistakes that result in data loss range from reckless file maintenance practices to
episodes of pure rage towards a computer. this last category includes the case of a
man who became so mad with his malfunctioning laptop that he threw it in the
lavatory and flushed a couple of times. data can disappear as a result of natural
disaster system fault or computer virus but human error including computer rage
seems to be a growing problem said adrian palmer managing director of ontrack
data recovery. nevertheless victims soon calm down when they realise the damage
they ve done and come to us with pleas for help to retrieve their valuable
information. a far more common situation is when a computer virus strikes and
leads to precious files being corrupted or deleted entirely. mr palmer recalled the
case of a couple who had hundreds of pictures of their baby s first three months on
their computer but managed to reformat the hard drive and erase all the precious
memories. data can be recovered from computers servers and even memory cards used
in digital devices in most cases said mr palmer. however individuals and
companies can avoid the hassle and stress this can cause by backing up data on a
regular basis.
blair says uk tsunami aid to soar tony blair has predicted the british government
will eventually give hundreds of millions of pounds in aid to countries hit by
the tsunami. the prime minister was speaking publicly for the first time since
returning from his holiday in egypt. mr blair insisted he had been intimately
involved in all decisions at all times despite being abroad. he was speaking
before the uk joins a three-minute silence at noon across the eu for the estimated
150 000 dead. the foreign office says 41 britons are now confirmed to have died in
the tsunami which struck south asia on boxing day with 158 others missing. asked
about criticism that he did not cut short his holiday mr blair told bbc radio 4 s
today programme: i don t think this is a situation in which the british people
need me to articulate what they feel. i think they feel - as we all do - shock
horror and absolute solidarity with those people who have lost their lives. the
important thing was action and not words he said adding that of the £50m given by
the government so far only six or seven million had been spent. it would become
easier in the coming weeks to assess just how much money would have to be put in.
my estimate is we will need to spend from government several hundred million
pounds. so we will far and away more than match the generosity of the british
people he said. asked whether he had not returned to work immediately because he
was under doctors orders to rest mr blair said there was also a story he had been
away for plastic surgery. as you can see unfortunately i am still looking the same
as i always did he joked. the prime minister took personal charge of the uk s
response on tuesday chairing a meeting of the emergency committee of ministers
that has convened daily since boxing day. he also spoke on the telephone to us
president george bush and the presidents of sri lanka and indonesia. chancellor
gordon brown earlier backed a plan to freeze the foreign debts of all the affected
nations. mr brown who was not at the downing street meeting says he has been in
intensive talks with other g8 finance ministers. germany proposed a freeze last
week and canada has begun its own moratorium. the chancellor said the plan would
initially save the most affected countries about $3bn (£1.58bn) in repayments. tory
leader michael howard also backed the proposals but said ministers had been
playing catch-up with public donations. foreign secretary jack straw is to visit
thailand and indonesia this week. during his trip mr straw will represent the g8
at the international conference called in jakarta indonesia on thursday. on friday
he will visit the thai beach resort of phuket where british families are still
searching for relatives. international development secretary hilary benn will also
visit aceh in indonesia as well as sri lanka. the british public has now pledged
£76m in aid with emergency supplies from the british government starting to arrive
in the region on three raf flights in a joint operation with scandinavian
countries. two ships - the royal fleet auxiliary ship diligence and frigate hms
chatham - have arrived in the disaster area. a second royal fleet auxiliary vessel
the bayleaf is also being sent. uk charities have also begun chartering planes to
deliver aid. - a bbc news special: asia remembered including the three-minutes
silence will be shown on bbc one and bbc news 24 from 1130 to 1215 gmt on
wednesday.
movie body hits peer-to-peer nets the movie industry has struck out at file-sharing
networks with another round of lawsuits in the us. the motion picture association
of america (mpaa) also said it had succeeded in getting a network called
lokitorrent closed down. it is the latest network which uses the peer-to-peer
system called bittorrent to be hit by the mpaa. the mpaa began its legal campaign
against operators of similar networks across four continents in december. a dallas
court agreed that hollywood lawyers would be allowed access to lokitorrent s server
records which could let them single out those who were sharing files illegally. in
october 2004 the site had provided links to more than 30 000 files. the action
came after the operators of lokitorrent agreed a settlement with the mpaa. a stark
message has appeared on the site from the mpaa warning you can click but you can
t hide . in bittorrent systems server sites do not host the files being shared.
they host links called trackers that direct people to others that have it
instead. as well as filing an unspecified number of file suits across the us the
mpaa said it had given operators that host edonkey servers take down notices.
hollywood studios are aggressively clamping down on file-sharers who it says
infringe copyright laws by copying films and tv programmes then share the files
online. but it is now targeting the operators of bittorrent networks themselves. it
has filed 100 lawsuits against operators of bittorrent server sites since december.
the strategy of hitting those who run the servers which link to copyrighted
material is intended to stunt file-sharers ability to swap content using
bittorrent systems. the film industry says the black market for illegally copied
videos and dvds already costs them billions every year and it is worried that
illegal file-sharing is adding to their losses. in december the legal action
claimed its most high-profile victim. the popular suprnova.org website was forced
to close and others like phoenix torrent followed soon after.
robots learn robotiquette rules robots are learning lessons on robotiquette -
how to behave socially - so they can mix better with humans. by playing games
like pass-the-parcel a university of hertfordshire team is finding out how future
robot companions should react in social situations. the study s findings will
eventually help humans develop a code of social behaviour in human-robot
interaction. the work is part of the european cogniron robotics project and was on
show at london s science museum. we are assuming a situation in which a useful
human companion robot already exists said professor kerstin dautenhahn project
leader at hertfordshire. our mission is to look at how such a robot should be
programmed to respect personal spaces of humans. the research also focuses on
human perception of robots including how they should look and how a robot can
learn new skills by imitating a human demonstrator. without such studies you will
build robots which might not respect the fact that humans are individuals have
preferences and come from different cultural backgrounds professor dautenhahn
told bbc news online. and i want robots to treat humans as human beings and not
like other robots she added. in most situations a companion robot will
eventually have to deal not only with one person but also with groups of people.
to find out how they would react the hertfordshire cogniron team taught one robot
to play pass-the-parcel with children. showing off its skills at the science
museum the unnamed robot had to select approach and ask different children to
pick up a parcel with a gift moving it arm as a pointer and its camera as an eye.
it even used speech to give instructions and play music. however according to
researchers it will still take many years to build a robot which would make full
use of the robotiquette for human interaction. if you think of a robot as a
companion for the human being you can think of 20 years into the future
concluded professor dautenhahn. it might take even longer because it is very very
hard to develop such a robot. you can hear more on this story on the bbc world
service s go digital programme.
hearts of oak 3-2 cotonsport hearts of oak set up an all ghanaian confederation cup
final with a 3-2 win over cameroon s cotonsport garoua in accra on sunday. the win
for hearts means they will play asante kotoko in the two-leg final after the
kumasi team qualified from group a on saturday. in the other group b game cameroon
s beat of south africa 3-2 in douala neither side could have qualified for the
final. hearts of oak started the game needing a win to qualify for the final while
cotonsport only needed to avoid defeat to go through. louis agyemang scored the
first two goals for hearts either side of half time before ben don bortey scored
the third. hearts looked set for a comfortable win but cotonsport staged a late
fight back scoring twice late on. first of all boukar makaji scored in the 89th
minute and then 3 minutes into injury time at the end of the game andre nzame iii
was on target. but it was too little too late for the cameroonians and hearts held
on to win the game and a place in the final. the first leg of the final will be
played in accra on the weekend of 27-28 november and the second leg two weeks later
on the 11 december in kumasi. in the other group b game cameroon s sable batie took
the lead in the 35th minute through kemadjou before santos equalised on the hour
mark thanks to thokozani xaba . bernard ngom put sable ahead just five minutes
later and then ernest nfor settled the game on 68 minutes. ruben cloete scored the
south african sides consolation with just three minutes left on the clock.
isinbayeva heads for birmingham olympic pole vault champion yelena isinbayeva has
confirmed she will take part in the 2005 norwich union grand prix in birmingham on
18 february. everybody knows how much i enjoy competing in britain. i always seem
to break records there said isinbayeva. as olympic champion there will be more
attention on me this year but hopefully i can respond with another record in
birmingham. kelly holmes and carolina kluft are among other athens winners
competing. the organisers are hoping that isinbayeva s main rival fellow russian
svetlana feofanova will also take part in the event. the pair had a thrilling
battle in athens which ended with isinbayeva finally jumping a world record of
4.91m to claim the gold medal. isinbayeva 22 has set 10 world records in the pole
vault three of which have come on british soil.
playstation 3 chip to be unveiled details of the chip designed to power sony s
playstation 3 console will be released in san francisco on monday. sony ibm and
toshiba who have been working on the cell processor for three years will unveil
the chip at a technology conference. the chip is reported to be up to 10 times
faster than current processors. it is being designed for use in graphics
workstations the new playstation console and has been described as a
supercomputer on a chip. sony has said the cell processor could be used to bridge
the gap between movies and video games. special effects and graphics designed for
films could be ported for use directly in a video game sony told an audience at
the e3 exhibition in los angeles last year. cell could also be marketed as an
ideal technology for televisions and supercomputers and everything in between
said kevin krewell the editor in chief of microprocessor report. the chip will be
made of several different processing cores that work on tasks together. the
playstation 3 is expected in 2006 but developers are expecting to get prototypes
early next year to tune games that will appear on it at launch. details of the chip
will be released at the international solid state circuits conference in san
francisco. some details have already emerged however. when put inside powerful
computer servers the cell consortium expects it to be capable of handling 16
trillion floating point operations or calculations every second. the chip has
also been refined to be able to handle the detailed graphics common in games and
the data demands of films and broadband media. ibm said it would start producing
the chip in early 2005 at manufacturing plants in the us. the first machines off
the line using the cell processor will be computer workstations and servers. a
working version of the ps3 is due to be shown off in may 2005 but a full launch of
the next generation console is not expected to start until 2006. in the future
all forms of digital content will be converged and fused onto the broadband network
said ken kutaragi chief operating officer of sony said last year. current pc
architecture is nearing its limits he added.
napster offers rented music to go music downloading for those that have rejected
the free peer to peer services can be a costly business. the cost of paying even
as little as 70p per track can add up particularly for those people who own one of
the new generation of players that can store thousands of songs. paying per track
for music is becoming as outmoded as paying per minute for internet access and
alternative monthly or yearly subscription models are springing up as a more
convenient and ultimately cheaper way of owning music. music fans are moving
away from buying the traditional bundled package of a dozen or more songs that we
used to call an album to newer ways that fit their lifestyle; either single tracks
or subscriptions services said paul myers chief executive of wippit a uk-based
music download service. while itunes is doing good business with its sales of
individual tracks to ipod owners others are questioning whether the concept of
owning music is even valid in the digital age. napster is due to launch a new
rental subscription service - dubbed napster to go in the uk in the next few
months. the service can be used on players that support microsoft windows latest
digital rights management technology known as janus. this includes players made by
samsung rio and creative. currently on offer in beta-version in the us the
service costs $15 per month for unlimited downloads. the technology ensures that
music downloaded to the player only remains playable while the user subscribes to
the service. users need to update their license on a monthly basis or the tunes
will no longer play. this has outraged some digital music lovers especially as
napster already offers a cheaper service for downloading music to the pc. napster
claims the higher price is a result of record labels charging more for the to-go
service and says it also offers greater value for customers. mr myers is not
convinced a rental model will work for consumers. we ve been offering our
unlimited music subscription service for more than three years now and our
customers know what they want. format interoperability excellent value and the
reassurance that music purchased from wippit is theirs to keep and enjoy on
whatever device they choose he said. who wants to download a track that won t
play next month if you decide to unsubscribe to the service or change portable
player for an ipod or the latest mobile phone wippit offers a download
subscription service for £4.99 per month or £50 per year. it has a catalogue of
around 60 000 songs.
reaction from spanish press england s 1-0 defeat to spain on wednesday dominated
the back and front pages of the country s press on thursday. controversy was in no
short supply with racist abuse of england s black players wayne rooney s
petulance and england s inept performance. but what did the spanish press make of
the affair bbc sport looks at the reaction. there is little coverage of the
racist chanting on wednesday night s game. but as does cover the english reaction
to the pre-match comments from spain coach luis aragones who highlighted britain s
colonial past when probed about his own remarks regarding thierry henry in october.
journalist guillem balague writes: in our country where multi-culturalism is a
new thing we are in nappies dealing with these things and have a naivety which
makes the english nervous. marca refers in passing to the booing of england s
black players - but only after referring to the cheers of ole which greeted the
long periods of spanish possession. aragones no comment to questions about
racism after the match is also highlighted as marca focuses on the spanish coach s
praise for his players. serbia & montenegro s 2-0 world cup qualifying win in
belgium - which could make qualification tougher for spain - seems to be of greater
importance. elsewhere the spanish media criticises its english counterparts for
stoking up the racism issue. were there racist chants against some players this
hasn t happened in the spanish league and spain for many years said spanish
federation press officer fernando garrido. so you (english reporters) should ask
yourselves what you have done to contribute to all this. and spanish daily abc
accuses english reporters of launching a witch-hunt against aragones. perhaps it
was because their team had played so poorly and they wanted to divert attention
towards this muddled issue the paper says. what the boy in the bernabeu did
was odd... rooney seemed intent to kick any spanish player who approached him. yet
rooney is seen only as the worst example of many england miscreants with gary
neville criticised for continuing the feud between manchester united and arsenal
for his tackles on jose reyes. ashley cole s treatment of joaquin and a frank
lampard foul on reyes are also lambasted for their ugliness . marca s headline
says it all: wayne rooney se volvió loco en el bernabéu (wayne rooney
became crazy in the bernabeu) rooney s display alarms the writer in particular
three chilling fouls on joaquin casillas and marchena which could well have
left them in the infirmary. and like as marca criticises gary neville for
leaving a message on reyes ankle to remind him of the manchester united-arsenal
clash this month. spain s first-half performance is showered with praise with
xavi singled out as the biggest star. xavi did things on wednesday which were
worthy of maradona the paper beams adding what a work-rate what dynamism
what vision what leadership what a midfield player! on a controversial evening
as offers one seemingly undeniable viewpoint: spanish football players played
better football than the english. more plaudits are given to the home team with
jaime vargas lauding the manner in which spain dominated england with order and
quality . the paper adds: the bad thing about spain v england was that it lasted
only 65 minutes after which a succession of changes prevented any real competition.
vargas does not mention england s two galacticos simply adding in a ps: i have
not forgotten to speak of beckham and owen. they forgot to play.
ray dvd beats box office takings oscar-nominated film biopic ray has surpassed its
us box office takings with a combined tally of $80m (£43m) from dvd and video sales
and rentals. ray s success on dvd outstripped its $74m (£40m) us box office total
earning more than $40m (£22m) on the first day of the dvd s release alone. ray has
been nominated in six oscar categories including best film and best actor for jamie
foxx. the film recounts the life of blues singer ray charles who died in 2004. in
its first week on home entertainment release the film was the number one selling
dvd with the limited edition version coming in at number 11. sony horror film the
grudge starring michelle gellar was the us second best-selling dvd with
jennifer lopez and richard gere s romantic comedy shall we dance at number three.
foxx s critically acclaimed performance as ray has already earned him a screen
actors guild award for best actor as well as a prestigious golden globe. ray
director taylor hackford responsible for the classic 1982 film an officer and a
gentleman has also received an oscar nomination in the best director category. the
film s three other oscar nominations are for costume film editing and sound
mixing.
triple triumph for little britain top tv cult hit little britain has triumphed over
the office at the 15th annual british comedy awards. the bbc show beat the office
christmas special in the best tv comedy category and took the people s choice
award. matt lucas and david walliams also jointly won best tv comedy actor over the
office creator ricky gervais who won a special award for writing. it was also a
good night for ant and dec who clinched two awards including best comedy
entertainment personality. the geordie duo also secured best comedy entertainment
programme for saturday night takeaway beating i m a celebrity... get me out of
here! which they also host and the bbc s have i got news for you. the ceremony
was presented by jonathan ross from itv s london studios headquarters on the
capital s south bank. little britain began life as a radio series on radio 4 with
walliams and lucas playing a range of misfit characters from an alternative
britain. it was later commissioned for bbc three where it proved a huge success
with the second series also shown on bbc one. after receiving his award for best tv
comedy actor with walliams lucas said: it s a great honour to be nominated
alongside ricky gervais and martin clunes. the show also won the people s choice
award which is the only gong on the night voted for by viewers. speaking after
receiving the award for best comedy walliams said: it was a real shock but i don
t think we deserved to beat the office which is a great show and more than just a
comedy. it s a beautiful piece of work. gervais and the office co-writer stephen
merchant received a special award for writing presented by noel gallagher and tom
stoppard. gervais said: the show has won an awful lot of awards in the last couple
of years too much. it s got embarrassing to be honest. other winners at the
awards included caroline quentin who took home best tv comedy actress for life
begins and von trapped. catherine tate from the catherine tate show was also
nominated for the same award but she did walk away with best comedy newcomer over
james mcavoy from shameless (channel 4) and julian barratt and noel fielding from
the mighty boosh (bbc three). nighty night was named britain s best new tv comedy
over itv1 shows doc martin and life begins. but doc martin won best tv comedy drama
over jonathan creek (bbc one) and shameless. winner in the best international
comedy category was the simpsons beating sex and the city and curb your
enthusiasm. the prize was accepted by matt groening creator of the simpsons who
also received an outstanding contribution award from scientist stephen hawking who
has been featured in the series. school of rock was voted best comedy film beating
shaun of the dead and shrek 2. matt lucas & david walliams (little britain bbc
three) caroline quentin (life begins/ von trapped itv1) ant & dec (ant & dec s
saturday night takeaway/ i m a celebrity get me out of here! itv1) catherine
tate (the catherine tate show bbc two) nighty night (baby cow productions bbc
three) little britain (bbc three) doc martin (buffalo productions itv1) ant &
dec s saturday night takeaway (granada itv1) the simpsons (twentieth century fox
bbc two/sky one/channel 4) school of rock
fa decides not to punish mourinho the football association will take no action
against chelsea boss jose mourinho following his sending-off in sunday s carling
cup final. mourinho who was sent from the touchline for appearing to taunt
liverpool fans has been reminded of his responsibilities to the game . but the fa
confirmed: there will be no further action taken in this matter. mourinho claimed
his silence gesture was aimed at the media although they were on the other side
of the ground. the former porto coach was forced to watch the climax of his side s
3-2 victory over liverpool on television after being ushered away from the
touchline by fourth official phil crossley. his gesture came after chelsea s
equaliser on 79 minutes courtesy of a steven gerrard own goal. mourinho still faces
an fa investigation into his allegation that manchester united s players cheated
during january s carling cup semi-final at stamford bridge. and uefa could also
launch disciplinary action following mourinho s failure to attend a compulsory
post-match press conference after chelsea s champions league defeat at barcelona
last week. in addition some time this month chelsea must also answer a charge of
failing to control their players during the premiership win at blackburn in
february. and a charge of failing to control their supporters following a carling
cup meeting with west ham earlier this season is still to be heard. the premier
league is also continuing investigations into allegations chelsea officials tapped
up arsenal defender ashley cole in january.
football manager scores big time for the past decade or so the virtual football
fans among us will have become used to the annual helping of championship manager
(cm). indeed it seems like there has been a cm game for as many years as there
have been pcs. however last year was the final time that developers sports
interactive (si) and publishers eidos would work together. they decided to go their
separate ways and each kept a piece of the franchise. si kept the game s code and
database and eidos retained rights to the cm brand and the look and feel of the
game. so at the beginning of this year fans faced a new situation. eidos announced
the next cm game with a new team to develop it from scratch whilst si developed
the existing code further to be released with new publishers sega under the name
football manager. so what does this mean well football manager is the spiritual
successor to the cm series and it has been released earlier than expected. at this
point cm5 looks like it will ship early next year. but given that football manager
2005 is by and large the game that everybody knows and loves how does this new
version shape up a game like fm2005 could blind you with statistics. it has an
obscene number of playable leagues an obscene number of manageable teams and a
really obscene number of players and staff from around the world in the database
with stats faithfully researched and compiled by a loyal army of fans. but that
does not do justice to the game really. what we are talking about is the most
realistic and satisfying football management game to ever grace the earth. you
begin by picking the nations and leagues you want to manage teams from for
instance england and scotland. that will give you a choice not just of the four
main scottish leagues but the english premiership all the way down to the
conference north and south. of course you might be looking for european glory or
to get hold of abramovich s millions in which case you can take control at chelsea
or even barcelona real madrid ac milan ... the list goes on a very long way. once
in a team you will be told by the board what they expect of you. sometimes it is
promotion or a place in europe sometimes it is consolidation or a brave
relegation battle. it might even be a case of champions or else. obviously the
expectations are linked to the team you choose so choose wisely. then it is time
to look at your squad work out your tactics seeing how much cash if any you
have got to splash having a look at the transfer market sorting out the training
schedule and making sure your backroom staff are up to it. then bring on the
matches which are once more available in the ever-improving top down 2d view. with
the exception of the improved user interface on the surface not much else seems to
have changed. however there have been a lot of changes under the bonnet as well -
things like the manager mind-games which let you talk to the media about the
opposition bosses. the match engine is also much improved and it is more of a joy
than ever to watch. in fact just about every area of the game has been tweaked and
it leads to an ever more immersive experience. with a game that is so complex and
so open-ended there are of course a few glitches but nowhere near the sorts of
problems that have blighted previous releases. with so many calculations to perform
the game can take some time to process in between matches though there have been
improvements in this area. and a sport like football which is so high profile and
unpredictable itself can never be modelled quite to everybody s satisfaction. but
this time around a great deal of hard work has been put in to ensure that any
oddities that do crop up are cosmetic only and do not affect gameplay. and if
there are problems further down the line sports interactive have indicated their
usual willingness to support and develop the game as far as possible. in all there
are many more tweaks and improvements. if you were a fan of the previous cm games
then fm2005 might make you forget there was anything else before it. if you are new
to the genre but like the idea of trying to take margate into the premiership
spurs into europe or even putting rangers back on the top of the tree fm2005
could be the best purchase you ever made. just be warned that the family might not
see you much at christmas. football manager 2005 out now for the pc and the mac
tautou to star in da vinci film french actress audrey tautou star of hit film
amelie will play the female lead in the film adaptation of the da vinci code it
has been reported. the movie version of dan brown s best-selling novel is being
directed by ron howard and also stars tom hanks. tautou will play hanks code-
cracking partner according to various newspapers. she is currently starring in a
very long engagement directed by jean-pierre jeunet. jeunet was also responsible
for directing tautou in amelie in 2001 which launched the actress into the
mainstream. she also starred as the lead role in critically-acclaimed film dirty
pretty things in 2002. oscar-winning director ron howard chose tautou for the part
preferring a french actress to a big name hollywood star. uk actress kate
beckinsale had been widely tipped as a possibility for the role alongside vanessa
paradis and juliette binoche. the thriller upon which the movie is based has sold
more than 17 million copies and is centred on a global conspiracy surrounding the
holy grail mythology. the louvre museum scene of the gruesome murder at the
beginning of the novel recently gave permission for filming to take place there
showbusiness newspaper variety reported. the $100m movie will be produced by
columbia/sony pictures and is due for release on may 19 2006 in the united states
and france.
kluft impressed by sotherton form olympic heptathlon champion carolina kluft was
full of admiration for britain s kelly sotherton as the pair prepared to clash in
birmingham. both will be in action on friday in the 60m hurdles and long jump
ahead of the european indoor championships later this month in madrid. sotherton
finished third behind the swede in athens and kluft said: i knew about her she s
a great girl. she looked very good early in the season and was competing really
well. kluft showed impressive early-season form on tuesday in stockholm s ge galan
meeting winning the sprint hurdles the long jump and the 400m. sotherton has also
displayed promise with a new high jump personal best in sheffield at the combined
norwich union european trials and aaa championships and a second place in the long
jump behind jade johnson.
mourinho takes swipe at arsenal chelsea boss jose mourinho has attempted to pile
the pressure on title rivals arsenal ahead of the gunners facing newcastle on
wednesday. arsenal will play the magpies a day after chelsea beat portsmouth
during a busy festive programme. and mourinho said: they always seem to have two
or three days rest in which to recover. perhaps it s something to do with the
television schedule. all my players are tired especially john terry. chelsea
boss jose mourinho admitted his side were lucky to win at fratton park but is
still unhappy with the amount of games in such a short space of time during this
time of year. he added: we have had to play two matches in three days which is
foreign to many of my players and although i understand the traditions of football
here at this time of year it is not good for your health to do it. you can sit
back and smoke cigars one after another and it is a good life but it is not
actually good for you. playing so many games is certainly not healthy especially
for teams who still have european commitment.
broadband fuels online change fast web access is encouraging more people to express
themselves online research suggests. a quarter of broadband users in britain
regularly upload content and have personal sites according to a report by uk
think-tank demos. it said that having an always-on fast connection is changing the
way people use the internet. more than five million households in the uk have
broadband and that number is growing fast. the demos report looked at the impact
of broadband on people s net habits. it found that more than half of those with
broadband logged on to the web before breakfast. one in five even admitted to
getting up in the middle of the night to browse the web. more significantly
argues the report broadband is encouraging people to take a more active role
online. it found that one in five post something on the net everyday ranging from
comments or opinions on sites to uploading photographs. broadband is putting the
me in media as it shifts power from institutions and into the hands of the
individual said john craig co-author of the demos report. from self-diagnosis
to online education broadband creates social innovation that moves the debate
beyond simple questions of access and speed. the demos report entitled broadband
britain: the end of asymmetry was commissioned by net provider aol. broadband is
moving the perception of the internet as a piece of technology to an integral part
of home life in the uk said karen thomson chief executive of aol uk with many
people spending time on their computers as automatically as they might switch on
the television or radio. according to analysts nielsen//netratings more than 50%
of the 22.8 million uk net users regularly accessing the web from home each month
are logging on at high speed they spend twice as long online than people on dial-up
connections viewing an average of 1 444 pages per month. the popularity of fast
net access is growing partly fuelled by fierce competition over prices and
services.
ba to suspend two saudi services british airways is to halt its flights from london
heathrow to jeddah and riyadh in saudi arabia from 27 march. the airline said the
decision was a commercial one due to reduced passenger demand for the services. ba
currently operates four flights per week from heathrow to jeddah and three weekly
journeys to riyadh. it suspended flights to saudi arabia for three weeks in autumn
2003 after a government warning about a threat to uk aviation interests in saudi
arabia . ba will now suspend the saudi flights - which it says will remain under
constant review - from 27 march. the decision to suspend flights between the uk
and saudi arabia is a difficult one to make as we have enjoyed a long history of
flying between the two countries said ba director of commercial planning robert
boyle. however the routes don t currently make a profitable contribution to our
business and we are unable to sustain them while this remains the case. passengers
with flights booked after the suspension date will be contacted by ba for
alternative arrangements to be made.
david blunkett in quotes david blunkett - who has resigned as home secretary -
built his reputation as a plain-speaking yorkshire man. i fell in love with
someone and they wouldn t go public and things started to go very badly wrong in
the summer and then the news of the world picked up the story. i tried for three
years to make something work. trust plain-speaking and straight talking is
something which matters so much to me as a politician and as a man that i have
decided of my own volition to request an independent review of the allegations
that i misused my position. i don t think anyone can say i have said one thing
in public and done another in private. it would be dangerous territory if i wasn
t practising what i preach which is to always accept responsibility always accept
the consequences of your actions. none of us believe countering terrorism is
about party politics. i accepted by necessity we have to have prevention under a
new category which is to intervene before the act is committed rather than do so
by due process after the act is committed when it s too late he said in reference
to new anti-terrorism measures. our work with the french government...has been
hugely successful said mr blunkett. the number of illegal immigrants detected in
dover has dropped dramatically. strengthening our identity is one way or
reinforcing people s confidence and sense of citizenship and well-being. i
foolishly thought as this was a celebrity edition it would be more relaxed than
normal. you wake up and you receive a phone call - shipman s topped himself.
you have just got to think for a minute: is it too early to open a bottle
china ripe for media explosion asia is set to drive global media growth to 2008
and beyond with china and india filling the two top spots analysts have
predicted. japan south korea and singapore will also be strong players but china
s demographics give it the edge a media conference in london heard. the world s
most populous country - population 1.3bn - now has about 200 million middle-class
consumers. forty per cent fall in the key 16 to 35-year-old demographic. as a
result it is attracting huge foreign investment in media and communications
analysts told the financial times new media and broadcasting conference last week.
interest in china among international media groups has surged in recent months
after beijing issued rules allowing foreign investment in joint-venture television
radio and film production companies. news corporation viacom and sony pictures are
among the big names involved in joint ventures with chinese players. more than 700
million chinese listen to 1 000 radio stations while 200 tv stations broadcast 2
900 channels. china central television (cctv) the state broadcaster claims an
audience of more than a billion people. of the country s 360 million households
100 million receive cable tv programmes. the rest could be a potential audience for
satellite broadcasting which china plans to launch in 2006. the state
administration of radio film and television (sarft) which regulates broadcasting
plans to move all programmes to digital by 2015. the continuing roll-out of new
digital channels has boosted demand for quality content creating significant
opportunities for both chinese and foreign content providers. but according to
recent reports from china the authorities have tightened controls over foreign
investment in tv production joint ventures. it has limited most foreign companies
to only one joint venture and banned the involvement of any found to be unfriendly
according to reports. the sarft said: there is a very strong ideological component
to production of broadcast television programmes. it added: china must understand
the political tendencies and background of overseas partners and prevent joint
ventures or cooperation from bringing harmful foreign thinking or culture into our
production sector. according to the financial times china correspondent the new
rules highlight the political sensitivities that surround foreign involvement in
china s media sector. this is despite beijing s decision to open the state-
dominated sector to international investment. as well as traditional broadcasting
chinese and foreign entrepreneurs alike see fortunes waiting to be made in new
media like mobile services and online gaming. mobile games already account for 15%
of revenues from china s 340 million mobile users. online gaming sales are
predicted to top a billion us dollars next year according to the uk-based journal
screen digest. the video market is also seen as a big opportunity although piracy
levels are still very high despite an anti-piracy drive during the past year. in
the cinema industry the deployment of digital screens is being accelerated. this is
not just to modernise venues but also to curb piracy and regulate distribution. li
ruigang president of the commercial broadcaster shanghai media group told the
conference that china s new media market is already experiencing explosive
growth . it was particularly strong in charged broadband services and mobile value-
added services. leading china-watcher and founder of the cga consultancy jeanne-
marie gescher agreed that the time was ripe for foreign media groups to tap china
s huge media market potential. china s media are now driven by investors who do
not care how people consume media - they just want people to consume more of it
mrs gescher concluded.
share boost for feud-hit reliance the board of indian conglomerate reliance has
agreed a share buy-back to counter the effects of a power struggle in the
controlling family. the buy-back is a victory for chairman mukesh ambani whose
idea it was. his brother anil the vice-chairman said had not been consulted and
that the buy-back was completely inappropriate and unnecessary . the board hopes
the move will reverse a 13% fall in reliance s shares since the feud became public
last month. the company has been fractious since founder dhirubhai ambani died in
2002 leaving no will. today s round has gone to [mukesh] there is no doubt about
it said nanik rupani president of the indian merchants chamber a bombay-based
traders body. the company plans to buy back 52 million shares at 570 rupees
(£6.80; $13) apiece a premium of more than 10% to its current market price.
roche turns down federer offer australian tennis coach tony roche has turned down
an approach from roger federer to be the world number one s new full-time coach
say reports. melbourne s herald-sun said roche troubled by a hip complaint did
not want to travel full-time again. however roche is happy to work with the swiss
star on a casual basis and is helping him prepare for next month s defence of his
australian open crown. federer has been without a coach since splitting with peter
lundgren in 2003. roche a former davis cup player for australia won the french
open reached the wimbledon and us open finals and won five wimbledon doubles
titles with john newcombe. he also coached former number one ivan lendl and pat
rafter to grand slam victories and has worked with australia s lleyton hewitt. some
reports claim federer initially wanted andre agassi s australian coach darren
cahill before agassi confirmed he would play on in 2005. federer was named swiss
sportsman of the year on saturday to add to the bbc overseas sportsman and
european sports journalists association awards he has already won.
branson show flops on us screens entrepreneur sir richard branson s us tv show the
rebel billionaire is proving a flop in the ratings. the programme suffered poor
viewing figures on its debut on the fox network three weeks ago and has lost one
in five of its viewers since then. the show is seen as fox s answer to the
apprentice featuring tycoon donald trump a ratings hit for rivals nbc. sir richard
s show sees a group of young entrepreneurs compete to become the president of his
business empire. the rebel billionaire has averaged five million viewers and is
91st in the rankings of all prime-time shows. the apprentice which has already
completed its first season is still managing to pull in 16 million viewers while
its prime-time ranking is number four. but fox has said it plans to stick with
branson s show throughout its 12-episode run. it s going to remain on the air
said the network s spokesman scott grogin. creatively we re extremely pleased with
the show and hope the audience will find it he added. contestants on sir richard
s show are confronted with business tasks to solve similar to the apprentice. they
are also subjected to stunts like walking a plank suspended in mid-air. the rebel
billionaire has marketed itself as a less materialistic version of the apprentice
with sir richard shown jumping out of a taxi while trump is seen in a limousine.
wilkinson return unlikely jonny wilkinson looks set to miss the whole of the 2005
rbs six nations. england s world cup-winning fly-half said last week he was hoping
to recover from his latest injury in time to play some role in the championship.
but rob andrew coach of wilkinson s club side newcastle said that with only two
games left to play wilkinson was unlikely to be fit in time. it would be
irresponsible to put him straight into a test match andrew told the times.
wilkinson is recovering from a knee injury which followed long-term neck and arm
injuries. he has not played for england since the world cup final in november 2003
since when the stuttering world champions have lost nine of their 14 matches.
wilkinson is aiming to make his third start to the season in the zurich premiership
match against harlequins on 13 march. that game is the day after england play
italy in the six nations and six days before their final match of the championship
against scotland. we are hoping jonny will be ready in a fortnight but it is
touch and go said andrew. his recovery is going very well and the key now is how
he is reintroduced to playing and with it goal-kicking. he will probably have to
come off the bench to start and it would be ridiculous and irresponsible to put him
straight back into a test match. we can t afford to get it wrong with a knee
injury. we are in touch with england and they are relaxed about it. despite not
playing for england wilkinson is still hoping to make the lions tour to new
zealand this summer. lions coach sir clive woodward has not set a deadline for when
wilkinson has to start playing again in order to be considered for selection.
dvd review: harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban this third harry potter film
brought a change of director and a dramatic visual shake-up that really shines on
dvd. gone are the warm bright colours found in the two earlier films alfonso
cuaron brings in a bleak and cold feel that is simply gorgeous - and looks even
better here than in the cinema. it is all part of the progression of harry s story
into darker areas but you ll spend time just marvelling at the beautiful hogwarts
landscape. this is the first potter film where you get so lost in the screen
adaptation that you forget the book. it is the third year at hogwarts and studies
are interrupted as they always are by a calamity that only harry ron and
hermione can put right. it sounds corny. but harry is no longer the winsome hero
he is a moody teenager and daniel radcliffe pulls it off very well. emma watson is
ever better as hermione and the young stars are joined by the usual myriad famous
actors including gary oldman and emma thompson. the film itself is the reason to
buy this dvd. but it is laden with behind-the-scenes extras including funny if
shallow interviews with all the main cast. but what seems like a long list of
features can be swiftly whittled down to the few that you are going to watch.
younger viewers will go for the games which include a magic you may have missed
memory test and crookshanks chasing off after scabbers. adult viewers will ignore
those and go straight to the deleted scenes. you will understand why they were
deleted but it is fun to see more footage - and not have to hunt through endless
menus to find it as we did on the first harry potter dvd. the most interesting
pieces are an interview with jk rowling in creating the vision and conjuring a
scene a short featurette about the making of the film s big moments.
teenagers to be allowed to be mps teenagers will be able to become mps under plans
unveiled by ministers. in a written statement constitutional affairs minister
christopher leslie said the current minimum age of 21 for an mp would be reduced to
18. the proposals follow a recommendation last year by elections watchdog the
electoral commission. the government intends to legislate when parliamentary time
allows to lower the age said mr leslie who was elected in 1997 at the age of
24. even if the move does go ahead it is unlikely it will be in place before the
next general election widely predicted for may. the announcement from mr leslie -
who was elected in 1997 in a formerly safe tory seat - prompted calls for a
lowering of the voting age to 16. the votes at 16 alliance said it was a good thing
to engage people by lowering the candidacy age but argued lowering the voting age
would be much more effective. candidacy affects only politicians. the voting age
affects millions of younger people said spokesman alex folkes. we would hope
that the government will table a bill that is broad enough to allow for amendments
to be brought to test support for a reduction in the voting age. currently
candidates in both local and national votes must be 21 while the voting age is 18.
that is because the age of majority was reduced to 18 in 1969 but laws dating from
1695 which determine the current voting age stayed in place. irish republican
bernadette devlin was one of just a handful of 21-year-olds elected to parliament
in the 20th century winning a seat in 1969. but the youngest is understood to have
been tory edward turnour who won the 1904 horsham by-election aged 21 and 144 days
and served in parliament for 47 continuous years. last april s report by the
electoral commission said there was no strong argument for leaving the age for
standing for election at 21. the commission found the most common approach around
the world is for the voting age to be the same as the candidacy age.
anti-spam screensaver scrapped a contentious campaign to bump up the bandwidth
bills of spammers by flooding their sites with data has been dropped. lycos europe
s make love not spam campaign began in late november but its tactics proved
controversial. lycos has shut down the campaign saying it had been started to
stimulate debate about anti-spam measures and had now achieved this aim. the anti-
spammer screensaver came under fire for encouraging vigilante activity and skirting
the edge of the law. through the make love not spam website users could download
a screensaver that would endlessly request data from the net sites mentioned in
many junk mail messages. more than 100 000 people are thought to have downloaded
the screensaver that lycos europe offered. the company wanted to keep the spam
sites running at near total capacity to make it much less financially attractive to
spammers to operate the sites. but the campaign was controversial from the moment
it kicked off and many net veterans criticised it for using spamming-type tactics
against the senders of junk mail. some net service firms began blocking access to
the lycos europe site in protest at the action. monitoring firm netcraft found that
the anti-spam campaign was proving a little too successful. according to response-
time figures gathered by netcraft some of the sites that the screensaver targeted
were being knocked offline by the constant data requests. in a statement from lycos
europe announcing the scrapping of the scheme the company denied that this was its
fault. there is nothing to suggest that make love not spam has brought down any
of the sites that it has targeted it said. at the time that netcraft measured
the sites it claims may have been brought down they were not in fact part of the
make love not spam attack cycle it added. the statement issued by lycos also
said that the centralised database it used ensured that traffic to the target sites
left them with 5% spare capacity. the idea was simply to slow spammers sites and
this was achieved by the campaign the company said. many security organisations
said users should not participate in the lycos europe campaign. the closure comes
only days after the campaign was suspended following the outbreak of criticism.
snow patrol feted at irish awards snow patrol were the big winners in ireland s top
music honours the meteor awards picking up accolades for best irish band and
album on thursday. the belfast-born glasgow-based band collected the prizes at
the ceremony at dublin s point theatre. westlife won the award for best irish pop
act voted for by the public beating former member brian mcfadden. franz ferdinand
picked up best international band and album while paddy casey collected best irish
male. singer-songwriter casey beat brian mcfadden and damien rice. juliette turner
was named best irish female. in the international categories morrissey beat
eminem usher and robbie williams to best male while pj harvey pipped kylie minogue
joss stone anastacia and natasha bedingfield to the female crown. the 8 000 fans
at the ceremony were treated to performances from us rapper snoop dogg brian
mcfadden with delta goodrem and the thrills featuring rolling stones star ronnie
wood. snow patrol s success came after a year in which they made a chart
breakthrough with their third album final straw. i think a lot of bands should go
through a wee bit of a kicking before the make a success singer gary lightbody
and drummer jonny quinn said. it has been good for us but also hard for us over
the past six years. snow patrol will support u2 on their european tour later this
year - but u2 were not nominated for best irish band and album.
new harry potter tops book chart harry potter and the half-blood prince has topped
amazon s book chart less than 24 hours after its release date - 16 july - was
announced. thousands of customers placed pre-orders on the amazon.co.uk website
for the sixth book in the series. rowling revealed she had completed the novel on
tuesday ahead of the scheduled announcement on 25 december. it will be published
simultaneously in the uk the us canada australia new zealand and south africa.
jk rowling s fifth book in the wizard series harry potter and order of the phoenix
was amazon s largest pre-ordered item ever with 420 000 copies pre-ordered prior
to its release in june 2003. customers who pre-order harry potter and the half-
blood prince avoid standing in long queues at bookshops on the day of the book s
release next july. the fact that the book has already hit number one in our hot
100 books chart shows how incredibly excited customers are about the sixth harry
potter said amazon s robin terrell. harry potter and the half-blood prince takes
up the story of harry potter s sixth year at hogwarts school of witchcraft and
wizardry as lord voldemort grows stronger. rowling has already revealed that the
half-blood prince is neither harry nor voldemort. and she added that the opening
chapter of the book had been brewing in her mind for 13 years. rowling said she had
plenty of time while pregnant to tinker with the manuscript to my satisfaction and
i am as happy as i have ever been with the end result . she also previously
revealed that a character will be killed in the sixth book but she has given no
hints as to who it might be. following publication of the sixth book just one
novel remains to complete the series.
pension hitch for long-living men male life expectancy is much higher than
originally estimated leading pension researchers have said. the pensions policy
institute (ppi) said life expectancy for unskilled and professional men has been
understated. life expectancy at birth is 71 years for a manual worker and 79 years
for a professional - a gap of eight years. but if measured at age 65 instead the
ppi said a manual worker will live to 81 years and a professional worker to 86
years - a gap of just five years. the ppi s estimate is higher because it excludes
people who have died before they reach 65 years of age and also takes into account
ongoing improvements in life expectancy. the government has ruled out raising the
state pension age because it says it would penalise lower-skilled workers who
generally have lower life expectancies. chris curry ppi research director said
its calculations suggested there could be more pressure on state pension spending
than originally envisaged. even people in social class v [unskilled manual
workers] who are widely likely to have the lowest life expectancy can still expect
to live 16 years after state pension age he said. researchers have not updated
life expectancy projections for women who on average live longer than men.
sir paul rocks super bowl crowds sir paul mccartney wowed fans with a live mini-
concert at american football s super bowl - and avoided any janet jackson-style
controversies. the 62-year-old sang hey jude and other beatles songs in a 12-
minute set at half-time during the game in florida. last year jackson exposed a
breast during a dance routine causing outrage among millions of tv viewers and
landing the cbs tv network a fine. sir paul however did nothing more racy than
remove his jacket as he sang. organisers were widely considered to be playing it
safe this year by booking 62-year-old sir paul for his second super bowl show.
three years ago he was invited to perform at the first super bowl after the
september 11 attacks and performed his specially-written song freedom. this time
he started off the show at the alltel stadium in jacksonville florida with the
beatles numbers drive my car and get back. he then performed a mellow version of
live and let die the james bond theme he recorded with the band wings. finally he
closed the show with a rousing version of hey jude. the former beatle resisted any
temptation to refer to janet jackson s headline-grabbing performance last year
instead keeping banter between songs to a minimum in order to squeeze as much music
as he could into his slot. the singer removed his black jacket halfway through the
show - but any fans hoping for a second nipple-gate were to be disappointed as he
kept his red sweatshirt on underneath. earlier the black eyed peas and alicia
keys had provided the night s other high-profile entertainment by performing in a
pre-game show. black eyed peas singer fergie was dressed in a tight orange top and
purple hotpants but nothing in her performance was likely to upset tv watchdogs.
after the controversy last year - which saw cbs fined a record $550 000 (£292 000)
by federal regulators - super bowl organisers had turned to producer don mischer to
oversee this year s half-time show. his previous production credits included
olympic opening and closing ceremonies. the super bowl is watched by an audience of
144.4 million in the us with many of the people watching are said to tune in
specifically to see the entertainment put on around the event. michael jackson
aerosmith diana ross gloria estefan and phil collins are among the stars who have
previously graced the super bowl stage.
da vinci code is lousy history the plot of an international bestseller that
thousands of readers are likely to receive as a christmas present is laughable a
clergyman has said. the da vinci code claims jesus was not crucified but married
mary magdalene and died a normal death. it claims this was later covered up by the
church. the bishop of durham the rt rev dr tom wright described the novel as a
great thriller but lousy history . the book has sold more than seven million
copies worldwide. despite enjoying dan brown s conspiracy theory the bishop said
there was a lack of evidence to back up its claims. writing his christmas message
in the northern echo the bishop said: conspiracy theories are always fun - fun to
invent fun to read fun to fantasise about. dan brown is the best writer i ve
come across in the genre but anyone who knows anything about 1st century history
will see that this underlying material is laughable. a great deal of credible
evidence proves the biblical version of jesus life was true according to the
bishop. the evidence for jesus and the origins of christianity is astonishingly
good he said. we have literally a hundred times more early manuscripts for the
gospels and letters in the new testament than we have for the main classical
authors like cicero virgil and tacitus. historical research shows that they
present a coherent and thoroughly credible picture of jesus with all sorts of
incidental details that fit the time when he lived and don t fit the world of
later legend. brown s book has become a publishing phenomenon consistently
topping book charts in the uk and us. the da vinci code has been translated into 42
languages and has spawned its own cottage industry of publications including
guides on to how to read the book rebuttals and counter claims. the book which
has become an international best-seller in little over two years is set to be made
into a film starring tom hanks.
parry firm over gerrard listen to the full interview on sport on five and the bbc
sport website from 1900 gmt. but parry speaking exclusively to bbc sport also
admits gerrard who has been constantly linked with chelsea will have the final
say on his future. he told bbc five live: steven is above money. he is the future
of liverpool. it doesn t matter if it s £30m £40m or £50m we will not accept
offers. but we are also realistic enough to know we can t keep steven against his
will. on the subject of liverpool s finances parry also revealed the club is
ready to explore the possibility of a sponsorship deal for its proposed new
stadium. and responding to criticism from bbc sport pundit and former liverpool
stalwart alan hansen he insisted talks on new investment are ongoing but added
the door has not closed on shareholder and lifelong fan steve morgan. parry joined
liverpool as chief executive in july 1998 from a similar role at the premier
league. there have been several highs and lows during his time in charge at anfield
- and he had a busy summer overseeing the arrival of new manager rafael benitez
and managing to hold on to steven gerrard. on the subject of liverpool s captain
and prize asset parry revealed real madrid did ask for an option on the england
midfield man during negotiations for striker fernando morientes. he said: they
were looking for ways of saying they got more out of the deal for fernando
morientes but the response to real madrid was the same - steven is not for sale.
but when asked if gerrard would be a liverpool player on the first day of next
season parry said: i sincerely hope he will be. steven knows my views. he knows
rafa s views. we have re-affirmed recently to steven that we are trying to build a
team around him. we crave success as much as he does. we know he s ambitious and
nobody can argue with that. i think steven would dearly love to win things with
liverpool more than he d like to do anything else. we all want to see progress by
next season. he s not alone in that. there are a lot of other players who feel the
same so we all have a common aim. it is expected chelsea will test liverpool with
a £30m-plus bid in the summer - but parry claims he will be in no mood to listen.
there have been a lot of open secrets about steven most of which have been
complete myths. it is suggested we had a deal tied up last summer. we didn t had an
offer last summer parry explained. we had told chelsea that as far as we were
concerned he was not for sale and we didn t want to sell him. in reality it didn t
go beyond that. maybe there will be an offer in the summer. maybe there won t.
our position is we want steven to stay but we are also realistic enough and have
enough respect for steven - and he has enough respect for us - to know that it is
his decision that will be crucial. you are not going to keep a player like steven
against his will. that just doesn t work but any idea we are going to accept
offers for steven and then tell him by the way we ve decided to sell you is not
on the agenda. you can forget that. parry is currently in the process of
finalising funding for liverpool s new stadium in stanley park which is set to
open in 2007. and he confessed arsenal s £100m deal with emirates to sponsor their
new ground - complete with naming rights - has given the anfield club serious food
for thought. he said: i have to say historically it is something i have been
against and i have been on record as saying that but i think the size of the
arsenal deal is a real eye-opener. i would say in the past deals have been done
frankly far too cheaply and it just hasn t even been worth contemplating. but the
arsenal deal is the sort of deal that causes you to draw breath and say wow - that
s interesting. my personal point of view is that i would find it a hell of a lot
more palatable than a shared stadium. some liverpool fans would find such a move
highly controversial but parry countered: i recognise it would be an emotive
issue for many supporters but you look at the amount of money available and it
could go into the team. if it was the right partner how strong an issue is it
time will tell. i think the stadium will always be anfield not least because of
where it is but do we need to investigate the possibilities of sponsorship i
think it would be remiss not to. that s not to say we have made a decision that we
will go down that road but i think it is clearly something we have to explore.
on the subject of possible new investment parry revealed liverpool are still in
negotiations with a mystery investor with rumours of interest from the middle
east. that prompted the withdrawal of tycoon steve morgan who got frustrated by
failed bids and what he claimed was indecision by the board. he also accused
liverpool of using him as a stalking horse to attract other bids but parry
explained: steve has never been used as a stalking horse. there s no need and
that is not the way we do business. we had discussions with steve over the course
of 2004. i think we came close to concluding a deal in the summer but it didn t
happen. quite genuinely the new interest did appear relatively late in the day
just prior to the agm in december and as i have said it was of such potential
magnitude and that potential is so exciting we felt we had to evaluate it. we are
still evaluating it. steve s interest was taken very much on its own merits. his
enthusiasm for the club is there for all to see and who knows what the next few
months will hold the door isn t closed on anything. we had a perfectly sensible
dialogue with steve last year. we have a common interest in making liverpool
successful. that s a dream we all share so as far as i m concerned the door is not
closed. i would take £50m if we had no investment but if we did keep him. as
for the stadium if it gets us cash what difference does it make really £50m for
gerrard i don t care who you are the directors would take the money and it is the
way it should be. we cannot let that sum of money go despite gerrard s quality.
through a cleverly worded statement the club has effectively forced gerrard to
publicly make the decision for himself which i think is the right thing to do.
critical time for liverpool with regards to gerrard. ideally we would want to
secure his future to the club for the long term. i am hoping he doesn t walk out of
the club like michael owen did for very little cash. £50m realistically would
allow rafa to completely rebuild the squad however if we can afford to do this
and keep gerrard we will be better for it. i would however be happy with gerrard s
transfer for any fee over £35m. parry s statements are clever in that any future
gerrard transfer cannot be construed as a lack of ambition by the club to not try
and keep their best players. upping the ante is another smart move by parry. i
would keep gerrard. no amount of money could replace his obvious love of the club
and determination to succeed. the key is if gerrard comes out and says that he is
happy. clearly if he isn t then we would be foolish not to sell. the worrying
thing is who would you buy (or who would come) pending possible non-champions
league football.
court mulls file-sharing future judges at the us supreme court have been hearing
evidence for and against file-sharing networks. the court will decide whether
producers of file-sharing software can ultimately be held responsible for copyright
infringement. they questioned if opening the way for the entertainment industry to
sue file-sharers could deter innovation. they also said that file-trading firms had
some responsibility for inducing people to piracy. the lawsuit brought by 28 of
the world s largest entertainment firms has raged for several years. legal experts
agree that if the supreme court finds in favour of the music and movie industry
they would be able to sue file-trading firms into bankruptcy. but if the judge
rules that grokster and morpheus - the file-sharers at the centre of the case - are
merely providers of technology that can have legitimate as well as illegitimate
uses then the music and movie industry would be forced to abandon its pursuit of
file-sharing providers. instead they would have to pursue individuals who use
peer-to-peer networks to get their hands on free music and movies. the hi-tech and
entertainment industries have been divided on the issue. intel filed a document
with the supreme court earlier this month in defence of grokster and others
despite misgivings about some aspects of the file-sharing community. it summed up
the attitude of many tech firms in its submission which states that its products
are essentially tools that like any other tools capable of being used by
consumers and businesses for unlawful purposes . asking firms to second-guess the
uses that its technologies would be put to and to build in ways of preventing
illegitimate use would stifle innovation it said. the electronic frontier
foundation a civil rights watchdog is also defending streamcast networks the
company behind the morpheus file-sharing software. the case raises a question of
critical importance at the border between copyright and innovation it said. it
cites as do many the landmark ruling in 1984 which found that sony should not be
held responsible for the fact that its betamax video recorder could be used for
piracy. defenders remain optimistic that the judges will rule in favour of the
peer-to-peer networks upholding the precedent set by the sony betamax case. a
small band of supporters were outside the court as the lawyers entered wearing
save betamax t-shirts. the betamax principles stand as the magna carta for the
technology industry and are responsible for the explosion in innovation that has
occurred in the us over the past 20 years said gary shapiro chief executive of
the consumer electronics association. supreme court justice stephen breyer said
that inventions from printing to apple s ipod could be used to illegally duplicate
copyrighted materials but had on balance been beneficial to society. he said that
while file-trading software can be used to illegally trade movies and music
conceptually the technology had some really excellent uses . based on tuesday s
hearing it seems unlikely that the betamax ruling will be overturned but file-
sharing firms might still be held responsible for encouraging or inducing piracy.
grokster s lawyer argued that the company should be judged by its current behaviour
rather than what it did when it first set up. but this argument was dismissed as
ridiculous by justice david souter. cea boss mr shapiro thinks the case is the
most important that the supreme court will hear this year. it s about preserving
america s proud history of technological innovation and protecting the ability of
consumers to access and utilise technology he said. the case has already been
heard by two lower courts and both found in favour of the peer-to-peer networks.
they ruled that despite being used to distribute millions of illegal songs file-
sharing could also be used to cheaply distribute software government documents and
promotional copies of music.
swap offer for pirated windows xp computer giant microsoft has launched a pilot
scheme to replace counterfeit versions of windows xp with legal ones. the first-
time initiative is restricted to the uk and to users with pre-installed copies of
the operating system in pcs bought before november. until december microsoft said
software can be sent to it for analysis if there are doubts about its legitimacy.
the company aims to detect illegal traders and turn users of fake versions of
windows into legitimate ones. the windows xp counterfeit project will mean that
software that is found to be counterfeit will be replaced for free subject to
certain conditions until the end of the year. it is the first time microsoft has
launched a counterfeit product replacement scheme in the world the company told
the bbc news website. in june the software giant said that the major security
update to windows xp service pack 2 would not work with the most widely pirated
versions of its operating system. the upgrade closed security loopholes in xp and
added features that made it easier to keep machines safe from viruses and other
types of malicious computer code. the us company invited anyone who had suspicions
about their version of windows xp to submit it for testing as soon as possible. the
procedure consists of a series of computer checks collating documents and filling
out a witness statement. this is a great opportunity for users to confirm the
authenticity of windows xp software whilst helping gather vital information about
illegal traders said alex hilton licence compliance manager at microsoft. the
scheme has also been welcomed by the technology and commerce industry. it is
important that users ensure that they are legally licensed to avoid the risks of
purchasing and using counterfeit products said david frost director general of
the british chambers of commerce. the plan would enable microsoft to gather
intelligence about illegal traders in a prompt way which would allow it to take
action against software pirates. microsoft said it would evaluate the results of
the uk programme before setting up similar schemes in other countries.
probe launched on ken nazi jibe an investigation by the standards board is under
way following allegations that ken livingstone has brought his office into
disrepute. the probe follows the london mayor s comments to a jewish journalist
comparing him to a concentration camp guard after a party about a week ago. the
local government watchdog also said the allegation related to a failure to respect
others. it has the power to suspend or bar labour s mr livingstone from office. a
complaint was made to the body by the board of deputies of british jews and the
commission for racial equality. speaking after the investigation was announced bob
neill leader of the london assembly conservatives said: he has behaved in a
manner unbecoming of his office and in so doing has shown extraordinarily poor
civic leadership. his administration is now in crisis. on sunday deputy mayor
nicky gavron told the bbc s politics show she believed the mayor of london would
say sorry on tuesday for offending the wider jewish community. the prime minister
tony blair is among those who have called for an apology but so far the mayor has
refused. the mayor accused oliver finegold of the evening standard newspaper of
doorstepping him at a predominately gay event held for mp chris smith. ms gavron
said she thought mr livingstone s comments were inappropriate but she did not
believe the mayor was anti-semitic. she said: i work very closely with ken so i
can speak of what he s like in his guarded and unguarded moments and... he is in no
way anti-jewish i wouldn t for a moment work with him if he were. on the other
hand i think his remarks were inappropriate and i believe it is important and i
believe he will come to the point where he says i regret that i have caused
offence to the wider jewish community . i hope he will do it soon and it is mooted
that he is going to make some sort of statement on tuesday.
england given tough sevens draw england will have to negotiate their way through a
tough draw if they are to win the rugby world cup sevens in hong kong next month.
the second seeds have been drawn against samoa france italy georgia and chinese
taipei. the top two sides in each pool qualify but england could face 2001 winners
new zealand in the quarter-finals if they stumble against samoa. scotland and
ireland are in pool a together with the all blacks. england won the first event of
the international rugby board world sevens series in dubai but have slipped to
fourth in the table after failing to build on that victory. however they beat
samoa in the recent los angeles sevens before losing to argentina in the semi-
finals. england have the ability and determination to win this world cup and
create sporting history by being the only nation to hold both the 15s and sevens
world cups at the same time said england sevens coach mike friday. england have
a fantastic record in hong kong and have won there the last three years but the
world cup is on a different level. every pool contains teams who have caused
upsets before and we will have to work hard to ensure we progress from our group.
we have not performed consistently to our true potential so far in the irb sevens
which has been disappointing - but we can only look forward. england won the first
rugby world cup sevens in 1993 with a side that included the likes of lawrence
dallaglio and matt dawson. in 1997 and 2001 england lost in the quarter-finals.
(seeds in brackets) new zealand (1) scotland (8) tonga ireland korea usa.
england (2) samoa (7) france italy georgia chinese taipei. fiji (3)
australia (6) canada portugal japan hong kong. argentina (4) south africa (5)
kenya tunisia russia uruguay.
broadband fuels online expression fast web access is encouraging more people to
express themselves online research suggests. a quarter of broadband users in
britain regularly upload content and have personal sites according to a report by
uk think-tank demos. it said that having an always-on fast connection is changing
the way people use the internet. more than five million households in the uk have
broadband and that number is growing fast. the demos report looked at the impact
of broadband on people s net habits. it found that more than half of those with
broadband logged on to the web before breakfast. one in five even admitted to
getting up in the middle of the night to browse the web. more significantly
argues the report broadband is encouraging people to take a more active role
online. it found that one in five post something on the net everyday ranging from
comments or opinions on sites to uploading photographs. broadband is putting the
me in media as it shifts power from institutions and into the hands of the
individual said john craig co-author of the demos report. from self-diagnosis
to online education broadband creates social innovation that moves the debate
beyond simple questions of access and speed. the demos report entitled broadband
britain: the end of asymmetry was commissioned by net provider aol. broadband is
moving the perception of the internet as a piece of technology to an integral part
of home life in the uk said karen thomson chief executive of aol uk with many
people spending time on their computers as automatically as they might switch on
the television or radio. according to analysts nielsen//netratings more than 50%
of the 22.8 million uk net users regularly accessing the web from home each month
are logging on at high speed they spend twice as long online than people on dial-up
connections viewing an average of 1 444 pages per month. the popularity of fast
net access is growing partly fuelled by fierce competition over prices and
services.
bosvelt optimistic over new deal manchester city s paul bosvelt will find out
within a month whether he is to be offered a new one-year deal. the 34-year-old
dutch midfielder is out of contract in the summer and although his age may count
against him he feels he can play on for another season. i told the club i would
like to stay for one more year. they promised me an answer within the next month so
i am waiting to see he said. the main concern is my age but i think i have
proved i am fit enough. bosvelt joined city from feyenoord in 2003 and at first he
struggled to adapt to life in england. but his professionalism and dedication
impressed manager kevin keegan. he realised the pace of the game was faster than
anything he was used to but he drove himself back into the team. he is an unsung
hero said keegan.
profile: gordon brown the ultimate prize of 10 downing street may continue to elude
him but as he prepares to deliver a record-breaking ninth budget gordon brown can
at least console himself with the thought that he is the longest serving chancellor
of modern times. he reached that milestone last june when he overtook david lloyd
george who served for seven years and 43 days between 1908 and 1915. how much
longer mr brown will continue in the job is not clear (he once said there are two
types of chancellor: those who fail and those who get out in time. ) there are
rumours he will be moved to the foreign office if labour wins the general election.
but for now mr brown dominates the domestic political scene like few chancellors
- or politicians - before him. gordon brown was born in glasgow on 20 february
1951 the son of a church of scotland minister in the small fife town of kirkcaldy.
at 12 he was canvassing for labour and by his 20s he was a leading political
activist in scotland. he achieved a first class degree in history from edinburgh
university where he went on to complete a phd. his early career was spent
lecturing working in television and making a name for himself in the scottish
labour party. his first attempt to enter westminster for edinburgh south in 1979
was thwarted by the present tory spokesman on foreign affairs michael ancram. but
in 1983 he took dunfermline east a new constituency including rosyth naval base
pit villages and coastal towns. entering westminster he came to share an office
with the newly elected mp for sedgefield tony blair. within four years mr brown
had gained his first frontbench post as shadow chief secretary to the treasury. he
became shadow chancellor under john smith s leadership in 1992. after the death of
leader john smith in 1994 he stood aside agreeing to give tony blair a clear run
at the leadership during a now infamous meal at the granita restaurant in
islington. the other part of the deal that mr blair will one day stand down in
favour of the chancellor is the stuff of westminster legend. mr blair s supporters
say such a deal never existed and endless newspaper columns - and even a television
film - have been devoted to the alleged deal. but if his leadership ambitions were
at least temporarily thwarted in 1994 mr brown continued his devotion to politics.
during the 1997 election campaign he is said to have worked an average of 18 hours
a day six days a week after running on a treadmill for an hour each morning. this
dedication to his career was underlined by a comment by mr brown s former
girlfriend of five years princess marguerite of romania the eldest daughter of
ex-king michael of romania who said a relationship with him was politics
politics politics . if that was true then mr brown who married pr executive
sarah macaulay in 2000 changed his perspective when the couple were hit by tragedy
early in 2002. their daughter jennifer died in edinburgh royal infirmary 10 days
after being born seven weeks prematurely. a year later in october 2003 the couple
had a son - john - an event which again gave the chancellor an opportunity to show
his softer side. a trip to africa earlier this year to publicise his scheme to
cancel the debt of poor nations also gave the chancellor an opportunity to show
his more human side. the ideological differences between mr brown and mr blair
remain relatively modest. the chancellor opposes the further encroachment of the
market into the nhs and is seen as being more old labour than mr blair in his
approach to wealth redistribution. but their shared belief that market economics
are compatible with social justice continues to form the ideological heart of the
new labour project. yet they are portrayed by the media as being locked in almost
permanent conflict with mr brown supposedly nursing resentment at being betrayed
by his younger downing street neighbour over the succession. mr blair for his part
is said to be frustrated that his public service reforms are being thwarted by a
vengeful mr brown who reportedly delights in keeping the prime minister in the
dark over the contents of his budget until the last possible minute. after a recent
run of negative headlines labour mps took the unprecedented step of making a
direct appeal to the two men stop bickering for the good of the party. events like
this and the testimony of former ministerial colleagues make it impossible to
dismiss the brown/blair feud as just journalistic hearsay cooked up by hacks and
camp followers in the hothouse atmosphere of westminster. how much it damages the
ability of government to do its job is open to question. a truce appears to have
been called in the run up to the general election after a fresh spat was sparked by
blairite alan milburn being brought in over the head of mr brown to run the
election campaign. but with the tories having appeared to get the better of the
pre-election campaign thus far there are reports that mr brown - using the budget
as a springboard - is to revitalise labour s campaign. amid all this it is easy to
forget that mr brown remains the man most likely to succeed mr blair as labour
leader. there may be no shortage of possible contenders for the crown - including
mr milburn - but none can command the sort of support in the parliamentary party
and beyond that mr brown can. and mr blair s decision to name his own retirement
date has at least given mr brown something to aim for - even if the prime minister
s intention to serve a full third term if elected took the shine off the
announcement for the chancellor and his supporters.
student fee factor played down a rise has been recorded in the number of students
from south of the border applying to universities in scotland. however lifelong
learning minister jim wallace said that this would not result in scottish students
missing out. applications from england and wales rose by 17% between january 2005
and the previous year up 23 600 to 27 700. fears had been expressed that a flood
of fee refugees would try to avoid top-up fees of up to £3 000 a year being
introduced in england. in june last year mr wallace announced proposals to
increase tuition fees for english students studying in scotland by £2 000 in an
attempt to prevent a cross-border flood although no figure has yet been agreed.
legislation to introduce the top-up fees in england is not due to take effect until
autumn 2006 and students who start before then will not have to pay additional fees
at all. the figures were made public on thursday by admissions service ucas.
universities scotland which represents university principals claimed that an
increase in applications did not amount to scottish students being squeezed out.
director david caldwell said some students could be applying in an attempt to
avoid the possible increase in annual fees at english universities but this was
not a major factor. he told bbc radio scotland s good morning scotland programme:
the reason people are opting for scottish universities is that they are perceived
as being of very high quality they offer very attractive courses and scotland is
seen as a very attractive place to study. they know that when they take up their
studies in 2006 they will be hit by top-up fees if they are going to a university
in england and that may be part of the reason why the numbers coming to scotland
are so inflated. however it does not mean that we will see thousands of
additional students from england studying here. mr wallace agreed and said the
figures had to be looked at in context. he explained that when applications were
translated into acceptances the number was not huge - an additional figure of
about 200. also the picture was further blurred by the fact that applications
from wales where there are no plans for top-up fees have also risen by 19%. mr
wallace said: accepting students from all parts of the world does show the high
regard in which scottish higher education is held not just in britain. we want to
make sure that when students are making their choice they do so on the nature of
the course and not because they are under some sort of financial pressure to go to
scotland. we do not want to have a situation where it becomes impossible for
scottish students to get places at scottish universities because we are seen as the
cheap option. very often the quality of the university experience is enhanced by
the fact there are students coming from a wide range of backgrounds so it would be
wrong to go the other way and start excluding students.
spears seeks aborted tour payment singer britney spears is suing eight insurance
companies that have refused to reimburse her for cancelling her 2004 world tour.
the pop star cancelled her onyx hotel tour last june after suffering a knee injury
during a video shoot. she is now seeking to be reimbursed for the tour s £5m
($9.3m) costs in a claim filed at new york state supreme court. seven london-based
companies and an eighth paris firm have been given up to 30 days to respond to the
complaint. the 22-year-old star initially missed a number of shows on the 82-date
tour after injuring her knee during a show in illinois last march. but she was
rushed to hospital and needed surgery after a later incident while filming a video
for her song outrageous leading her to cancel the rest of the tour including
dates in china. she obviously took a wrong step and blew out her knee a jive
spokeswoman said at the time. it was an old dance injury. the legal submission
described spears as one of the most recognised performers in her industry . the
onyx hotel tour was cited as a highly crafted production which included the well-
known music and dancing of spears supported by elaborate costumes complex
choreography as well as cutting-edge video production lighting and other effects .
in september spears married kevin federline who had been a dancer on the aborted
tour.
gadgets galore on show at fair the 2005 consumer electronics show in las vegas is a
geek s paradise with more than 50 000 new gadgets and technologies launched during
the four-day event. top gadgets at the show are highlighted in the innovations
showcase which recognises some of the hottest developments in consumer
electronics. the bbc news website took an early pre-show look at some of those
technologies that will be making their debut in 2005. one of the key issues
for keen gadget users is how to store all their digital images audio and video
files. the 2.5gb and 5gb circular pocket hard drive from seagate might help. the
external usb drive won a ces best innovations design and engineering award and is
small enough to slip into a pocket. it is the kind of storage that appeals to
people who want their pcs to look cool said seagate. it is all about style but
it also has lots of functionality. it is the first time you can say a hard drive
is sexy it said. in the centre of the device is a blue light that flashes while
data is being written to ensure users do not unplug it when it is busy saving those
precious pictures. universal electronics nevosl is a universal controller
that lets people use one device to get at their multimedia content such as photos
no matter where it is in their house. it can also act as a remote for home theatre
and stereo systems. working with home broadband networks and pcs the gadget has
built-in wireless and a colourful simple interface. paul arling uei chief said
consumers face real problems when trying to get at all the files they own that are
typically spread across several different devices. he said the nevo gave people a
simple single way to regain some control over digital media in the home. the nevo
won two awards at ces one as a girl s best friend award and another for innovation
design and engineering. the gadget is expected to go on sale before the summer and
will cost about $799 (£425). hotseat is targeting keen gamers with money to
spend with its solo chassis gaming chair. the specially-designed chair lets gamers
play in surround-sound while stretching out in their own space . it is compatible
with all the major games consoles dvd players and pcs. we found that kids love
playing in surround sound said jay leboff from hotseat. we are looking at
offering different types of seats depending on the market success of this one.
the chair also lets people experience surround sound while watching videos with
wireless control for six surround sound speakers. and a drinks holder. the chair
which looks like a car seat on a skeletal frame should go on sale in april and is
expected to cost $399 (£211). satellite radio is big business in the us. in
the uk the digital radio technology is known as dab and works on slightly
different technology. eton corporation s porsche designed p7131 digital radio set
will be launched both as a dab radio in the uk as well as a satellite radio set in
the us. dab sets have been slow to take-off in the uk but this one concentrates on
sleek looks as much as technology. it is for the risqué consumer said an
eton spokesperson. we are proud of it because it has the sound quality for the
audiophile and the looks for the design-conscious consumer. the porsche radio is
set to go on sale at the end of january in the us and in the first quarter of 2005
in the uk. in the us is it expected to cost $250 (£133). the average person
has a library of 600 digital images estimates the consumer electronics association
the organisation behind ces. this is expected to grow to a massive 3 420 images -
or 7.2gb - in five years time. one gadget that might help swell that collection is
sanyo s tiny handheld vpc-c4 camcorder which is another innovation in design and
engineering award winner. it combines high quality video and stills in a very small
device. it takes mpeg4 video quality at 30 frames a second and has a four megapixel
still camera. images and video are stored on sd cards which have come down in
price in recent months. a 512mb card will store about 30 minutes of video and 420
stills. the device is so tiny it can be controlled with one thumb. because images
and video are stored on sd memory it is portable to other devices and means other
data like audio can be stored on the card too. wearable technology has always
promised much but failed to deliver because of lack of storage capability and poor
design. mpio s tiny digital usb music players come in an array of fashionable
colours taking a leaf out of the apple ipod mini book of design and reflecting the
desire for gadgets that look good. slung on a cord the player would not look too
geeky dangling discreetly from the neck. although the pendant design was launched
three months ago the device emphasises large storage as well as good looks for
fashion-conscious gadget fiends. an even dinkier model the fy500 comes out in may
and will store about 256mb of music. the range of players recently won an
international forum design award 2005.
uk interest rates held at 4.75% the bank of england has left interest rates on hold
again at 4.75% in a widely-predicted move. rates went up five times from november
2003 - as the bank sought to cool the housing market and consumer debt - but have
remained unchanged since august. recent data has indicated a slowdown in
manufacturing and consumer spending as well as in mortgage approvals. and retail
sales disappointed over christmas with analysts putting the drop down to less
consumer confidence. rising interest rates and the accompanying slowdown in the
housing market have knocked consumers optimism causing a sharp fall in demand for
expensive goods according to a report earlier this week from the british retail
consortium. the brc said britain s retailers had endured their worst christmas in a
decade. today s no change decision is correct said david frost director
general of the british chambers of commerce (bcc). but if there are clear signs
that the economy slows the mpc should be ready to take quick corrective action and
cut rates. dismal reports from the retail trade about christmas sales are worrying
if they indicate a more general weakening in consumer spending. mr frost added:
the housing market outlook remains highly uncertain. it is widely accepted that
if house prices start falling more sharply the risks facing the economy will
worsen considerably. cbi chief economist ian mccafferty said the economy had
slowed in recent months in response to rate rises but that it was difficult to
gauge from the christmas period the likely pace of activity through the summer.
the bank is having to juggle the emergence of inflationary pressures driven by a
tight labour market and buoyant commodity prices against the risk of an over-
abrupt slowdown in consumer activity he said. interest rates are likely to
remain on hold for some time. on thursday there was more gloomy news on the
manufacturing front as the office for national (ons) statistics revealed british
manufacturing output unexpectedly fell in november - for the fifth month in the
past six. the ons said manufacturing output dropped 0.1% in november matching a
similar unrevised fall in october and confounding economists expectations of a
0.3% rise. manufacturers organisation the eef said it expected the hold in
interest rates to continue in the near future. it also said there was evidence that
manufacturers confidence may be waning as the outlook for the world economy
becomes more uncertain. so far the evidence suggests that last year s rate
increases have helped to rebalance the economy without damaging the recovery in
manufacturing said eef chief economist steve radley. however should the
business outlook start to deteriorate the bank should stand ready to cut rates.
some economists have predicted rates will drop later in the year although others
feel the bank may still think there is a need for a rise to 5% before that happens.
the bank remains concerned about the long-term risks posed by personal debt - which
is rising at 15% a year - if economic conditions worsen.
rivals of the £400 apple... the mac mini is the cheapest apple computer ever. but
though it is cheap for a mac how does it compare to pcs that cost about the same
amount dot.life tries to find out if you can you get more for your money if you
stick with the beige box. an extremely small computer that is designed to
bring the macintosh to the masses. apple offer a less powerful mac mini for £339
but the £399 models has a 1.4ghz power pc chip 80 gigabyte hard drive combined cd
burner/dvd player. it comes equipped with usb and firewire ports for peripheral
connections ethernet port for broadband a port for standard video output and an
audio/headphone jack.the machine comes with mac os x the apple operating system
the software suite ilife which includes itunes iphoto imovie idvd and
garageband. a monitor keyboard or mouse. there is also no built-in support for
wireless technology or any speakers. the lack of a dvd burner is an omission in the
age of backing-up important software. wireless and a dvd burner can be added at
extra cost. apple are targeting people who already have a main computer and want
to upgrade - especially pc users who have used an apple ipod. compact and stylish
the mac mini would not look out of place in any home. apple computers are famously
user friendly and offer much better network security which means fewer viruses.
the package of software that comes with the machine is the best money can buy. the
mac mini is just a box. if you don t already have a monitor etc adding them to the
package sees the value for money begin to dwindle. macs don t offer the upgrade
flexibility of a pc and the machine s specifications lack the horse power for tasks
such as high-end video editing or games. the mac mini puts the macintosh within
the reach of everyone an apple spokesman said. it will bring more customers to
the platform especially pc users and owners. an entry-level machine designed
for basic home use. a 2.6ghz intel celeron chip 40 gigabyte hard drive 256mb
combined cd burner/dvd player. it comes equipped with a 17 inch monitor keyboard
and mouse. the machine has 6 usb ports and an ethernet port for broadband
connection. there s also a port for standard video output. the machine comes with
windows xp home edition. it provides basic home tools such as a media player and
word processor. a dvd burner or any wireless components built in. wireless and a
dvd burner can be added at extra cost. homes and small offices including those
looking to add a low cost second computer. cost is the clear advantage. the dell
provides enough power and software for basic gaming and internet surfing. it s
easily upgradeable so a bigger hard drive better sound and graphics cards can be
added. the dell is hardly stylish and the hard drive is on the small size for
anyone wanting to store photos or a decent sized digital music collection. this
machine is for small businesses and for people who want a second computer for basic
home use perhaps in a kids bedroom a spokesman for dell said. i think we offer
better value once you realise all the extras needed for the mac mini. a desktop
computer that pc pro magazine dubbed best performer in a group test of machines
that cost only £399 (£469 including vat). a good basic pc that according to pc
pro has superb upgrade potential . for your money you get a 1.8ghz amd sempron
processor 512mb of ram 120gb hard drive dvd writer 16-inch monitor mouse
keyboard and windows xp2 much more than the basics. it cannot handle 3d graphics
and has no firewire slots. those on a limited budget who want a machine they can
add to and improve as their cash allows. it s cheap and has plenty of room to
improve but that could end up making it expensive in the long run. it s a good
basic workhorse. it s not pretty and has a monitor rather than a flat-panel
display. some of the upgrades offered by jal to the basic model are pricey. you
might find that you want to chop and change quite quickly. nick ross deputy labs
editor at pc pro said the important point about buying a cheap and cheerful pc is
the upgrade path. interest has switched from processor power to graphics and sound
cards as that s what makes the difference in games. even manufacturers are not
going to be marketing machines as faster he said they ll emphasise the
different features. a computer built from bits you buy and put together
yourself. a surprisingly good pc sporting an amd athlon xp 2500 processor 512
megabytes ram a graphics card with 128 ram on board plus tv out a 40 gb hard
drive cd-writer and dvd player windows xp home. anything else. you re building
it so you have to buy all the software you want to install and do your own trouble-
shooting and tech support. building your own machine is easier than it used to be
but you need to read specifications carefully to make sure all parts work together.
experienced and keen pc users. building your own pc or upgrading the one you have
is a great way to improve your understanding of how it all works. it s cheap you
can specify exactly what you want and you get the thrill of putting it together
yourself. and a bigger thrill if everything works as it should. once it s built
you won t be able to do much with it until you start buying software for it. if it
starts to go wrong it might take a lot of fixing. as gavin cox of the excellent
buildyourown.org.uk website put it: it will be tough to obtain/build a pc to ever
be as compact and charming as the mac mini. performance-wise it s not cutting
edge and is barely entry-level by today s market but up against the mac mini i
believe it will hold its own and even pull a few more tricks says gavin cox. the
good news is that the machine is eminently expandable. by contrast says mr cox
the mac mini is almost disposable.
search wars hit desktop pcs another front in the on-going battle between microsoft
and google is about to be opened. by the end of 2004 microsoft aims to launch
search software to find any kind of file on a pc hard drive. the move is in answer
to google s release of its own search tool that catalogues data on desktop pcs. the
desktop search market is becoming increasingly crowded as google aol yahoo and
many smaller firms tout programs that help people find files. microsoft made the
announcement about its forthcoming search software during a call to financial
analysts to talk about its first quarter results. john connors microsoft s chief
financial officer said a test version of its desktop search software should be
available for download by the end of the year. we re going to have a heck of a
great race in search between google microsoft and yahoo he said. it s going to
be really fun to follow. microsoft is coming late to the desktop search arena and
its software will have to compare favourably with programs from a large number of
rivals many of which have fiercely dedicated populations of users. the program
could be based on the software microsoft owns as a result of its purchase of
lookout software in early october. on 14 october google released desktop search
software that catalogues all the files on a pc and lets users use one tool to find
e-mail messages spreadsheets text files and presentations. the software will also
find webpages and messages sent via aol instant messenger. many other firms have
released desktop search systems recently too. companies such as blinkx copernic
enfish x1 technologies and x-friend all do the same job of cataloguing the huge
amounts of information that people increasingly store on their desktop or home
computer. apple has also debuted a similar search system for its computers called
spotlight that is due to debut with the release of the tiger operating system. due
to follow are net giants aol and yahoo. the latter recently bought stata labs to
get its hands on search software that people can use. microsoft is also reputedly
working on a novel search system for the next version of windows (codenamed
longhorn). however this is not likely to appear until 2006. the recent activity in
the search industry shows that there is a need to move beyond simple keyword-based
web search said kathy rittweger co-founder of blinkx. finding information of
our own computers is becoming as difficult as it is to find the relevant webpage
amongst the billions that exist. desktop search has become important for several
reasons. according to research by message analysts the radicati group up to 45% of
the information critical to keeping many businesses running sits in e-mail messages
and attachments. jf sullivan spokesman for e-mail software firm sendmail said many
organisations were starting to realise how important messaging was to their
organisation and the way the work. the key thing is being able to manage all this
information he said. also search is increasingly key to the way that people get
around the internet. many people use a search engine as the first page they go to
when getting on the net. many others use desktop toolbars that let them search for
information no matter what other program they are using. having a tool on a desktop
can be a lucrative way to control where people go online. for companies such as
google which relies on revenue from adverts this knowledge about what people are
looking for is worth huge amounts of money. but this invasiveness has already led
some to ask about the privacy implications of such tools.
virgin radio offers 3g broadcast uk broadcaster virgin radio says it will become
the first station in the world to offer radio via 3g mobiles. the radio station
in partnership with technology firm sydus will broadcast on selected 2g and high-
speed 3g networks. later this year listeners will be able to download software from
the virgin website which enables the service. james cridland head of new media at
virgin radio said: it places radio at the heart of the 3g revolution. virgin
radio will be the first station made available followed by two digital stations
virgin radio classic rock and virgin radio groove. mr cridland said: this
application will enable anyone anywhere to listen to virgin radio simply with the
phone in their pocket. this allows us to tap into a huge new audience and keep
radio relevant for a new generation of listeners. saumil nanavati president of
sydus said this radio player is what the 3g network was built for giving
consumers high-quality and high-data products through a handset in their pocket.
virgin says an hour s listening to the station via mobile would involve about 7.2mb
of data which could prove expensive for people using pay as you download gprs or
3g services. some networks such as orange charge up to £1 for every one megabyte
of data downloaded. virgin says radio via 2g or 3g mobiles is therefore going to
appeal to people with unlimited download deals. there are 30 compatible handsets
available from major manufacturers including nokia and samsung while virgin said
more than 14.9 million consumers across the globe can use the service currently.
israel looks to us for bank chief israel has asked a us banker and former
international monetary fund director to run its central bank. stanley fischer
vice chairman of banking giant citigroup has agreed to take the bank of israel job
subject to approval from parliament and cabinet. his nomination by prime minister
ariel sharon came as a surprise and led to gains on the tel aviv stock market. mr
fischer who speaks fluent hebrew will have to become an israeli citizen to take
the job. the us says he will not have to give up us citizenship to do so. previous
incumbent david klein who often argued with the finance ministry steps down on 16
january. mr fischer will face a delicate balancing act - both in political and
economic terms - between mr sharon and finance minister binyamin netanyahu who
also backed his nomination. but his appointment has also raised hopes that it could
bring in fresh investment - and perhaps even an improvement in the country s credit
rating mr fischer first went to israel for six months in 1973 and almost emigrated
there before deciding finally to return to the us. while teaching at the
massachussetts institute of technology he spent a month seconded to the bank of
israel in 1979 beginning a long-time involvement in studying israel s economy. in
1983 mr fischer became adviser on israel s economy to then-us secretary of state
george shultz. at the world bank in 1985 he participated in drawing up an economic
stabilisation package for israel.
ministers naive over phone-taps the government is being naive by refusing to
allow phone-tap evidence in court a senior eu politician says. javier solana eu
foreign policy chief says phone-tap evidence works in the courts of other european
countries. human rights groups top police officers and many mps say allowing the
evidence would remove the need to detain terror suspects without charge. but home
secretary charles clarke says the evidence would not make much difference to these
cases. mr solana told itv1 s jonathan dimbleby programme: [phone-tap evidence in
court] works it is normal that it is done it would be naive not to do it. it
would be naive not to use this technological thing that we have at our disposal.
mr solana s comments come the day after sir ian blair the newly-appointed
metropolitan police commissioner said he was in favour of phone-tap evidence.
under the anti-terrorism crimes and security act 2001 foreign terror suspects can
be detained in british jails without trial or charge. several suspects have been
detained under these powers because evidence against them was deemed too sensitive
to be heard in court. some of this evidence is believed to be telephone
intercepts. human rights group liberty has argued that if intercept evidence could
be heard these detainees could be brought to trial. but critics of phone-tap
trials say the evidence is often weak and can expose the methods of the security
services. the home secretary says intercepts would not make much difference because
cases against terror suspects frequently rely on other kinds of surveillance. but
mr clarke has been forced to change the regime of detention without trial after law
lords ruled it illegal. he has opted for a system of control orders whereby
suspects both british and foreign can be held under house arrest or surveillance.
these orders will again involve a uk opt-out of parts of the european convention on
human rights. while accepting that people have to be prepared for a possible
terrorist attack mr solana said he had qualms about the home secretary s new
plans. we have to fight terrorism with all our means but not so far as to change
our way of life he said.
voters don t trust politicians eight out of 10 voters do not trust politicians to
tell the truth a new poll conducted for the bbc suggests. and 87% of the 1 000
adults quizzed by icm for bbc news 24 said politicians did not deliver what they
promised. the poll comes after foreign secretary jack straw predicted trust would
be the key choice at the next election. both the tories and the lib dems are keen
to emphasise a perceived lack of trust in tony blair following his claims over
iraqi weapons. but according to the bbc poll 61% said the issue of trust made no
difference to whether or not they would vote at the next election widely expected
on 5 may. the poll also looked at what lay behind the lack of trust in politicians.
some 87% said politicians did not keep the promises they made before elections
while 92% said they never gave a straight answer . just under three-quarters of
respondents (73%) said politicians had shown themselves to be dishonest too often.
mr straw told activists in blackburn on thursday that voters would have to decide
at the next election which party best deserves their future trust . that in the
end is the key choice at the next election. he acknowledged that the public had
lost faith in labour but suggested it could persuade people to reinvest their
trust with us if the party could overcome tory attempts to spread cynicism in
politics. the conservatives are keen to highlight the trust issue. during his
response to gordon brown s budget statement on tuesday michael howard compared the
chancellor s figures to the prime minister s claims about iraq s weapons of mass
destruction. the lib dems are also keen to highlight the trust issue with charles
kennedy has claiming voters had a fundamental lack of trust in the prime
minister . and the green party unveiled a billboard opposite the palace of
westminster accusing the government of lying over the iraq war. former education
secretary estelle morris told bbc news 24 that there was a real problem of trust
between the public and the politicians. she said she did not feel her own
colleagues could be trusted but suggested the three-cornered relationship
between the press politicians and the public had a hand in the issue. the public
was often turned off by sitting on the sidelines in the battle of words between
the politician and the journalist she added. lib dem foreign affairs spokesman
menzies campbell said the iraq war had hit trust in politicians hard. issues of
war and peace life and death do have a very damaging effect on the credibility of
politicians . martin bell who won the tatton seat from tory neil hamilton on anti-
corruption platform said politicians often failed to see themselves as others did.
we need public figures we trust to tell the truth and who can see themselves as
others see them.
bryan twins keep us hopes alive the united states kept the davis cup final alive
with victory in saturday s doubles rubber leaving spain 2-1 ahead going into the
final day. masters cup champions mike and bob bryan thrashed juan carlos ferrero
and tommy robredo 6-0 6-3 6-2 in front of a partisan crowd in seville. victory
would have given spain the title but they were outclassed. in sunday s reverse
singles carlos moya takes on andy roddick before rafael nadal faces mardy fish.
it feels good but it s not going to be as good if we don t win two tomorrow said
mike bryan. it feels good to give those guys another shot and spain has to go to
sleep on that. bob bryan added: i m really confident in andy winning that first
match and then anything can happen. spain coach jordi arrese chose to rest 18-
year-old nadal in the doubles after his epic singles win over roddick on friday. he
was replaced by former world number one ferrero but the spanish pair were out of
their depth against one of the world s best doubles teams. the 26-year-old bryan
twins have won all four of their davis cup matches this year. and they quickly
silenced the huge crowd at the olympic stadium racing through the opening set to
love. the spaniards then twice surrendered breaks of serve at the start of the
second before the bryans broke to go 5-3 ahead and served out. when robredo dropped
serve in the opening game of the third set the match was all but over and the
unflappable bryan brothers powered on to an impressive win. ferrero who was upset
to be dropped for friday s singles hinted at further dissatisfaction after the
defeat. it was a difficult game against the best doubles players he said. they
have everything calculated and we had very little to do. i was a bit surprised
that i was named to play the doubles match because i hardly play doubles. arrese
said: juan carlos hasn t played at all badly. he played the right way but the
bryans are great doubles players.
games enter the classroom video games could soon be transplanted from their natural
habitat to the more academic atmosphere of the classroom. with violent titles
continuing to top the charts gaming and learning have not always sat well together
but the tide could be beginning to turn. recent research by the london institute of
education concluded that games have a valid place in the classroom. games teach
life skills such as decision making problem solving said martin owen at
futurelab. mr owen said games could also help children make quick assessments of
situations and learning by trial and error. futurelab is a non-profit organisation
looking at ways of using technology for innovative learning. most game firms are
too busy turning a profit in the lucrative commercial market to consider developing
games for use in schools but liverpool-based games firm lateral visions saw a gap
in the market. learning games were somewhat old-fashioned and we didn t see anyone
else doing what we wanted to do said dr carl gavin managing director of lateral
visions. the company set out to write something that had all the look and feel of a
commercial game but with an educational and learning element. the result is racing
academy a massively multiplayer car racing game which requires not only a thirst
for speed but a working knowledge of physics and engineering as well. it is being
used by futurelab to test the viability of using gaming in the classroom. we are
keen to find out whether alongside learning a game we can also learn something
that the rest of the world can understand as being educational said mr owen.
players will have to understand how a car works in order to win races and the
knowledge of physics and engineering that they gather along the way will be done in
a way that no text book can teach. the game requires users to build and maintain
their vehicles and to monitor and analyse performance using data from a variety of
outputs before and after racing. teamwork is essential and a chat area allows
students to exchange information and data work collaboratively and review their
own performances. this fusion of chatrooms and gaming is of special interest to
futurelab as it is through talking to others that much of the learning can be
achieved thinks mr owen. the game has been trialled in two secondary schools in
bristol and feedback from students has been positive. pupils used the statistics
to work out the best way to build their cars and the online message board to share
ideas and support each other said ben williamson a researcher at futurelab
charged with testing the game in real schools. dr gavin thinks the game satisfies
both teachers need for learning outcomes and the children s desire to rise to a
challenge. games in the classroom need to support the teacher. it is not about
giving children free rein to play game but recognising that games attract attention
and offer a challenge he said. professor angela macfarlane based at bristol
university has spent several years researching how games can be incorporated into
classrooms. use of games in schools has been patchy she found with sim city
proving the most popular. traditionally schools have eschewed mainstream games in
favour of used so-called edu-tainment software in a belief that such packages help
to make learning fun she found in her research. it is perhaps in a compromise
between edutainment and mainstream games that the greatest potential for classroom
useable games lies she wrote in a paper entitled games and learning. lite
versions of existing games could be the way forward and would overcome one of the
biggest hurdles - persuading developers to write for the educational market. this
would appeal to developers because of the low costs involved in adapting them as
well as offering a new opportunity for marketing. already there are games on the
market such as civilisation and age of empire that have educational elements said
mr owen. even in grand theft auto it is not just the violence that engages people
he said. it could be some time until that particular game makes it into the
classroom though.
nigeria to boost cocoa production the government of nigeria is hoping to triple
cocoa production over the next three years with the launch of an ambitious
development programme. agriculture minister adamu bello said the scheme aimed to
boost production from an expected 180 000 tonnes this year to 600 000 tonnes by
2008. the government will pump 154m naira ($1.1m; £591 000) into subsidies for
farming chemicals and seedlings. nigeria is currently the world s fourth-largest
cocoa producer. cocoa was the main export product in nigeria during the 1960s. but
with the coming of oil the government began to pay less attention to the cocoa
sector and production began to fall from a peak of about 400 000 tonnes a year in
1970. at the launch of the programme in the south-western city of ibadan mr bello
explained that an additional aim of the project is to encourage the processing of
cocoa in the country and lift local consumption. he also announced that 91m naira
of the funding available had been earmarked for establishing cocoa plant nurseries.
the country could be looking to emulate rival ghana which produced a bumper crop
last year. however some farmers are sceptical about the proposals. people who are
not farming will hijack the subsidy said joshua osagie a cocoa farmer from edo
state told reuters. the farmers in the village never see any assistance he
added. at the same time as nigeria announced its new initiative ghana - the world
s second largest cocoa exporter - announced revenues from the industry had broken
new records. the country saw more than $1.2bn-worth of the beans exported during
2003-04. analysts said high tech-production techniques and crop spraying introduced
by the government led to the huge crop pushing production closer to levels seen in
the 1960s when the country was the world s leading cocoa grower.
businesses fail to plan for hiv companies fail to draw up plans to cope with
hiv/aids until it affects 20% of people in a country new research says. the
finding comes in a report published on thursday by the world economic forum
harvard and the un aids agency. too few companies are responding proactively to
the social and business threats said dr kate taylor head of the wef s global
health initiative. nearly 9 000 business leaders in 104 countries were surveyed for
business and hiv/aids: commitment and action dr taylor described the level of
action taken by businesses as revealed by the report as too little too late . the
issue will be highlighted to business and world leaders at the world economic forum
which meets in davos switzerland next week. the wef report shows that despite the
fact that 14 000 people contract hiv/aids every day concern among businesses has
dropped by 23% in the last 12 months. most (71%) have no policies in place to
address the disease. nor could over 65% of the business leaders surveyed say or
estimate the prevalence of hiv among their staff. the un programme tackling aids
unaids pointed out that having a clear strategy for dealing with hiv/aids was a
good investment as well as being socially responsible. one company that does have
a plan is anglo-american the international mining company which estimates an hiv
prevalence of 24% among its 130 000-strong southern african workforce. over the
last two years the company has implemented extensive voluntary counselling and
testing for hiv infection coupled with anti-retroviral therapy for employees
progressing to aids. over 90% of the 2 200 employees who have accessed and remained
on treatment are well and have returned to normal work. effective action on
hiv/aids is synonymous with good business management and leads to more profitable
and sustainable operations said brian brink senior vice-president health at
anglo-american. companies should encourage all workers to know their hiv status
making it as routine as monitoring blood pressure or cholesterol he said.
providing access to treatment is a critical part of this. across sub-saharan
africa even in countries with an hiv prevalence of 10-19% only around 7% of
companies have formal hiv/aids policies in place according to the report. the gap
is even wider in china ethiopia india nigeria and russia the so-called next
wave countries which are predicted to experience the highest numbers of new
hiv/aids cases worldwide by 2010. the report adds an important building block to
our understanding of how the business community is experiencing the hiv/aids
epidemic and to whether and how it is reacting said david bloom professor of
economics and demography at the harvard school of public health. the wef report
concludes that businesses need to understand their exposure to hiv/aids risks and
come up with good local practices to manage them. a key priority in both high and
low-prevalence settings said the wef is to establish a policy based on non-
discrimination and confidentiality.
portishead back after eight years cult british group portishead have revealed they
are writing their third album their first in eight years. founding member geoff
barrow told bbc 6 music the record was well on the way to being completed. we re
actually into it as we speak. we took some time off for christmas but generally we
re doing another record barrow told the digital radio station. news of their
album plans comes after confirmation the bristol band will play a tsunami charity
show next month. portishead will play alongside fellow bristol band massive attack
at oxfam s tsumani appeal held at the bristol academy on 19 february. barrow said
he was surprised people thought the band who won a mercury music prize in 1995 for
their debut album dummy had split up. we ve just had our heads down really we
ve never actually broken up or parted or whatever. so for us it just seems even
though we haven t played for years we still see each other and write - we just
haven t released a record for a long time. portishead will not play any new
material at next month s concert which will feature singer beth gibbons playing
with an acoustic backing. other acts appearing include liverpool band the coral and
former led zeppelin singer robert plant. portishead became an international success
and a deeply influential band despite their scant recorded output. dummy was a
critics favourite in 1994 hailed for its blend of menacing sounds and hip-hop
beats married to old soul samples. the follow up portishead was released three
years later.
volcano drama erupts on bbc one supervolcano a docu-drama about a volcanic
eruption in yellowstone national park in the us is among the highlights on the bbc
one this winter. the £178m winter schedule also includes the return of doctor who
and a drama about angela cannings who was wrongly convicted of killing two of her
babies. sarah lancashire and timothy spall will star in the real-life drama
cherished. itv also unveiled their festive season on tuesday which includes
stephen fry in a remake of tom brown s schooldays. supervolcano follows in the
footsteps of last year s pompei which drew 10 million viewers to bbc one in
october 2003. the programme merges science drama and computer imagery to reveal
what could happen if yellowstone - home to the only currently active supervolcano
in the world - were to erupt again. bbc two will run a two-part documentary the
science behind supervolcano in conjunction with the transmission. other
educational highlights include a documentary about infamous mongolian warrior
genghis khan and grandchild of the holocaust. grandchild of the holocaust part of
the bbc commitment to holocaust memorial day follows adrian 13 on a journey to
uncover the truth about what happened to his grandmother in auschwitz and belsen.
new drama includes archangel an adaptation of the robert harris best-seller which
stars daniel craig on the trail of stalin s diaries in communist russia. and sarah
waters gets her second adaptation on bbc one with imelda staunton and charles
dance lined up to star in fingersmith. the adaptation about a conman in victorian
england will make an interesting contrast to julie burchill s sugar rush - a
lesbian teenage drama part of channel four s winter season. on a lighter note
jessica stevenson will star in new bbc one sitcom the world according to bex
penned by my family creator fred barron and the two ronnies return for a
celebration of their classic comedy series. fry s portrayal of headmaster dr
arnold dominates a muted christmas schedule on itv1 which sees the channel retreat
from broadcasting blockbuster movies in favour of extended soap episodes and
popular quiz shows. sir paul mccartney wife heather mills and manchester united
manager sir alex ferguson will join a celebrity edition of who wants to be a
millionaire on christmas day. also on christmas day john nettles will return in a
one-off edition of midsomer murders while two episodes of the new miss marple
drama will air over the festive period. films on itv1 include gus van sant s
finding forrester starring sean connery and classics such a mary poppins star
wars and the good the bad and the ugly. in contrast bbc s christmas season
includes terrestrial debuts of the first harry potter film shrek and steven
spielberg s ai as well as new epipsodes of the vicar of dibley and the final auf
wiedersehen pet.
parmar ruled out of davis cup tie a knee injury has forced arvind parmar out of
great britain s davis cup tie in israel and left alex bogdanovic in line to take
the second singles place. parmar picked up the injury last week and has failed to
recover in time for the europe/africa zone i tie which begins in tel aviv on
friday. bogdanovic looks set to take the second singles place alongside greg
rusedski. gb captain jeremy bates could use 17-year-old andrew murray and david
sherwood in the doubles rubber. bogdanovic and murray both pulled out of
tournaments last week through injury but are expected to be fit. jamie delgado and
lee childs have been called into the squad in tel aviv as designated hitters for
team practice but bates has no plans to call either of them into his squad at
present. the unheralded sherwood was the surprise inclusion when the squad was
announced last week and bates said: david has earned his place in this squad on
the merit of his form and results over the last 12 months. the 6ft 4in sherwood is
ranked 264th in the world and the lta have high hopes for him after futures
tournament wins in wrexham and edinburgh. the sheffield-born right-hander aged 24
also reached another final in plaisir france a week after making the semi-final
in mulhouse. bates is glad to have rusedski available after tim henman s retirement
from davis cup tennis. his wealth of experience is invaluable particularly to the
younger players and i know he will lead by example bates said. we are looking
forward to the tie. the squad are all in excellent form.
putting a face to big brother literally putting a face on technology could be one
of the keys to improving our interaction with hi-tech gadgets. imagine a
surveillance system that also presents a virtual embodiment of a person on a screen
who can react to your behaviour and perhaps even alert you to new e-mails. basic
versions of these so-called avatars already exist. together with speech and voice
recognition systems they could replace the keyboard and mouse in the near future.
some of these ideas have been showcased at the london s science museum as part of
its future face exhibition. one such avatar is jeremiah. it is a virtual man
which you can download for free and install in your computer. his creator richard
bowden lecturer at the centre for vision speech and signal processing at the
university of surrey refers to jeremiah as him rather than it. jeremiah is a
virtual face that attempts to emulate humans in the way it responds to activity. he
is very childlike he likes visual stimulus he told the bbc news website. when
he sees children running and laughing and waving at him he smiles at them. if you
ignore him he gets angry. if you leave he gets sad. and you can also even
surprise him. jeremiah is not actually intelligent. it works on vision reacting
in a preset way to the information provided by a surveillance tracker system. it is
not able to talk or to hear you at least not yet. the surrey team is already
working on jeremiah s next version that will replace the human face with an
underwater and more interactive creature: finn the fish. i am interested in the
interaction providing the ability of a system to watch what s going on and make
decisions based on that explained dr bowden. the research comes at a time when
people are having to cope with an increasing number of hi-tech gadgets. experts
say a much more natural way to interact with these devices such as a virtual human
could make it much easier to make the most of all those new gizmos. if you get up
at three o clock in the morning and you go downstairs there are probably two
things you are going to do: either going to the bathroom or maybe you are going to
make a cup of tea said dr bowden. now if the system can watch your behaviour
over time it can learn this so it would predict what you are going to do turn on
the lights for you or before you even get to the kettle it could have switched
it on. you might even be able to tell your home surveillance system that you will
be going away on holiday and ask if it could make sure that the house is secure
once you have left. this might sound like a scary vision of an orwellian future.
but it might all depend on the face that is watching you. when we put the
surveillance cameras in our centre a lot of people were very unhappy about the
fact that there was a system watching them said dr bowden. but when jeremiah s
camera went in nobody minded because although it s still watching them they
could see what it was watching.
dollar gains on greenspan speech the dollar has hit its highest level against the
euro in almost three months after the federal reserve head said the us trade
deficit is set to stabilise. and alan greenspan highlighted the us government s
willingness to curb spending and rising household savings as factors which may help
to reduce it. in late trading in new york the dollar reached $1.2871 against the
euro from $1.2974 on thursday. market concerns about the deficit has hit the
greenback in recent months. on friday federal reserve chairman mr greenspan s
speech in london ahead of the meeting of g7 finance ministers sent the dollar
higher after it had earlier tumbled on the back of worse-than-expected us jobs
data. i think the chairman s taking a much more sanguine view on the current
account deficit than he s taken for some time said robert sinche head of
currency strategy at bank of america in new york. he s taking a longer-term view
laying out a set of conditions under which the current account deficit can improve
this year and next. worries about the deficit concerns about china do however
remain. china s currency remains pegged to the dollar and the us currency s sharp
falls in recent months have therefore made chinese export prices highly
competitive. but calls for a shift in beijing s policy have fallen on deaf ears
despite recent comments in a major chinese newspaper that the time is ripe for a
loosening of the peg. the g7 meeting is thought unlikely to produce any meaningful
movement in chinese policy. in the meantime the us federal reserve s decision on 2
february to boost interest rates by a quarter of a point - the sixth such move in
as many months - has opened up a differential with european rates. the half-point
window some believe could be enough to keep us assets looking more attractive
and could help prop up the dollar. the recent falls have partly been the result of
big budget deficits as well as the us s yawning current account gap both of which
need to be funded by the buying of us bonds and assets by foreign firms and
governments. the white house will announce its budget on monday and many
commentators believe the deficit will remain at close to half a trillion dollars.
us woman sues over ink cartridges a us woman is suing hewlett packard (hp) saying
its printer ink cartridges are secretly programmed to expire on a certain date.
the unnamed woman from georgia says that a chip inside the cartridge tells the
printer that it needs re-filling even when it does not. the lawsuit seeks to
represent anyone in the us who has purchased an hp inkjet printer since february
2001. hp the world s biggest printer firm declined to comment on the lawsuit. hp
ink cartridges use a chip technology to sense when they are low on ink and advise
the user to make a change. but the suit claims the chips also shut down the
cartridges at a predetermined date regardless of whether they are empty. the smart
chip is dually engineered to prematurely register ink depletion and to render a
cartridge unusable through the use of a built-in expiration date that is not
revealed to the consumer the suit said. the lawsuit is asking for restitution
damages and other compensation. the cost of printer cartridges has been a
contentious issue in europe for the last 18 months. the price of inkjet printers
has come down to as little as £34 but it could cost up to £1 700 in running costs
over an 18-month period due to cartridge a study by computeractive magazine
revealed last year. the inkjet printer market has been the subject of an
investigation by the uk s office of fair trading (oft) which concluded in a 2002
report that retailers and manufacturers needed to make pricing more transparent for
consumers.
gallery unveils interactive tree a christmas tree that can receive text messages
has been unveiled at london s tate britain art gallery. the spruce has an antenna
which can receive bluetooth texts sent by visitors to the tate. the messages will
be unwrapped by sculptor richard wentworth who is responsible for decorating the
tree with broken plates and light bulbs. it is the 17th year that the gallery has
invited an artist to dress their christmas tree. artists who have decorated the
tate tree in previous years include tracey emin in 2002. the plain green norway
spruce is displayed in the gallery s foyer. its light bulb adornments are dimmed
ordinary domestic ones joined together with string. the plates decorating the
branches will be auctioned off for the children s charity artworks. wentworth
worked as an assistant to sculptor henry moore in the late 1960s. his reputation as
a sculptor grew in the 1980s while he has been one of the most influential
teachers during the last two decades. wentworth is also known for his photography
of mundane everyday subjects such as a cigarette packet jammed under the wonky leg
of a table.
mutu to hold talks with juventus disgraced former chelsea striker adrian mutu is to
begin talks with juventus as he looks for a new club. mutu will be in our club s
main stand to watch the match between juventus and fiorentina said a juventus
official who declined to be named. then he will meet some important people of the
club he added. mutu 25 sacked by chelsea and banned for seven months for taking
cocaine is now represented by alessandro moggi son of juve manager luciano moggi.
mutu banned by the english fa can resume playing next may. he is to undergo a
drug education and rehabilitation programme. mutu wants to train with romanian side
dinamo bucharest whilst serving his ban say the bucharest side.
more power to the people says hp the digital revolution is focused on letting
people tell and share their own stories according to carly fiorina chief of
technology giant hewlett packard. the job of firms such as hp now she said in a
speech at the consumer electronics show (ces) was to ensure digital and physical
worlds fully converged. she said the goal for 2005 was to make people the centre of
technology. ces showcases 50 000 new gadgets that will be hitting the shelves in
2005. the tech-fest the largest of its kind in the world runs from 6 to 9
january. the digital revolution is about the democratisation of technology and the
experiences it makes possible she told delegates. revolution has always been
about giving power to the people. she added: the real story of the digital
revolution is not just new products but the millions of experiences made possible
and stories that millions can tell. part of giving people more control has been
about the freeing up of content such as images video and music. crucial to this
has been the effort to make devices that speak to each other better so that content
can be more easily transferred from one device such as a digital camera to others
such as portable media players. a lot of work still needs to be done however to
sort out compatibility issues and standards within the technology industry so that
gadgets just work seamlessly she said. ms fiorina s talk also touted the way
technology is being designed to focus on lifestyle fashion and personalisation
something she sees as key to what people want. special guest singer gwen stefani
joined her on-stage to promote her own range of hp digital cameras which ms stefani
has helped design and which are heavily influenced by japanese youth culture. the
digital cameras which are due to go on sale in the us by the summer are based on
the hp 607 model. the emphasis on personalisation and lifestyle is a big theme at
this year s ces with tiny wearable mp3 players at every turn and rainbow hues
giving colour to everything. ms fiorina also announced that hp was working with
nokia to launch a visual radio service for mobiles which would launch in europe
early this year. the service will let people listen to radio on their mobiles and
download relevant content like a track s ringtone simultaneously. the service is
designed to make mobile radio more interactive. among the other new products she
showcased was the digital media hub a big upgrade to hp s digital entertainment
centre. coming out in the autumn in the us the box is a networked high-definition
tv cable set-top box digital video recorder and dvd recorder. it has a removable
hard drive cartridge memory card slots and light scribe labelling software which
lets people design and print customised dvd labels and covers. it is designed to
contain all a household s digital media such as pre-recorded tv shows pictures
videos and music so it can all be managed in one place. the hub reflects the
increasing move to re-box the pc so that it can work as part of other key centres
of entertainment. research suggests that about 258 million images are saved and
shared every day equating to 94 billion a year. eighty per cent of those remain on
cameras. media hubs are designed to encourage people to organise them on one box.
ms fiorina was one of several keynote speakers who also included microsoft chief
bill gates to set out what major technology companies think people will be doing
with technologies and gadgets in the next 12 months. in a separate announcement
during the keynote speech ms fiorina said that hp would be partnering mtv to
replace this year s mtv asia music award. mtv s asia aid will be held in bangkok on
3 february and is aimed at helping to raise money for the asian tsunami disaster.
end bush denial blair tells eu tony blair is urging european leaders to wake up
from their state of denial over president bush s re-election. america has
spoken. the rest of the world should listen the prime minister said in an
interview with the times newspaper published on friday. mr blair is at a summit in
brussels where iraq and european justice and immigration plans are on the agenda.
french president jacques chirac reacted to his warning by saying europe instead
needed to reinforce its own unity. mr blair has probably been closer to president
bush than any other european leader. he said some people were in a sort of state
of denial about the us election result but predicted a more receptive mood would
emerge soon. america needed to listen to the world too he said. the fact is that
president bush is there for four years. he is there because the american people
have chosen him he argued. he also made clear he intended to take seriously what
he perceives as his role in bringing the two continents together. britain was
uniquely placed to make out the common ground because of its strong alliance with
the us he suggested. he admitted he had gone to bed at 2230gmt well before the
american polls closed thinking mr kerry might have won. he woke up at 0530gmt to
discover mr bush had won but declined to say if he was pleased with the eventual
result. his words about president bush met a cool reception from jacques chirac.
the french president told reporters: europe today has more than ever the need the
necessity to reinforce itself and its dynamism and unity. that is the goal of the
constitution in a world that is more multi-polar than ever. mr chirac will miss
an address to the summit from iraqi interim leader iyad allawi who this week
criticised nations which took a spectator role to iraq s reconstruction. mr
chirac denied there was any snub - he is going to a memorial service for the united
arab emirates late leader and says he would be happy to meet mr allawi. he also
signed a communiqué stressing the eu s commitment to securing a stable and
unified iraq. the eu also confirmed a new $21m aid package. the communiqué
congratulated president bush on his victory and stressed the importance of good
transatlantic relations. the summit is also expected to agree changes to streamline
european asylum and immigration decisions. mr blair recently said the uk would only
participate in eu-wide measures where it was in uk interests but the tories say he
is surrendering a key veto. the meeting will also assess progress on the economic
reform plans agreed in lisbon in 2000 to make europe more competitive.
nintendo ds makes its euro debut nintendo s ds handheld game console has officially
gone on sale in europe. many stores around the uk opened at midnight to let keen
gamers get their hands on the device. the two-screen clamshell gadget costs £99
(149 euros) and 15 games are available for it at launch some featuring well-known
characters such as super mario and rayman. the ds spearheads nintendo s attempt to
continue its dominance of the handheld gaming market. since going on sale in japan
and the us at the end of 2004 nintendo has sold almost 4m ds consoles. part of
this popularity may be due to the fact that the ds can run any of the catalogue of
700 games produced for nintendo s gameboy advance handheld. games for the ds are
expected to cost between £19 and £29. about 130 games for the ds are in
development. as well as having two screens one of which is controlled by touch
the ds also lets players take on up to 16 other people via wireless. a download
play option means ds owners can take each other on even if only one of them owns a
copy of a particular game. other ds owners can also be sent text messages and
drawings. nintendo is also planning to release a media adapter for the handheld so
it can play music and video. five virgin megastores and 150 game shops were
expected to open early on friday morning to let people buy a ds. we know that
customers want it as soon as it s released - and that means the minute not the day
said robert quinn game s uk sales director. but nintendo will only have sole
control of europe s handheld gaming market for a few weeks because soon sony is
expected to release its psp console. although nintendo is aiming for younger
players and the psp is more for older gamers it is likely that the two firms will
be competing for many of the same customers. sony s psp represents a real threat to
nintendo because of the huge number of playstation owners around the world and the
greater flexibility of the sleek black gadget. the psp uses small discs for games
can play music and movies without the need for add-ons and also supports short-
range wireless play. when it goes on sale the psp is likely to cost between £130
and £200.
could rivalry overshadow election tony blair and gordon brown are desperately
trying to stuff the genie of their rivalry back into the bottle. along with any
number of senior cabinet colleagues they are insisting their only job is to win
the next election and govern in the best interests of britain. it is a message they
are aiming directly at their backbenchers who are becoming irritated and even
unnerved by the continuing claims and counter claims surrounding this alleged rift.
ian gibson for example urged the two men to stop squabbling declaring: for
goodness sake sometimes you have to rise above petulance and make sure that you do
your job as effectively as you can. those with slim majorities are particularly
fearful that the rift could hit their own hopes of re-election. tony blair will
seek to reassure labour mps on monday evening at their first meeting of the new
year at westminster - a behind-closed doors meeting which gordon brown is thought
likely to also attend to show unity. meanwhile the likes of health secretary john
reid and labour peer lord haskins are warning of the electoral dangers of allowing
this soap opera to continue. and they have both warned the rival camps to stop
spreading the poison. lord haskins even suggested mr blair should reinstate mr
brown as the central figure in the election planning. but this particular genie is
unusually reluctant to return to captivity and many fear it is simply too late to
repair the damage. they believe they will be fighting the next election with the
sounds of open warfare between the two men ringing in their ears. and it matters
little whether the rift is real or as some try to suggest simply the product of
newspaper headlines and westminster gossip. few in westminster actually believe
that simply because the evidence appears to contradict it. for example the
weekend s attempts by both men to play down the divisions failed to do the trick.
even as they were both insisting on their unity of purpose and claiming they would
not be swayed by newspaper stories they still managed to stir the speculation with
their comments. mr blair talked about the new labour manifesto - a move which
seemed calculated to irritate the chancellor who has long rejected the label. and
mr brown pointedly refused to deny claims the prime minister had reneged on a deal
to hand him the premiership last year. that claim was repeated in robert peston s
book a book which amply demonstrates this corrosive downing street soap opera is
nowhere near its final act. for his part mr brown insists his only motivation was
to get labour re-elected. the trouble is both men have fallen short of offering
simple straightforward denials of the central claims. so they have both been
accused of actually making matters worse by feeding the speculation with their own
behaviour. the first thing to be said is that these suggestions have not come from
nowhere. they started with and are sustained by friends of the two men. one only
had to listen to the chancellor s friend and former spin chief charlie whelan last
week to understand that there is a real anger from this camp at the prime minister
s apparent attempts to confound mr brown s leadership ambitions. but it is not just
public pronouncements from ex-aides. there are whispered briefings to selected
journalists from both sides. it is no secret in westminster for example that
downing street believes the chancellor is indulging in a mammoth sulk and acting in
a petty and deliberately provocative manner. then there are the actions of the men
themselves. gordon brown sets out what is seen as a rival manifesto then appears to
embark on his own personal campaign. the prime minister responds by scheduling his
monthly press conference to clash with a keynote speech by the chancellor.
meanwhile large numbers of backbench mps insist voters are either entirely
uninterested in the chatter which they believe is a media-only obsession or that
they fear for the efficient running of a government beset by such rivalry. either
way there is universal agreement that if this goes on through the general election
it can only do the labour party serious damage. there are signs that the two men
appreciate the dangers and both want to put a lid on all the speculation. but with
probably only four months to the next election that looks like being a
particularly difficult trick to pull off.
asia shares defy post-quake gloom thailand has become the first of the 10 southern
asian nations battered by giant waves at the weekend to cut its economic forecast.
thailand s economy is now expected to grow by 5.7% in 2005 rather than 6% as
forecast before tsunamis hit six tourist provinces. the full economic costs of the
disaster remain unclear. in part this is because of its scale and because
delivering aid and recovering the dead remain priorities. but indonesian indian
and hong kong stock markets reached record highs on wednesday suggesting that
investors do not fear a major economic impact. the highs showed the gap in outlook
between investors in large firms and individuals who have lost their livelihoods.
investors seemed to feel that some of the worst-affected areas - such as aceh in
indonesia - were so under-developed that the tragedy would little impact on asia s
listed companies according to analysts. obviously with a lot of loss of life a
lot of time is needed to clean up the mess bury the people and find the missing.
but it s not necessarily a really big thing in the economic sense said abn amro
chief asian strategist eddie wong. india s bombay stock exchange inched slightly
above its previous record close on wednesday. expectations of strong corporate
earnings in 2005 drove the indonesian stock exchange in jakarta to a record high on
wednesday. in hong kong the hang seng index may be benefiting in part from the
potential for its listed property companies to gain from rebuilding contracts in
the tsunami-affected regions of south east asia. in sri lanka some economists have
said that as much as 1% of annual growth may be lost. sri lanka s stock market has
fallen about 5% since the weekend but it is still 40% higher than at the start of
2004. thailand may lose 30bn baht (£398m; $768m) in earnings from tourism over the
next three months according to tourism minister sontaya kunplome. in the affected
provinces he expects the loss of tourism revenue to be offset by government
reconstruction spending. thailand intends to spend a similar sum - around 30bn baht
- on the rebuilding work. it will take until the fourth quarter of next year
before tourist visitors in phuket and five other provinces return to their normal
level said naris chaiyasoot director general at the ministry s fiscal policy
office. in the maldives the cost of reconstruction could wipe out economic growth
according to a government spokesman. our nation is in peril here said ahmed
shaheed the chief government spokesman. he estimated the economic cost of the
disaster at hundreds of millions of dollars. the maldives has gross domestic
product of $660m. it won t be surprising if the cost exceeds our gdp he said.
in the last few years we made great progress in our standard of living - the
united nations recognised this. now we see this can disappear in a few days a few
minutes. shaheed noted that investment in a single tourist resort - the economic
mainstay - could run to $40m. between 10 and 12 of the 80-odd resorts have been
severely damaged and a similar number have suffered significant damage. however
many experts including the world bank have pointed out that it is still difficult
to assess the magnitude of the disaster and its likely economic impact.
conservative backing for id cards the tories are to back controversial government
plans to introduce id cards. the shadow cabinet revealed its support ahead of next
week s commons vote on a bill to introduce compulsory id. the decision follows a
tough meeting where some senior tories argued vociferously against the move party
sources told the bbc. the bill which ministers claim will tackle crime terrorism
and illegal immigration is expected to be opposed by the liberal democrats. they
have said the scheme is deeply flawed and a waste of money. sources within the
conservative party told the bbc michael howard has always been in favour of id
cards and tried to introduce them when he was home secretary. the party has been
agnostic on the issue until now but had now decided to come off the fence the
tory source said. despite giving their backing to id cards the conservatives
insisted they would hold ministers to account over the precise purpose of the
scheme. they said they would also press labour over whether objectives could be
met and whether the home office would deliver them. and they pledged to assess the
cost effectiveness of id cards and whether people s privacy would be properly
protected. it is important to remember that this bill will take a decade to come
into full effect a spokesman said. it will do nothing to solve the immediate
problems of rising crime and uncontrolled immigration. lib dem home affairs
spokesman mark oaten said: this has all the signs of michael howard overruling
colleagues concerns over id cards. the tories should have the courage to try and
change public opinion not follow it. the new chairman of the bar council guy
mansfield qc warned there was a real risk that people on the margins of society
would be driven into the hands of extremists. what is going to happen to young
asian men when there has been a bomb gone off somewhere they are going to be
stopped. if they haven t [id cards] they are going to be detained.
kennedy predicts bigger turnout voters pent up passion could confound
predictions of a low turnout in the coming general election charles kennedy has
said. the liberal democrat leader predicted concerns over iraq and other
international and domestic issue would express themselves during the campaign. his
comments come as an inquiry looks at how best to boost voter turnouts. ex-foreign
secretary robin cook said people were not apathetic but fed up of pager politics
and not being heard. he like mr kennedy pointed to the hundreds of thousands of
people who demonstrated against plans for the iraq war. mr cook who is giving
evidence to the power inquiry into voter turnout rates told bbc radio 4 s today
programme it was not fair to blame the public who were more interested in politics
than ever before . they are turned off by the way we do politics in britain. there
s a message there for politicians. he urged politicians to avoid negative
campaigning and to speak more from the heart . we should be not so afraid to say
what we stand for. he also criticised the cult of personality politics: there s
far too much interest in celebrities. politics are in danger of becoming another
branch of the celebrity industry. the government has tried a number of things in
an attempt to boost voter turnout which fell to 59% in the last general election
in 2001. this has included bringing in directly elected mayors to head local
authorities and trialling postal voting.
borussia dortmund near bust german football club and former european champion
borussia dortmund has warned it will go bankrupt if rescue talks with creditors
fail. the company s shares tumbled after it said it has entered a life-
threatening profitability and financial situation . borussia dortmund has posted
record losses and missed rent payments on its westfallen stadium. chief executive
gerd niebaum stepped down last week and creditors are now pushing for greater
control. shares in borussia dortmund germany s only stock-market listed football
club dropped by almost 23% to 2.05 euros during early afternoon trading. fund
manager florian hamm - borussia dortmund s largest investor - said he would only
invest more money in the company if he got a greater say in how it is run. i
demand better transparency he is quoted as saying by germany s manger magazin.
the club has also faced calls to appoint executives from outside the club.
borussia dortmund posted a record loss of 68m euros ($89m; £47m) in the 12 months
through june. it made a loss of 27.2m euros in the first half of the current fiscal
year and said that total debts will increase to 134.7m euros by the middle of 2006
unless a restructuring plan is pushed through. this is the bill for their
mismanagement over the past years said hvb analyst peter-thilo halser. the club
appointed an auditor who has recommended a number of steps including deferring
the rent due on the stadium and suspending debt repayments until at least the 2006-
2007 fiscal year. stephen schechter a uk investment banker who has held talks with
borussia dortmund over a possible bond sale said the club needs a capital
injection of 35m euros. they need strong people on the board who do not have a
history with the club he said.
rusedski angry over supplements greg rusedski has criticised the governing body of
men s tennis for not releasing contamination-free supplements in time for the new
season. rusedski said: i tried to order some but didn t receive any and i haven t
got any yet. you would think they would have been available in december as it can
take two months for the body to respond. this event comes in the hottest period of
the year so you would hope the stuff would be available for it. the british
number two escaped a possible ban last year when he persuaded a tribunal that a
positive doping test was the result of contaminated atp supplements. in response
the atp struck a deal with pharmaceutical company glaxosmithkline to provide
contamination-free drinks and nutritional bars for the men s tour. david higdon
vice president of the atp admitted: i agree with greg. i would have loved to
have had these things available as soon as possible but it s a lot of work to make
sure they have gone through rigorous testing. the reality is though that the first
two weeks of the tour are spread far and wide and part of the distribution
agreement we had with gsk has an education component. we weren t going to just
drop these products out there without having a talk with the players about
understanding how to use them. the first chance we will get to do that is at the
players meeting on the saturday before the australian open. and rusedski who
takes on roger federer at the qatar open later on wednesday conceded that the
imminent changes will be beneficial. the good thing is that there is now a 100%
guarantee so hopefully all this will never happen again said rusedski.
hopefully after the australian open we won t have to discuss this any more.
rings of steel combat net attacks gambling is hugely popular especially with tech-
savvy criminals. many extortionists are targeting net-based betting firms and
threatening to cripple their websites with deluges of data unless a ransom is paid.
but now deep defences are being put in place by some of the uk s biggest net firms
to stop these attacks. increasing numbers of attacks and the huge amounts of data
being used to try to bump a site off the web are prompting firms to adopt the
measures. net firms are realising that it s not just about anti-virus and
firewalls said paul king chief security architect at cisco. there are more
things that can be done in the network to protect data centres. mr king said the
only way to properly combat these so-called distributed denial-of-service attacks
was with intelligent net-based systems. many of the gambling sites suffering ddos
attacks are in offshore data and hosting centres so any large scale data flood
could knock out access to many more sites than just the one the criminals were
targeting said mr king. this overspill effect was only likely to grow as attacks
grow in size and scale. malcolm seagrave security expert at energis said the
most common types of attacks hit sites with 10 megabytes of data over short periods
of time. bigger attacks sending down 200 megabytes of traffic or more were rarely
seen he said. it does feel like they are turning the dial because you see this
traffic gradually growing he said. so far there have been no attacks involving
gigabytes of data said mr seagrave. however he added that it was only a matter of
time before such large attacks were mounted. maria capella spokeswoman for net
provider pipex said that when ddos attacks were at their height customers were
getting hit every four to five days. the defences being put in place constantly
monitor the streams of data flowing across networks and pluck out the traffic
destined for target sites. it s about understanding what s genuine traffic and
keeping attack traffic from going to the site she said. we study the profile of
their traffic and as soon as we see an anomaly in the profile that s when we start
to get the backbone engineering boys to see if we are going to sustain an attack
said ms capella. this traffic can be hard to spot because ddos attacks typically
use thousands of computers in many different countries each participating machine
only sends a small part of the entire data flood. typically these computers have
been infected by a virus or worm which reports its success and the net address of
compromised machines back to the malicious hacker or hi-tech criminal that set off
the virus. hijacked computers are known as zombies or bots and collections of them
are called bot nets. many spammers rent out bot nets to help them anonymously
send junk mail. most of the zombies are based outside the country that hosts the
target site so getting the attacking pcs shut off can be difficult. often pipex and
other net suppliers do get advance notice that an attack is about to happen. the
serious players tend to precede an attack with some kind of ransom e-mail said ms
capella. we ask as part of the service we provide that customers notify us of
anything they have in advance that would give us forewarning. once an attack is
spotted dedicated net hardware takes over to remove the attack traffic and ensure
that sites stay up. energis took a similar approach said mr seagrave. we have
technology out there that allows us to detect attacks in minutes rather than let
network engineers spend hours pulling the information together said mr seagrave.
also net firms were starting to work more closely together on the problem of ddos
attacks and pool information about where they are coming from. information gathered
on attacks and where they originated has led to some arrests. he said energis also
did its own intelligence work to get in insight into which sites criminal gangs
plan to target. we have people in places where they shouldn t be monitoring tech
sites he said. sometimes though he said spotting the next victim was easy. you
can see them going alphabetically through the list with the gambling sites trying
one after another said mr seagrave.
mcclaren targets champions league middlesbrough boss steve mcclaren believes his
side can clinch a top-four spot in the premiership and secure qualification for the
champions league. after their 3-2 win over manchester city mcclaren said: we are
playing exciting football it s a magnificent result to keep us in the top five.
but how well we do depends how often we can get our best team out. once we got the
third goal it should have been four or five but we nearly paid for it in the end.
mcclaren also praised winger stewart downing and strikers jimmy floyd hasselbaink
and mark viduka who both ended barren runs in front of goal. he added: if stewart
keeps playing like this sven-goran eriksson has got to pick him. and the strikers
scored great goals the combination play between them shows they want to play with
each other and they are trying.
gritty return for prince of persia still basking in the relatively recent glory of
last year s sands of time the dashing prince of persia is back in warrior within
and in a more bellicose mood than last time. this sequel gives the franchise a
grim gritty new look and ramps up the action and violence. as before you control
the super-athletic prince from a third-person perspective. the time-travelling plot
hinges on the dahaka an all-consuming monster pursuing our hero through the ages.
the only way to dispel it is to turn back the clock again and kill the sultry
empress of time before she ever creates the sands of time that caused the great
beast s creation. studiously structured though this back story is everything
boils down to old-fashioned fantasy gameplay which proves on the whole as
dependable as it needs to be. ever since the series then-groundbreaking beginnings
on the commodore amiga prince of persia has always been about meticulously-
animated acrobatic moves that provide an energetic blend of leaping preposterously
between pieces of scenery and lopping off enemies body parts. those flashy moves
are back in full evidence and tremendous fun to perform and perfect. combining
them at speed is the best fun although getting a handle of doing so takes practice
and plenty of skill. until you reach that point it is a haphazard business. all
too often you will perform a stunning triple somersault pirouette off a wall
knock out three enemies in one glorious swoop before plummeting purposefully over
a cliff to your doom. that in turn can mean getting set back an annoyingly long
distance for you can only save at the fountains dotted along the path. the
expected fiendish puzzles are all present and correct but combat is what is really
been stepped up and there is more of it than before. the game s developers have
combined acrobatic flair with gruesome slaying techniques in some wonderfully
imaginative ways. slicing foes down the middle is one particularly entertaining
method of seeing them off. warrior within is a very slick package; the game s
intro movie is so phenomenally good that it actually does an ultimate disservice
once the game itself commences. it is on a par with the jaw-dropping opening
sequence of onimusha 3 earlier this year and when the game begins it is something
of an anti-climax. that said the graphics are excellent and indeed among the most
striking and satisfying elements of the game. the music is probably the worst
aspect - a merit-free heavy metal soundtrack that you will swiftly want to turn
off. there is something strangely unsatisfying about the game. perhaps precisely
because its graphics and mechanics are so good that the story and overall
experience are not quite as engaging as they should be. somehow it adds up to less
than the sum of its parts and is more technically impressive than it is outright
enjoyable. but that is not to say warrior within is anything other than a superb
adventure that most will thoroughly enjoy. it just does not quite take the
character to the new heights that might have been hoped for.
straw backs ending china embargo uk foreign secretary jack straw has defended plans
to end the european union s arms embargo on china despite opposition from the us
and japan. mr straw visiting beijing noted arms embargoes applied to china
burma and zimbabwe but not to north korea which he said had a terrible rights
record. the eu imposed its arms ban on china in 1989 after troops opened fire on
protestors in tiananmen square. mr straw also signed a deal on china-uk tourism. it
is expected this would increase the number of chinese tourists by 40 000 per year
providing $120m in revenue. china has in the past said it sees the weapons ban as
politically driven and does not want it lifted in order to buy more weapons. mr
straw speaking at a joint news conference with chinese foreign minister li
zhaoxing stressed this point. the result of any decision [to lift the arms
embargo] should not be an increase in arms exports from european union member
states to china either in quantitative or qualitative terms mr straw said.
earlier this week he said he expected the embargo to be lifted within six months.
but mr straw faces tough opposition to the move. tory foreign affairs spokesman
michael ancram said lifting the arms embargo would be irresponsible and would
damage britain s relations with the us. he said mr straw was naive beyond belief
if he accepted china s claim it does not want the ban lifted in order to buy
weapons. the french want the embargo lifted because they want to sell arms to
china; the chinese want it lifted because they want to buy arms and battlefield
technology from europe. when he was in tokyo earlier this week japanese foreign
minister nobutaka machimura told the british minister that his plan to remove the
embargo was a worrying issue that concerns the security and environment of not
only japan but also east asia overall . washington argues that if the embargo is
lifted it could lead to a buying spree for arms that china could use to threaten
its diplomatic rival taiwan. beijing says taiwan is part of chinese territory and
wants to unite it with the mainland by force if necessary. the us is bound by law
to help taiwan defend itself. washington has also voiced concern that the human
rights conditions in china have not improved enough to merit an end to the embargo.
it is an issue raised by human rights groups too. brad adams from the uk s human
rights watch said: this is a huge political signal from europe that they are
willing to forget about tiananmen square. but mr straw insisted the eu s code of
conduct on arms exports meant tough criteria on human rights still had to be met if
the embargo was lifted.
robots march to us cinema summit animated movie robots has opened at the top of the
us and canada box office chart taking $36.5m (£19m) on its first weekend on
release. featuring the voices of ewan mcgregor halle berry robin williams and
mel brooks robots follows a robot inventor who moves to a big city. vin diesel s
family comedy the pacifier fell to the number two spot taking $18.1m (£9.4m). new
bruce willis movie hostage opened at number four with $9.8m (£5.1m). however a
recut version of mel gibson s the passion of the christ which featured less
violence than last year s original movie took just $239 850 (£125 000) despite
opening in 957 cinemas. the new version of the film received little publicity and
the original version is available across the us on dvd. we certainly had higher
expectations than what we got said rob schwartz head of distribution for
newmarket films which released the passion of the christ. we were trying to get
the film out there hoping it would reach an audience that it didn t quite reach
the first time around. it doesn t seem to have worked out quite as well as we had
hoped. meanwhile will smith comedy hitch has become the top film at the global
box office after taking an estimated $30.1m (£15.6m) over the weekend at cinemas
outside north america according to industry website screen daily. it has taken
$65.5m (£34.1m) so far buoyed by opening at number one in the uk last weekend and
a successful run in germany. the movie which cost a reported $70m (£36.4m) to make
has taken $138m (£72m) in the us so far.
mobile networks seek turbo boost third-generation mobile (3g) networks need to get
faster if they are to deliver fast internet surfing on the move and exciting new
services. that was one of the messages from the mobile industry at the 3gsm world
congress in cannes last week. fast 3g networks are here but the focus has shifted
to their evolution into a higher bandwidth service says the global mobile
suppliers association. at 3gsm siemens showed off a system that transmits faster
mobile data. the german company said data could be transmitted at one gigabit a
second - up to 20 times faster than current 3g networks. the system is not
available commercially yet but motorola the us mobile handset and infrastructure
maker held a clinic for mobile operators on hsdpa (high speed downlink packet
access) a high-speed high bandwidth technology available now. early hsdpa systems
typically offer around two megabits per second (mbps) compared with less than 384
kilobits per second (kbps) on standard 3g networks. high-speed downlink packet
access (hsdpa) - sometimes called super 3g - will be vital for profitable services
like mobile internet browsing and mobile video clips according to a report
published by uk-based research consultancy analysys. a number of companies are
developing the technology. nokia and canada-based wireless communication products
company sierra wireless recently agreed to work together on high speed downlink
packet access. the two companies aim to jointly market the hsdpa solution to global
network operator customers. while hsdpa theoretically enables data rates up to a
maximum of 14mbps practical throughputs will be lower than this in wide-area
networks said dr alastair brydon author of the analysys report: pushing beyond
the limits of 3g with hsdpa and other enhancements. the typical average user rate
in a real implementation is likely to be in the region of one megabit per second
which even at this lower rate will more than double the capacity... when compared
to basic wcdma [3g] he added. motorola has conducted five trials of its
technology and says speeds of 2.9mbps have been recorded at the edge of an outdoor
3g cell using a single hsdpa device. but some mobile operators are opting for a
technology called evolution data optimised (ev-do). us operator sprint ordered a
broadband data upgrade to its 3g network at the end of last year. we are expanding
our network and deploying ev-do technology to meet customer demand for faster
wireless speeds said oliver valente sprint s vice president for technology
development when the contract was announced. as part of $3bn in multi-year
contracts announced late last year sprint will spend around $1bn on ev-do
technology from lucent technologies nortel networks and motorola that provides
average data speeds of 0.3-0.5 megabits a second and peak download rates of
2.4mbps. mmo2 the uk-based operator with services in the uk ireland and germany
has opted for technology based on the high speed downlink packet access (hsdpa)
standard. using technology from lucent it will offer data speeds of 3.6mbps from
next summer on its isle of man 3g network and will eventually support speeds of up
to 14.4mbps. us operator cingular wireless is also adopting hsdpa using technology
from lucent alongside equipment from siemens and ericsson. siemens plans for a
one gigabit network may be more than a user needs today but christoph caselitz
president of the mobile networks division at the firm says that: by the time the
next generation of mobile communication debuts in 2015 the need for transmission
capacities for voice data image and multimedia is conservatively anticipated to
rise by a factor of 10. siemens - in collaboration with the fraunhofer german-sino
lab for mobile communications and the institute for applied radio system technology
- has souped up mobile communications by using three transmitting and four
receiving antennae instead of the usual one. this enables a data transmission
such as sending a big file or video to be broken up into different flows of data
that can be sent simultaneously over one radio frequency band. the speeds offered
by3g mobile seemed fast at the time mobile operators were paying huge sums for 3g
licences. but today instead of connecting to the internet by slow dial-up phone
connection many people are used to broadband networks that offer speeds of 0.5
megabits a second - must faster than 3g. this means users are likely to find 3g
disappointing unless the networks are souped up. if they aren t those lucrative
power users such as computer geeks and busy business people will avoid them for
all but the most urgent tasks reducing the potential revenues available to mobile
operators. but one gigabit a second systems will not be available immediately.
siemens says that though the system works in the laboratory it still has to assess
the mobility of multiple-antennae devices and conduct field trials. a commercial
system could be as far away as 2012 though siemens did not rule out an earlier
date.
wales silent on grand slam talk rhys williams says wales are still not thinking of
winning the grand slam despite a third six nations win. that s the last thing on
our minds at the moment said williams a second- half replacement in saturday s
24-18 win over france in paris. we all realise how difficult a task it is to go up
to scotland and beat them. we ve come unstuck there a couple of times recently so
our focus is on that game and we ll worry about ireland hopefully after we ve
beaten scotland. with captain gareth thomas ruled out of the rest of the campaign
with a broken thumb williams is vying for his first start in the championship so
far. kevin morgan is probably favourite to replace thomas at full-back leaving
williams and hal luscombe to battle for the right wing berth. a hamstring injury
denied luscombe the opportunity to make a third successive start but the dragons
winger is expected to be fit for the trip to murrayfield on 13 march. hooker robin
mcbryde is doubtful after picking up a knee injury in paris but centre sonny
parker and flanker colin charvis are set to recover from injury to be in contention
for selection. said wales assistant coach scott johnson: they ve worked through
the weekend and the reports are a bit more positive. so we re getting a couple
back and that adds to the depth of the squad. scotland secured their first win of
the campaign on saturday by grinding out an 18-10 win over italy. matt williams
side has shown little in attack but johnson insisted the scots will be difficult
opposition to break down. italy are really brave opposition and sometimes it s
very hard to win he said. so an ugly win can be just as effective as a 30 or 40
point victory. scotland are a hard side and very underrated so we re not taking
anything for granted. we re not basking in the glory of winning our first three
games. we ve got to be diligent in our preparation. that s my job and we ve got to
make sure we re focused.
wife swap makers sue us copycat the british producers of us wife swap are taking
legal action against a show they claim is a blatant and wholescale copycat of
their programme. rdf media which makes the show for us network abc has filed a
damages claim for $18 million (£9.25 million) against fox s trading spouses. abc
bought the rights to the british show which was first aired in 2003 and became a
hit on channel 4. the us network is not part of the claim but has supported rdf s
action. we respect our producing partners right to protect their intellectual
property in whatever manner they deem most appropriate said abc in a statement. a
spokesman for fox said it had not seen the details of the legal action and could
not comment. their show was first screened in june and was criticised in the
press for its similarities to wife swap. abc originally planned to call their
programme trading moms but changed it to avoid confusion with the fox version.
earlier this year the nbc network claimed that fox s boxing show the next great
champ had been hurriedly produced to ensure its programme was the first to be
screened. nbc alleged that boxing regulations had been violated but failed in
their attempt to have the show pulled. the fox show proved a ratings flop while
nbc s the contender is due to begin in february.
supercomputer breaks speed record the us is poised to push japan off the top of the
supercomputing chart with ibm s prototype blue gene/l machine. it is being
assembled for the lawrence livermore national laboratory a us department of energy
(doe) lab. doe test results show that blue gene/l has managed speeds of 70.72
teraflops. the current top machine japan s nec earth simulator clocks up 35.86.
due next week the top 500 list officially charts the fastest computers in the
world. it is announced every six months and is worked out using an officially
recognised mathematical speed test called linpack which measures calculations per
second. the speeds will most likely make it the fastest computer system on the
planet yet the chip technology powering the machine is the kind which can be found
in familiar devices such as games consoles. the us secretary of energy spencer
abraham confirmed that the machine had reached the breakneck speed according to
the linpack benchmark. until the official list is published however blue gene/l s
position will not be confirmed and there are expected to be some other new
entries. but the test results raise the bar of supercomputing enormously and signal
a remarkable achievement. surpassing the 40 trillion calculations per second
(teraflop) mark has been considered a landmark for some time. the ibm blue gene/l
is only a prototype and is one 5th the speed of the full version due to be
completed for the livermore labs in 2005. its peak theoretical performance is
expected to be 360 teraflops and will fit into 64 full racks. it will also cut
down on the amount of heat generated by the massive power a big problem for
supercomputers. the final machine will help scientists work out the safety
security and reliability requirements for the us s nuclear weapons stockpile
without the need for underground nuclear testing. the earth simulator has held on
to the top spot since june 2002. it is dedicated to climate modelling and
simulating seismic activity. but in september ibm said that another blue gene/l
machine clocked up 36.01 teraflops marginally surpassing the earth simulator s
performance. this was achieved during internal testing at ibm s production facility
in rochester minnesota though so was not an official record. another giant to
enter the fray is silicon graphics columbia supercomputer based at nasa s ames
research center in california. it would be used to model flight missions climate
research and aerospace engineering. the linux-based machine was reported to have
reached a top speed of 42.7 teraflops in october. supercomputers are hugely
important for working out very complex problems across science and society. their
massive simulation and processing power means they can improve the accuracy of
weather forecasts help design better cars and improve disease diagnosis. ibm s
senior vice president of technology and manufacturing nick donofrio believes that
by 2006 blue gene will be capable of petaflop computing. this means it would be
capable of doing 1 000 trillion operations a second. when you get a computer as
large as a petaflop you can start to think of simulations that might complement
the physical world mr donofrio recently told the bbc news website. you can
start to be more proactive more interactive and more innovative. one area where
mr donofrio sees supercomputing - and blue gene machines in particular - as crucial
is health. he believes the machines can help scientists understand one of the
greatest challenges of the 21st century: protein folding. health is one of the
most important problems not just mapping the human genome but also protein
structures. we are a great believer in simulation. it gives you another tool he
said. once the structures of proteins are understood fully then drugs can be
tailor-made to fight diseases more effectively. compared with the current fastest
supercomputers blue gene is designed to consume one 15th the power and be 10 times
more compact. since the first supercomputer the cray-1 was installed at los
alamos national laboratory in 1976 computational speed has leaped 500 000 times.
the cray-1 was capable of 80 megaflops (80 million operations a second). the blue
gene/l machine that will be completed next year will be five million times faster.
started in 1993 the top 500 list is decided by a group of computer science
academics from around the world. it is presented at the international supercomputer
conference in pittsburgh.
lennon brands rangers favourites celtic s neil lennon admits rangers could be
considered slight favourites for the old firm cis cup clash but insists his side
can still win. lennon concedes rangers are in good form at the moment but they
have failed to beat celtic in their last seven meetings. rangers are on the up and
have been on a good run in recent weeks he said. but it s a game we believe we
re capable of winning if we play our best he told the evening times. all the
boys are looking forward to it because they are brilliant games to be involved in.
without playing at the top of our game we have still been winning matches. at the
minute we are at the top of the league and still in with a chance of staying in
europe so i don t think it is the crisis people have been trying to make out. of
course it is a concern when you are losing goals because we have been notorious
for being a team that is hard to beat and keeping clean sheets but hopefully we
are over that wee run. considering we lost henrik larsson at the end of last
season we have still been scoring a lot of goals which is pleasing.
asylum children to face returns the uk government is planning to return asylum
seeker children without parents to albania. the trial scheme which could start in
weeks may be extended to apply to children from other countries. children s
charities have reacted with alarm saying the policy amounts to forcible removal
and may not guarantee the safety of those affected. but the home office says it may
be in the children s best interests if it reunites them with their communities.
the pilot included in the government s five-year immigration plan aims to return
unaccompanied asylum-seeking children from albania who have failed in their asylum
claims. since 2002 at least 9 000 under-18s have arrived in the uk to seek asylum
without other family members. these children automatically become the
responsibility of social services. up to now ministers have held back from final
removal orders against unaccompanied children until after they are legally adults
at 18. at least a dozen albanian-born teenagers are thought to have been identified
for return according to sources although there is no public confirmation of
numbers. those selected could either be returned to their families should they be
traced or placed in the care of other albanian authorities. separate negotiations
to establish a family tracing and returns scheme are believed to be underway with
another country. under the 1989 children act public bodies have a duty to act in
the best interest of a child in their care. laura brownlees of save the children
said there were grave concerns not least because of the well-documented
trafficking of children into crime and prostitution in albania. if children are
going to be returned then there should be proper assessments and decisions on a
case by case basis she said. we do not think there are structures in place [to
receive returning children in albania]. if these decisions are not in the best
interests of the child then that is a forced removal because the child will not
have any choice in the final decision. in its five-year immigration plan
announced on tuesday the government said it was addressing the difficult issue
of returning unaccompanied asylum seeking children. a spokesman for the home office
said it was wholly wrong to suggest that the plan was to return children and leave
them to rot . we are developing a returns programme for unaccompanied asylum-
seeking children whose asylum and humanitarian protection claims have been refused
said the spokesman. we have been exploring how we can establish reception and
longer-term care arrangements in countries of origin and believe that it s possible
to return children in a way that is in their best interests and is safe and
sustainable. we do not believe that it is right or in keeping with children s
legislation that children who can return should remain in the uk indefinitely
separated from their families and communities. the spokesman stressed the uk would
abide by its international human rights obligations. only those children who could
be provided with a carefully planned reintegration package would be returned he
said. but andrew hogg spokesman for the medical foundation for the care of victims
of torture said ministers had so far failed to reassure agencies. from what is so
far known we strongly oppose the scheme because the welfare and best interests of
the child will not properly be taken into account said mr hogg. in albania
particularly there is no statutory child care or protection structure. the medical
foundation has many serious concerns including the assessment process for
suitability for return the degrading of best interests of the child principles and
of child welfare and the lack of safeguards in the chosen countries. a spokesman
for the albanian embassy in london said it was the first it had heard of a scheme
but did not rule out that there had been an agreement between the two countries.
eminem secret gig venue revealed rapper eminem is to play an intimate gig in london
on saturday following a show on the river thames on friday. the us star will play
just two songs at a night showcasing his label shady records at the islington
academy. eminem performed on hms belfast on friday which is docked on the river
thames where he filmed two songs for bbc one s top of the pops. he arrived in the
uk on friday following his appearance at the mtv europe music awards in rome. other
rap acts who may appear at the islington gig include stat quo proof dj green
lantern swift and obie trice. eminem s latest album soared to the top of the us
chart after just three days on sale in record shops. encore is now a chart-topper
on both sides of the atlantic following its debut at number one in the uk. the
fourth album from the rap star was on sale for two days before it outsold all of
its rivals. the album was released early in an effort to combat both physical and
online piracy. eminem s album includes the track mosh which is a tirade against
us president bush and the presence of us troops in iraq. the rapper was criticised
earlier this year after a performance on bbc one s top of the pops in april led 12
viewers to complain he was lewd and offensive . the complaints about the star
grabbing his crotch were upheld by the bbc. the performer had been asked to tone
his act down after rehearsal but ignored this request during the live broadcast a
bbc statement read. although his gestures were part of the rap culture they had
gone beyond what is expected.
munster cup tie switched to spain munster s heineken cup quarter-final tie against
biarritz on 3 april has been switched to real sociedad s paseo de anoeta stadium in
san sebastian. real s ground holds 32 000 whereas the parc des sports aguilera in
biarritz has a capacity of just 12 667. the irish province will be given at least 8
000 tickets. the decision to move was a difficult one but as we considered the
fans as one of our primary objectives said biarritz chairman marcel martin. we
hope we will be rewarded as a huge crowd behaving in the best rugby tradition. the
match will be the first heineken cup fixture to be played in spain and is expected
to attract the biggest-ever attendance for a rugby match in the country. ulster
were the last irish team to play at the paseo de anoeta stadium where they faced a
euskarians side during a pre-season tour in 1998.
freeze on anti-spam campaign a campaign by lycos europe to target spam-related
websites appears to have been put on hold. earlier this week the company released
a screensaver that bombarded the sites with data to try to bump up the running
costs of the websites. but the site hosting the screensaver now displays a pink
graphic and the words stay tuned . no one at lycos was available for comment on
latest developments in its controversial anti-spam campaign. lycos europe s make
love not spam campaign was intended as a way for users to fight back against the
mountain of junk mail flooding inboxes. people were encouraged to download the
screensaver which when their pc was idle would then send lots of data to sites
that peddle the goods and services mentioned in spam messages. lycos said the idea
was to get the spam sites running at 95% capacity and generate big bandwidth bills
for the spammers behind the sites. but the plan has proved controversial.
monitoring firm netcraft analysed response times for some of the sites targeted by
the screensaver and found that a number were completely knocked offline. the
downing of the sites could dent lycos claims that what it is doing does not amount
to a distributed denial of service attack. in such attacks thousands of computers
bombard sites with data in an attempt to overwhelm them. laws in many countries do
not explicitly outlaw such attacks but many nations are re-drafting computer use
laws to make them specific offences. lycos europe now appears to have put the plan
on hold. the site hosting the screensaver currently shows a holding page with the
words stay tuned . the numerical internet address of the site has also changed.
this is likely to be in response to spammers who have reportedly redirected traffic
from their sites back to the lycos screensaver site. the campaign has come under
fire from some corners of the web. many discussion groups have said that it set a
dangerous precedent and could incite vigilantism. attacking a spammer s website is
like poking a grizzly bear sleeping in your back garden with a pointy stick said
graham cluley senior technology consultant for sophos. not only is this
screensaver similar in its approach to a potentially illegal distributed denial of
service attack but it also is in danger of turning innocent computer users into
vigilantes who may not be prepared for whatever retaliation the spammers care to
dream up.
kirwan demands italy consistency italy coach john kirwan has challenged his side to
match the performance they produced in pushing ireland close when they meet wales
on saturday. despite losing 28-17 in sunday s six nations encounter the italians
confirmed their continuing improvement. our goal is to match every side we face
and against ireland we showed we could do that said kirwan. but the most
important thing is that we build on that performance when we play wales on
saturday. italy s half-backs had a mixed afternoon with recalled scrum-half
alessandro troncon impressing but fly-half luciano orquera having an off-day with
the boot. kirwan said: i was very happy with troncon. he had an incredible game -
he was very good in attack and defence. orquera s kicking was off but he showed
great courage in defence. he also followed the game plan. we have to give him
confidence because he has the capability to do well.
beckham rules out management move real madrid midfielder david beckham has no plans
to become a manager when his playing career is over. i am not interested in being
a coach but i would like to have football schools the england captain said on
television station canal plus. i have wanted to do that since i went to the bobby
charlton school. i m going to open one in london and one in la. my second passion
is charity work - i am an ambassador for unicef and it gives me great pride. but
beckham revealed that his immediate priority was winning the spanish league title
with real madrid. real slipped to 13 points behind leaders barcelona with a 1-0
defeat at the hands of sevilla on wednesday. beckham admitted: it s disappointing
and frustrating to see the results considering the team we have. i would really
like to win la liga with real madrid - i have been here two years and we still have
not done it. in a wide-ranging interview beckham also revealed that his sending-
off against argentina - and the resulting media storm - had been the most
significant moment in his career. asked for his worst memory he said: to be sent
off against argentina - it was not for the sending-off but for what happened
afterwards. i was lucky because i had a manager sir alex ferguson who supported
me and a strong family behind me but i believe that changed me. i believe it
changed me for the better.
uk needs tax cuts tories insist a major change of direction is needed in britain
if it is to prosper the shadow chancellor said as the tory party spring conference
began. oliver letwin said the uk could not compete with other countries without
the £4bn tax cuts he was promising. tory co-chairman liam fox had opened the forum
in brighton with an attack on labour s record and party leader michael howard is
due to speak later. tony blair has said conservative policies would cause economic
failure. but mr letwin said britain had fallen from fourth to 11th in the
international economic competitiveness league. can this country compete can this
country prosper unless we do something about the burden of regulation and tax on
our economy he said. if we are going to take on the great challenges the
challenges like those posed by the chinese and the indians we have got to do
something about getting down the burden of regulation and getting down the burden
of tax he said. the fact is the very carefully costed fully funded plans we
have laid out for saving £12bn by 2007-2008 are absolutely crucial to delivering an
economy that will prosper and provide people with jobs and indeed provide the
public services with the money they need on a sustainable long-term basis. mr
letwin said voting for labour meant choosing higher taxes borrowing and waste.
earlier dr fox had said labour s rule had been characterised by lost trust and
failure to deliver . he also attacked the government s failure to control
immigration and asylum and criticised its record on the nhs telling delegates
labour cannot be trusted on education or crime. a tory government would sort out
the shambles of immigration put patients before statistics and bring discipline
to schools he said. michael howard who had been due to welcome delegates to the
conference on friday will address them in a lunchtime speech. his welcome address
had to be postponed after he stayed in london to lead the party s opposition to the
prevention of terrorism bill in its lengthy progress through parliament. the bill
was finally passed on friday evening after more than 30 hours of debate. mr howard
is likely to defend his party s handling of the bill which was only passed after
the conservatives accepted prime minister tony blair s promise that mps would be
able to review it within a year.
vibe awards back despite violence the us vibe awards will be held again next year
despite a stabbing which happened during the ceremony. vibe magazine president
kenard gibbs said the attack earlier this month in santa monica was sickening . he
said not holding the awards would be counter to the work the magazine has done to
promote hip hop music. rapper young buck has been charged after allegedly stabbing
a man who hit dr dre as he was about to receive a lifetime achievement award. the
rapper whose real name is david darnell brown is due in court on 20 december
after being arrested on one charge of attempted murder and a second charge of
assault with a deadly weapon. the performer is one of the members of 50 cent s g-
unit group which is signed to dr dre s record label. the man who was stabbed
jimmy james johnson suffered a collapsed lung and is in a stable condition at a
los angeles hospital. mr johnson allegedly approached dr dre who was seated at a
table in front of the stage and appeared to ask for an autograph before punching
him. during the ensuing scuffle - which involved many of the 1 000-strong crowd -
mr johnson was stabbed as he was being dragged away by security staff
russia wto talks make progress talks on russia s proposed membership of the world
trade organisation (wto) have been making good progress say those behind the
negotiations. but the chairman of the working party ambassador stefan johannesson
of iceland warned that there was still a lot of work has to be done . his
comments came as president george w bush said the us backed russian entry. but he
said for russia to make progress the government must renew a commitment to
democracy and the rule of law . his comments come three days before he is due to
meet president vladimir putin. russia has been waiting for a decade to join the
wto and hopes to finally become a member by early 2006. a decision could be reached
in december when the wto s 148 current members gather for a summit in hong kong.
that would allow an earliest date for membership of january 2006 if the hong kong
summit gave its approval. while pinpointing several areas in which there are
difficulties in the bilateral and multilateral work with russia the us said the
meeting was much more efficient than we ve seen for some time . and australia said
it was one of the best (meetings) we can recall in terms of substance . mr
johannesson also said progress on the bilateral market access side is accelerating
. sticking points to membership have included limits on foreign ownership in the
telecommunications and life insurance businesses as well as issues surrounding
counterfeiting piracy and data protection. some wto members also dislike russia s
energy price subsidies which competitors say give russian businesses an unfair
advantage.
muslim police stops more likely uk muslims should accept that people of islamic
appearance are more likely to be stopped and searched by police a home office
minister has said. hazel blears said innocent muslims would be targeted because of
the search for islamic extremists. qualifications for religious leaders to enter
the uk could also be made tougher she told a commons inquiry. her comments have
been described as irresponsible and outrageous by the islamic human rights
commission (ihrc). the threat is most likely to come from those people associated
with an extreme form of islam or who are falsely hiding behind islam the salford
mp told the commons home affairs committee. it means that some of our counter-
terrorism powers will be disproportionately experienced by the muslim community.
it was a reality that should be recognised she said. if a threat is from a
particular place then our action is going to be targeted at that area she added.
on ministers of religions such as imams she said faith groups would be asked what
other qualifications and skills such as civic knowledge and ability to engage the
community should be demanded. last year ministers introduced a requirement that
ministers should speak english to a certain level. ihrc chairman massoud shadjareh
accused ms blears of playing an islamophobia card in the run-up to a general
election. she is demonising and alienating our community he said. it is a
legitimisation for a backlash and for racists to have an onslaught on our
community. this sort of comment is just music to the ears of racists. later the
prime minister s official spokesman urged people to put ms blears comments into
context. the minister had been saying she understood there was a perception that
stop and search was aimed at one community but that was not what was happening
the spokesman said. what is happening is that those powers are aimed at those who
are suspected of carrying out or planning certain activity who happen to come from
one community. it is not aimed at a particular community it is not police policy
to aim these powers at a particular community he added. statistics showed that of
the 17 people found guilty of terrorist acts in the uk since the 11 september
attacks only four of the 12 whose ethnic backgrounds were known were muslim he
added figures published last week showed that people from ethnic minorities were
increasingly likely to be targeted by police stop and search tactics. figures
showed that for 2003/2004 asians were 1.9 times more likely to be stopped and
searched compared with 1.7 times more likely in the previous year. separate
figures on police searches in england and wales carried out under the terrorism act
2000 showed that ethnic minorities were more likely to be targeted. muslim groups
have repeatedly claimed that their communities are being victimised under terror
laws. in 2003/2004 12.5% searches under the laws were on asian people even though
they make up 4.7% of the population. last july the police were accused of
islamophobia by muslim groups after stop and search figures showed the numbers of
asians targeted had risen by 300% since the introduction of anti-terror laws.
no uk premiere for rings musical the producers behind the lord of the rings musical
have abandoned plans to premiere the show in london because no suitable theatre was
available. the £11.5m show will make its debut in toronto in march 2006 after it
was found that all three west end theatres with sufficient capacity were booked.
the musical is not expected in london before december 2006. producer kevin wallace
said it would be worth waiting for . it will be like nothing they have ever seen
before. i know there will be a lot of disappointed british tolkien fans who hoped
to see the show in london but we couldn t get a london theatre in time added the
british producer. the world premiere of the stage musical co-produced by canadian
theatrical impresarios david and ed mirvish will take place at toronto s princess
of wales theatre next year. toronto really wanted this premiere. the tolkien
books and films are hugely popular in canada said mr wallace shortly after
signing the deal in canada. we hope the anticipation and excitement over here will
create an even bigger buzz by the time we open in london. auditions begin in
canada on thursday but up to five british actors may join the cast under a deal
struck with canadian actors equity. the music for the show is being written by
bollywood composer ar rahman who was behind andrew lloyd webber s west end musical
bollywood dreams and in conjuction with the finnish group varttina. there will
be no singing and dancing hobbits. the music will be in a very traditional mould
and draw on ethnic traditions assured mr wallace. the musical s british director
is matthew warchus best known for staging the worldwide stage hit art. the
production will be a hybrid of text physical theatre music and spectacle never
previously seen on this scale he said. only in the theatre are we actually
plunged into the events as they happen. the environment surrounds us and we are in
middle earth. new zealander peter jackson took 10 years to bring jrr tolkien s
fantasy trilogy to the big screen winning academy awards for best film and best
director for the final film the return of the king in 2004.
uk risks breaking golden rule the uk government will have to raise taxes or rein
in spending if it wants to avoid breaking its golden rule a report suggests.
the rule states that the government can borrow cash only to invest and not to
finance its spending projects. the national institute of economic and social
research (niesr) claims that taxes need to rise by about £10bn if state finances
are to be put in order. the treasury said its plans were on track and funded until
2008. according to niesr if the government s current economic cycle runs until
march 2006 then it is unlikely the golden rule will be met. should the cycle end
a year earlier then the chances improve to 50/50 . either way fiscal tightening
is needed niesr said. the report is the latest to call into question the
viability of government spending projections. earlier this month accountancy firm
ernst & young said that chancellor of the exchequer gordon brown s forecasts for
tax revenues were too optimistic. it claimed revenues were likely to be £6bn below
estimates by the end of the tax year despite the economy growing in line with
forecasts. a treasury spokesperson dismissed the latest claims saying it was on
track to meeting spending rules and the golden rule in the current cycle and beyond
. spending plans have been set out until 2008 and they are fully affordable.
other than its warning on possible tax hikes the niesr report was optimistic about
the state of the uk and global economy. it said the recent record-busting surge in
oil prices would have a limited effect on worldwide expansion saying that if
anything the world economy will continue to grow strongly . global gross domestic
product (gdp) is tipped to be 4.1% this year dipping to 4% in 2005 before picking
up again to 4.2% in 2006. the us will continue to drive expansion until 2006
albeit at a slightly slower rate as will be the case in japan. hinting at better
times for uk exporters niesr said the euro zone is expected to pick up speed .
growth in britain also is set to accelerate it forecast. despite weak growth in
the third quarter the forces sustaining the upswing remain intact and the economy
will expand robustly in 2005 and 2006 niesr said adding that the economy will
become better balanced over the next two years as exports stage a recovery . gdp is
expected at 3.2% in 2004 and 2.8% in both 2005 and 2006. the main cloud on the
horizon niesr said was the uk s much analysed and fretted over property market.
steady job growth continues in us the us created fewer jobs than expected in
december but analysts said that the dip in hiring was not enough to derail the
world s biggest economy. according to labor department figures 157 000 new jobs
were added last month. that took 2004 s total to 2.2 million the best showing in
five years. job creation was one of last year s main concerns for the us economy.
while worries still remain the conditions are set for steady growth in 2005
analysts said. the unemployment rate stayed at 5.4% in december and about 200 000
jobs will need to be created each month if that figure is to drop. it was a
respectable report said michael moran analyst at daiwa securities. payroll
growth in december was a little lighter than the consensus forecast but we had
upward revisions to the prior two months and an increase in manufacturing
employment. manufacturing is a cyclical area of the economy and if it s showing
job growth it s a good indication that the economy is on a solid growth track.
that means that the federal reserve is likely to continue its policy of raising
interest rates. the fed lifted borrowing costs five times last year to 2.25%
citing evidence the us economic recovery was becoming more robust. job creation
was one of last year s main concerns for the us economy and proved to be a main
topic of debate in the us presidential election. while demand for workers is far
from booming the conditions are set for steady growth. overall compared to the
previous year it looks great it just keeps going stronger and stronger and i
expect that to be the case in 2005 said kurt karl economist at swiss re in new
york. meanwhile economists cautioned against reading too much into data from the
federal reserve showing an unexpected $8.7bn drop in consumer debt in november. a
fall in consumer spending which makes up about two-thirds of all us economic
activity could help limit the extent of any future interest rate rises. but
economists said there could be a number of reasons for a fall in the borrowing
which include credit cards and personal loans while noting that such figures can
vary on a month-to-month basis.
dvd copy protection strengthened dvds will be harder to copy thanks to new anti-
piracy measures devised by copy protection firm macrovision. the pirated dvd
market is enormous because current copy protection was hacked more than five years
ago. macrovision says its new ripguard technology will thwart most but not all of
the current dvd ripping (copying) programs used to pirate dvds. ripguard is
designed to... reduce dvd ripping and the resulting supply of illegal peer to peer
said the firm. macrovision said the new technology will work in nearly all
current dvd players when applied to the discs but it did not specify how many
machines could have a problem with ripguard. some bbc news website users have
expressed concerns that the new technology will mean that dvds will not work on pcs
running the operating system linux. the new technology will be welcomed by
hollywood film studios which are increasingly relying on revenue from dvd sales.
the film industry has stepped up efforts to fight dvd piracy in the last 12 months
taking legal action against websites which offer pirated copies of dvd movies for
download. ultimately we see ripguard dvd... evolving beyond anti-piracy and
towards enablement of legitimate online transactions interoperability in tomorrow
s digital home and the upcoming high-definition formats said steve weinstein
executive vice president and general manager of macrovision s entertainment
technologies group. macrovision said ripguard would also prevent against rent rip
and return - where people would rent a dvd copy it and then return the original.
ripguard is expected to be rolled out on dvds from the middle of 2005 the company
said. the new system works specifically to block most ripping programs - if used
those programs will now most likely crash the company said. macrovision has said
that rip guard can be updated if hackers find a way around the new anti-copying
measures.
sec to rethink post-enron rules the us stock market watchdog s chairman has said he
is willing to soften tough new us corporate governance rules to ease the burden on
foreign firms. in a speech at the london school of economics william donaldson
promised several initiatives . european firms have protested that us laws
introduced after the enron scandal make wall street listings too costly. the us
regulator said foreign firms may get extra time to comply with a key clause in the
sarbanes-oxley act. the act comes into force in mid-2005. it obliges all firms
with us stock market listings to make declarations which critics say will add
substantially to the cost of preparing their annual accounts. firms that break the
new law could face huge fines while senior executives risk jail terms of up to 20
years. mr donaldson said that although the act does not provide exemptions for
foreign firms the securities and exchange commission (sec) would continue to be
sensitive to the need to accomodate foreign structures and requirements . there are
few if any who disagree with the intentions of the act which obliges chief
executives to sign a statement taking responsibility for the accuracy of the
accounts. but european firms with secondary listings in new york have objected -
arguing that the compliance costs outweigh the benefits of a dual listing. the act
also applies to firms with more than 300 us shareholders a situation many firms
without us listings could find themselves in. the 300-shareholder threshold has
drawn anger as it effectively blocks the most obvious remedy a delisting. mr
donaldson said the sec would consider whether there should be a new approach to
the deregistration process for foreign firms unwilling to meet us requirements.
we should seek a solution that will preserve investor protections without turning
the us market into one with no exit he said. he revealed that his staff were
already weighing up the merits of delaying the implementation of the act s least
popular measure - section 404 - for foreign firms. seen as particularly costly to
implement section 404 obliges chief executives to take responsibility for the firm
s internal controls by signing a compliance statement in the annual accounts. the
sec has already delayed implementation of this clause for smaller firms - including
us ones - with market capitalisations below $700m (£374m). a delegation of
european firms visited the sec in december to press for change the financial times
reported. it was led by digby jones director general of the uk s confederation of
british industry (cbi) and included representatives of basf siemens and cadbury
schweppes. compliance costs are already believed to be making firms wary of us
listings. air china picked the london stock exchange for its secondary listing in
its $1.07bn (£558m) stock market debut last month. there are also rumours that two
chinese state-run banks - china construction bank and bank of china - have
abandoned plans for multi-billion dollar listings in new york later this year.
instead the cost of sarbanes-oxley has persuaded them to stick to a single listing
in hong kong according to press reports in china.
double win for sea inside spanish movie the sea inside has been named best picture
and star javier bardem best actor at the bangkok international film festival.
based on the true story of a paralysed man s battle to end his life the sea inside
was best foreign language film at the 2005 golden globe awards. annette bening and
ana geislerova shared the best actress award at the bangkok festival. this year s
event was scaled down following the asian tsunami disaster. falling down and the
phantom of the opera director joel schumacher won a lifetime achievement award
while hong kong director wong kar-wai was honoured for promoting asian cinema. it
s a great honour i want to share this honour with my thai colleagues wong said.
french writer christophe barratie and korean writer park chan-chook shared the best
screenplay award for les choristes and old boy respectively. now in its third year
the bangkok international film festival is donating profits from ticket sales to
the tsunami relief fund.
dvd copy protection strengthened dvds will be harder to copy thanks to new anti-
piracy measures devised by copy protection firm macrovision. the pirated dvd
market is enormous because current copy protection was hacked more than five years
ago. macrovision says its new ripguard technology will thwart most but not all of
the current dvd ripping (copying) programs used to pirate dvds. ripguard is
designed to... reduce dvd ripping and the resulting supply of illegal peer to peer
said the firm. macrovision said the new technology will work in nearly all
current dvd players when applied to the discs but it did not specify how many
machines could have a problem with ripguard. the new technology will be welcomed by
hollywood film studios which are increasingly relying on revenue from dvd sales.
the film industry has stepped up efforts to fight dvd piracy in the last 12 months
taking legal action against websites which offer pirated copies of dvd movies for
download. ultimately we see ripguard dvd... evolving beyond anti-piracy and
towards enablement of legitimate online transactions interoperability in tomorrow
s digital home and the upcoming high-definition formats said steve weinstein
executive vice president and general manager of macrovision s entertainment
technologies group. macrovision said ripguard was designed to plug the digital
hole that was created by so-called decss ripper software. it circumvents content
scrambling system measures placed on dvds and let people make perfect digital
copies of copyrighted dvds in minutes. those copies could then be burned onto a
blank dvd or uploaded for exchange to a peer-to-peer network. macrovision said
ripguard would also prevent against rent rip and return - where people would
rent a dvd copy it and then return the original. ripguard is expected to be rolled
out on dvds from the middle of 2005 the company said. the new system works
specifically to block most ripping programs - if used those programs will now most
likely crash the company said. macrovision has said that rip guard can be updated
if hackers find a way around the new anti-copying measures.
2004: an irish athletics year 2004 won t be remembered as one of irish athletics
great years. the year began with that optimism which invariably and unaccountably
seems to herald an upcoming olympiad. but come late august a few hot days in the
magnificent stadium in athens told us of the true strength of irish athletics - or
to be more accurate the lack of it. sonia o sullivan s olympic farewell apart
there was little to stir the emotions of irish athletics watchers. but after the
disastrous build-up to the games we shouldn t have been surprised. at the start of
the year an o sullivan had been earmarked as ireland s best medal prospect but as
it turned out walker gillian never even made it to the start line because of
injury. less than a week before the olympics the sport was rocked by news that 10
000m hope cathal lombard had tested for the banned substance epo. lombard s
shattering of mark carroll s national 10 000m record in april had already set
tongues wagging but even the most cynical of observers were surprised when he was
rumbled after an irish sports council sting operation. the corkman quickly held his
hands up in admission and was promptly handed a two-year ban from the sport. back
at pre-olympic ranch in greece it must have seemed that things couldn t have got
any worse but they very nearly did with walker jamie costin lucky to escape with
his life after being involved in a car crash near athens. once the track and field
action began in athens a familiar pattern of underachievement emerged although
alistair cragg s performance in being the only athlete from a european nation to
qualify for the 5 000m final did offer hope for the future. our beloved sonia
scraped into the women s 5k final as a fastest loser and for a couple of days the
country attempted to delude itself into believing that she might be in the medal
shake-up. as it happened she went out the back door early in the final although
there was nothing undignified about the way that she insisted on finishing the race
over a minute behind winner meseret defar. it later transpired that sonia had been
suffering from a stomach bug in the 48 hours before the final although typically
the cobhwoman played down the effects of the illness. amazingly she was back in
action a couple of weeks later when beating a world-class field at the flora lite
5k road race in london and while her major championship days may be over it s
unlikely that we have seen the last of her in competition. at least sonia managed
to make it to athens. at the start of the year several northern ireland athletes
had genuine hopes of qualifying for the games but come august an out-of-form and
injured paul brizzel was the lone standard bearer for the province. the ballymena
man gave it a lash but his achilles problem and a bad lane draw meant a time of
21.00 and an early exit. james mcilroy gareth turnbull zoe brown and paul mckee
all had to be content with watching the athens action on their television screens.
800m hope mcilroy never got near his best during the summer and a fourth place in
the british trials effectively ended his hopes of making the plane. the injury-
plagued turnbull gamely travelled round europe in search of the 1500m qualifying
mark but 3:39 was the best he could achieve after missing several months training
during the previous winter. a lingering hamstring probem and a virus wrecked mckee
s athens ambitions and both he and turnbull deserve a slice of better fortune in
2005. pole vaulter brown had hoped for a vote of confidence from the british
selectors after she had achieved the athens b standard but the call never came. as
the summer ended stalwarts catherina mckiernan and dermot donnelly hung up their
competitive spikes. mckiernan had to candidly acknowledge that time had crept up on
her after several injury-ravaged years. donnelly and his annadale striders team-
mates later suffered tragedy when their friend and clubman andy campbell was found
dead at his home on 18 december. a large turnout of athletics-loving folk turned
out in west belfast to offer their respects to the campbell family and andy s many
friends. as only death can it put the year s athletics happenings in a sharp
perspective.
microsoft plans safer id system microsoft is planning to make windows and
internet explorer more secure by including software to give people more control
over personal information. info cards will help people manage personal details
on their pcs to make online services safer said microsoft. microsoft s two
previous programs passport and hailstorm aimed to protect users but were
criticised. id fraud is one of the uk s fastest-growing crimes with criminals
netting an estimated £1.3bn last year. a quarter of uk adults has either had their
id stolen via hi-tech or other means or knows someone who has a recent report by
which magazine found. microsoft is developing a new version of internet explorer
browser and its operating system windows which has been code-named longhorn.
michael stephenson director in microsoft s windows server division would not
confirm however whether the new info cards id system will be built into the current
windows xp version or longhorn. we re trying to make the end-user experience as
simple as possible mr stephenson said. the system would differ from its previous
attempts to make online transactions more secure said microsoft. while passport
and hailstorm stored user information centrally on the net the latest system will
store data on a user s pc. it s going to put control of digital ids into the hands
of an end-user the end-user will be in full control said mr stephenson.
hailstorm was criticised by privacy campaigners for putting too much sensitive
information into the hands of a single company. passport provides a single log-in
for more than one website and stores basic personal information. but its popularity
suffered after security scares. up to 200 million passport accounts were left
vulnerable to online theft and malicious hackers after a flaw in the system was
exploited in 2003. online auction site ebay stopped supporting it in january
2005. although the flaw was fixed microsoft has come under regular criticism for
the number of security loopholes in internet explorer. last year it released a
major security update for windows service pack 2 to combat some of the security
concerns. longhorn is due to be released commercially in late 2006 but an updated
version of internet explorer is due for release later this year.
msps hear renewed climate warning climate change could be completely out of control
within several decades the scottish environment protection agency is warning a
committee of msps. experts are giving evidence on the subject to the scottish
parliament s environment committee. officials believe nuclear energy and wind farms
may be better options than trying to tackle global warming. solutions suggested by
conservationists include reducing internal uk air travel and boosting electric
trains. the evidence is part of the committee s inquiry into the impact of climate
change in scotland. sepa is attempting to curb global warming gases as pollution
from transport emissions increases. ecologists are warning msps that scotland may
have to accept significant intrusion from wind farms. it is likely also that
nuclear power will be needed for possibly several decades. sepa predict that the
two methods will remain as energy sources until climate change is under control.
experts studying the seas off scotland s west coast have already forecast more
devastating weather of the type which caused havoc across the country last month.
they predicted that damaging storms will become more frequent. researchers from the
university of the highlands and islands and southampton have been looking at wave
heights in the atlantic over the last nine years. the project was conducted jointly
by the environmental research institute in thurso which is part of the university
of the highlands and islands (uhi) millennium institute network and the
southampton oceanography centre. scientists carried out a series of studies
including the use of satellites to assess wave heights in the seas around the west
coast and the hebrides.
the pirates with no profit motive two men who were part of a huge network of
internet software pirates known as drink or die have been convicted at the old
bailey. bbc news investigates how the network worked and what motivated those
involved. they called themselves drink or die (dod). they were a network of
computer buffs who derived pleasure from cracking codes protecting copyrighted
software such as windows 95. they would then share it with each other. there is no
suggestion any of them profited financially. but the authorities in both britain
and the united states considered it software piracy and took a dim view of networks
such as dod one of a number of so-called warez organisations operating on the
internet. in october 2000 the us customs service began an investigation into dod
and other networks such as razor 1911 risciso myth and popz. fourteen months
later us customs co-ordinated a series of raids across the globe as part of
operation buccaneer. seventy search warrants were executed in the us britain
australia norway sweden and finland. at least 60 people were arrested worldwide -
45 of them in the us. among the leaders of the network were americans john sankus -
known by his internet nickname eriflleh (hellfire spelt backwards) - richard berry
kent kartadinata and christopher tresco who used a server based at the prestigious
massachusetts institute of technology (mit). the longest jail sentence - 46 months
- was handed down to sankus a 28-year-old from philadelphia. us attorney paul
mcnulty said at the time: john sankus and his techno-gang operated in the faceless
world of the internet and thought they would never be caught. they were wrong.
these sentences and those to follow should send a message to others entertaining
similar beliefs of invincibility. but one man still in legal limbo is british-born
australian hew raymond griffiths who is still fighting against extradition to the
us. us customs claimed mr griffiths was one of dod s leaders but his lawyer
antony townsden told the bbc news website it was a laughable suggestion and added:
he was living on welfare and had such an old computer that he couldn t even
download software. the allegation that he was the group s co-leader is illusory.
he had the least technical skills of anyone he couldn t crack any codes and he has
only been called a leader because he was a loudmouth who wrote a lot on their
messageboard. mr townsden said if he had committed any crimes he should be
prosecuted in australia not the us. he claimed the australian government s
decision to accept the extradition request was typical of their current
acquiescent attitude to the us. mr griffiths is expecting to hear this week the
outcome of his appeal against the decision to extradite him. those involved would
give themselves internet aliases which would act in the same way as tags used by
graffiti artists. they could then brag about their code-cracking abilities without
giving away their real identities. alex bell whose trial at the old bailey ended
on friday was known as mr 2940 - after a computer device - while his co-defendant
steven dowd s nickname curiously was tim. a spokesman for us immigration
customs and enforcement dean boyd said dod did not appear to be motivated by
money. their motivation was the kudos which surrounded being able to crack
sophisticated software. he told the bbc news website: primarily they were just
interested in how fast they could crack the code. it was all about underground
notoriety. but mr boyd pointed out that once the software had been distributed on
the internet it fell into the hands of organised criminals who were able to mass
produce pirated software at zero cost. it cost us industries a lot of money
billions of dollars he said. mr boyd said: it was truly global in scope. we
raided a number of universities including duke (in north carolina) and mit and
found that several of the people involved were employed by major computer
corporations. they would go home from work in the evenings and get involved in
this warez culture. warez groups which began to surface in the early 1990s
operate according to a strict code of honour. for example if one group cracked the
software first its rivals would respect that achievement and not seek to claim it
themselves. mr boyd said the destruction of dod was a great coup but he added: i m
not going to sit here and say we have sorted the problem. there are still hackers
and people who do this for fun. internet piracy of computer software remains a
gigantic problem. a spokesman for the business software alliance said: dod
members claim they did not profit at all. but they did profit by getting access to
very expensive servers. he said dod and other warez groups were fostering a
culture of piracy on the internet. he said 29% of computer software in britain was
believed to have been pirated and this cost £1bn in revenue for software companies
their suppliers and distributors. it may seem like a victimless crime but it
touches more people than you might care to believe.
kilroy launches veritas party ex-bbc chat show host and east midlands mep robert
kilroy-silk has said he wants to change the face of british politics as he
launched his new party. mr kilroy-silk who recently quit the uk independence
party said our country was being stolen from us by mass immigration. he told a
london news conference that veritas - latin for truth - would avoid the old
parties lies and spin . ukip leader roger knapman says he was glad to see the
back of mr kilroy-silk. mr kilroy-silk promised a firm but fair policy on
immigration and said they hoped to contest most seats at the forthcoming general
election. he said veritas would also announce detailed policies on crime tax
pensions health and defence over the next few weeks. and he announced the party
would be holding a leadership election. on thursday he is due to announce which
constituency he will run in at the next general election - that will come amid
speculation he has his sights set on defence secretary geoff hoon s ashfield seat.
he was joined in the new venture by one of ukip s two london assembly members
damien hockney who is now veritas deputy leader. ukip s chairman petrina
holdsworth has said the group will just be a parody of the party the men have left.
mr kilroy-silk announced his decision to quit ukip at a public meeting in hinckley
leicestershire last week. it came after months of tension as he vied unsuccessfully
for the leadership of that party. he said he was ashamed to be a member of a ukip
whose leadership had gone awol after the great opportunity offered by its third
place at last june s european elections. while ukip has turned its back on the
british people i shall not he said. i will be standing at the next general
election. i shall be leading a vigorous campaign for the causes i believe in. and
unlike the old parties we shall be honest open and straight. mr hockney also
left ukip saying mr kilroy-silk would deliver better as the leader of a
eurosceptic party. a spokesman for ukip called on mr hockney to quit the london
assembly. the party asserts that mr hockney has a moral obligation if not a legal
one to stand down. its leader roger knapman has said he is glad to see the back
of mr kilroy-silk. he has remarkable ability to influence people but sadly after
the [european] election it became clear that he was more interested in the robert
kilroy-silk party than the uk independence party so it was nice knowing him now
goodbye he said. ukip officials also argue mr kilroy-silk has not been
straightforward in attacking the party he once wanted to lead. this is just what
the europhiles pray for. as the main eurosceptic party ukip should try to resolve
its differences with kilroy to show a united front and give the uk public a serious
political voice against europe. having multiple parties with the same view point
just splits the vote further. thank goodness that kilroy-silk has gone - now ukip
at least has a chance in the election! it is very sad to see the cause of britain
regaining its proper relationship with europe damaged by this split within ukip.
robert kilroy-silk could have a lot to offer. instead we have a split party and a
damaged cause. under the present electoral system people must work together and
small parties have no hope of representation. last summer ukip achieved a major
advance partly and only partly due to kilroy-silk. it is a great shame this has
been dissipated in in-fighting. ukip has a wide platform of policies not just
withdrawal from the eu. this kilroy-silk conveniently ignores in the comments
surrounding the launch of his own party. neither the english democrats nor the new
party were interested in letting him join them and take over their leadership
speaks volumes. veritas is the beginning of the end for kilroy-silk. if he
believes in truth and democracy then he and the two assembly members should resign
and force a by-elections to stand on their own platform rather than this backdoor
approach to politics of being elected for one party then defecting to another. so
ukip was good enough for him to lead not good enough for him to follow!
interesting that a party committed to plain speaking should have a latin name!
every opinion poll points to an overwhelming anti-europe feeling in this country.
kilroy-silk could be on the verge of something huge if he can broaden his appeal
beyond this one issue. he is an extremely able communicator with years of political
experience. we wants quality schools top hospitals clean and efficient public
transport punishments that fit the crime limited asylum a purge on bureaucracy
and less taxes. it needs courage and honesty two qualities sadly lacking in our
politicians. kilroy-silk may just have those very qualities. recruit the right
colleagues robert and your time may have come! well if you cannot get enough
limelight being an ordinary mp then go out and start up your own party. it s all
flash and no real policy here let s hope this is the start of both ukip and
kilroy-silk slipping into obscurity. veritas the name will doom it. but perhaps i
am wrong for surely all modern schoolchildren will understand it since they do
still learn latin in the classroom do they not the whole essence of what rks
represents is euroscepticism so explain to me how the too-twee label of veritas
symbolises that
ukraine steel sell-off illegal the controversial sell-off of a ukrainian steel
mill to a relative of the former president was illegal a court has ruled. the
mill krivorizhstal was sold in june 2004 for $800m (£424m) - well below other
offers. president viktor yushchenko elected in december is planning to revisit
many of ukraine s recent privatisations. krivorizhstal is one of dozens of firms
which he says were sold cheaply to friends of the previous administration. on
wednesday prime minister yulia tymoshenko said as many as 3 000 firms could be
included on the list of firms whose sale was being reviewed. mr yushchenko had
previously said the list would be limited to 30-40 enterprises. more than 90 000
businesses in all from massive corporations to tiny shopfronts have been sold off
since 1992 as the command economy built up when ukraine was part of the soviet
union was dismantled. analysts have suggested that the government needs to avoid
the impression of an open-ended list so as to preserve investor confidence.
thursday s ruling by a district court in perchesk overturned a previous decision in
a lower court permitting the sale. the consortium which won the auction for the
mill was created by viktor pinchuk son-in-law of former-president leonid kuchma
and rinat akhmetov the country s richest man. the next step is for the supreme
court to annul the sale altogether opening the way for krivorizhstal to be resold.
mr yushchenko has suggested a fair valuation could be as much as $3bn. one of the
foreign bidders who lost out steel giant lnm told bbc news that it would be
interested in any renewed sale.
minimum wage increased to £5.05 the minimum wage will rise in october benefiting
more than 1m people the government has announced. adults must be paid at least
£5.05 an hour up from £4.85 while 18 to 21 year olds will be paid £4.25. the
recommendations came from the low pay commission which said the number of jobs had
continued to grow since the minimum wage was introduced in 1999. businesses wanted
it frozen warning more rises could damage competitiveness but the unions want a £6
rate. a further increase in the adult rate to £5.35 an hour is provisionally
scheduled for october 2006. according to the commission many businesses had found
the last two significant increases in the minimum wage challenging . we have
therefore recommended only a slight increase above average earnings and
concentrated it in the second year to allow business more time to absorb the impact
said chairman adair turner. the government says most of those on the minimum wage
are women - with many working in cleaning catering shops and hairdressing.
unveiling the latest increase mr blair said he wanted the minimum wage to become a
symbol of decency and fairness . for too long poverty pay capped the aspiration
and prosperity of far too many hard-working families he said. too often people
were told to make a choice between the indignity of unemployment or the humiliation
of poverty pay. chancellor gordon brown and transport secretary alistair darling
promoted the news in edinburgh wales secretary peter hain and welsh first minister
rhodri morgan in cardiff and northern ireland minister john spellar in belfast. the
government has not accepted the commission s recommendation that 21-year-olds
should be paid at the adult rate but says it will look again at the rate later on.
mr brown said: we want to do nothing that can damage the employment opportunities
for young people particularly young people entering the labour market for the
first time. the government has said it will look at tougher action against the
small number of employers who consistently refuse to pay the minimum wage. the
national minimum wage is currently set at £4.85 per hour for those aged 22 and
above and at £4.10 for those aged 18 to 21. a £3 per hour minimum wage was
introduced last october for 16 to 17-year-olds but apprentices are exempt. the
trade unions congress welcomed the increase but has called for a £6 minimum wage
by next year. but the confederation of british industry (cbi) called for a pause
year to assess the impact of the above inflation rise in the minimum wage in
october. and david frost director of the british chambers of commerce said: the
level of increase each year has increased by rates far outstripping the rates of
inflation. what employers are saying to us now is that it s at a level where it s
starting to bite into the competitiveness of companies right across the country.
the liberal democrats economics spokesman vincent cable said he supported the move
to raise the minimum wage. it s not just good for the workers themselves but it
lifts them out of benefits and therefore is good for the exchequer too he said.
conservative leader michael howard said he accepted the principle of the minimum
wage and would not seek to disturb the increase. speaking on bbc radio 4 s woman
s hour mr howard hinted the tories might go into the general election with a
promise to cancel income tax for the lowest-paid workers. there are people on very
low salaries very low incomes indeed who really shouldn t be paying income tax
he said. it would be better to decrease taxes on earnings below £12 000 a year
with say no tax on below £6 000. the losses in tax can be recouped by having a 50pc
tax band for people making over £100 000. our minimum wage is going to be
effectively almost twice the us minimum wage yet our economy per person is only
2/3rds of the us! perhaps we have to really starting questioning why some products
cost 50-60% more here than they do in the us. this combined with the tax decreases
would make the pounds the low-paid people do make go much further. it s still not
good enough! i got a part time job at 16 when i was doing my a-levels in an attempt
to get a little money saved for uni. this was only 2 years ago and i was getting
paid £2.75 an hour and working as hard as any of the older staff maybe it s about
time 16 - 21 year olds got a fair wage! we must remember that the minimum wage is
only part of the picture and must not rise to a level that makes employing people
unattractive and encourages businesses to send work and therefore jobs abroad.
still government and local councils employ staff via their contractors that pay at
the minimum wage or very close to it. an easy way for the government to do as it
preaches would be to insist on floor pay levels for all government workers and take
tens of thousand of civil servants out of the social security system all together.
any increase is certainly welcome news. however for all those whining about the
pressures of an increase in the minimum wage i would simply ask them: would you be
happy to work for less than £5.05 an hour . thought not ... so then don t expect
others to either. i can t believe that so many of these comments are against the
minimum wage! also i personally take great offence at the insinuation that people
earning minimum wage were lazy at school if everyone went to university then who
would serve you in the supermarkets and clean up after you it s about time that
these hardworking people are rewarded with only what they deserve and have earned
fair pay and a bit of respect wouldn t go a miss either. br /> this is good
news. the minimum wage has put a sense of equality back into a worker s
relationship with their employer. wages are supposed to be a fair reflection of an
employee s efforts. for too long wages were a point of exploitation - what could an
employer get away with. in very simplistic terms this put a pressure to keep low-
paid wages low. with the minimum wage this downward pressure is at least partly
removed. it is also interesting to read the comments from so called business
leaders. they are the first to defend the rights and privileges of boards to award
fat-cat salaries bonuses and pension rights to the select few but they are the
first to attack policies that are put in place to merely defend the rights of those
that really make those fat cats purr! i feel there are both negatives and
positives to the increase on one hand some businesses will struggle to stay afloat
but on the other hand in today world many young people can t afford to move out as
property costs too much and only by earning more will they be able to get on in
life. its true many may get complacent but the minimum wage could be looked at as
more of a stepping stone rather than a hand out. here come the usual whines about
how difficult it will be for businesses! we all remember michael howard s
protestations that the minimum wage would cost a million jobs when it was
introduced - funny how he s gone quiet on that one! jobs have continued to increase
since this humane legislation was brought in. i think if any job is worth doing
then it s worth being paid a fair wage for and £5.05 is hardly a fortune. if your
business cannot pay its workers a decent wage then maybe it s not being run
properly and if it folds a better-run company will take over its duties and employ
more people so everybody wins except incompetent business owners! great keep at
it tony i remember the despair of the 80s and the low wages employers got away
with. at last we can make a difference to people and reward them for working. we
can t afford not to pay a decent wage. it s not a jobs at any price economy
goodbye sweatshops hello decency. the increase in minimum wage is a good thing.
living in the southwest where house prices and rent have increased hugely (like the
rest of the country) over the past 5 years has made living for you average 18-21
years old very difficult. in the south west the increase in living costs have not
been matched by an increase in pay for example a job i did in plymouth was
underpaid to an equivalent worker in exeter by 75p an hour. hopefully the increase
in the minimum wage will bring in to balance pay on a regional and national level
and in turn allow people like myself who do work hard but might never earn a 6
figure salary the chance to branch out on our own. i work at a large hospital
where the contractors providing all ancillary services - domestic catering &
portering etc - pay the minimum wage of £4.85 as the basic rate. someone has to do
these unglamorous jobs and earn enough to live decently. how dare people suggest we
are lazy or complacent for accepting these jobs and these wages who do they think
will be carrying out these public service jobs if contractors are allowed to pay as
little as their consciences allow this is definitely the right step in the right
direction. it shows that this government cares for the low income earners as well.
this is a million votes more. good strategy isn t it although i would not deny
people the minimum wage increase its timing stinks. i am quite prepared for a raft
of bribes to come from the government before the election and a raft of taxes
afterwards they are playing us for the fools they think we are. this is extremely
bad news for any business - whether they are small and medium enterprises or even
large companies. by increasing overheads for business there will be an almost
certain rise in costs to the consumer who while they openly welcome the idea of an
increase in the minimum wage are the same people who still want to buy that shirt
or that pair of trainers for next to nothing. the extra cost this increase will
bring will only be reflected in the price of the goods we
buy which in turn will only serve to discourage companies from setting-up
business in the uk or encourage those companies already based here to look
elsewhere. the jubilation felt by low-paid workers here will soon give way to
misery as they lose their jobs. this will only lead to a reduction in jobs. why
have many of the call centre jobs gone to india. blair say s the economy is strong
and stable economy however consumer debt and the country s debt is at its highest
and now they heap this onto businesses that will have no choice but to cut the
workforce. the timing cannot be coincidental. this is blatant electioneering and
should be exposed as such. andrew in derby complains that raising the minimum wage
is blatant electioneering . i don t mind if it is. in our degraded democracy
elections are the one time when elites really have to worry about doing something
concrete for the majority. my only complaint is the paltry figures being discussed.
if my maths is right a 35 hour week at £5.05 gives you an annual income just over
£9 000 and raising it to £6 leaves it under £11 000. the unions should be putting
the government under pressure for much more. businesses complaining might like to
take a look at corporate pay shareholder payouts and profits before wondering if
paying a living wage is really a controlling factor in the viability of their firm.
i am all for lifting the minimum wage of workers to a reasonable level but we have
to accept that with this will come competition from overseas workers. also small
businesses will have to be able to afford this manpower cost. we are already seeing
a sweeping change in it work being lost to india where people are paid much less.
it is difficult for me to understand that only five years ago cheap labour abroad
was classified as sweat shop but now we are told it is global competition. with
our manufacturing industry in serious decline the country cannot be entirely
service industries without something tangible to serve. there has to be something
at the top of the food chain and that is manufacturing. the whole picture needs to
be looked at. this is great news but that might be because i work for minimum
wage. seems a good idea and will hopefully be an incentive to those who live to
claim to actually get a job. when you can earn more from claiming than you can
from work there is no incentive. perhaps a step in the right direction. if the
tuc get their way a very large number of smes will have to close - this will put
more people out of work. how then will the government fudge the unemployment
figures! the government know it is not big business that keeps the economy going
but the smes but we always get overlooked they will only take notice if these
large corporations close and move to other countries after all they are
predominantly owned by foreign companies. we are a specialist company but with
these increases have already had an effect on us and we have lost work another one
will close us. while i m delighted for those on low pay that this increase is
being put forward i am extremely concerned at the implications for small
businesses. as an employee for a small nursery i know this increase will cause
great hardship for my employer who has been unable to increase salaries for higher
paid employees because of last october s increase for the lower paid employees -
who were originally being paid slightly above the minimum but are now on the
minimum. this latest increase of 20p an hour will cause even more financial
hardship. if the rate rises to £6 then i can foresee many small businesses having
to pay off employees. the increase in minimum wage will have a serious effect on
my business. although we pay above the minimum level we will have to increase our
pay rates to maintain the differential. the raise is well above inflation and
without significant increases in sales it will mean that i will not be taking on a
new member of staff as planned and i will be looking to reduce the total hours
worked by the other members of staff overtime being the first to go. i currently
employ 42 staff whose wages mirror the national minimum wage. increases above
inflation are fine but all of my business is conducted with local authorities who
will not accept above inflation rises in my service delivery. 80% of my costs are
labour. the other aspect that is always hidden is that the thresholds for tax
credits do not move in line with these increases so that all that happens is that
employees tax credit support is reduced by the amount of the increase thereby
saving the government money but increasing the financial burden on small to medium
businesses it is very good that the government has decided to increase the minimum
wage - this should hopefully motivate people to undertake the lower status jobs.
i know about this great idea - don t bother getting qualifications laze about at
school no need to do anything other than attend so your parents don t get fined
because remember when you do eventually start working doesn t matter how lazy you
are you ll be guaranteed a decent wage. the ones who suffer are the employers. i
hope that if industry and business have to pay this new rate that mr blair and mr
brown will increase tax allowances and raise national insurance thresholds so that
the treasury won t take some of this increase off the people they say they are
helping or is this just another form of stealth tax on business through the back
door i don t believe in the minimum wage at all! i think jobs should create their
own wage value and that if people want higher wages they should earn them. now
before everyone thinks that i am some rich-kid i can assure you i am not. i came
from a very much working class background and started work 20 years ago on a youth
opportunity program earning £25 per week. i worked hard went to college part time
got my a-levels and degree & bettered myself. i now earn a 6 figure salary. i did
that through hard work and getting off my backside. a minimum wage just makes
people complacent. to ashley of swindon: when you earned £25 per week it was
worth something. these days that £25 would need to be near to £60 to have the
equivalent buying power. i might add that thanks to successive governments holding
down the tax allowance threshold below inflation people earning the minimum wage
are paying taxes that they never would have done 10 years ago at equivalent wages.
in my day type arguments are a view that belong in the your day - 20 years ago!
as a graduate working for minimum wage i welcome any increase of pay i can get. i
disagree with ashley swindon saying i have to work harder to get more pay. i have
my gcse s a-levels and a degree and have chosen to work for a small business that
can t afford the wages i should be getting i should be on at least 3x what i m
getting but they can t afford it. we all work hard but the money is just not there.
but on the plus side i love my job and wouldn t change it just to get more pay. as
an employer of staff in several shops the last rise in the minimum wage cost my
company an additional £5000 per year. these next rises will cost me more. i have to
get the money from somewhere so pass it on to customers. so no one really wins in
the end. in answer to emma from sleaford regarding no one really wins in the
end... on the contrary mr blair wins - he wins because he obviously has announced
this to be a vote winner and his treasury wins because as an employer you will know
that the amount of tax and national insurance that the government will receive from
all the minimum wage increases will rise and of course not only will be paying out
higher wages but as an employer higher employer ni contributions as well. if the
minimum wage increases again and if it hits anywhere near the £6.00 mark there will
be 12 more people on the employment line and one more small business going bankrupt
- namely mine. think of us employers as well mr blair we are not all big
corporations earning millions. all workers should be entitled to a fair day s pay
for a fair day s work. how many people on the minimum wage have any hope of
obtaining a mortgage or saving towards retirement it is good news for many asians
living in uk. students who do odd jobs can increase their income and can help there
family in their home country. i thank mr. blair and his government for increase in
the national minimum wage.
oscar host rock to keep it clean oscar host chris rock said he will steer clear of
bad language when he fronts the awards on 27 february. the comedian who recently
got into trouble for poking fun at the ceremony is renowned for his heavy use of
expletives during his stand-up routine. the live ceremony will be broadcast with a
transmission delay on us network abc to ensure swear words are removed. i ve been
on tv and been funny not cursing he said during an interview for cbs network s 60
minutes show. as far as content is concerned i will talk about the movies. i m
not really worried about it. i m sure abc might be more worried about it than me
he added. the 40-year-old comedian caused a furore when he said in an interview
with us magazine entertainment weekly recently that he hardly ever watched the
oscars and labelled awards ceremonies idiotic . the show s producers defended rock
and confirmed that he would still be presenting the oscar ceremony saying his
comments were humorous digs . meanwhile the academy has announced that oscar-
nominated actress natalie portman will present an award at the ceremony. portman
who has been nominated for a best supporting actress gong for her role in mike
nichols closer joins a growing list of stars set to bestow an award at the
ceremony including dustin hoffman drew barrymore renee zellweger and british-born
actress kate winslet.
davenport puts retirement on hold lindsay davenport has put any talk of retirement
on hold after having a largely injury-free 2004 campaign. the 28-year-old world
number one had said that she would quit at the end of last year but after a
successful season she has had a change of heart. finally i felt i put myself in a
position to try and win grand slams again said davenport. it would be tough to
walk away when i feel like i can contend so there s no point in hanging it up quite
yet. davenport has won three grand slams the 2000 australian open wimbledon in
1999 and the 1998 us open. her career has been hit by a series of injuries but last
year she started hitting top form and won seven titles. she was due to take part in
this week s hopman cup in perth but decided she wanted to rest her knee. i just
really wanted to make sure my right knee was going to be able to really withstand
all the rigours of the whole year coming up she said.
buyers snap up jet airways shares investors have snapped up shares in jet airways
india s biggest airline following the launch of its much anticipated initial
public offer (ipo). the ipo for 17.3 million shares was fully sold within 10
minutes of opening on friday. analysts expect jet to raise at least 16.4bn rupees
($375m; £198m) from the offering. interest in jet s ipo has been fuelled by hopes
for robust growth in india s air travel market. the share offer representing
about 20% of jet s equity was oversubscribed news agency reuters reported. jet
which was founded by london-based travel agent naresh goyal plans to use the cash
to buy new planes and cut its debt. the company has grown rapidly since it launched
operations in 1993 overtaking state-owned flag carrier indian airlines. however
it faces stiff competition from rivals and low-cost carriers. jet s ipo is the
first in a series of expected share offers from indian companies this year as they
move to raise funds to help them do business in a rapidly-growing economy.
winter freeze keeps oil above $50 oil prices carried on rising on wednesday after
cold weather on both sides of the north atlantic pushed us crude prices to four-
month highs. freezing temperatures and heavy snowfalls took crude oil prices past
$50 a barrel on tuesday for the first time since november. declines in the dollar
have also contributed to the rising oil price. us crude was trading at $51.39 at
0710 gmt in asian electronic trade on wednesday. a barrel of us crude oil closed up
$2.80 at $51.15 in new york on tuesday. opec members said on tuesday that given
such high prices the cartel saw no reason to cut its output. although below last
year s peak of $55.67 a barrel which was reached in october prices are now well
above 2004 s average of $41.48. brent crude also rose in london trading adding
$1.89 to $48.62 at the close. much of western europe and the north east of america
has been shivering under unseasonably low temperatures in recent days. the decline
in the us dollar to a five-week low against the euro has also served to inflate
prices. the primary factor is the weak dollar said victor shum a singapore-
based analyst with purvin and gertz. expectations that a rebound in the dollar
would halt the oil price rise were not immediately borne out on wednesday morning
as oil prices carried on upwards as the dollar strengthened against the euro the
pound and the yen. several opec members said on tuesday that a cut in production
was unlikely citing rising prices and strong demand for oil from asia. i agree
that we do not need to cut supply if the prices are as much as this fathi bin
shatwan libya s oil minister told reuters. i do not think we need to cut unless
the prices are falling below $35 a barrel he added.
europe blames us over weak dollar european leaders have openly blamed the us for
the sharp rise in the value of the euro. us officials were talking up the dollar
they said but failing to take action to back up their words. meeting in brussels
finance ministers of the 12 eurozone countries voiced their concern that the rise
of the european currency was harming exports. the dollar is within touching
distance of an all-time low reached earlier in november. at 0619 gmt on tuesday
the dollar was up slightly at just above $1.29 to the euro and buying 105.6 yen in
tokyo. it rallied briefly on monday amid signs that oil prices are easing. but
analysts said the respite was likely to be only temporary. the european ministers
comments said junya tanase of jpmorgan chase bank in tokyo were generally too
weak to produce a market reaction . still by the standards of diplomacy the
european ministers were forthright. nicolas sarkozy of france said he and his
colleagues were unanimous in their worry that the decline of the dollar would hit
europe s economies by eating into their exports. we are concerned about these
developments which are destabilising and which are linked to the accumulation of
deficits by our american friends he said. the comments come a day after us
treasury secretary john snow said a strong dollar was in america s interest . but
that was not enough for mr sarkozy. if the americans were to change their policy
it s up to them to say so he said. and the european union s monetary affairs
commissioner made it clear that action was necessary. i fully welcome the words
of mr snow said joaquin almunia but we will need to see decisions adopted in
that direction. if the imbalances in the us economy are not adjusted in the future
the decision in the market will be as in the past weeks. economists point out that
whatever europe says in the short term a weaker dollar is a boon to president
george w bush s administration. not only does it boost us exports but it also
makes the budget deficit easier to fund. on the other hand slower european exports
would mean slower eu growth - potentially reducing the demand for us goods.
celebrities get to stay in jungle all four contestants still remain in i m a
celebrity ... get me out of here as no evictions were made on the television show
on saturday. contestants paul burrell joe pasquale janet street-porter and fran
cosgrave were told by hosts ant and dec. natalie appleton s decision to quit the
show last monday had given them all a stay of execution the group were told. model
sophie anderton was the last person to be voted off the itv1 show set in the
australian jungle. the four remaining stars will do a joint bushtucker trial on
sunday. former all saints singer natalie appleton 31 walked out of the show after
learning she would face a fifth so-called bushtucker trial. the celebrities are
chosen by the viewers to pass trials in order to win food for the rest of the camp.
appleton had endured a torrid time during the programme including a well-
publicised row with sophie anderton. and on 26 november singer brian harvey quit as
a contestant after he had a blazing row with janet street-porter.
mido makes third apology ahmed mido hossam has made another apology to the
egyptian people in an attempt to rejoin the national team. the 21-year-old told a
news conference in cairo on sunday that he is sorry for the problems that have led
to his exclusion from the pharaohs since july last year. mido said: there isn t
much i have to say today all there is to say is that i came specially from england
to egypt to rejoin the national team and to apologise for all my mistakes. mido
was axed by former coach marco tardelli after failing to answer a national call-up
claiming he had a groin injury. but he then played in a friendly for his club as
roma within 24 hours of a world cup qualifying match at home to cameroon last
september. mido added: it s not my right to give orders and say when i want to
play ... at the same time i will always make sure that i put the national s team s
matches as my top priority. i feel that the national players are playing with a
new spirit as i saw them play against belgium (egypt won 4-0 on wednesday) and i
simply want to add to their success. i do confess that i was rude to the egyptian
press at times but now i have gained more experience and know that i will never go
anywhere without the press s support. many of the international stars like david
beckham and (zinedine) zidane had the press opposing them. so i m now used to the
fact that the press can be against me at times and i don t have to overreact when
this happens. meanwhile egypt fa spokesman methat shalaby welcomed the apology and
said no one had exerted pressure on mido to apologise. mido s apology today does
not negatively affect mido in anyway on the contrary it makes him a bigger star
and a role model for all football players shalaby said. shalaby earlier said that
after an apology mido would be available for the national side if coach hassan
shehata chose him. mido joined tottenham in an 18-month loan deal near the end of
the january transfer window scoring twice on his debut against portsmouth.
iraq and afghanistan in wto talks the world trade organisation (wto) is to hold
membership talks with both iraq and afghanistan. but iran s bid to join the trade
body has been refused after the us blocked its application for the 21st time. the
countries stand to reap huge benefits from membership of the group whose purpose
is to promote free trade. joining however is a lengthy process. china s admission
in 2001 took 15 years and talks with russia and saudi arabia have been taking place
for 10 years. membership of the geneva-based wto helps guarantee a country s goods
receives equal treatment in the markets of other member states - a policy which has
seen it become closely associated with globalisation. iraq s trade minister
mohammed mustafa al-jibouri welcomed the move describing it as significant as
november s decision by the paris club of creditor nations to write off 80% of the
country s debts. assad omar afghanistan s envoy to the united nations in geneva
said accession would contribute to regional prosperity and global security . there
are now 27 countries seeking membership of the wto. prospective members need to
enter into negotiations with potential trading countries and change domestic laws
to bring them in line with wto regulations. before the process gets under way all
148 wto members must give their backing to applicant countries. the us said it
could not approve iran s application because it is currently reviewing relations.
but several nations criticised the approach and european union ambassador to the
wto carlo trojan said iran s application must be treated independently of
political issues .
musical treatment for capra film the classic film it s a wonderful life is to be
turned into a musical by the producer of the controversial hit show jerry springer
- the opera. frank capra s 1946 movie starring james stewart is being turned into
a £7m musical by producer jon thoday. he is working with steve brown who wrote the
award-winning musical spend spend spend. a spokeswoman said the plans were in the
very early stages with no cast opening date or theatre announced. a series of
workshops have been held in london and on wednesday a cast of singers unveiled the
musical to a select group of potential investors. mr thoday said the idea of
turning the film into a musical had been an ambition of his for almost 20 years. it
s a wonderful life was based on a short story the greatest gift by philip van
doren stern. mr thoday managed to buy the rights to the story from van doren stern
s family in 1999 following mr brown s success with spend spend spend. he later
secured the film rights from paramount enabling them to use the title it s a
wonderful life.
landmark movies of 2004 hailed us film professionals have declared fahrenheit 9/11
and the passion of the christ as two of the most significant cultural milestones of
2004. the american film institute (afi) hailed mel gibson s biblical epic and
michael moore s political documentary as inspiring national debate. it claimed both
film-makers tossed hollywood convention out the window . the institute also cited
the death of actor marlon brando and the changing landscape of tv news in the us.
in referring to marlon brando s death on 1 july at the age of 80 the 13-strong afi
jury concluded the art of screen acting has two chapters - before brando and
after brando . it credited the screen legend s raw hypnotic energy and his
ability to create characters like stanley kowalski and terry malloy that will live
forever in the annals of film history . the list also acknowledges key influences
and trends in the world of film and broadcasting. among current trends it
highlighted the final broadcasts of veteran newscasters tom brokaw barbara walters
and the impending retirement of cbs news anchor dan rather. it its place the afi
fears is a news landscape where newscasters are more personalities than
journalists and balance and integrity are increasingly ignored. the afi also
questioned the long-term viability of evening news broadcasts in the light of
24-hour news channels and the internet. the list also draws attention to the
growing influence of us broadcasting regulator the federal communications
commission (fcc) the institute concluded the threat of regulation which went into
freefall following janet jackson s wardrobe malfunction during a live super bowl
performance in february had a profound effect on television . unsure of how the
fcc will rule on an issue the creative community has begun to self-censor their
shows a disturbing trend in a country founded on free expression the afi jury
declared. to illustrate their point the afi cited abc affiliates refusal to air
steven spielberg s film saving private ryan in an unedited form over fears of
possible fines.
lions blow to world cup winners british and irish lions coach clive woodward says
he is unlikely to select any players not involved in next year s rbs six nations
championship. world cup winners lawrence dallaglio neil back and martin johnson
had all been thought to be in the frame for next summer s tour to new zealand. i
don t think you can ever say never said woodward. but i would have to have a
compulsive reason to pick any player who is not available to international rugby.
dallaglio back and johnson have all retired from international rugby over the last
12 months but continue to star for their club sides. but woodward added: the key
thing that i want to stress is that i intend to use the six nations and the players
who are available to international rugby as the key benchmark. my job along with
all the other senior representatives is to make sure that we pick the strongest
possible team. if you are not playing international rugby then it s still a step
up to test rugby. it s definitely a disadvantage. i think it s absolutely
critical and with the history of the lions we have got to take players playing for
the four countries. woodward also revealed that the race for the captaincy was
still wide open. it is an open book he said. there are some outstanding
candidates from all four countries. and following the all blacks impressive
displays in europe in recent weeks including a 45-6 humiliation of france
woodward believes the three-test series in new zealand will provide the ultimate
rugby challenge. their performance in particular against france was simply awesome
said the lions coach. certain things have been suggested about the potency of
their front five but they re a very powerful unit. with his customary
thoroughness woodward revealed he had taken soundings from australia coach eddie
jones and jake white of south africa following their tour matches in britain and
ireland. as a result woodward stressed his lions group might not be dominated by
players from england and ireland and held out hope for the struggling scots.
scotland s recent results have not been that impressive but there have been some
excellent individual performances. eddie in particular told me how tough they had
made it for australia and i will take on board their opinions. and scotland
forward simon taylor looks certain to get the call provided he recovers from knee
and tendon problems. i took lessons from 2001 in that they did make a mistake in
taking lawrence dallaglio when he wasn t fit and went on the trip. every player
has to be looked at on their own merits and simon taylor is an outstanding player
and i have no doubts that if he gets back to full fitness he will be on the trip.
i am told he should be back playing by march and he has plenty of time to prove his
fitness for the lions - and there are other players like richard hill in the same
boat.
vera drake scoops film award oscar hopefuls mike leigh and imelda staunton were
both winners at the 2004 evening standard british film awards. vera drake - leigh
s 1950s drama about a backstreet abortionist - was named best film and staunton
who played the title role was named best actress. other winners included paddy
considine who was crowned best actor for his role in dead man s shoes. bridget
jones: the edge of reason was named evening standard readers film of 2004 at the
central london ceremony. leigh was presented with his winner s statuette by
timothy spall and staunton s award was announced by patrick stewart during the
glittering ceremony at the savoy on sunday night. evening standard film critic
derek malcolm said: he [leigh] has never made a film that is better controlled and
technically more secure... if this isn t one of the films of the year i don t know
what is. the alexander walker special award - which honours those who have made a
supreme contribution to british film - went to tim bevan and eric fellner the co-
chairmen of working title films. the production company is behind films such as my
beautiful laundrette billy elliot about a boy shaun of the dead and bridget
jones: the edge of reason. simon pegg who stars in and co-wrote shaun of the dead
won the 2004 peter sellers award for comedy. other winners included emily blunt and
nathalie press who were jointly named itv london most promising newcomer award for
their performances in pawel pawlikowski s rites-of-passage story my summer of
love. pawlikowski won the best screenplay statuette while roger deakins won the
technical achievement award for his cinematography on the village and the
ladykillers. guests at the ceremony included dame judi dench kim cattrall charles
dance bill nighy and colin firth. the awards which were hosted by jack dee are
to be screened on itv london on tuesday at 2300 gmt.
mp attacked by muggers in kenya an mp has had more than £600 and his passport
stolen after being mugged by six men in a park in kenya. quentin davies the mp
for grantham and stamford was attacked in a notoriously dangerous park in the
capital nairobi. he was not hurt in the mugging on saturday evening. several
people are being questioned over the attack. he was in kenya before travelling to
sudan with the parliamentary committee. local police were said to be surprised he
was in the area. mr davies 60 said the mugging occurred 100 yards from the
nairobi serena hotel and equally close to the anglican cathedral in the centre of
the city at dusk. he said in a statement: it was a frightening experience. six
men managed to steal up on me and grab me from behind. i knew i had to stay very
calm and passive - you cannot fight six men . he had to spend an extra 24 hours in
nairobi before rejoining the rest of the house of commons international development
committee in dafur after the mugging. naturally i was afraid they would use a
knife or gun though they never produced any weapon he said. two of them held me
from behind and two others held my legs and another one expertly rifled all my
pockets.
economy focus for election battle britain s economic future will be at the heart of
labour s poll campaign chancellor gordon brown has said. he was speaking after
cabinet members held their last meeting at no 10 before the expected election
announcement. he said voters would recognise that labour had brought stability and
growth and would continue to do so. meanwhile the tories outlined their plans to
tackle yob culture and the lib dems gave more details about their proposals to
replace council tax. earlier the archbishop of canterbury wrote to all three
parties urging them not to fight the election by exploiting people s fears. in an
open letter he called on them not to turn the election into a competition about
who can most effectively frighten voters about terrorism asylum and crime. he
said they should concentrate instead on issues such as the environment
international development and the arms trade family policy and the reform of the
criminal justice system. shadow foreign secretary michael ancram said: we have
fought a very positive campaign. i think he will want to look quite carefully at
what jack straw said about michael howard. in a speech to the foreign policy
centre mr straw said of the tory leader: he is clever fluent and tactical but he
is not wise. he lacks strategy and good judgment and his quick temper and
impetuosity too often get the better of him. the foreign secretary told the bbc:
i was making the observation that because of michael howard s impetuosity you can
get lurches of policy. liberal democrat chairman matthew taylor said: people are
already really turned off by the kind of campaign the others are fighting and you
will see us putting emphasis on some of these huge issues facing the world
particularly the environment. labour s focus on the economy as their key message
- came on the day a new report was published by the institute of fiscal studies
suggesting that household incomes have fallen for the first time in more than a
decade. the ifs says the drop partly reflects measures announced in what it called
the chancellor s tax-raising budget of 2002. the treasury dismissed the research as
complete rubbish . party election supremo alan milburn said the apparent drop in
average incomes was because self-employed people had been affected by a world
downturn which hit their profits. since 1997 the reported average take-home
income had risen by 20% in real terms if you took out the self-employed mr
milburn told bbc radio 4 s today programme. mr brown also dismissed the figures
insisting that the typical family has been much better off under labour.
uk troops on ivory coast standby downing street has confirmed british troops are on
standby in case they need to help evacuate several hundred uk citizens from ivory
coast. the news came as it emerged france had begun evacuating its hostages after
days of anti-french demonstrations. trouble flared after nine french peacekeepers
were killed and president jacques chirac ordered the destruction of the ivory coast
s air force. a company of 100-120 uk troops is understood to have been put on
standby. they are ready to fly out and secure the route from the embassy to the
airport if called upon. prime minister tony blair s official spokesman said: there
are british nationals in ivory coast and as you can imagine we are making the usual
contingency plans in case the situation deteriorates further but that s all i can
say at this stage. he added the situation would be monitored carefully in case
evacuation became necessary. france has played a lead role in international
peacekeeping in ivory coast - a former colony - after president laurent gbagbo
broke an 18-month ceasefire with rebels bombing their positions and killing the
nine french soldiers. the decision to destroy the african nation s small air force
prompted riots against french and other foreign nationals. the spanish have already
put their forces on standby to evacuate their nationals if necessary.
lewis-francis turns to christie mark lewis-francis has stepped up his preparations
for the new season by taking advice from british sprint icon linford christie. the
22-year-old is set to compete at sheffield this weekend and will then take on
maurice greene and kim collins in birmingham on 18 february. training in wales and
getting advice from linford christie is broadening my mind said lewis-francis.
the sprinter has also shed weight since winning relay gold at the athens games.
last year i was 91kg now i am 86.9kg - hopefully my times will come down he
said. this has been brought about by eating the right foods and cutting out the
snacks. it is just discipline and being more focused about what i am doing. i am
still keeping up my weights work and i can see the improvement in my running.
despite playing his part in britain s successful 4x100m relay team lewis-francis
still feels the frustration of missing out on the individual 100m final at the 2004
olympics. that was heartbreaking but i had made it to the semi-final and for me
on a personal level that was an achievement. i just have to be patient and build
up for the next olympics. that is my goal and whatever i do between now and then
will be geared to making the final.
holmes urged to compete at worlds jolanda ceplak has urged britain s kelly holmes
to continue competing at the major championships. double olympic gold medallist
holmes has strongly hinted she will not run in this year s worlds and is undecided
about next month s european indoors. but world indoor 800m record holder ceplak
said: there is never an easy race when she is in the field. there is only
excitement at what might happen. it is good for the sport. she always fetches the
best out of everyone. ceplak has been a great rival of holmes during the briton s
career and the pair fell out when holmes questioned the manner of the slovenian s
runaway 800m victory at the 2002 european championships. but the controversy has
since been forgotten with ceplak acting as pacemaker for holmes failed attempt on
the british indoor 1500m record at the norwich union grand prix in birmingham in
2003. ceplak added: i like running against her - you know the race is always
going to be fast. that is the sort of competition that i like. she is special to
me. she was like my idol from the beginning of my career. meanwhile ceplak will
be looking to follow up last saturday s win in boston with a fast time and victory
in friday s night of athletics in erfurt germany. britain s jason gardener had
been expected to defend his 60m title in erfurt but instead he will save himself
for a competition in leipzig on sunday. gardener s decision means scotland s 400m
man ian mackie will carry british hopes in what looks sure to be a tough
preparation for next weekend s norwich union european trials in sheffield.
isinbayeva claims new world best pole vaulter yelena isinbayeva broke her own
indoor world record by clearing 4.89 metres in lievin on saturday. it was the
russian s 12th world record of her career and came just a few days after she
cleared 4.88m at the norwich union grand prix in birmingham. the olympic champion
went on to attempt 5.05m at the meeting on france but failed to clear that height.
in the men s 60m former olympic 100m champion maurice greene could only finish
second to leonard scott. it was greene s second consecutive defeat at the hands of
his fellow american who also won in birmingham last week. i ran my race perfectly
said scott who won in 6.46secs his best time indoors. i am happy even if i know
that maurice is a long way from being at his peak at the start of the season.
yahoo moves into desktop search internet giant yahoo has launched software to allow
people to search e-mail and other files on their pcs. the firm is following in the
footsteps of microsoft google and ask jeeves which have offered similar services.
search has become a lucrative and hotly-contested area of expansion for net firms
looking to extend loyalty beyond the web. with hard drives providing bigger storage
users could need more help to locate important files such as photos. the desktop
search technology has been licensed from a us-based firm x1 technologies. it is
designed to work alongside microsoft s outlook and outlook express e-mail programs.
searching e-mail effectively is becoming increasingly important especially as the
amount of spam increases. according to research from message analysts the radicati
group up to 45% of businesses critical information is stored in e-mail and
attachments. yahoo s software can also work separately on the desktop searching
for music photos and other files. users can search under a variety of criteria
including file name size date and time. it doesn t yet incorporate web searching
although yahoo has promised that future versions will allow users to search both
web-based and desktop data. we are all getting more and more files on our desktop
but the real commercial opportunity lies with linking this through to web content
said julian smith an analyst with research firm jupiter. it is all about
extending the idea of search and getting a closer relationship with consumers by
organising not just how they search on the internet but the files on your computer
as well he said. search engines are often the first port of call for users when
they go onto the web. the new foray into desktop search has rung alarm bells for
human rights groups concerned about the implications to privacy. and not everyone
is impressed with the functionality of such services. alexander linden vice
president of emerging technologies at analyst firm gartner downloaded the google
product but has since removed it. it was just not very interesting he said. he
believes the rush to enter the desktop business is just a way of keeping up with
rivals. desktop search is just one of many features people would like but i m
suspicious of its usefulness he said. more useful would be tools that can combine
internet intranet and desktop search alongside improvements to key word searching
he said.
tory leader urges harry apology prince harry should personally make clear how sorry
he is about wearing a nazi uniform to a friend s fancy dress party says tory
leader michael howard. mr howard whose grandmother died in auschwitz said many
people would be offended by the prince s actions clarence house has issued a
statement saying the prince has apologised and realised it had been a poor costume.
number 10 said an error was made but now harry had apologised the matter should be
left to the palace. that was a message repeated by home secretary charles clarke
who said the matter should now be left to lie. but lib dem leader charles kennedy
said harry was in a privileged position and said he should apologise in person.
there is a reservoir of goodwill for prince harry and prince william with him in
this country but i think he needs to remember that it can t last forever. he
added that sandhurst would probably be good for harry as it would teach him some
self discipline. former labour mp lord janner who is a high profile member of
britain s jewish community branded harry s action s stupid and evil . he told
itv: the time has come for him to make a public apology. it is about common
decency of respect to the people who fought the nazis to the families of those
who were killed by the nazis and to people who suffered during the holocaust. he
added: i would send him in the army as fast as possible. i hope that would teach
him not to behave like that. a photograph of prince harry wearing a swastika
armband and german desert uniform at the party appears in thursday s sun newspaper
under the headline: harry the nazi. mr howard acknowledged the prince s apology
and said he had no doubt the prince s father and family would have much to say to
him privately about the incident. but he told bbc radio 4 s today programme: it
might be appropriate to tell us himself just how contrite he is. mr howard
declined to say what form the statement should take. but former buckingham palace
press spokesman dicky arbiter said the prince should make a personal broadcast
apology. mr clarke said he recognised people s concerns about the costume but
argued: he has apologised and i think we should leave the matter there.
britain boosted by holmes double athletics fans endured a year of mixed emotions in
2004 as stunning victories went hand-in-hand with disappointing defeats and more
drugs scandals. kelly holmes finally fulfilled her potential by storming to double
gold on the track at the olympic games. holmes helped erase the gloom hanging over
team gb after their biggest medal hope paula radcliffe dropped out of the
marathon and then the 10 000m. britain s men s 4x100m relay team also did their bit
by taking a shock gold. holmes had started the year in disappointing style falling
over in the final of 1500m at the world indoor championships where she was
favourite. her olympic build-up was clouded by self doubt but that proved unfounded
as she overhauled rival maria mutola to win the 800m - her first global title. just
five days later the 34-year-old made it double gold in the 1500m. it was the first
time in 84 years a briton has achieved the olympic middle-distance double. while
holmes left athens as the star of team gb it was radcliffe who carried
expectations before the august games. the 30-year-old marathon world record holder
went into the athens event as favourite but an exhausted radcliffe dropped out
after 23 miles in tears. her decision to enter the 10 000m five days later also
backfired as she again pulled out with eight laps remaining. but radcliffe helped
put her olympic trauma behind her with a thrilling win in november s new york
marathon. the 4x100m team grabbed some last-gasp glory for the british men s
olympic squad after a poor start to the games. it seemed as though athens would be
the first games where the men would fail to win a medal with michael east the only
individual track finalist in the 1500m. but darren campell jason gardener marlon
devonish and mark lewis-francis made amends in the sprint relay. the quartet held
off favourites the usa to win britain s first relay medal since 1912 in 38.07
seconds. gardener added the olympic relay crown to his world indoor title over 60m
and just like holmes finally lived up to his promise in 2004. kelly sotherton
completed team gb s athletics medal haul in athens with a surprise bronze in the
heptathlon. the 28-year-old won her first championship medal since becoming a full-
time athlete in 2003. but it was a different story for britain s defending
champion denise lewis who withdrew on day two of the competition after some poor
results. lewis who was troubled by injury has ruled out retiring while sotherton
is tipped to build on her success. the athens olympics proved to be a landmark
occasion for steve backley who retired from competition after finishing fourth in
the javelin. the battling 35-year-old leaves the sport with a vast medal haul
including two silvers and one olympic bronze. and backley s departure was balanced
by the return of injury-hit decathlete dean macey who came fourth in athens. the
continued improvement of sprinter abi oyepitan and long jumper chris tomlinson also
boosted team gb. sadly the 2004 olympics did not escape the problems of drugs
misuse. on the eve of the games greek sprinters kostas kenteris and katerina
thanou missed a drugs test and claimed to have been involved in a road crash.
kenteris the 200m champion in 2000 and thanou have since been charged by the
greek authorities and await trial. at the games adrian annus (hammer) robert
fazelas (discus) and irina korzhanenko (shot) were all stripped of their titles
because of doping issues. hungarian compatriots annus and fazelas both refused to
give urine samples while russian korzhanenko tested positive for the steroid
stanozolol. the fallout from the thg scandal which rocked the sport in 2003
continued to impact in olympic year. britain s 4x100m team took gold without the
services of dwain chambers who was handed a two-year ban in february after testing
positive for steroid thg. american kelli white was suspended and stripped of her
world 100m and 200m titles after failing a drugs test. and world 400m champion
jerome young landed a life ban from us chiefs after a second doping offence.
russian pole vaulter yelena isinbayeva provided some light relief by smashing the
world record seven times on her way to the world indoor and olympic titles. her
rivalry with compatriot svetlana feofanova livened up the field events. morocco s
hicham el guerrouj also delighted fans by racing to a historic olympic double in
the 1500m and 5 000m. and though there was no paula radcliffe in the london
marathon there was plenty of drama as kenyans evans rutto and margaret okayo took
the titles. rutto held on to win despite slipping on some cobblestones and tumbling
into a barrier. okayo also had to battle back after mistiming her tactics but
clinched victory on her debut.
eu china arms ban to be lifted the eu embargo on arms exports to china is likely
to be lifted in the next six months despite us objections uk foreign secretary
jack straw has said. the 15-year-old ban was imposed in the aftermath of china s
crackdown on protesters in tiananmen square. mr straw told a commons select
committee human rights concerns over china remained. but he said it was wrong to
put china under the same embargo as countries such as zimbabwe and burma. in
december the eu pledged to work towards lifting the ban but said it was not ready
to do so yet. the eu s move was welcomed at the time by beijing which described
the embargo as a product of the cold war . german chancellor gerhard schroeder and
french president jacques chirac have repeatedly called for the embargo to be
lifted. britain has been more cautious on the issue but on wednesday mr straw said
he also wanted it to end. i have long understood china s argument that to lump
them in with say burma and zimbabwe is not appropriate and i don t think it is
he told the joint committee on strategic export controls. he said it is more
likely than not that the ban would be lifted before britain takes over the
presidency of the eu from luxembourg in july. but he said an eu code of conduct
would prevent an increase in the number of arms being exported to the country. if
it is lifted we will end up with as effective arms controls in relation to china as
we have now. mr straw said the us government was suspicious of the motives of
some other countries within the eu in wanting the ban lifted. but he said many of
washington s objections were based on a lack of information and understanding of
how export control guidelines worked in eu countries. and intense discussions
were taking place with us officials to convince them it was the right thing to do.
washington is thought to fear it would lead to a buying spree for arms that could
be used by china to threaten its diplomatic rival taiwan. us officials say they are
not satisfied the mechanisms in the eu code of conduct are robust enough to prevent
abuses. us undersecretary of state john bolton is meeting british officials this
week to press the case for keeping the embargo.
blunkett unveils policing plans people could be given the mobile phone number of
their local bobby under an overhaul of policing in england and wales unveiled by
david blunkett. the plans include a dedicated policing team for each neighbourhood
and a 10 point compulsory customer charter. the home secretary said targets would
be put in place to ensure that the public got a good response from police. local
people would also be able to trigger action on specific problems if they felt
nothing was being done. local councillors would have to show certain conditions had
been met before invoking the power. and police could refuse the request if the
complaints were frivolous would only cause annoyance or would pose too heavy a
burden on resources. mr blunkett said a new three digit number would be created
for non-emergency phone calls to police. the best performing police services would
get more cash and extra freedoms he said but he would not shirk from stepping in
where the public was being failed. the home secretary s powers to suspend or sack
chief constables are being reviewed after mr blunkett s battle with humberside
chief david westwood over intelligence failures on soham murderer ian huntley.
opposition parties also want more local policing to tackle nuisance behaviour and
other crime but they accuse ministers of tying the police up with paperwork. tory
spokesman david davis said the proposals were little more than a taxpayer-funded
pr exercise ahead of a general election predicted for next may. police forces
were already buried under existing government initiatives and there was little in
the latest plans to reassure them said mr davis. earlier lib dem home affairs
spokesman mark oaten said the government was right to want to increase the links
between local people and the police. but these measures will only work if they re
matched with a cut in the amount of paperwork - and investment in modern equipment
to keep the police out on the streets. before delivering a statement to mps mr
blunkett was joined by tony blair at welling school in south east london which is
at the heart of a community policing initiative. mr blunkett said he wanted to go
back to a time when i was very young when you expected the police to be part of
the community and the community to be part of policing and where people were joined
together in partnership making it work . the prime minister said the law-abiding
citizen should be in charge of the community and not the minority who want to
cause trouble . mr blunkett already boasts about producing record police numbers.
he has also started to recruit 25 000 community support officers (csos) and the new
plans would allow all police forces to give them the power to detain suspects. an
extra £50m was promised on tuesday so 2 000 new csos can be recruited now rather
than next year. within two years every force will be expected to keep to a
coppers contract on what kind of service the public can expect. a mori poll this
summer suggested policing unlike health and education was the one major public
service where people were less satisfied the more contact they had with it. the
plans also include the idea of allowing people join police forces at different
levels rather than the traditional way of making everybody spend specific amounts
of time as a constable before being promoted. there will also be specific
exercises to encourage black and asian people to join the police at senior ranks.
peer-to-peer nets here to stay peer-to-peer (p2p) networks are here to stay and
are on the verge of being exploited by commercial media firms says a panel of
industry experts. once several high-profile legal cases against file-sharers are
resolved this year firms will be very keen to try and make money from p2p
technology. the expert panel probed the future of p2p at the consumer electronics
show in las vegas earlier in january. the first convictions for p2p piracy were
handed out in the us in january. william trowbridge and michael chicoine pleaded
guilty to charges that they infringed copyright by illegally sharing music movies
and software. since the first successful file-sharing network napster was forced to
close down the entertainment industry has been nervous and critical of p2p
technology blaming it for falling sales and piracy. but that is going to change
very soon according to the panel. the music and film industries have started some
big legal cases against owners of legitimate p2p networks - which are not illegal
in themselves - and of individuals accused of distributing pirated content over
networks. but they have slowly realised that p2p is a good way to distribute
content said travis kalanick founder and chairman of p2p network red swoosh and
soon they are all going to want a slice of it. they are just waiting to come up
with business models that work for them which includes digital rights management
and copy-protection standards. but until the legal actions are resolved
experimentation with p2p cannot not happen said michael weiss president of
streamcast networks. remembering the furore around vcrs when they first came out
mr weiss said: old media always tries to stop new media. when they can t stop it
they try to control it. then they figure out how to make money and they always make
a lot of money. once the courts decided that the vcr in itself was not an illegal
technology the film studios turned it into an extremely lucrative business. in
august 2004 the san francisco-based us court of appeals ruled in favour of
grokster and streamcast two file-sharing networks. the court said they were
essentially in the same position that sony was in the 1980s vcr battle and said
that the networks themselves could not be deemed as illegal. p2p networks usually
do not rely on dedicated servers for the transfer of files. instead it uses direct
connections between computers - or clients. there are now many different types of
p2p systems than work in different ways. p2p nets can be used to share any kind of
file like photos free software licensed music and any other digital content. the
bbc has already decided to embrace the technology. it aims to offer most of its own
programmes for download this year and it will use p2p technology to distribute
them. the files would be locked seven days after a programme aired making rights
management easier to control. but the technology is still demonised and
misunderstood by many. the global entertainment industry says more than 2.6 billion
copyrighted music files are downloaded every month and about half a million films
are downloaded a day. legal music download services like apple itunes napster
have rushed into the music marketplace to try and lure file-sharers away from free
content. sales of legally-downloaded songs grew tenfold in 2004 with 200 million
tracks bought online in the us and europe in 12 months the ifpi reported this
week. but such download services are very different from p2p networks not least
because of the financial aspect. there are several money-spinning models that
could turn p2p into a golden egg for commercial entertainment companies. paid-for-
pass-along in which firms receive money each time a file is shared along with
various drm solutions and advertiser-based options are all being considered. we
see there are going to be different models for commoditising p2p said marc
morgenstern vice president of anti-piracy firm overpeer. consumers are hungry
for it and we will discover new models together agreed mr morgenstern. but many
net users will continue to ignore the entertainment industry s potential
controlling grip on content and p2p technology by continuing to use it for their
own creations. unsigned bands for example use p2p networks to distribute their
music effectively which also draws the attention of record companies looking for
new artists to sign. increasingly what you are seeing on p2p is consumer-created
content said derek broes from microsoft. they will probably pay an increasing
role in helping p2p spread he said. looking into p2p s future file sharing is
just the beginning for p2p networks as far as mr broes is concerned. once some of
these issues are resolved you are going to see aggressive movement to protect
content but also in ways that are unimaginable now he said. file-sharing is the
tip of the iceberg.
escaped prisoner report ordered first minister jack mcconnell has ordered a report
on the decision to allow a paranoid schizophrenic knife attacker to go on a visit
unguarded. michael ferguson 36 escaped after being allowed out of the high-
security carstairs unit. the snp s nicola sturgeon has demanded to know who was
responsible for signing off the leave. the scottish executive said ministers would
be notified but it would not be common practice to sign approval. an executive
spokesman said the health department and the state hospital itself would work
together on preparing the report. ministerial responsibility for carstairs rests
with rhona brankin the deputy health minister. ms brankin said: the first
minister has called for a review of what has happened we need to talk to the state
hospital and we need to reflect on this. ms sturgeon has written to mr mcconnell
asking for clarification on the move to allow the prisoner out. she said questions
must be answered about his escape if the public is to be reassured about safety.
police are still searching for ferguson who failed to return after a trip to east
kilbride on monday. the scottish national party s parliamentary leader argued that
under the law authorisation of ferguson s leave of absence would have come
directly from ministers. she said: the scottish executive seemed to indicate
yesterday that the escape of mr ferguson was a matter for carstairs. however my
understanding is that under the mental health legislation the decision to grant
this patient - and any restricted patient - leave of absence would have required
direct and specific authorisation by scottish ministers. she added: i have
written to the first minister today asking for confirmation of that fact. i have
also asked him to confirm which minister would routinely take decisions of this
nature and what information they are based on. this is not an attempt to apportion
blame but to ensure a better understanding of the decision making process in such
important and sensitive cases. police said ferguson posed a danger to the public.
bbc scotland political correspondent glenn campbell said the first minister had
ordered an urgent report into the situation. he said: we understand from the
executive that in this case no individual minister signed off the approval for
michael ferguson to be released unescorted from carstairs. the executive concedes
that it is up to scottish ministers they have a legal responsibility for approving
this sort of leave but they say routinely it is specialised officials that make
that decision and simply inform ministers that they have taken it. but at that
stage presumably ministers can ask hard questions and can ask for reassurances that
the patient is not a serious danger to the public or that any risk has been
minimised. scottish conservative leader david mcletchie said earlier it was
almost beyond belief that this has been allowed to happen . the executive
spokeswoman said the recommendation for leave was agreed by a psychiatric advisor
in conjunction with officials on behalf of ministers . she said: ministers were
told of that notified of it but it would not be common practice for them to sign
it off. they do have statutory responsibility but the common practice has been
that people who work with the patient and have the best knowledge about risk would
make that decision. ferguson who slashed a man in a doctors surgery in
coatbridge in 1994 had been out to see his fiancée annabella holmes 47 whom
he met when she was a patient at the high security complex in south lanarkshire. he
is described as being 5ft 9ins tall slim with blond hair blue eyes and a fair
complexion. ferguson was wearing a black jacket grey jeans black jumper and black
shoes when he was last seen. he has multiple fading tattoos on his left hand and a
very faded tear tattoo under his left eye. ms holmes is not missing but there have
been no sightings of ferguson since monday. strathclyde police asked anyone who
spots ferguson to contact sergeant keith mcdonald on .
owen set for skipper role wales number eight michael owen says replacing gareth
thomas as wales captain will be straightforward because of the leadership quality
in the squad. you dream about playing for wales but it never enters your head
that you will one day captain your country he said. it s an easy job really
because there are so many experienced players in the side but it will be a massive
honour. coach mike ruddock says the 24-year-old should take the armband from
broken thumb victim thomas against scotland. ruddock praised owen s contribution as
vice-captain and pack leader in this year s wins over england italy and france
notably his role in the second-half in paris following thomas injury. the 22-cap
dragons man says that thomas will be badly missed though. gareth is going to be a
massive loss because he is a brilliant player and he has done a fantastic job since
he has been captain said owen. he has put his own unique stamp on things. we are
going to miss him but the strength of the squad is shown when you have someone like
kevin morgan to step in. owen admitted the grand slam had been mentioned within
the squad but that no-one was getting carried away with the three victories over
england italy and france. we can t get ahead of ourselves he said. we have a
massive game next up and we are just looking forward to preparing for that.
scotland are improving all the time. like us they did well in france and were
unlucky not to get a win. against ireland they played fantastically well in the
first 15 minutes before falling away. they are probably going on a similar journey
to the one we have been on in the last couple of years.
newest eu members underpin growth the european union s newest members will bolster
europe s economic growth in 2005 according to a new report. the eight central
european states which joined the eu last year will see 4.6% growth the united
nations economic commission for europe (unece) said. in contrast the 12 euro zone
countries will put in a lacklustre performance generating growth of only 1.8%.
the global economy will slow in 2005 the unece forecasts due to widespread
weakness in consumer demand. it warned that growth could also be threatened by
attempts to reduce the united states huge current account deficit which in turn
might lead to significant volatility in exchange rates. unece is forecasting
average economic growth of 2.2% across the european union in 2005. however total
output across the euro zone is forecast to fall in 2004 from 1.9% to 1.8%. this is
due largely to the faltering german economy which shrank 0.2% in the last quarter
of 2004. on monday germany s bdb private banks association said the german economy
would struggle to meet its 1.4% growth target in 2005. separately the bundesbank
warned that germany s efforts to reduce its budget deficit below 3% of gdp
presented huge risks given that headline economic growth was set to fall below 1%
this year. publishing its 2005 economic survey the unece said central european
countries such as the czech republic and slovenia would provide the backbone of the
continent s growth. smaller nations such as cyprus ireland and malta would also be
among the continent s best performing economies this year it said. the uk economy
on the other hand is expected to slow in 2005 with growth falling from 3.2% last
year to 2.5%. consumer demand will remain fragile in many of europe s largest
countries and economies will be mostly driven by growth in exports. in view of the
fragility of factors of domestic growth and the dampening effects of the stronger
euro on domestic economic activity and inflation monetary policy in the euro area
is likely to continue to wait and see the organisation said in its report.
global economic growth is expected to fall from 5% in 2004 to 4.25% despite the
continued strength of the chinese and us economies. the unece warned that attempts
to bring about a controlled reduction in the us current account deficit could cause
difficulties. the orderly reversal of the deficit is a major challenge for policy
makers in both the united states and other economies it noted.
eastenders is set for us remake plans to create a us soap based on the bbc s
eastenders have reportedly been drawn up by the fox tv network. eastenders head
writer tony jordan and music mogul simon fuller are involved in the project
according to reports in the hollywood reporter trade newspaper. it said scripts
have been commissioned for a series about a community of working class people in of
chicago. the original eastenders was pulled from bbc america last year after it
proved a failure in the ratings. us versions of other british hits have proved less
successful across the atlantic. bbc comedy coupling was remade with a us cast but
lost its primetime slot on the nbc network due to disappointing ratings. at home
eastenders has been facing its own ratings battle recently losing out to rival itv
soap emmer dale. primetime soaps on us television have made a recent comeback
following the success of abc serial desperate housewives. the series takes a
darkly comedic look at the goings-on of a group of characters living in the
suburbs.
ireland 21-19 argentina an injury-time dropped goal by ronan o gara stole victory
for ireland from underneath the noses of argentina at lansdowne road on saturday.
o gara kicked all of ireland s points with two dropped goals and five penalties
to give the home side a 100% record in their autumn internationals. an impressive
argentina appeared in control until the dying seconds. the pumas shocked the irish
early on with a try from federico aramburu and felipe contepomi kicked 14 points.
the well-drilled and sharper pumas out-played and out-thought ireland in the early
stages. indiscipline allowed argentina s leinster fly-half contepomi to open the
scoring in the third minute with a straightforward penalty. he was on the mark
again two minutes later when argentina shocked a ragged ireland with the first try
of the game. ireland turned the ball over and manuel contepomi broke through an
unstructured defence before feeding his midfield partner aramburu to sprint in
under the posts. o gara finally got ireland on the board with a dropped goal in the
ninth minute only for contepomi to rifle over his second penalty two minutes later.
playing into a strong wind and rain ireland continued to come second best in tight
situations and turnovers began to mount up against a rugged defence. o gara
managed to land his second penalty in the 36th minute but once again contepomi
replied in kind four minutes into first-half injury time. the second-half started
as the first had ended. o gara rifled over another penalty in the 45th minute but
contepomi matched it three minutes later. the upper-body strength of the pumas
never allowed ireland to take control up front while the three-quarters had no
space to manoeuvre. ireland had to rely on o gara s boot to keep in touch rather
than any contrived running plays. the munsterman landed two more penalties - one of
them from 48 metres - to bring his team to within four points with 13 minutes on
the clock remaining. and ireland s chance came when argentina s number eight
gonzalo longo was yellow carded with six minutes to go for an offence in the line-
out. o gara made no mistake as he rifled over his fifth penalty to set up a tense
final few minutes. but ireland showed great composure to get themselves into a
position to allow o gara to thump over a massive drop goal to complete a tremendous
if fortuitous comeback.
m&s cuts prices by average of 24% marks & spencer has cut prices in london and the
regions by an average of 24% according to research from a city investment bank.
dresdner kleinwort wasserstein said: in spite of the snow in the uk it still
feels very early to be cutting prices of spring merchandise. stuart rose head of
m&s said last year its prices were too high. we are bringing in ranges at new
price points to compete against mid-market retailers like next said m&s. next is
one of m&s s biggest competitors and the move may force it to lower prices. drkw
said the cuts are either to clear stock or could indicate a longer term step
change in pricing in certain areas at m&s. either way this cannot be good news
for m&s margin it added. we have brought in quite a lot of new clothing at new
price points as part of stuart rose s strategy of quality style -and price said
the m&s spokesman. many analysts believe february is proving to be a difficult
month for retailers and british retail consortium figures due in a few weeks are
expected to reflect the tough trading environment. separately investment bank
goldman sachs produced reseach showing that a basket of 35 m&s goods is now 11%
above the high-street average compared with 43% higher last year. it has been a
strange week for m&s which on tuesday received a statement from philip green the
billionaire bhs owner confirming he was not rebidding for the company. this was
followed the same day by mark paulsmeier a south african financier issuing a
press release saying his paulsmeier group was interested in m&s. a sudden spike in
m&s s share price followed. however an m&s spokesman said on sunday it had no
evidence that mr paulsmeier had lined up sufficient finance for a bid. he also said
the takeover panel and the uk s financial watchdog the financial services authority
had been in touch with m&s at the beginning of the week to find out what it knew
about the paulsmeier developments.
lloyd s of london head chides fsa the head of lloyd s of london the insurance
market has criticised britain s financial watchdog the financial services
authority (fsa). in a speech on monday mr prettejohn urged the fsa to force
brokers to disclose the size of their commissions. the fsa should change and
change now said mr prettejohn who wants it to move from disclosure on request
to mandatory disclosure. the call came in a speech on improving the london
insurance market. the fsa should not bide their time and wait and see . they
should seize the moment mr prettejohn lloyd s chief executive said. the fsa took
over regulation of the general insurance sector in january but it sidestepped
calls to require brokers to disclose the commissions they earn from insurers to
their clients. last week the city watchdog gave brokers and insurers guidance on
managing conflicts of interest. brokers must give information on their commissions
if and only if their customers request it the fsa said. in the us lack of
transparency about brokers commissions has led to problems. the world s biggest
insurance broker marsh & mclennan said last week it would pay $850m to settle
charges raised by new york attorney general eliot spitzer in october that it
sought to rig bids in conjunction with insurers. the probe centred around so-called
contingent commissions whereby brokers were rewarded according to how much
business they brought to an insurer an arrangement that did not always benefit
brokers customers. all of the insurance business written in the lloyd s market is
placed via brokers.
sun offers processing by the hour sun microsystems has launched a pay-as-you-go
service which will allow customers requiring huge computing power to rent it by the
hour. sun grid costs users $1 (53p) for an hour s worth of processing and storage
power on systems maintained by sun. so-called grid computing is the latest buzz
phrase in a company which believes that computing capacity is as important a
commodity as hardware and software. sun likened grid computing to the development
of electricity. the system could mature in the same way utilities such as
electricity and water have developed said sun s chief operating officer jonathan
schwartz. why build your own grid when you can use ours for a buck an hour he
asked in a webcast launching sun s quarterly network computing event in california.
the company will have to persuade data centre managers to adopt a new model but it
said it already had interest from customers in the oil gas and financial services
industries. some of them want to book computing capacity of more than 5 000
processors each sun said. mr schwartz ran a demonstration of the service showing
how data could be processed in a protein folding experiment. hundreds of servers
were used simultaneously working on the problem for a few seconds each. although
it only took a few seconds the experiment cost $12 (£6.30) because it had used up
12 hours worth of computing power. the sun grid relies on solaris the operating
system owned by sun. initially it will house the grid in existing premises and will
use idle servers to test software before shipping it to customers. it has not said
how much the system will cost to develop but it already has a rival in ibm which
argues that its capacity on-demand service is cheaper than that offered by sun.
criminal probe on citigroup deals traders at us banking giant citigroup are facing
a criminal investigation in germany over a controversial bond deal. the deal saw
the sale of 11bn euros ($14.4bn; £7.6bn) of government bonds in a few minutes on 2
august with 4bn euros-worth then bought back later. the move was widely criticised
at the time and now the german regulator has said it has found evidence of
possible market manipulation. citigroup said it would continue to co-operate fully
with the authorities. we are disappointed that the bafin has referred to the
prosecutor the question of whether action should be brought against individuals
involved citigroup said. if the traders are found guilty they could face a five-
year jail term or a fine reuters reported bafin as saying. however under german
criminal law prosecutors cannot pursue citigroup itself. germany s financial
watchdog bafin told bbc news it had now transferred the investigation to the public
prosecutor. i can confirm that bafin has passed through the case to the public
prosecutor a bafin spokeswoman said. it is now a criminal investigation. we
found clues of possible market manipulation the spokeswoman said which included
signs of linked bond trading ahead of the main trades on 2 august. germany s
securities trading act says that if bafin finds such clues it has to put the case
in the hands of the prosecutor. regulatory investigations are still going on in
france the uk and elsewhere. some citigroup operations elsewhere in the world came
under regulatory criticism in 2004. its private banking operation in japan was
closed down by regulators in tokyo after an aggressive sales culture led the bank
to flout anti-money laundering rules.
willis sues over movie injury actor bruce willis is suing revolution studios over
an injury he said he suffered while making tears of the sun. willis is seeking
medical expenses after he said he was hit in the head by a firework during the
filming of the 2002 movie produced by the firm. the lawsuit said the star has
endured mental and physical injuries as a result of the alleged incident. we are
not able to comment on pending litigation revolution studios spokesman sean dudas
said. in tears of the sun willis plays a us military commander who disobeys orders
to try and help save a doctor and patients trapped in the nigerian jungle. directed
by antoine fuqua the film was poorly received by critics and did not perform
strongly at the box office. according to the lawsuit the injury was suffered
during the firing of explosions as part of a special effect. the explosions known
as squibs were intended to simulate the appearance of bullets striking the ground
. the lawsuit said willis has endured extreme mental physical and emotional pain
and suffering. there were no specific details on the injuries. while willis does
not seek specific monetary damages the lawsuit noted that the star was required
to and did employ physicians and other medical personnel . it stated he will incur
additional future medical expenses. the lawsuit said revolution studios and special
effects foreman joe pancake had a duty to willis to ensure that the squibs were
inspected set up placed and detonated in a safe manner and to employ technicians
who were trained and competent in their use .
blue beat u2 to top france honour irish band u2 have been honoured at france s
biggest music awards but were beaten to a prize by boy band blue. u2 received a
special achievement prize at the nrj music awards but blue beat them to the
international group award. us band maroon 5 was named best new international artist
and took the best international song title for this love. more than five million
radio listeners voted in the awards. the international male and female prizes went
to usher and avril lavigne respectively. collecting his band s award from model
naomi campbell at the cannes ceremony u2 frontman bono said in french: i m not
from this country but i ll make a little confession to you - it s at the cote d
azur i feel at home. hosted by radio group nrj the ceremony featured
performances from usher and jennifer lopez who was accompanied by dancers clad in
schoolgirl outfits. us pop act black eyed peas picked up the best international
album gong for elephunk. singer jenifer also took home two awards for best french
female singer and best french album. french-canadian pop star roch voisine was
named best francophone male artist.
music man to the oscars bill conti s job of musical director of the oscars show is
not for the faint-hearted since conducting the orchestra is the ultimate plate-
spinning assignment. this year marks conti s 17th turn at the helm of the academy
awards orchestra. the excitement is a live performance as a musician he says.
all of your colleagues everyone in the film industry is in the theatre. all the
important people. i guess it s just a television show but we always think it s a
bit more. the orchestra strikes up more than 110 times during the average oscars
show. as well as playing the presenters and winners on and off stage it also
performs during the commercial breaks to entertain the live audience in the house.
it s a very busy evening it takes a certain amount of preparation of music
orchestrating sketching rehearsing before the show. but you don t know what the
unexpected will be and as the musical director it s exciting explains conti. and
much of the preparation goes into mastering scores that will never be performed.
we don t know who the winners will be. so when they say the winner is we have
five different pieces of music in front of us they say the name we play the
appropriate one immediately adds conti. the orchestra is often called upon to
play when the winners ramble on too long during their acceptance speeches despite
being told to be brief by the show s producers. the decision to drown out or kill
the offending star with music is relayed from the director s box to the orchestra
via conti s earpiece. i don t feel good about it at all. it s not my call though
he says. when the director says music the orchestra plays and he takes a long
shot of the hall. we don t usually see the person speaking while his microphone is
cut off. the person that s been cut off who s 10 feet from me is glaring at me
like it s death time. on occasions some stars have taken it upon themselves to
send a warning shot across the bows of the musical director before they start to
speak. julia roberts when she came on she asked me to not get ready to play
because she had so much to do he says. conti received an oscar in 1983 for the
original score of the right stuff. he also received two nominations in the original
song category in 1976 for gonna fly now from rocky and in 1981 for the title song
from for your eyes only. it s a moment in the sun he says. when people get up
there some people this is hard to believe people that spend their lives in front
of the camera or audiences entertaining might get a little flustered. but there s
this moment in time when the biggest award that they could possibly get in their
life has been handed to them and they re either not in control or they want to
thank everyone that they ever met. the image of the oscars telecast is one of
slick presentation and smooth transitions between performances and the award
categories. behind the scenes the key players such as conti have a bewildering
array of technical props to deal with. there s a big script and video monitors you
have to watch and there are also audio controls. i can control hearing in my ears
the left ear or the right ear - different things at different times. i have to
communicate with the director. i have a little microphone that s attached to my
headset. to open up that microphone i have a footswitch he explains. conti s
most nerve-wracking moment came during his first oscars show as musical director
in 1977 when a member of the orchestra alerted him that they could smell smoke.
conti immediately told the show s director: i start cursing and screaming i tell
him we re not going to die for this show - you must do something or i m going to
climb out of this pit with 60 musicians and we re going to be home in 10 minutes.
oh no bill don t do anything came the response. imagine these elegantly dressed
ladies and gentlemen of the orchestra 60 or so of them in the pit and while we re
playing firemen with their helmets and their hatchets crawling among us trying to
find the reason for the smoke. the smell turned out to be new paint smouldering on
the music stands. no one died it s not a big story but it was scary at the time
laughs conti. when the ceremony is over the music director attends the annual
governor s ball with his family. i have a drink and relive the show he says. i
m not for too much carousing. i go home and unwind. it takes me about a day.
amex shares up on spin-off news shares in american express surged more than 8% on
tuesday after it said it was to spin off its less profitable financial advisory
subsidiary. the us credit card to travel services giant said off-loading american
express financial advisors (aefa) would boost its profitability. aefa has more than
12 000 advisers selling financial advice funds and insurance to 2.5 million
customers. over the years it has delivered poor profits and even some losses.
this is an excellent move by american express to focus on its core businesses and
sell off a laggard division which has been a problem for quite some time said
marquis investment research analyst phil kain. analysts estimate that a stand-alone
aefa could have a market value of $10bn (£5.3bn). the unit was acquired by american
express 20 years ago as investors diversified service of minneapolis at a time
when firms were amassing one-stop financial empires. however the business of
selling investments was never integrated with the rest of the group.
lee to create new film superhero comic book veteran stan lee is to team up with
producer robert evans to create a movie featuring a new superhero. foreverman will
focus on a character who has to face problems in everyday life as well as using his
special powers to save the world. paramount pictures the studio behind the film
have revealed few details about the project but say it has the potential to spawn a
series of films. lee is best known for his work on spider-man and the incredible
hulk. he is collaborating on the script with screenwriter peter briggs who penned
the recent comic book adaptation hellboy. we believe it to be truly a whole new
franchise said gill champion president and chief executive of lee s pow!
entertainment. in this world where people are looking for something different
stan s idea was to create a concept not seen before to become an evergreen
franchise for paramount. many of lee s other creations including x-men and
daredevil have been turned into films in the past five years. however the spider-
man series has been the biggest box office hit with the 2002 original and its 2004
sequel taking almost $1.6bn (£857m) worldwide. a third spider-man film is scheduled
for release in 2007. another marvel comics adaptation the fantastic four will be
released in cinemas this summer.
fantasy book wins hollywood deal a british author has had the film rights to her
children s bestseller snapped up for a seven-figure sum with ridley scott set to
direct. michelle paver s wolf brother a fantasy set 6 000 years ago is the first
in a planned series of six books. film studio fox has bought the rights for around
$4m (£2.13m) for scott s company scott free to develop. the director said he was
thrilled with the project. wolf brother is an enchanting book he said. paver
who lives in london and previously worked as a lawyer began writing the book in
1982 while studying biochemistry at oxford university. she was an established
author of love stories when she turned the work-in-progress into a children s
novel. it was published in 2004 with paver earning an advance of $5m (£2.8m) - the
highest sum ever paid for a debut children s book. wolf brother tells the story of
torak a 12-year-old hunter who lives in the forest. after his father is killed he
teams up with a wolf cub and sets out to rid the forest of an evil force. paver is
currently writing the second book in the series. michelle paver lives and breathes
the worlds she writes about said a spokesman for the author. i ve told her about
the film deal but at the moment she is writing the second book and her mind is 6000
years away deep in the primeval forest.
child access laws shake-up parents who refuse to allow former partners contact with
their children could be electronically tagged under plans being considered by
ministers. curfews and community service orders were other options which could be
used if court orders to allow parental access were defied lord falconer said. the
constitutional affairs secretary outlined some of the plans on tuesday. he denied
fathers activists had forced the changes telling the bbc there is a recognition
that something is wrong . between 15 000 and 20 000 couples go to court to resolve
access disputes each year although in nine out of 10 separations there is no court
intervention. lord falconer told bbc radio 4 s today programme he hoped voluntary
mediation could help solve disputes before they reached court. but he opposed
compulsory mediation saying that it would lead to many people taking part with the
wrong attitude. other plans include: - parenting plans to give advice on access
arrangements based on real-life examples that have worked in the past -
extending in-court conciliation - more informal hearings before contested court
cases - better access to legal emotional and practical advice by telephone and
internet - legal aid changes to give incentives for early resolution of disputes.
judges can already jail parents who breach contact orders but that was a nuclear
option which was rarely used as it was not seen as being in the child s interests
a spokesman said. the aim of the new legislation was to provide a medium range of
penalties such as fines community service orders compulsory anger management or
parenting classes or curfews. failure to comply with these measures could result
in offenders being electronically tagged. on the possibility of tagging
uncooperative parents lord falconer said: tagging may be going too far but let s
have a debate about that. full details of the new powers will not be revealed
until a bill is published in the next two weeks a spokesman said. the
government s proposals have met with disapproval from fathers rights groups. john
ison from the controversial group fathers 4 justice said: it is very
disappointing. what we have got is a cynical case of recycling existing
legislation. jim parton from families need fathers said the new proposals
lacked compulsion . we would like to see couples develop a plan and then have it
as a source of a court order - then you know where you stand you know what the
minimum access is. otherwise you see people make agreements which then fall
apart. mr parton said he had been told by children s minister margaret hodge there
was not enough time to pass the bill through parliament before the general election
which is likely to take place in may. the conservatives have called for an equal
split between parents on access to be made law. theresa may shadow secretary for
the family told bbc radio 4 s today programme that the government s plans were
inadequate and were papering over the cracks of the current system . she said a
conservative government would bring a radical reform of the family courts as
well as enforcing a legal presumption of co-parenting and compulsory mediation .
we want to make courts the last resort rather than the first resort she added.
the government says children cannot simply be divided up like property when a
marriage collapses. the liberal democrats have argued for flexibility in deciding
access rules rather than having rigid targets .
apple attacked over sources row civil liberties group the electronic frontier
foundation (eff) has joined a legal fight between three us online journalists and
apple. apple wants the reporters to reveal 20 sources used for stories which
leaked information about forthcoming products including the mac mini. the eff
representing the reporters has asked california s superior court to stop apple
pursuing the sources. it argues that the journalists are protected by the american
constitution. the eff says the case threatens the basic freedoms of the press.
apple is particularly keen to find the source for information about an unreleased
product code-named asteroid and has asked the journalists e-mail providers to hand
over communications relevant to that. rather than confronting the issue of
reporter s privilege head-on apple is going to the journalist s isps for his e-
mails said eff lawyer kurt opsahl. this undermines a fundamental first amendment
right that protects all reporters. if the court lets apple get away with this and
exposes the confidences gained by these reporters potential confidential sources
will be deterred from providing information to the media and the public will lose a
vital outlet for independent news analysis and commentary he said. the case
began in december 2004 when apple asked a local californian court to get the
journalists to reveal their sources for articles published on websites
appleinsider.com and powerpage.org. apple also sent requested information from the
nfox.com the internet service provider of powerpage s publisher jason o-grady. as
well as looking at how far corporations can go in preventing information from being
published the case will also examine whether online journalists have the same
privileges and protections as those writing for newspapers and magazines. the eff
has gained some powerful allies in its legal battle with apple including professor
tom goldstein former dean of the journalism school at the university of california
and dan gillmor a well-known silicon valley journalist. apple was not immediately
available for comment.
india calls for fair trade rules india which attends the g7 meeting of seven
leading industrialised nations on friday is unlikely to be cowed by its newcomer
status. in london on thursday ahead of the meeting india s finance minister
lashed out at the restrictive trade policies of the g7 nations. he objected to
subsidies on agriculture that make it hard for developing nations like india to
compete. he also called for reform of the united nations the world bank and the
imf. palaniappan chidambaram india s finance minister argued that these
organisations need to take into account the changing world order given india and
china s integration into the global economy. he said the issue is not globalisation
but the terms of engagement in globalisation. mr chidambaram is attending the g7
meeting as part of the g20 group of nations which account for two thirds of the
world s population. at a conference on developing enterprise hosted by uk finance
minister gordon brown on friday he said that he was in favour of floating exchange
rates because they help countries cope with economic shocks. a flexible exchange
rate is one more channel for absorbing both positive and negative shocks he told
the conference. india along with china brazil south africa and russia has been
invited to take part in the g7 meeting taking place in london on friday and
saturday. china is expected to face renewed pressure to abandon its fixed exchange
rate which g7 nations in particular the us have blamed for a surge in cheap
chinese exports. some countries have tried to use fixed exchange rates. i do not
wish to make any judgements mr chidambaram said. separately the imf warned on
thursday that india s budget deficit was too large and would hamper the country s
economic growth which it forecast to be around 6.5% in the year to march 2005. in
the year to march 2004 the indian economy grew by 8.5%.
hansen delays return until 2006 british triple jumper ashia hansen has ruled out
a comeback this year after a setback in her recovery from a bad knee injury
according to reports. hansen the commonwealth and european champion has been
sidelined since the european cup in poland in june 2004. it was hoped she would be
able to return this summer but the wound from the injury has been very slow to
heal. her coach aston moore told the times: we re not looking at any sooner than
2006 not as a triple jumper. moore said hansen may be able to return to sprinting
and long jumping sooner but there is no short-term prospect of her being involved
again in her specialist event. there was a problem with the wound healing and it
set back her rehabilitation by about two months but that has been solved and we
can push ahead now he said. the aim is for her to get fit as an athlete - then
we will start looking at sprinting and the long jump as an introduction back to the
competitive arena. moore said he is confident hansen can make it back to top-level
competition though it is unclear if that will be in time for the commonwealth
games in melbourne next march when she will be 34. it s been a frustrating time
for her but it has not fazed her determination he added.
no re-draft for eu patent law a proposed european law on software patents will not
be re-drafted by the european commission (ec) despite requests by meps. the law is
proving controversial and has been in limbo for a year. some major tech firms say
it is needed to protect inventions while others fear it will hurt smaller tech
firms the ec says the council of ministers will adopt a draft version that was
agreed upon last may but said it would review all aspects of the directive . the
directive is intended to offer patent protection to inventions that use software to
achieve their effect in other words computer implemented invention . in a
letter ec president josé manuel barroso told the president of the european
parliament josep borrell that the commission did not intend to refer a new
proposal to the parliament and the council (of ministers) as it had supported the
agreement reached by ministers in may 2004. if the european council agrees on the
draft directive it will then return for a second reading at the european
parliament. but that will not guarantee that the directive will become law -
instead it will probably mean further delays and controversy over the directive.
most eu legislation now needs the approval of both parliament and the council of
ministers before it becomes law. french green mep alain lipietz warned two weeks
ago that if the commission ignored the parliament s request it would be an insult
to the assembly. he said that the parliament would then reject the council s
version of the legislation as part of the final or conciliation stage of the
decision procedure. in the us the patenting of computer programs and internet
business methods is permitted. this means that the us-based amazon.com holds a
patent for its one-click shopping service for example. critics are concerned
that the directive could lead to a similar model happening in europe. this they
fear could hurt small software developers because they do not have the legal and
financial might of larger companies if they had to fight patent legal action in
court. supporters say current laws are inefficient and it would serve to even up a
playing field without bringing eu laws in line with the us.
rochus shocks coria in auckland top seed guillermo coria went out of the heineken
open in auckland on thursday with a surprise loss to olivier rochus of belgium.
coria lost the semi-final 6-4 6-4 to rochus who goes on to face czech jan hernych
a 6-4 7-5 winner over jose acasuso of argentina. fifth seed fernando gonzalez eased
past american robby ginepri 6-3 6-4. the chilean will meet sixth seed juan ignacio
chela next after the argentine beat potito starace 6-1 7-6 (7-5). rochus made the
semi-finals at the australian hardcourt championships in adelaide last week and is
naturally delighted with his form. it s been two unbelievable weeks for me he
said. today i knew i had nothing to lose. if i beat him great if i lost i would
be losing to a top-10 player. coria conceded that rochus played just too good
and added: when you give your best out there you can t be too sad.
weir poised for sunderland move larne s teenage star robbie weir is poised to join
sunderland after turning down a move to stoke city. the 17-year-old irish league
midfielder was also being chased by rangers and fulham but mick mccarthy s side
appear to have won the race. but larne boss jimmy mcgeough has yet to confirm that
weir is on his way from inver park. i heard on sunday that he has joined
sunderland but not from the lad himself he said. robbie has an agreement with
larne that he can negotiate with interested clubs. personally i would rather
see him making an impact at local level to build up his physique before moving into
the full-time game. he has been on trial with a number of clubs. but it would be
great to see him making it at sunderland.
tory expert denies defeat warning the conservatives campaign director has denied a
report claiming he warned michael howard the party could not win the next general
election. the times on monday said australian lynton crosby told the party leader
to focus on trying to increase the tories commons presence by 25 to 30 seats. but
mr crosby said in a statement: i have never had any such conversation... and i do
not hold that view. mr howard later added there was not one iota of truth in the
report. the strategist helped australia s pm john howard win four elections. mr
howard appointed mr crosby as his elections chief last october. mr crosby s
statement said: the conservative party has been making an impact on the issues of
lower tax and controlled immigration over the past week. it added: the labour
party will be wanting to do all they can to distract attention away from the issues
that really matter to people.
vw considers opening indian plant volkswagen is considering building a car factory
in india but said it had yet to make a final decision. the german giant said it
was studying the possibility of opening an assembly plant in the country but that
it remained only a potential idea. its comments came after the industry minister
of india s andhra pradesh state said a team of vw officials were due to visit to
discuss the plans. b. satyanarayana said he expected vw to co-sign a memorandum of
agreement. several foreign carmakers including hyundai toyota suzuki and ford
already have indian production facilities to meet demand for automobiles in asia s
fourth-largest economy. vw s proposed plant would be set up in the port city of
visakhapatnam on india s eastern coast. an andhra pradesh official added that vw
had already approved a factory site measuring 250 acres.
merritt close to indoor 400m mark teenager lashawn merritt ran the third fastest
indoor 400m of all time at the fayetteville invitational meeting. the world junior
champion clocked 44.93 seconds to finish well clear of fellow american bershawn
jackson in arkansas. only michael johnson has gone quicker setting the world
record of 44.63secs in 1995 and running 44.66secs in 1996. kenyan bernard lagat
missed out on the world record by 1.45secs as he ran the third quickest indoor mile
ever to beat canada s nate brannen by almost 10secs. the olympic silver medallist s
time of three minutes 49.89secs was inferior only to the 1997 world record of
moroccan hicham el guerrouj and former world record holder eamonn coghlan of
ireland s 3:49.78. lagat was on course to break el guerrouj s record through 1200m
but could not maintain the pace over the final 400m. ireland s continued his
excellent form by winning a tight 3 000m in 7:40.53. cragg who recently defeated
olympic 10 000m champion kenenisa bekele in boston held off bekele s ethiopian
colleague markos geneti by only 0.19secs to secure his victory. mark carroll who
will join cragg in the european indoor championships next month finished a solid
third in 7:46.78. olympic 200m gold medallist of jamaica ran the fastest women s
60m in the world this year as she equalled her personal best of 7.09secs. world
indoor 60m hurdles champion also won improving his season-leading time to
7.51secs.
anti-spam laws bite spammer hard the net s self-declared spam king is seeking
bankruptcy protection. scott richter the man behind optinrealbig.com and billions
of junk mail messages said lawsuits had forced the company into chapter 11.
optinrealbig was fighting several legal battles most notably against microsoft
which is pushing for millions of dollars in damages. the company said filing for
chapter 11 would help it try to resolve its legal problems but still keep trading.
listed as the third biggest spammer in the world by junk mail watchdog spamhaus
optinrealbig was sued in december 2003 for sending mail messages that violated
anti-spam laws. the lawsuit was brought by microsoft and new york attorney general
eliot spitzer who alleged that mr richter and his accomplices sent billions of spam
messages through 514 compromised net addresses in 35 countries. according to
microsoft the messages were sent via net addresses owned by the kuwait ministries
of communication and finance several korean schools the seoul municipal boramae
hospital and the virginia community college system. mr richter settled the
attorney general case in july 2004 but the legal fight with microsoft is
continuing. microsoft is seeking millions in dollars in damages from optinrealbig
under anti-spam laws that impose penalties for every violation. in a statement
announcing the desire to seek bankruptcy protection the company said it: could not
continue to contend with legal maneuvers (sic) by a number of companies across the
country including microsoft and still run a viable business. in its chapter 11
filing optinrealbig claimed it had assets of less than $10m (£5.29m) but debts of
more than $50m which included the $46m that microsoft is seeking via its lawsuit.
the litigation has been a relentless distraction with which to contend said
steven richter legal counsel for optinrealbig. but make no mistake we do expect
to prevail. for its part optinrealbig describes itself as a premier internet
marketing company and said the move to seek chapter 11 was necessary to let it keep
trading while sorting out its legal battles.
oil prices fall back from highs oil prices retreated from four-month highs in early
trading on tuesday after producers cartel opec said it was now unlikely to cut
production. following the comments by acting opec secretary general adnan shihab-
eldin us light crude fell 32 cents to $51.43 a barrel. he said that high oil
prices meant opec was unlikely to stick to its plan to cut output in the second
quarter. in london brent crude fell 32 cents to $49.74 a barrel. opec members are
next meeting to discuss production levels on 16 march. on monday oil prices rose
for a sixth straight session reaching a four-month high as cold weather in the us
threatened stocks of heating oil. us demand for heating oil was predicted to be
about 14% above normal this week while stocks were currently about 7.5% below the
levels of a year ago. cold weather across europe has also put upward pressure on
crude prices.
mansfield 0-1 leyton orient an second-half goal from andy scott condemned mansfield
to a ninth successive game without a win. early in the second half wayne carlisle
s cross was met by scott and he blasted the ball home from just outside the penalty
area. as orient chased a second mansfield had to clear alan white s header off the
line and kevin pilkington saved well from michael simpson. by the end mansfield
fans were chanting for the head of chairman keith haslam. pilkington talbot
buxton dimech artell corden murray curtis neil warne barker. subs not used:
white mcintosh wood lloyd herron. harrison lockwood donny barnard white
mackie scott saah simpson carlisle lee barnard ibehre. subs not used: morris
wardley newey zakuani mcmahon. scott 51. 3 803 s mathieson (cheshire).
eu software patent law delayed controversial new eu rules for the patenting of
computer-based inventions have been put on hold due to a last minute intervention
from poland. poland - a large and therefore crucial eu member - has requested more
time to consider the issue especially as it relates to the patenting of software.
critics say the law would favour large companies over small innovative ones. they
say it could have massive ramifications for developments such as open source
software. polish ministers want to see the phrasing of the text of the directive
on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions changed so that it excludes
the patenting of software. the planned law has ignited angry debate about whether
the eu should allow the patenting of computer programs and internet business
methods as currently happens in the us. so for instance us-based amazon.com holds
a patent on one-click shopping . critics claim the law which the eu says is
needed to harmonise with the us is little more than a law on ideas. patent rights
it is claimed protect inventors but in this case it is exclusively the interests
of the big companies that are protected eva lichtenberg a austrian green member
of the european parliament said in a statement. smaller innovative firms cannot
afford the patenting and legal costs that the directive would inflict on them she
added. the european parliament has already clashed with the european union on the
issue and there have been accusations that the process to decide the issue has been
undemocratic. the directive has been subject to several previous delays.
wood - ireland can win grand slam former captain keith wood believes ireland can
win only their second grand slam - and first since 1948 - in this year s rbs six
nations championship. after claiming their first triple crown for 19 years last
season wood tips his former team-mates to go one better. things have been
building up over the past few years and i think this is the year for ireland he
told bbc sport. there is a great chance to win a grand slam. a lot of things are
in our favour with england and france at home. ireland have finished runners-up
three times including last year since the old five nations became six in 2000
and not finished outside the top three in the past five years. despite being
without flanker keith gleeson coach eddie o sullivan has not had to contend with
the sort of casualty lists that have hit england and scotland in particular prior
to the tournament. for ireland to win it we need to stay relatively injury free
and fortunately we are one of the few teams that have done that so far wood
added. it is going to be tough and we need to take all the luck and opportunities
that come our way. ireland s last game of the tournament is against wales in
cardiff - a fixture they have not lost since 1983. but despite their traditional
hospitality when the irish are visiting wood believes wales might end their four-
match losing run against england in cardiff. so many of the major england players
have either retired in the last year or are injured that i think it will be very
hard for them down in cardiff wood added. wales have had four brilliant games in
the last year or so and lost all four so the time is right for them now to beat
one of the major teams.
gb select holmes for double bid kelly holmes has been chosen for both the 800m and
1500m at next month s european indoor championships - despite not yet confirming
her availability. the double-olympic champion is still undecided about whether to
compete in her first european indoors in madrid. but uk athletics chief max jones
believes it is likely holmes will race. he said: it s worth a punt isn t it she
s gone back to training. if she s confident she will pick one (distance). the
programme does not permit both. if holmes does take her place in the gb side she
has already indicated that 1500m will be her favoured distance. under championship
rules she does not have to decide until 24 hours before the event begins in madrid
on 4 march. jones added: she was pleased with her run in birmingham (at last
weekend s grand prix). i am inclined to think she will (compete). it could depend
on how training goes and she will have to be close to top form. and he admitted
holmes presence would be a great boost to the rest of the norwich union gb team.
she is a very good team member and is very good to have there he added. meanwhile
there is no surprises in the rest of the great britain team announced on tuesday.
defending 60m champion jason gardener is included and will be chasing his third
successive gold medal. he will be joined in the event by mark lewis-francis -
runner-up behind him three years ago in vienna - and new boy darren chin. kelly
sotherton has been invited by championship organisers to compete against carolina
kluft in the pentathlon. sotherton finished third in the olympic heptathlon in
athens where the swede took gold. there are 16 newcomers at this level of
competition in gb s 46-strong team. the championships will be the last to be
attended by jones before he retires to be succeeded by dave collins. jones said:
the olympic games is the overwhelming target for uka and therefore it is beneficial
to start the next four-year cycle with a not-so-pressurised major games. the
european indoor championships always provide a chance for the young and
inexperienced to make a name for themselves and the current indoor season has
produced some exciting new talent. madrid is the first small step on a long
journey to beijing and the 2008 olympics but for some of the emerging athletes
this will be a very important step. 60m: d chin (belgrave harriers) j gardener
(wessex and bath) m lewis-francis (birchfield harriers). t abeyie (woodford green
with essex ladies) c lambert (belgrave harriers). d garland (channel islands ac).
j mcilroy (windsor slough eton and hounslow ac) jimmy watkins (cardiff aac). ed
jackson (aldershot farnham and district) n speaight (belgrave harriers) j thie
(cardiff aac). a baddeley (harrow ac) m farah (windsor slough eton and hounslow
ac) j mayock (barnsley ac). d greaves (newham and essex beagles) a scott
(shaftesbury barnet harriers) a turner (notts ac). b challenger (belgrave
harriers). pole vault: n buckfield (crawley ac). n morgan (birchfield harriers) c
tomlinson (newham and essex beagles). l achike (shaftesbury barnet harriers) n
douglas (oxford city ac) p idowu (belgrave harriers). d cossins (birchfield
harriers) r davenport (gloucester ac) d garland (channel islands ac) r preddy
(gloucester ac) g warburton (cardiff aac). k endacott (city of plymouth ac) j
kwakye (woodford green with essex ladies) j maduaka (woodford green with essex
ladies). k wall (basildon ac). k holmes (ealing southall and middlesex ac). h
clitheroe (preston harriers) k holmes (ealing southall and middlesex ac). j
pavey (exeter harriers). d allahgreen (trafford ac) s claxton (belgrave
harriers). j crane (sale harriers manchester) s jones (trafford ac). j whitlock
(trafford ac). j johnson (herne hill harriers). k sotherton (birchfield
harriers). d fraser (croydon harriers) l mcconnell (shaftesbury barnet harriers)
c murphy (woodford green with essex ladies) m purkiss (southampton ac).
comeback show for friends star friends actress lisa kudrow is to play the lead
role in a new series about a one-time sitcom star according to the hollywood
reporter. thirteen episodes of comeback have been commissioned by cable channel
hbo home of hits such as sex and the city. kudrow who played phoebe in friends
co-wrote the pilot episode and will also act as executive producer. hbo has been
looking for its next big comedy hit since sex and the city drew to a close in the
us in february. comeback is the first 30-minute comedy series that the channel has
picked up since the sex and the city drew to the end of its six-year-run. friends
ended its 10-year run on the nbc network in may and attentions have turned to
which projects its six individual stars would pursue. matt leblanc is starring in
a friends spin-off sitcom charting joey s fortunes in los angeles as he pursues
his acting career. jennifer aniston who was rachel in the long-running show has
enjoyed a series of successful film appearances with further projects in the
pipeline. courteney cox arquette (monica) has been working on a drama project along
with husband david arquette for hbo called the rise and fall of taylor kennedy.
matthew perry who played chandler has appeared on the west end stage and has a
film the beginning of wisdom currently in production. and david schwimmer (ross)
directed during his time on friends and has also worked on joey.
minister digs in over doping row the belgian sports minister at the centre of the
svetlana kuznetsova doping row says he will not apologise for making allegations
against her. claude eerdekens claims the us open champion tested positive for
ephedrine at an exhibition event last month. criticised for making the announcement
he said: i will never apologise. this product is banned and it s up to her to
explain why it s there. kuznetsova says the stimulant may have been in a cold
remedy she took. the russian said she did nothing wrong by taking the medicine
during the event. the women s tennis association cleared kuznetsova of any offence
because the drug is not banned when taken out of competition. eerdekens said he
made the statement in order to protect the other three players that took part in
the tournament belgian justine henin-hardenne nathalie dechy of france and russia
s elena dementieva. but dechy is fuming that she has been implicated in the row.
how can you be happy when you see your face on the cover page and talking about
doping dechy said. i m really upset about it and i think the belgian government
did a really bad job about this. i think we deserve an apology from the guy. you
cannot say anything like this - you cannot say some stuff like this saying it s
one of these girls. this is terrible. dementieva is also angry and says that dechy
and herself are the real victims of the scandal. you have no idea what i have been
through all these days. it s been too hard on me she said. the wta are trying to
handle this problem by saying there are three victims but i see only two victims
in this story - me and nathalie dechy who really have nothing to do with this. to
be honest with you i don t feel like i want to talk to sveta at all. i m just very
upset with the way everything has happened.
bad weather hits nestle sales a combination of bad weather rising raw material
costs and the sluggish european economy has hit sales at swiss food and drink giant
nestle. revenue dipped 1.4% to 86.7bn swiss francs ($74.6bn; £39.1bn) in 2004 as
sales of ice cream and mineral water were dampened by the wet summer. however
nestle s profits margins were helped by a strong performance in the americas and
china. nestle is to raise its dividend by 11% after paying back some of its debt.
nestle said that the strength of the swiss franc against the us dollar the
disposal of businesses and challenging trading conditions in europe all dented
sales. a poor summer across the continent - in contrast to the prolonged heat wave
in 2003 - severely affected demand for ice cream. sales of bottled water also
fell although chocolate coffee frozen goods and petcare products performed
better. elsewhere nestle said it had enjoyed an exceptional year in north
america outperforming the market in terms of sales growth. nestle added that it
had performed strongly in africa and asia despite the impact of high oil prices and
political instability. nestle s total earnings before interest remained broadly
flat over the past year despite the company managing to boost profit margins. as
well as increasing its dividend nestle plans to buy back shares worth 1bn swiss
francs ($861m; £451m). looking forward nestle forecasts organic earnings growth of
about 5% in 2005 although it warned that trading would remain just as competitive.
uncertainty remains over the future of perrier the iconic french mineral water
owned by nestle. perrier has been locked in a long-standing dispute with unions
about productivity levels at the business which has lead nestle to consider
selling the firm. the option of selling is perrier is still on the table chief
executive peter brabeck-letmathe confirmed on thursday.
o sullivan keeps his powder dry when you are gunning for glory and ultimate success
keeping the gunpowder dry is essential. ireland coach eddie o sullivan appears to
have done that quite successfully in the run-up to this season s six nations
championship. he decreed after the 2003 world cup that players should have a decent
conditioning period during the year. that became a reality at the end of last
summer with a 10-week period at the start of the this season. it may have annoyed
his scottish and in particularly welsh cousins who huffed and puffed at the
disrespect apparently shown to the celtic league. we will say nothing of mike
ruddock poaching eight of the dragons side that faced leinster on sunday. but
like o sullivan he was well within his rights particularly when you are talking
about the national side and pride that goes along with it. the irfu has thrown
their weight behind o sullivan who must be glad that in the main there is
centrally-controlled contracts. bar keith gleeson who is just returning from a
broken leg everyone of o sullivan s squad is fit fresh and standing at the oche
ready to launch this season s campaign. but i doubt whether o sullivan is going to
gloat about the handling of his players. he is not that sort of person. however he
may look at the overworked and injury-hit england wales and france squads whose
players have been overworked and then pat himself on the back for his foresight.
but there is still the question of turning up and transferring that freshness into
positive results when the referee signals the start of the game. already ireland
are being earmarked as hot favourites in many quarters to go the whole hog this
season. a first grand slam since karl mullen s led the team to a clean sweep in
1948. with england and france visiting lansdowne road for the last time before the
old darling is pulled down everything looks perfectly placed. but in the days of
yore that frightened the life out of any irishman. under the burden of great
expectations ireland have crumpled. take the triple crown-winning side of 1985
under mick doyle. they were expected to up the ante further for a grand slam only
the second in ireland s history. what happened in 1986 whitewashed. you see
ireland in any sport love to be downsized. then they can go out and prove a point
to the contrary. it is the nature of the beast. but o sullivan s side are very
capable of proving a salient point this season. after their first triple crown for
19 years they can live up to their success and take a further step up the ladder.
o sullivan has kept faith and displayed loyalty to his players and they have
repaid him in spades ... and there is more to come. he has some old dogs in his
squad but he will come to this season s championship with a different box of
tricks and a new verve to succeed. ireland can indeed succeed but just whisper
it.
ge sees excellent world economy us behemoth general electric has posted an 18%
jump in quarterly sales and in profits and declared itself in great shape . we
are benefiting from our growth initiatives and an excellent global economy said
ge s chief executive jeff immelt. ge is the us biggest firm based on stock market
valuation. ge s net profits were $5.37bn (£2.86bn) for the final three months of
2004 while sales came in at $43.7bn. the group whose businesses range from jet
engines to the nbc television channel forecast sustained growth at between 10-15%
for this year and next. ge s shares rose 1% on the news before ending friday 0.24%
lower. the industries ge is in are doing very well. the materials financial and
industrial sectors are all picking up said steve roukis an analyst at fund
manager matrix asset advisors which has shares in ge. ge said orders in the fourth
quarter were 15% higher than in the same period of 2003 with growth across the
board . in the fourth quarter nine of our 11 businesses delivered at least
double-digit earnings growth said mr immelt. full year 2004 gains were less
spectacular but still respectable. net profit was up 6% at $16.6bn. last year ge
bought vivendi universal merging it with nbc to form nbc universal. the success of
universal studio s film ray a portrait of jazz musician ray charles has helped
boost earnings at the unit.
us duo in first spam conviction a brother and sister in the us have been convicted
of sending hundreds of thousands of unsolicited e-mail messages to aol subscribers.
it is the first criminal prosecution of internet spam distributors. jurors in
virginia recommended that the man jeremy jaynes serve nine years in prison and
that his sister jessica degroot be fined $7 500. they were convicted under a
state law that bars the sending of bulk e-mails using fake addresses. they will be
formally sentenced next year. a third defendant richard rutkowski was acquitted.
prosecutors said jaynes was a snake oil salesman in a new format using the
internet to peddle useless wares news agency associated press reported. a fed-ex
refund processor was supposed to allow people to earn $75 an hour working from
home. another item on sale was an internet history eraser . his sister helped him
process credit card payments. jaynes amassed a fortune of $24m from his sales
prosecutors said. he s been successful ripping people off all these years ap
quoted prosecutor russell mcguire as saying. jaynes was also found guilty of
breaking a state law which prohibits the sending of more than 100 000 e-mails in 30
days virginia state attorney general jerry kilgore reportedly said. prosecutors
had asked for 15 years in jail for jaynes and a jail term for his sister. but
jaynes lawyer david oblon called the nine-year recommended term outrageous and
said his client believed he was innocent. he pointed out that all three of the
accused lived in north carolina and were unaware of the virginia state law. spam
messages are estimated to account for at least 60% of all e-mails sent.
labour s election love-in peace and love have been in short supply in the labour
party in recent days. if press reports are to be believed alan milburn and gordon
brown have been at each other s throats over the contents of labour s next election
manifesto. but the pair were all smiles on tuesday morning as they joined john
prescott to unveil labour s latest poster campaign. the event - at old billingsgate
fish market on the banks of the thames - was a carefully choreographed show of
unity. and the surest sign yet that we are heading for a general election in the
next few months. it was also one of the most bizarre photo opportunities of recent
years. the first inkling something slightly odd was afoot was when - in place of
the soft rock music normally chosen for such occasions - labour s speakers crackled
to life with the sound of booker t and the mgs. then a vw camper van trundled into
view decked out in that most mind-bending of psychedelic messages - lowest
mortgage rate for 40 years . as the side-door slid open it looked for one glorious
moment as if the cabinet had decided to bury their differences and go on the road
together scooby doo-style. but sadly it wasn t the cabinet who had raided the
dressing-up box - just six rather ill-at-ease looking labour students. two were
dressed as regency dandies - to unveil a poster trumpeting the longest period of
economic growth for 200 years . another pair of students were in a beatle wig and
sgt pepper jacket to highlight the lowest interest rates since the 1960s . the
remaining two were dressed in a vague approximation of disco chic to demonstrate
the lowest unemployment since the seventies . the politicians - led out by john
prescott - were soberly-suited as always. the event may have been designed to
highlight labour s economic success under mr brown but there was little doubt who
was in charge. the chancellor walked side-by-side with mr milburn pointedly
exchanging chit chat as they approached the microphone. but it was mr milburn who
took centre stage speaking of the positive campaign the party hoped to stage in
the coming weeks and months . the mobile poster vans would let people know
britain is working again . mr brown repeated the familiar mantras displayed on the
posters and spoke of labour s shared purpose and united dedication . it was left
to mr prescott to pay glowing tribute to the chancellor s record and in a final
flourish to produce his famous pledge card from 1997 claiming labour has met all
of its promises. the event was carefully stage-managed to underline cabinet unity.
and more specifically to demonstrate the central role mr brown will play in the
election campaign despite being sidelined as campaign chief in favour of mr
milburn. but keen students of body language will have had a field day. there was
much forced smiling for the cameras but only mr prescott who revels in such
occasions seemed to be truly enjoying himself. mr milburn made a point of turning
to face the chancellor as he spoke nodding thoughtfully. but it was the former
health secretary s final gesture placing an arm on mr brown s back as they walked
away from the microphones which was perhaps the most telling. thanks for dropping
by gordon he might have been saying.
spam e-mails tempt net shoppers computer users across the world continue to ignore
security warnings about spam e-mails and are being lured into buying goods a
report suggests. more than a quarter have bought software through spam e-mails and
24% have bought clothes or jewellery. as well as profiting from selling goods or
services and driving advertising traffic organised crime rings can use spam to
glean personal information. the business software alliance (bsa) warned that people
should stay alert . many online consumers don t consider the true motives of
spammers said mike newton a spokesperson for the bsa which commissioned the
survey. by selling software that appears to be legitimate in genuine looking
packaging or through sophisticated websites spammers are hiding spyware without
consumers knowledge. once the software is installed on pcs and networks
information that is given over the internet can be obtained and abused. the
results also showed that the proportion of people reading - or admitting to reading
- and taking advantage of adult entertainment spam e-mails is low at one in 10.
the research which covered 6 000 people in six countries and their attitudes
towards junk e-mails revealed that brazilians were the most likely to read spam. a
third of them read unsolicited junk e-mail and 66% buy goods or services after
receiving spam. the french were the second most likely to buy something (48%)
with 44% of britons taking advantage of products and services. this was despite 38%
of people in all countries being worried about their net security because of the
amount of spam they get. more than a third of respondents said they were concerned
that spam e-mails contained viruses or programs that attempted to collect personal
information. both industry and the media have helped to raise awareness of the
issues that surround illegitimate e-mail helping to reduce the potential financial
damage and nuisance from phishing attacks and spoof websites said william plante
director of corporate security and fraud protection at security firm symantec. at
the same time consumers need to continue exercising caution and protect themselves
from harm with a mixture of spam filters spyware detection software and sound
judgement.
electrolux to export europe jobs electrolux saw its shares rise 14% on tuesday
after it said it would be shifting more of its manufacturing to low-cost countries.
the swedish firm the world s largest maker of home appliances said it is to
relocate about 10 of its 27 plants in western europe and north america. it did not
say which facilities would be affected but intends moving them to asia eastern
europe and mexico. the company has two manufacturing sites in county durham. it
makes lawn and garden products in newton aycliffe and cookers and ovens in
spennymoor. the newton aycliffe plant could also be affected by electrolux s
separate announcement that it is to spin-off its outdoor products unit into a new
separate company. electrolux s subsidiary brands include aeg zanussi and
frigidaire. the company said it was speeding up its restructuring programme which
aims to save between £190m and £265m annually from 2009. we see that about half
the plants in high-cost countries - that is around 10 - are at risk said
electrolux chief executive hans straberg. it looks pretty grim said swedish
trades union official ulf carlsson. what are we going to end up producing in
sweden
ref stands by scotland decisions the referee from saturday s france v scotland six
nations match has defended the officials handling of the game after criticism by
matt williams. the scotland coach said his side were robbed of victory by poor
decisions made by the officials. but nigel williams said: i m satisfied the game
was handled correctly. meanwhile matt williams will not be punished by the
scottish rugby union for allegedly using bad language in his comments about the
officials. he denies having done so. nonetheless he was furious about several
decisions that he felt denied his side a famous victory. but nigel williams told
the scottish daily mail: i spoke to matt williams at the post-match dinner. he
made no mention of the disallowed try or any other refereeing decisions whatsoever.
if matt has issues with the match officials then he is very welcome to phone me
and discuss them. ultimately there is a match assessor at every international game
to give an impartial and objective view of the performance of the officials. that
is the beginning and end of it.
gerrard plays down european hopes steven gerrard has admitted that liverpool have
little chance of winning the champions league this season. the 24-year-old reds
skipper spoke out ahead of tuesday s first leg at home to bayer leverkusen in the
last 16 which he will miss through suspension. let s be realistic there are some
fantastic teams left in the champions league he told bbc radio five live. we are
just going to try to stay in as long as possible but we realise that maybe it is
not our year this year. gerrard has made no secret of his desire to be involved in
europe s premier club competition. last season he described qualification for the
champions league as the be all and end all - and rumours persist that he will
leave anfield if the reds fail to secure a place in the competition. he has
consistently been linked with a move away from liverpool with chelsea the
favourites to snap up the england midfielder. and blues boss jose mourinho backed
gerrard s view that rafael benitez s team could struggle to progress this season.
rafa has still time in front of him to build an even better team maybe he s a
little bit behind (right now) he told bbc radio five live. gerrard who fired
liverpool into the last 16 of this season s competition with a brilliant goal in
december s win over olympiakos insisted he was still fully focused on helping
liverpool to glory this season. the reds are currently fifth in the premiership
table five points off the crucial fourth spot which brings champions league
qualification - and they face chelsea in sunday s carling cup final. it s big
couple of months for liverpool he added. we re fighting for the fourth spot for
the champions league for next season but we are still involved in two cup
competitions which are very important. we are confident we can upset chelsea in
the carling cup final and get to the last eight of the champions league because
financially it is big for the club and personally for myself it is very good.
wal-mart fights back at accusers two big us names have launched advertising
campaigns to set the record straight about their products and corporate
behaviour. the world s biggest retailer wal-mart took out more than 100 full page
adverts in national newspapers. the group is trying to see off criticism over it
pay deals benefits package and promotion strategy. meanwhile drugs group eli
lilly is planning a campaign against false claims about its product prozac. wal-
mart kicked off the battle with adverts in newspapers like the wall street journal
using an open letter from company president lee scott saying it was time for the
public to hear the unfiltered truth . there are lots of urban legends going
around these days about wal-mart but facts are facts. wal-mart is good for
consumers good for communities and good for the us economy mr scott said in a
separate statement. its adverts - and a new website - outlined the group s plans
to create more than 10 000 us jobs in 2005. wal-mart s average pay is almost twice
the national minimum wage of $5.15 (£3.90) an hour while employees are offered
health and life insurance company stock and a retirement plan the adverts say.
unions accuse wal-mart of paying staff less than its rivals do with fewer
benefits. in california the company is fighting opposition to new stores amid
allegations it forces local competitors out of business. lawmakers in the state are
also examining allegations that the firm burdens the state with an unfair
proportion of employee health care costs. i think they are going to have a tough
time suddenly overcoming the perceptions of some people said larry bevington
chairman of save our community - a group fighting to prevent wal-mart opening a
store in rosemead california. wal-mart is also fighting two lawsuits - one
accusing it of discriminating against women and another alleging it discriminates
against black employees. meanwhile eli lilly is launching a series of adverts in a
dozen major newspapers to present what is says are the true facts about its anti-
depressant drug prozac. the move is in response to a british medical journal
article that claimed missing lilly documents linked prozac to suicide and violent
behaviour. in the averts entitled an open letter from chief executive sidney
taurel the company says the article continues to needlessly spread fear among
patients who take prozac . it was simply wrong to suggest that information on
prozac was missing or that important research data on the benefits and possible
side effects of the drug were not available to doctors and regulators the letter
added. eli lilly s chief medical officer alan breier said that the article was
false and misleading as the documents it referred to were actually created by
officials at the us food and drug administration (fda) and presented to an fda
meeting in 1991. later fda medical advisors agreed the claims were based on faulty
data and there was no increased risk of suicide.
china continues breakneck growth china s economy has expanded by a breakneck 9.5%
during 2004 faster than predicted and well above 2003 s 9.1%. the news may mean
more limits on investment and lending as beijing tries to take the economy off the
boil. china has sucked in raw materials and energy to feed its expansion which
could have knock-on effects on the rest of the world if it overheats. but officials
pointed out that industrial growth had slowed with services providing much of the
impetus. growth in industrial output - the main target of government efforts to
impose curbs on credit and investments - was 11.5% in 2004 down from 17% the
previous year. still consumer prices - at 2.4% - rose faster than in 2004 adding
to concern that a sharp rise in producer prices of 7.1% could stoke inflation. and
overall investment in fixed assets was still high up 21.3% from the previous year
- although some way off the peak of 43% seen in the first quarter of 2004. the
result could be higher interest rates. china raised rates by 0.27 percentage points
to 5.8% - its first hike in nine years - in october 2004. despite the apparent
rebalancing of the economy the overall growth picture remains strong economists
said. there is no sign of a slowdown in 2005 said tim congdon economist at ing
barings. china s economy is not only gathering speed thanks to domestic demand
but also from soaring sales overseas. figures released earlier this year showed
exports at a six-year high in 2004 up 35%. part of the impetus comes from the
relative cheapness of the yuan china s currency. the government keeps it pegged
close to a rate of 8.28 to the us dollar - much to the chagrin of many us
lawmakers who blame china for lost jobs and competitiveness. despite urging to ease
the peg officials insist they are a long way from ready to make a shift to a more
market-set rate. we need a good and feasible plan and formulating such a plan also
needs time national bureau of statistics chief li deshui told reuters. those who
hope to make a fortune by speculating on a renminbi revaluation will not succeed in
making a profit.
air china in $1bn london listing china s national airline is to make its overseas
stock market debut with a dual listing in london and hong kong the london stock
exchange (lse) has said. air china plans to raise $1bn (£514m) from the flotation.
share trading will begin on 15 december the lse said. for china s aviation
authorities the listing is part of the modernisation of its airline sector to cope
with soaring demand for air travel. no further details of the share price or number
of shares were given. the lse has been working hard to woo chinese companies to
choose london rather than new york for their listings. it opened an asia-pacific
office in hong kong last month. we are delighted that air china has chosen london
for its listing outside china said lse chief executive clara furse. the london
stock exchange offers ambitious chinese companies access to the world s most
international equity market combined with high regulatory and corporate governance
standards she said. a spokesman for the lse said: we ve been engaged with them
(air china) for about 18 months two years now. as part of its pitch to bring
listings to london the lse is thought to be highlighting the extra costs and red-
tape imposed by new us laws passed since the enron scandal whilst stressing london
s strong regulatory environment. germany s chancellor gerhard schroeder began a
three-day visit to beijing on monday by signing a deal worth 1bn euros ($1.3bn;
£690m) for airbus to sell 23 new planes to air china the deutsche welle radio
station reported. china s booming economy has created huge demand for air travel
among middle-class chinese turning the country into a sales battleground between
rival plane makers airbus and boeing. air china s long-awaited flotation is part of
a strategy to modernise a dozen state-owned carriers which have been reorganised
into three groups under air china china southern and china eastern. merrill lynch
are sole bookrunners for air china s flotation which will take the form of a share
placing with institutional investors in london though retail investors may be able
to buy air china shares in hong kong. air china s primary listing will be in hong
kong with a secondary listing in london. the shares will be denominated in hong
kong dollars. however investors may be wary of chinese stocks. the collapse last
week of china aviation oil the singapore-listed arm of a chinese jet fuel trader
has cast the spotlight on corporate governance shortcomings at chinese firms.
us ahold suppliers face charges us prosecutors have charged nine food suppliers
with helping dutch retailer ahold inflate earnings by more than $800m (£428m). the
charges have been brought against individuals as well as companies alleging they
created false accounts. ahold hit the headlines in february 2003 after it emerged
that there were accounting irregularities at its us subsidiary foodservice. three
former ahold top executives last year agreed to settle fraud charges. ahold has
admitted that it fraudulently inflated promotional allowances at foodservice
improperly consolidated joint ventures and also committed other accounting errors
and irregularities. the nine now charged who worked as suppliers to ahold are
accused of signing false documents relating to the amount of money they paid the
retailer for promoting their products in its stores. food companies pay
supermarkets and retailers for prime shelf space. the suppliers in question are
said to have inflated the amount of money they paid providing auditors with signed
letters that allowed ahold to inflate its earnings. us attorney david kelley said
he expects the nine vendors will plead guilty to the charges. he added that there
may be more court actions in the future. i don t want to leave you with the
impression that these were the only ones involved he said. among those facing
charges are john nettle a former employee of general mills; mark bailin of rymer
international seafood; tim daly of michael foods and kenneth bowman who worked as
an independent contractor for total foods. others include michael hannigan of
sugar foods; peter marion of maritime seafood processors and first choice foods;
gordon redgate of commodity manager and private label distribution; bruce robinson
of basic american foods and michael rogers formerly of tyson foods. pasquale d
amuro of the fbi called the nine vendors the key ingredients in the process of
cooking the books at ahold. at the time of the scandal ahold was seen by many as
europe s enron. ahold shares tumbled on the news and many market observers
predicted that the fall out could damage investor confidence across europe. it was
less severe than many had envisaged however and since then ahold has worked hard
at rebuilding its reputation and investor confidence. ahold is the world s fourth-
largest supermarket chain. its other us businesses include stop & shop and giant
food.
tv debate urged for party chiefs broadcasters should fix a date for a pre-election
televised debate between the three main political leaders according to the hansard
society. it would then be up to tony blair michael howard and charles kennedy to
decide whether to take part the non-partisan charity said. chairman lord holme
argued that prime ministers should not have the right of veto on a matter of
public interest . the broadcasters should make the decision to go ahead he said.
lord holme s proposal for a televised debate comes just four months after millions
of viewers were able to watch us president george w bush slug it out verbally with
his democratic challenger john kerry. he said it was a democratically dubious
proposition that it was up to the incumbent prime minister to decide whether a
similar event takes place here. if mr blair did not want to take part the
broadcasters could go ahead with an empty chair or cancel the event and explain
their reasons why lord holme said. what makes the present situation even less
acceptable is that although mr howard and mr kennedy have said they would welcome a
debate no-one has heard directly from the prime minister he said. it has been
left to nudges and winks hints and briefings from his aides and campaign managers
to imply that mr blair doesn t want one but we haven t heard from the prime
minister himself. lord holme who has campaigned for televised debates at
previous elections said broadcasters were more than willing to cooperate with the
arrangements . opinion polls suggested that the idea had the backing of the public
who like comparing the personalities and policies of the contenders in their own
homes he said. lord holme argued that as part of their public service obligations
broadcasters should make the decision to go ahead as soon as the election is
called. an independent third-party body such as the hansard society or electoral
commission could work out the ground rules so they were fair to participants and
informative to the public he said. it would be up to each party leader to accept
or refuse said lord holme. if the prime minister s reported position is true
and he does want to take part he would then be obliged to say why publicly. the
broadcasters would then have the option of cancelling the event for obvious and
well-understood reasons or going ahead with an empty chair. either way would be
preferable to the present hidden veto. the hansard society has long campaigned for
televised debates and has published reports on the issue in 1997 and 2001. tony
blair has already ruled out taking part in a televised debate during the
forthcoming election campaign. last month he said: we answer this every election
campaign and for the reasons i have given before the answer is no he said at
his monthly news conference.
el guerrouj targets cross country double olympic champion hicham el guerrouj is set
to make a rare appearance at the world cross country championships in france. but
the moroccan who has not raced over cross country for 15 years will not decide
until two weeks before the event which starts on 19 march. if i am to compete in
it it is only if i feel i can win said the 30-year-old who is retiring in 2006.
otherwise there is not much point in me going. el guerrouj achieved a lifetime
ambition last august when he clinched his first olympic titles over 1500m and 5
000m. but the four-time world 1500m champion is still hungry for more success
before calling time on his career. the 30-year-old has set his sights on clinching
the world 5 000m crown in helsinki this summer. and he is aiming to break 10 000m
olympic champion kenenisa bekele s 5 000m and 10 000m world records. el guerrouj
could meet bekele in march as the ethiopian is the defending world cross country
champion over both the long and short courses. but the moroccan will not commit
himself to the st galmier event until he assesses how well his winter training is
going. the return to training was very difficult because i accepted a lot of
invitations these past few months said el guerrouj. i am almost a month behind
but i am on the right track. - britain s paula radcliffe has also not ruled out
competing in the world cross country championships. i haven t quite decided what
events i will compete in prior to london but the world cross country is an event
which is also special to me and is a definite possibility said the two-time
champion.
s korean consumers spending again south korea looks set to sustain its revival
thanks to renewed private consumption its central bank says. the country s
economy has suffered from an overhang of personal debt after its consumers credit
card spending spree. card use fell sharply last year but is now picking up again
with a rise in spending of 14.8% year-on-year. the economy is now heading upward
rather than downward said central bank governor park seung. the worst seems to
have passed. mr park s statement came as the bank decided to keep interest rates
at an all-time low of 3.25%. it had cut rates in november to help revive the
economy but rising inflation - reaching 0.7% month-on-month in january - has
stopped it from cutting further. economic growth in 2004 was about 4.7% with the
central bank predicting 4% growth this year. other indicators are also suggesting
that the country is inching back towards economic health. exports - traditionally
the driver for expansion in asian economies - grew slower in january than at any
time in 17 months. but domestic demand seems to be taking up the slack. consumer
confidence has bounced back from a four-year low in january and retail sales were
up 2.1% in december. credit card debt is falling with only one in 13 of the 48
million cards now in default - down from one in eight at the end of 2003. one of
its biggest card issuers lg card was rescued from collapse in december having
almost imploded under the weight of its customers bad debts. the government last
year tightened the rules for card lending to keep the card glut under control.
us blogger fired by her airline a us airline attendant suspended over
inappropriate images on her blog - web diary - says she has been fired. ellen
simonetti known as queen of the sky wrote an anonymous semi-fictional account of
her life in the sky. she was suspended by delta in september. in a statement she
said she was initiating legal action against the airline for wrongful
termination . a delta spokesperson confirmed on wednesday that ms simonetti was no
longer an employee. delta has repeatedly declined to elaborate on what it calls
internal employee matters . a spokesperson reiterated this position on wednesday
confirming only that ms simonetti was no longer with the company. the spokesperson
also confirmed that there were very clear rules attached to the unauthorised use
of delta branding including uniforms. ms simonetti announced on her blog she had
been fired on 1 november. she said in an official statement: as a result of my
suspension and subsequent termination without cause by delta airlines i am moving
forward with filing a discrimination complaint with the federal government eeoc [us
equal employment opportunity commission]. she added she had also hired a texas-
based law firm to initiate legal action for wrongful termination defamation of
character and lost future wages. ms simonetti told the bbc news website she had
received no warning or further explanation when she was suspended on 25 september.
queen of the sky has received a lot of support and advice from the global blogging
community since news of her suspension was brought to light on the bbc news website
and others. her story has highlighted concerns amongst the growing blogging
community about conflicts of interest employment law and free speech on personal
websites. the blog which she started in january as a way of getting over her
mother s death contains a mix of fictional and non-fictional accounts. queen of
the sky developed over the months as a character in her own right according to ms
simonetti. in the postings she made up fictional names for cities and other
companies she mentioned to protect anonymity. but some postings contained images of
herself in uniform. of the 10 or so images only one showed ms simonetti s flight
wings . she removed them as soon as she was informed of her suspension. i never
meant it as something to harm my company and don t understand how they think it did
harm them ms simonetti said. a legal expert in the us speculated that delta might
be concerned that the fictional content on the blog may be linked back to the
airline after the images were posted. delta has been hit recently by pressures of
rising fuel costs and fierce competition. it has said it needs to cut between 6 000
and 7 000 jobs and reduce costs by $5bn (£2.7bn) a year. analysts had warned
recently that the airline might have to seek chapter 11 bankruptcy prevention. last
week it struck a $1bn cost-cutting deal with its pilots which could save it from
bankruptcy. the deal would see pilots accept a 32% pay cut in return for the right
to buy 30 million delta shares unions said. and on monday it negotiated a deal to
defer about $135m in debt which was due next year until 2007. the airline also
said it had agreed the terms of a $600m loan from american express.
fbi agent colludes with analyst a former fbi agent and an internet stock picker
have been found guilty of using confidential us government information to
manipulate stock prices. a new york court ruled that former fbi man jeffrey royer
41 fed damaging information to anthony elgindy 36. mr elgindy then drove share
prices lower by spreading negative publicity via his newsletter. the egyptian-born
analyst would extort money from his targets in return for stopping the attacks
prosecutors said. under the guise of protecting investors from fraud royer and
elgindy used the fbi s crime-fighting tools and resources actually to defraud the
public said us attorney roslynn mauskopf. mr royer was convicted of racketeering
securities fraud obstruction of justice and witness tampering. mr elgindy was
convicted of racketeering securities fraud and extortion. the charges carry
sentences of up to 20 years. when the guilty verdict was announced by the jury
foreman mr elgindy dropped his face into his hands and sobbed the associated
press news agency reported. he was led weeping from the court room by us marshals
ap said. defense lawyers contended that mr royer had been feeding information to mr
elgindy and another trader in an attempt to expose corporate fraud. mr elgindy s
team claimed that he also was fighting against corporate wrongdoing. elgindy s
conviction marks the end of his public charade as a crusader against fraud in the
market said ms mauskopf. one of the more bizarre aspects of the trial focused on
the claims that mr elgindy may have had foreknowledge of the 11 september terrorist
attacks in new york and washington. mr elgindy had been trying to sell stock prior
to the attack and had predicted a slump in the market. no charges were brought in
relation to these allegations.
italy aim to rattle england italy coach john kirwan believes his side can upset
england as the six nations wooden spoon battle hots up. the two sides both
without a win meet on 12 march at twickenham and kirwan says his side will be
hoping to make the most of england s current slump. we have to make sure the
england and france games are tough for them. england have not been having the best
of championships. that is a big one for us and them and i am sure my players will
rise to the occasion he said. but kirwan admits that a lot of hard work will be
needed with his kickers before the trip to london. roland de marigny and luciano
orquera had a miserable time with the boot in the dire defeat to scotland as chris
paterson stole the show to give the hosts a much-needed 18-10 victory. kirwan said:
the kicking was the decisive factor in scotland which cost us and it could go down
to the kicking again next time. but i have a lot of confidence in my players and i
am positive we can put everything together against england. england meanwhile
are licking their wounds and rueing what might have been had two decisions from
referee jonathan kaplan not gone against them in the second half in dublin. first
mark cueto was judged offside as he chased fly-half charlie hodgson s kick and
then kaplan opted not to call upon video evidence to see if josh lewsey had touched
down after being driven over ireland s line. but centre jamie noon believes the
side at least showed better form than their previous two defeats. we definitely
improved against an in-form irish side he said. we went to dublin quietly
confident that we would be able to compete and i think we showed that. we have
got to make sure we now take the form and positives into the italy game. we are
under no illusions that it is going to be easy but we definitely need a win.
england have now equalled an 18-year low of four successive championship defeats
including france in paris last season and have lost four in a row under andy
robinson. his predecessor sir clive woodward began his seven-year reign with
three defeats and two draws.
guantanamo man suing government a british terror suspect held in guantanamo bay
for 33 months plans to sue the government it is reported. martin mubanga claimed
in the observer that an mi6 officer played a key role in consigning him to the us
camp in cuba following his arrest in zambia. mr mubanga 32 from wembley london
said he was brutally interrogated and daubed with urine at the camp. the home
secretary said he would not be launching an investigation and that the media
reports were not well informed . mr mubanga who has dual british and zambian
nationality was one of four britons who were released from the us camp in january.
he said he was sent there after being interrogated by a british man who said he was
from mi6 shortly after his arrest in zambia in march 2002. mr mubanga said he had
been in afghanistan and pakistan to study islam. but he said he was unable to
return to the uk because he had lost his british passport and was travelling on
his zambian passport instead. mr mubanga said the mi6 agent told him the passport
had been found in a cave in afghanistan along with documents listing jewish groups
in new york and suggested he had been on an al-qaeda reconnaissance mission. mr
mubanga said the man and an american female defence official tried to recruit him
as an agent but he refused and within three weeks was told he would be sent to
guantanamo bay. his lawyer louise christian said: we are hoping to issue
proceedings for the misfeasance of officials who colluded with the americans in
effectively kidnapping him and taking him to guantanamo. and menzies campbell the
liberal democrats foreign affairs spokesman said it was vital to establish
whether ministers approved mr mubanga s transfer to guantanamo. but a foreign
office spokesman said he could not comment on the activities of british
intelligence or security agencies. and home secretary charles clarke told bbc one s
breakfast with frost: i m not organising a specific investigation into it. mr
mubanga is the first of the four detainees freed last month to give a media
interview. he told the observer his worst moment was when he was told he would be
released last march only to be confined and told he would be there for many more
years. he claimed he was stripped of his clothes and mattress and forced to remain
in an empty metal box naked except for boxer shorts. and he said an interrogator
used a mop to daub him with his own urine while he was chained hand and foot. mr
mubanga who insists he does not feel bitter said: i ve lost three years of my
life because i was a muslim. he added: the authorities wanted to break me but
they strengthened me. they ve made me what i am - even if i m not quite sure yet
who that person is. the us government denied the claims saying it condemned and
prohibited torture. in a statement it said: the department of defense has no
doubt that mr mubanga was properly detained as an enemy combatant under the laws of
war. he was detained to prevent him from fighting against the us and our allies in
the war on terror. but fair trials abroad director stephen jakobi said there were
similarities between mr mubanga s account and those of other guantanamo detainees.
he said: the pattern is the same. the real problem is the concentration camp
conditions in guantanamo. is [charles clarke] really pretending this is all made
up mr mubanga and the three other freed british detainees were released without
charge by uk police on their return from cuba.
us to rule on yukos refuge call yukos has said a us bankruptcy court will decide
whether to block russia s impending auction of its main production arm on thursday.
the russian oil firm has filed for bankruptcy protection in the us in an attempt to
halt the forced sale. however judge letitia clark said the hearing would continue
on thursday when arguments in the case would be heard. russian authorities are due
to auction off yuganskneftegas on 19 december to pay a huge tax bill sent to yukos.
russian prosecutors are forcing the sale of the firm s most lucrative asset
yuganskneftegas to help pay a $27bn (£14bn) back tax bill which they claim is owed
by yukos. filing for bankruptcy protection in the us was a last resort to
preserve the rights of our shareholders employees and customers said yukos chief
executive steven theede. the company added it had opted to take action through
american courts as us bankruptcy law gives worldwide jurisdiction over a debtor
company s property and because it was seeking a judiciary willing to protect the
value of shareholders investments. however as the firm is based in russia and has
no significant us assets lawyers are unsure of the outcome of the case. we are
here to stop 60% of our body from being cut off on sunday zack clement a lawyer
for yukos told judge clark in an emergency hearing in houston texas on
wednesday. as well as the bid to get chapter 11 bankruptcy - which protects firms
from creditors allowing them to continue trading as they restructure their
finances - the group also made a claim for damages against the russian government.
yukos asked the houston court to order russia to arbitration so that it can press
claims for billions of dollars in damages over a campaign of illegal
discriminatory and disproportionate tax claims. mr clement said that under russian
law the russian government was obliged to enter into arbitration as set out in
international law. he added that the opening bid for the firm s yuganskneftgas
unit was $8bn - less than half of the $20bn that yukos advisers say it is worth.
we believe the only significant bidder at the auction on sunday is gazprom he
said referring to russia s natural gas giant. yukos maintains that the forced
auction is illegal and will cause the company to suffer immediate and irreparable
harm. many commentators believe the russian government s aggressive pursuit of
yukos is a politically-motivated response to the political ambitions of its former
chief executive mikhail khodorkovsky. mr khodorkovsky who had funded liberal
opposition groups was arrested in october last year on fraud and tax evasion
charges and is still in jail analysts believe that if its production unit is
auctioned off it is likely to be bought up by a government-backed firm like
gazprom effectively bringing a large chunk of russia s lucrative oil and gas
industry back under state control.
hotspot users gain free net calls people using wireless net hotspots will soon be
able to make free phone calls as well as surf the net. wireless provider
broadreach and net telephony firm skype are rolling out a service at 350 hotspots
around the uk this week. users will need a skype account - downloadable for free -
and they will then be able to make net calls via wi-fi without paying for net
access. skype allows people to make free pc-based calls to other skype users.
users of the system can also make calls to landlines and mobiles for a fee. the
system is gaining in popularity and now has 28 million users around the world. its
paid service - dubbed skype out - has so far attracted 940 000 users. it plans to
add more paid services with forthcoming launches of video conferencing voice mail
and skype in a service which would allow users to receive phone calls from
landlines and mobiles. london-based software developer connectotel has unveiled
software that will expand the sms functions of skype allowing users to send text
messages to mobile phones from the service. broadreach networks has around two
million users and hotspots in places such as virgin megastores the travelodge
chain of hotels and all london s major rail terminals. the company is due to launch
wi-fi on virgin trains later in the year. skype s success at spreading the world
about internet telephony is well-known and we are delighted to be offering free
access to skype users in our hotspots commented broadreach chief executive magnus
mcewen-king.
qwest may spark mci bidding war us phone company qwest has said it will table a new
offer for mci after losing out to larger rival verizon setting the scene for a
possible bidding war. mci accepted a $6.75bn (£3.6bn) buyout from telecoms giant
verizon on monday rejecting a higher offer from qwest. qwest chairman richard
notebaert sent a letter to mci s board on thursday saying that it plans to submit a
new offer after examining verizon s bid. formerly known as worldcom mci is a long-
distance and corporate phone firm. snapping up mci would give the buyer access to a
global telecommunications network and a large number of business-based subscribers.
shares of mci were up more than 4% in electronic trading after the close of new
york markets. qwest said on wednesday that mci had rejected a deal worth $8bn. we
would like to advise you that once we have completed our review of the verizon
merger agreement we do intend to submit a modified offer to acquire mci the
letter from qwest said. verizon s offer is made up of cash shares and dividends
and a number of investors have said that it undervalues mci. verizon plans to swap
0.41 of its shares and $1.50 in cash for each mci share as well as offering
special dividends of $4.50 a share. both company boards have backed the deal but
regulators will still need to give their approval. as well as trying to lure
investors with the promise of better returns qwest also reckons that its offer
will face less regulatory scrutiny than verizon s. the takeover would be the fifth
billion-dollar telecoms deal since october as companies look to cut costs and boost
client bases. earlier this month sbc communications agreed to buy its former
parent and phone trailblazer at&t for about $16bn. there may be concerns other than
cash however especially as mci only emerged from bankruptcy protection last
april. verizon is far bigger than qwest has fewer debts and has built a successful
mobile division. also mci while trading under the name worldcom became the
biggest corporate bankruptcy in us history after admitting that it illegally booked
expenses and inflated profits. former worldcom boss bernie ebbers is currently
standing trial accused of overseeing an $11bn fraud. qwest meanwhile had to pay
the securities and exchange commission $250m in october to settle charges that it
massaged earnings to keep wall street happy.
greek pair attend drugs hearing greek sprinters kostas kenteris and katerina thanou
have appeared before an independent tribunal which will decide if their bans should
stand. they were given provisional suspensions by athletics ruling body the iaaf
in december for failing to take drugs tests before the athens olympics. the pair
arrived with former coach christos tzekos to give evidence at the hellenic olympic
committee s offices. a decision is expected to be announced before the end of
february. whatever the ruling all parties will have the right to appeal to the
court of arbitration for sport. yiannis papadoyiannakis who was head of the greek
olympic team at the athens games last year also testified at the tribunal along
with other greek sports officials and athletes. i believe the tribunal will reach
a decision that will uphold the standing of the institution said papadoyiannakis.
whatever the athletes have done we must not forget that they have offered us great
moments. kenteris won 200m gold at the 2000 sydney olympics while thanou won
silver in the 100m. they withdrew from the athens games last august after missing
drugs tests on the eve of the opening ceremony. the pair spent four days in a
hospital claiming they had been injured in a motorcycle crash. the five-member
tribunal assembled by the hellenic association of amateur athletics is also
examining allegations that kenteris and thanou avoided tests in tel aviv and
chicago before the games. tzekos was also banned for two years by the iaaf. he
faces charges of assisting in the use of prohibited substances and tampering with
the doping inspection process. all three who have repeatedly denied the
allegations have also been charged by a greek prosecutor and face trial for
doping-related charges. a trial date has not been set. in imposing two-year
suspensions on the duo on 22 december the iaaf described their explanations for
missing the tests as unacceptable . but kenteris lawyer gregory ioannidis told
bbc sport earlier this week he was confident the sprinters would be cleared of the
charges of failing to give information on their location and refusing to submit to
testing. we refute both charges as unsubstantiated and illogical he said. there
have been certain breaches in the correct application of the rules on behalf of the
sporting authorities and their officials and these procedural breaches have also
violated my client s rights. there is also evidence that proves the fact that my
client has been persecuted.
gm pays $2bn to evade fiat buyout general motors of the us is to pay fiat 1.55bn
euros ($2bn; £1.1bn) to get out of a deal which could have forced it to buy the
italian car maker outright. fiat had sold gm a stake in 2000 as part of a
partnership agreement. but fiat s heavy losses have convinced gm - whose own
european operations are in the red - to back away. the pay-off means the two firms
will unwind joint ventures but fiat will keep supplying diesel engines and the
money will allow it to reduce its debt. fiat s shares on the milan stock exchange
rose 4.5% by 0900 gmt to 6.2 euros having shot up more than 7% in early trading.
we now have absolute freedom to design our own future said fiat chief executive
sergio marchionne. analysts said fiat seemed to have done well out of the deal
although some predictions had expected a 2bn euro pay-off. fiat is to get 1bn euros
immediately with another 550m to follow within 90 days. the firm is italy s
largest private employer and a failure to reach an agreement could have had severe
consequences for thousands of workers and for the italian economy. for its part gm
was keen to ward off any criticism that the deal had been a mistake. we needed
scale in europe to get costs down and we were able to do that in working with fiat
said gm chief executive rick wagoner. the fiat-gm alliance came about in 2000 as
an alternative to selling fiat outright. german-us car firm daimlerchrysler had
been willing to buy the firm but fiat patriarch gianni agnelli did not want to
give up control. instead gm swapped a 6% stake in itself for 20% of fiat - and
gave fiat a put option to sell gm the rest of the car maker between january 2004
and july 2009. but despite the alliance fiat failed to put itself back on track
continuing to lose money and market share. as a result the sell-off looked better
and better for the italians - and much worse for gm which is struggling with its
own loss-making european marques opel and saab. the relationship soured further
after fiat sold half its finance arm and recapitalised in 2003 halving gm s stake
to 10%.
kilroy-silk attacked with slurry euro mp robert kilroy-silk has had a bucket of
farm slurry thrown over him by a protester in manchester. the uk independence
party member was arriving for a bbc radio show when the attacker emerged from
behind a bush. fellow guest ruth kelly mp was also hit by the slurry. mr kilroy-
silk said the man who later disappeared claimed he was doing it in the name of
islam . in january mr kilroy-silk quit his bbc one show for remarks he made about
arabs who he called suicide bombers . mr kilroy-silk had already been taken off
air by bbc bosses for the comments in which he also described arabs as limb-
amputators women repressors . the remarks prompted outrage among muslim groups.
the slurry attack took place on friday as mr kilroy-silk and ms kelly a cabinet
office minister and bolton west mp arrived at manchester high school for girls for
the recording of bbc radio 4 s any questions. the police were called but the
attacker had disappeared by the time officers arrived. they are treating the
incident as assault. the programme s host jonathan dimbleby later told the
audience the mep had been covered from head to toe . mr kilroy-silk was still able
appear to appear on the show after being loaned a change of clothes. he told
reporters he was very angry and planned to press charges if his attacker was
caught. he said the man shouted: you ve offended my religion i m doing this in
the name of islam. as i started to turn round a guy tipped a bucket of farmyard
muck over me and then threw the rest of it over me and the car mr kilroy-silk
said. i was totally covered it was all through my clothes and it stank to high
heaven. it went all inside the car and splattered ruth kelly. a bbc spokesman
said: he took his seat as jonathan dimbleby was introducing the show. fortunately
someone at the school had a change of clothes to let him have. greater manchester
police said people near mr kilroy-silk had also been hit by the waste. officers
took statements at the scene but no arrests have been made. police say the suspect
ran off after towards wilmslow road after committing the offence but is believed to
have been driving a red vauxhall corsa earlier. the suspect is described as white
aged 30 to 40 with a ginger beard. police want to hear from anyone who has any
information. mr kilroy-silk an mep for the east midlands resigned the uk
independence party whip in the european parliament in october after criticising
ukip and stating his ambition to be leader. however he remains a member of the
party. he said on friday he hoped to be elected party leader before christmas. i
think that is sufficient time for us to put in process what is necessary... in time
for us to fight and have a significant impact upon the general election. but a
ukip spokesman said that would be impossible under the party s constitution which
requires 70 days before any leadership ballot can take place.
oscars steer clear of controversy the oscars nominations list has left out some of
the most controversial films of the past year in favour of safer less contentious
cinema. if best film nominees were drawn on the basis of column inches two of the
front-runners would have had to be michael moore s bush-baiting documentary
fahrenheit 9/11 and mel gibson s the passion of the christ. both films polarised
opinion but had critics talking and the public turning up to see them - fahrenheit
9/11 breaking us box office records for a documentary and the passion of the
christ making more than us$370m (£196m) in the us alone. but this year s academy
awards have shied away from the big name controversies with the passion of the
christ - a film accused of being anti-semitic - receiving nominations only in the
minor categories of cinematography makeup and musical score. fahrenheit 9/11 has
also been overlooked despite winning the palme d or at the cannes international
film festival in 2004. moore s caustic documentary may have been affected by its
distributors decision to enter it in the best picture category rather than best
documentary says tim dams the news editor of trade magazine screen international.
but he also believes the strong political viewpoint of moore s film does not sit
well with the academy. if you look at past oscar winners and nominees the very
conservative oscar voters tend to go for very conservative epic-style pictures.
fahrenheit 9/11 didn t really fit in to that category. they tend to go for films
like titanic gladiator and the lord of the rings films with scale that often
aren t too contentious he said. while he said the oscar voting panel were not
snubbing moore s film he thought it was unlikely a documentary could ever
seriously compete in a best film category. i think it s more a misjudgement by the
people putting it out rather than a deliberate snub he said. the problem with
mel gibson s film he believed was that the voting panel may have been cautious in
nominating a film with dialogue in aramaic an ancient middle eastern language.
hollywood doesn t tend to like foreign-language films - no-one s ever tried doing a
film in a dead language he said. but aside from these two films some potentially
contentious pictures have won nominations. the german film the downfall a biopic
tracing the final days of nazi leader adolf hitler in his berlin bunker has been
recognised in the best foreign film category. the film has caused some controversy
in showing hitler as a fallible but human man rather than a semi-mythical
historical monster. but mr dams said: it s not an inflammatory film. it has done
very well in germany and it s a film that portrays hitler as a human rather than
some kind of devil or monster. another contentious film mr dams said has
gained a nomination in the best documentary section through the force of its charm.
independent film-maker morgan spurlock may have forced fast-food giant mcdonalds to
withdraw its super size portions in the us after he went on a month-long diet
eating nothing but mcdonalds meals - and filmed his progress. the film has been a
hit around the world. mr dams said: it s a political film but it s quite fun and
punky and well-paced. morgan spurlock is a really likeable guy. it s a very
accessible film and it doesn t beat you over the head with its views. while in
fahrenheit 9/11 there are moments of comedy i think the way that super size me is
put together - the fact it s a very likeable film - means it s won through on
charm. dam s pick at this year s oscars the aviator martin scorsese s biopic of
aviation pioneer and hollywood player howard hughes. tinseltown it seems likes
nothing more than a picture about one of its own.
celtic make late bid for bellamy newcastle striker craig bellamy is discussing a
possible short-term loan move to celtic bbc sport understands. the welsh striker
has rejected a move to birmingham after falling out with magpies manager graeme
souness. the toon boss vowed bellamy would not play again after a bitter row over
his exclusion for the game against arsenal. celtic are in no position to match
birmingham s £6m offer but a stay until the end of the season could suit bellamy
while he considers his future. according to bellamy s agent the player dismissed a
permanent move to birmingham. and it is unlikely that newcastle would allow the
player to go on loan to another premiership club. bellamy was fined two weeks
wages after a live tv interview in which he accused souness of lying following a
very public dispute about what position bellamy should play in the side. souness
said: he can t play for me ever again. he has been a disruptive influence from the
minute i walked into this football club. he can t go on television and accuse me
of telling lies. chairman freddy shepherd described bellamy s behaviour as
totally unacceptable and totally unprofessional .
shares rise on new man utd offer shares in manchester united closed up 4.75% on
monday following a new offer from us tycoon malcolm glazer. the board of the
football club is expected to meet early this week to discuss the latest proposal
which values the club at £800m ($1.5bn). manchester united revealed on sunday that
it had received a detailed proposal from mr glazer which looks set to receive more
serious scrutiny. the club has previously rejected mr glazer s approaches out of
hand. but a senior source at the club told the bbc: this time it s different.
supporters group shareholders united however urged the club to reject the new
deal. a spokesman for the shareholders united said: i can t see any difference
(compared to mr glazer s previous proposals) other than £200m less debt. he isn t
bringing any money into the club; he ll use our money to buy it. mr glazer s
latest move is being led by mr glazer s two sons avi and joel according to the
financial times. a proposal was received by david gill united s chief executive
at the end of last week pitched at about 300p a share. david cummings head of uk
equities for standard life investments said he believed a well funded 300p a
share bid would be enough for mr glazer to take control of the club. i do not
think there is anything that manchester united fans can do about it he told the
bbc. they can complain about it but it is curtains for them. they may not want him
but they are going to get him. the us tycoon who has been wooing the club for the
last 12 months has approached the united board with detailed proposals it has
confirmed. mr glazer who owns the tampa bay buccaneers team hopes this will lead
to a formal bid being accepted. he is believed to have increased the amount of
equity in the new proposal though it is not clear by how much. for his proposal to
succeed he needs the support of united s largest shareholders the irish
horseracing tycoons jp mcmanus and john magnier. they own 29% of united through
their cubic expression investment vehicle. mr glazer and his family hold a stake of
28.1%. but it is not yet known whether mr mcmanus and mr magnier would support a
glazer bid. nm rothschild the investment bank is advising mr glazer according to
the financial times. his previous adviser jpmorgan quit last year when mr glazer
went ahead and voted against the appointment of three united directors to the board
against its advice. but the ft said it thought jp morgan may still have had some
role in financing mr glazer s latest financial proposal.
blunkett tells of love and pain david blunkett has spoken of his love for married
publisher kimberly quinn for the first time. the home secretary described how it
affected his friends and personal life but said he was a great believer in
personal responsibility. mr blunkett is taking legal action to gain access to mrs
quinn s two-year-old son. she denies he is mr blunkett s. the interview with bbc
radio sheffield was made before allegations he fast-tracked a visa for mrs quinn s
nanny. the allegations which he has denied are being investigated by sir alan
budd. mr blunkett talked about how he fell in love - but that she resisted his
desire to go public. in an apparent reference to his court action to gain access
to her son he says he was a great believer in responsibility and consequences
even when they were painful. mr blunkett told bbc radio sheffield: i fell in love
with someone and they wouldn t go public and things started to go very badly wrong
in the summer and then the news of the world picked up the story. i tried for
three years to make something work. i haven t spoken about it and i don t intend
to. even in the biography that s being written about me i ve ensured that there s
as little as possible. bbc political correspondent carole walker said the timing
of the broadcast was unlikely to help his efforts to show that he is concentrating
on getting on with the job of home secretary. shadow home secretary david davis
says mr blunkett should quit if he is found to have influenced the visa process
even indirectly. reports have claimed mr blunkett chaired a meeting to discuss
delays in the visa system after he learned of nanny leoncia casalme s wait. the
home office has said it would be up to sir alan s inquiry to decide if any such
meeting was relevant. home office minister fiona mactaggart said she hoped mr
blunkett would survive in his job. i work with him every day and i have always
been surprised by how focused he is on the job in hand on working to deal with
things she said. she told bbc one s breakfast with frost programme: he is just
really down for the job and i hope he does (survive).
lufthansa flies back to profit german airline lufthansa has returned to profit in
2004 after posting huge losses in 2003. in a preliminary report the airline
announced net profits of 400m euros ($527.61m; £274.73m) compared with a loss of
984m euros in 2003. operating profits were at 380m euros ten times more than in
2003. lufthansa was hit in 2003 by tough competition and a dip in demand following
the iraq war and the killer sars virus. it was also hit by troubles at its us
catering business. last year lufthansa showed signs of recovery even as some
european and us airlines were teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. the board of
lufthansa has recommended paying a 2004 dividend of 0.30 euros per share. in 2003
shareholders did not get a dividend. the company said that it will give all the
details of its 2004 results on 23 march.
applegate s charity show closes us musical sweet charity has cancelled its run on
broadway after poor ticket sales for its early shows. star christina applegate had
to pull out of pre-broadway performances earlier this month with a broken foot.
producer barry weissler said he was deeply proud of the show but said the
decision to close it was painful but fiscally responsible . applegate who starred
in tv comedy married with children had been hoping to make her broadway debut in
the show. the 33-year-old injured herself while performing in chicago and had been
hoping to recover in time for its official new york opening on 21 april. she had
received mixed reviews for performances in minneapolis and chicago. previews of the
$7.5m (£4m) show were due to begin on 4 april. sweet charity tells the story of
charity hope valentine a dancer who always falls in love with the wrong man. it
was first performed on broadway in 1966 with gwen verdon in the title role while
shirley maclaine starred in the 1969 film version.
lse doubts boost bidders shares shares in deutsche boerse have risen more than 3%
after a shareholder fund voiced opposition to the firm s planned takeover of the
london stock exchange. tci which claims to represent owners of 5% of deutsche
boerse s (db) shares has complained that the £1.35bn ($2.5bn) offer for the lse is
too high. opposition from tci has fuelled speculation that the proposed takeover
could fail. rival exchange operator euronext has also said it may bid for the lse.
euronext operates the paris amsterdam brussels and lisbon bourses while deutsche
boerse runs the frankfurt exchange. bbc news spoke to a number of analysts on
monday morning about shareholder worries over deutsche boerse s bid for lse.
although none were prepared to speak on the record most thought it was unlikely
that tci s opposition would halt the deal obviously we ll have to wait and see
but i don t think it will make much difference. deutsche boerse appears very
committed said one london-based broker. he forecast the takeover bid would
succeed and was more concerned to see improvements in the daily running of the lse.
in voicing its opposition to the planned takeover tci said it would prefer to see
deutsche boerse return $500m (£350m) to shareholders. the deutsche boerse was
prepared to pay for the lse exceeds the potential benefits of this acquisition
said tci. another deutsche boerse shareholder on monday also appeared to back tci
s call. another investor in deutsche boerse has supported the view that a payout to
shareholders would be preferable to deutsche boerse overpaying for the lse reuters
news agency reported. we prefer a sensible entrepreneurial solution at a price
that is not too high said rolf dress a spokesman for union investment. if that
cannot be achieved then we would wish for a distribution of liquid assets to
shareholders. the financial times also reported a third deutsche boerse
shareholder as opposed to the deal. it quoted a spokesman for us-based hedge fund
atticus capital complaining that the planned takeover appeared to be motivated by
empire-building rather than the best interests of shareholders. tci has called
for deutsche boerse to hold an emergency general meeting to discuss the bid for
lse. yet under german business law db does not have to gain shareholder approval
before making a significant acquisition. deutsche boerse said tci s opposition
would not change its bid approach. deutsche boerse is convinced that its
contemplated cash acquisition of the london stock exchange is in the best interests
of its shareholders and the company it said. db s shares were up 3.4% to 45.25
euros by 1030 gmt the highest gainer in frankfurt.
us insurer marsh cuts 2 500 jobs up to 2 500 jobs are to go at us insurance broker
marsh & mclennan in a shake up following bigger-than-expected losses. the insurer
said the cuts were part of a cost-cutting drive aimed at saving millions of
dollars. marsh posted a $676m (£352m) loss for the last three months of 2004
against a $375m (£195.3m) profit a year before. it blamed an $850m payout to settle
a price-rigging lawsuit brought by new york attorney general elliot spitzer. under
the settlement announced in january marsh took a pre-tax charge of $618m in the
october-to-december quarter on top of the $232m charge from the previous quarter.
clearly 2004 was the most difficult year in mmc s financial history marsh chief
executive michael cherkasky said. an ongoing restructuring drive at the group also
led to a $337m hit in the fourth quarter the world s biggest insurer said.
analysts expect its latest round of cuts to focus on its brokerage unit which
employs 40 000 staff. the latest layoffs will take the total number of jobs to go
at the firm to 5 500 and are expected to lead to annual savings of more than $375m.
as part of its efforts to cut costs the company said it was halving its dividend
payment to 17 cents a shares from 34 cents a move which should enable it to save
$360m. looking ahead mr cherkasky forecast profitable growth for the year ahead
with an operating margin in the upper-teens and with the opportunity for further
margin expansion . meanwhile the company also announced it would spin-off its mmc
capital private equity unit which manages the $3bn trident funds operation to a
group of employees. marsh did not say when the move would take place but said it
had signed a letter of intent. the insurer hit the headlines in october last year
when it faced accusations of price rigging. new york attorney general elliot
spitzer sued the company accusing it of receiving illegal payments to steer
clients to selected firms as well as rigging bids and fixing prices. in january
marsh agreed to pay $850m to settle the suit - a figure in line with the placement
fees it collected in 2003 - and agreed to change its business practices. in
february a former senior executive pleaded guilty to criminal charges in a wide-
ranging probe of fraud and bid-rigging in the insurance industry. in january a
former senior vice president also pleaded guilty to criminal charges related to the
investigation. in an effort to reform its business practises marsh said it has
already introduced new leadership new compliance procedures and new ways of
dealing with customers. as a result we are ready to put these matters behind us
and move ahead in 2005 to restore the trust our clients have placed in us and to
rebuild shareholder value mr cherkasky said.
european losses hit gm s profits general motors (gm) saw its net profits fall 37%
in the last quarter of 2004 as it continued to be hit by losses at its european
operations. the us giant earned $630m (£481.5m) in the october-to-december period
down from $1bn in the fourth quarter of 2003. gm s revenues rose 4.7% to $51.2bn
from $48.8bn a year earlier. the fourth-quarter losses at general motors europe
totalled $345m up from $66m during the same period in 2003. gm s main european
brands are opel and vauxhall. excluding special items gm s global income from
continuing operations totalled $569m during the quarter down from $838m a year
earlier. the results were in line with wall street expectations and shares in gm
rose by about 1% in pre-market trade. for the whole of 2004 gm earned $3.7bn down
from $3.8bn in 2003 while its annual revenue rose 4.5% to $193bn. gm said its
profits were also hit by higher healthcare costs in the us. gm reported solid
overall results in 2004 despite challenging competitive conditions in many markets
around the globe gm chairman and chief executive rick wagoner said in a
statement. the company recently announced that it expected profits in 2005 to be
lower than in 2004.
prop jones ready for hard graft adam jones says the wales forwards are determined
to set the perfect attacking platform for the backs by dominating the powerful
france pack in paris. the prop said: if we get stuffed in the front five our
backs have had it. the mentality of the french is scrum scrum scrum . we will
see how good france are and the scrum is the key. i just hope [the backs] carry on
where they left off against italy. it s just up to us in the forwards to win the
ball and give them the opportunity. wales have won two of their last three visits
to stade de france having secured back-to-back wins under graham henry in 1999 and
2001. and with the likes of shane williams and gavin henson finding top form at the
right time mike ruddock s team is now one of international rugby s most potent
attacking threats. gavin is ridiculously talented. he has been bouncing around the
place this week so he is up for it warned jones. france have been criticised
for their uncharacteristic one-dimensional play in their victories over scotland
and france. captain fabien pelous has acknowledged his side needs to show more
attacking flair but stressed the game with be won or lost up front. the lock
believes the welsh forwards are not big enough to trouble his side in the scrum or
line-out but jones insisted his fellow front-row colleagues have nothing to fear.
gethin [jenkins] won t be intimidated tomorrow none of us will said jones who
will be facing france for the first time. we will go out there and front up and
hopefully get the ball out to the backs. me and gethin are quite young so it is
good to have someone of mefin s experience in there. mefin is a good thinker who
puts things across. but what is the saying if you are good enough you are old
enough and gethin certainly is. he is a really good player and i imagine he will
be on the lions tour [to new zealand this summer].
opposition grows to house arrests the conservatives have expressed serious
misgivings about government plans for keeping uk and foreign terror suspects under
house arrest. michael howard said he would not back the home secretary s plans for
control orders which include home detention. i do not believe that anyone should
be deprived of their liberty on the say so of a politician he said. the lib dems
also oppose the proposals but ministers insist they are proportionate to the
terror threat. the government proposed the idea and a range of other new powers
after the laws lords said current detentions without trial broke human rights laws.
new metropolitan police commissioner sir ian blair has backed the control orders
saying: i m sorry. it is a dilemma but there is only one choice. but mr howard
said: we have serious misgivings about both their effectiveness in protecting life
and their consequences for the british way of life. he argued that people accused
of terrorist offences should be brought to trial and be held in prison - not at
home - while they await trial. mr howard said he feared internment without trial
creates martyrs and could be a very effective recruiting sergeant for terrorists
. his party plans to move an amendment to the serious organised crime and police
bill next week that would give a judge responsibility for assessing evidence and
ensuring a balanced case is presented to the court. he called on the prime minister
to enter into constructive discussions with his party to find a better way
forward . controversy over the issue continues after a foreign terror suspect held
in the uk without trial or charge since december 2001 was freed from jail. home
secretary charles clarke said there was not enough evidence to keep the egyptian
man known only as c certified as a terrorist suspect. on monday the legal team
for two algerian suspects being held without trial told a court the men did not
want bail if it meant being put under house arrest. most of the terror suspects are
detained at belmarsh prison in london. the liberal democrats say they also oppose
house arrests and questioned the human rights implications of the measure. home
affairs spokesman mark oaten told bbc radio 4 s today programme: it s a matter of
principle for us that we can t have a situation where the home secretary is able to
impose house detention now on uk nationals as well as foreign nationals. the lib
dems believe the home secretary should allow phone tapping evidence in
prosecutions. we think there could be a role for some form of control order -
tagging surveillance limitation on use of mobile phones - but not with the home
secretary s say so. that must be done with a proper judicial process a judge
involved in making those decisions said mr oaten. mr clarke has rejected that
idea saying intercept evidence is only a small part of the case against terror
suspects and could put the lives of intelligence sources at risk. he said
prosecutions were the government s first preference and promised the powers would
only be used in serious cases with independent scrutiny from judges.
redford s vision of sundance despite sporting a corduroy cap pulled low over his
face plus a pair of dark glasses robert redford cuts an unmistakable figure
through the star-struck crowds at sundance. it s a rare downtown appearance for
the man who started the annual festival in park city utah back in the 1980s. now
in its twenty-first year sundance continues to grow. some 45 000 people are
estimated to have descended on this small ski town with nothing but movies on the
mind. it s an opportunity to meet and make deals. redford wanted sundance to be a
platform for independent film-makers but the commercial success of many showcased
films have led to criticism that the festival is becoming too mainstream. smaller
festivals like slamdance and xdance which take place during the same week in park
city are competing for sundance s limelight. but redford is not worried. the more
the merrier he says. the point was to create opportunities for people who may
not have them. once independent film had a place where the work could be seen
suddenly the merchants came. with them the celebrities came then the paparazzi -
and suddenly it began to take on a whole new tone explains redford. people
started to say we had gone mainstream and hollywood but actually hollywood came to
us because suddenly there was good business in independent film he adds.
international film-makers have always been celebrated here but 2005 is the first
year a dedicated world dramatic and documentary competition is being held. redford
wants the festival to encompass viewpoints he believes the american media fails to
reflect particularly how the us is perceived internationally. he has never hidden
the fact that he is a democrat. but he reserves particular disdain for the current
republican administration. it s the ability to maintain the importance of dissent
in a democratic system which right now is under threat with the attitude of this
administration he says. i think many voices are being shut down or accused of
being unpatriotic if they want to express another point of view. that s very
unhealthy and very dangerous. if we take that policy into the world there will
be the same victims and the same consequences. sundance isn t just one big
screening. there are discussion panels and q&a sessions with directors tackling
controversial topics like america s culture wars and the iraq war. while redford
wishes the festival to be a forum for dissent the profile of the audience is
fairly monolithic. educated middle class and predominantly white americans comes
sundance with views from the same end of the political spectrum - anti-war and
socially liberal. but redford knows this and started the sundance tv channel in an
effort to reach a wider audience. when you look at the films here what we are
presenting is very much egalitarian. and it s about good films and good story-
telling be it african america asian women gay lesbian. sooner or later we will
do away with those stereotypical labels and people will say it s just a film by
so-and so .
blackburn v burnley ewood park tuesday 1 march 2000 gmt howard webb (south
yorkshire) home to leicester in the quarter-finals but defender andy todd is
suspended and could be replaced by dominic matteo - if he recovers from a hamstring
injury. burnley have major injury concerns over frank sinclair and john mcgreal.
michael duff looks set to continue at right-back with john oster in midfield and
micah hyde is expected to recover from a knee injury. - blackburn boss mark
hughes: burnley are resolute and have individual talent but i fully expect us to
progress. i thought we were comfortable in the first game and never thought we
were under pressure. it s a competition we want to progress in and we are doing
okay. if we beat burnley we have a home tie against another lower league club
(leicester). - burnley boss steve cotterill: they will be fresh and we ll be
tired. that is an honest opinion but our lads just might be able to get themselves
up for one more big game. the atmosphere at the last game was very hot - a good
verbal contest. our fans will not need whipping up for this game. i just want them
to help us as much as they can in a positive way. key match stats - blackburn
rovers against bolton is part two of an east lancashire hotpot that didn t turn out
to be that spicy when first staged on a sunday lunchtime the weekend before last
and resulted in a scrappy goalless draw. - rovers who are aiming to win the cup
for a seventh time in their history and first time in 77 years face another replay
against championship opposition after eventually disposing of cardiff at ewood park
in the third round. but they ve not been beaten in the competition by a club
outside the premiership for nine years since ipswich - then in the second tier -
defeated them 0-1 after extra time in a third round replay at ewood park on 16
january 1996. history is on rovers side. when they last met their near neighbours
in the fa cup 45 years ago it also required an ewood park replay which the home
side won 2-0 and when they last met in the league rovers did the double. they
first won their nationwide division one trip to turf moor 0-2 four seasons ago and
then thrashed the clarets on home soil 5-0. - manager mark hughes who won the
cup four times as a player is aiming to steer rovers into the quarter-finals for
the second time in 12 years and first time since the 2000/2001 season. success
here and victory home to leicester in the next round could see rovers in the
semi-finals without having played premiership opposition. - burnley make the
eight mile journey to their fierce rivals determined to send blackburn the same
way as liverpool in the third round. but having failed to pull off another shock at
turf moor it could be that the championship outfit - 17 places inferior on the
league ladder - have missed their best opportunity. having said that burnley are
yet to concede a goal in this cup run. - steve cotterills clarets have been
knocked out in the fifth round four times in the last seven years and have made
only one appearance in the sixth round in 21 years. that was in the season before
last when they disposed of premiership fulham at this fifth round stage. - while
blackburn have not played since the fifth round tie burnley have had two league
outings away from home drawing 1-1 at derby and losing 1-0 at preston. that takes
their winless run to four games. the combatants from one-time prosperous mill towns
are both founder members of the football league. head to head 16th prem winners
(six times) 13th championship winners (once)
uk needs true immigration data a former home office minister has called for an
independent body to be set up to monitor uk immigration. barbara roche said an
organisation should monitor and publish figures and be independent of government.
she said this would counter so-called independent groups like migration watch
which she described as an anti-immigration body posing as independent. migration
watch says it is not against all immigration and the government already publishes
accurate figures. sir andrew green chairman of the organisation says there is no
need for an independent body because office of national statistics data are
accurate. he says he opposes large-scale immigration both on the grounds of
overcrowding and culture . he said: for example over the next 20 years one
household in three will be due to immigration. we are already more overcrowded
than india and we are four times more overcrowded than france. ms roche labour mp
for hornsey and wood green believes legal migration is something we should
welcome. she said her proposals mean we wouldn t have so-called independent
experts like migration watch who come into this debate from an anti-immigration
point of view. she went on: what i would like to see is there being a body which
actually looked at the figures published them and was independent of government.
i think that would go a long way to allaying some of the fears that are sometimes
whipped up during this debate.
london hope over chepkemei london marathon organisers are hoping that banned
athlete susan chepkemei will still take part in this year s race on 17 april.
chepkemei was suspended from all competition until the end of the year by athletics
kenya after failing to report to a national training camp. we are watching it
closely said london race director david bedford. there is a long way to go
before the race and we are hoping the situation will be satisfactorily resolved.
the camp in embu was to prepare for the iaaf world cross country championships
later this month. chepkemei however took part and finished third in last sunday s
world best 10k race in puerto rico. the 29-year-old has finished second to paula
radcliffe in the 2002 and 2003 london races as well as in november s new york city
marathon.
talks aim to avert pension strike talks aimed at averting a series of national
strikes over pensions reforms will take place this weekend. five public sector
unions will hold private talks with deputy prime minister john prescott at labour s
spring conference in gateshead. they want the government to withdraw regulations -
due to be introduced in weeks - which would raise the pension age for council
workers from 60 to 65. up to 1.4m workers could take part in a strike already
earmarked for 23 march. however all sides are anxious to avoid a major
confrontation in the run up to the general election said bbc labour affairs
correspondent stephen cape. in four days britain s biggest union unison will start
balloting 800 000 local government workers on strikes. other public sector unions
have pledged to follow. it is just weeks before new regulations are introduced to
raise the pension age of local government workers. the five unions meeting mr
prescott want the government to withdraw these regulations. this would allow months
of tough negotiations to follow said our correspondent. but a spokesman for mr
prescott warned that the changes to the local government pension scheme would have
to go ahead in april. privately ministers believe this will be the less painful
option our correspondent added. the public and commercial services union (pcs)
will co-ordinate any industrial action with up to six other public sector unions.
pcs leader mark serwotka warned last week that there could be further walkouts
unless there was a government rethink. for a government that lectures everyone on
choice - choice on public service choice on this and choice on that - isn t it
ironic that they re saying to public sector workers there is no choice he said.
if you want the pension you were promised when you started you must work for an
extra five years - that is working until people drop. in the 20th century it s
completely unacceptable. unison s 800 000 workers the transport and general
workers union s 70 000 and amicus 20 000 are among those being balloted about a
23 march walkout. mr prescott held a private meeting with senior union figures last
week. it is understood no deal was offered in that meeting but there was room for
further negotiations.
eu fraud clampdown urged eu member states are failing to report fraud and
irregularities in eu funds on a consistent basis the uk s public spending watchdog
has said. the national audit office said although the latest figures showed
reported fraud was falling the eu still had no common definition of fraud. it also
expressed concern that for the 10th year the european court of auditors had
qualified the eu accounts. the nao urged the government to push for improvements in
reporting fraud. it said member states needed to be more accountable on how money
was spent. the report said: member states still do not report fraud and other
irregularities to the european anti-fraud office on a consistent basis. as the
court has now qualified its opinion on the community accounts for a decade it is
essential for all the authorities involved to contribute to the strengthening of
the audit of eu revenue and expenditure and improving accountability for the
financial management and use of eu resources. it said there were 922 cases of
reported fraud or irregularities in eu funds in the uk in 2003 worth £38.5m (52m
euros) up from 831 cases worth £35.7m in 2002. at the same time reported fraud
throughout the eu dropped from 10 276 cases worth £808m to 8 177 cases worth £644m.
edward leigh chairman of the commons public accounts committee said britain had
to set an example when it assumed the eu presidency. any fraud in other member
states is potentially fraud against the uk taxpayer given that we are the second
largest net contributor to the community he said. departments responsible for
administering eu funds need to make sure that they re doing everything possible to
weed out improper spending. the government must take the opportunity afforded by
the uk presidency of the eu to press the commission and other member states to take
an equally robust stance against fraud and irregularity and raise overall
standards of financial management. a spokesman for the european anti-fraud office
said the organisation agreed with the nao s assessment of fraud reporting. the
quality of reporting does differ from member state to member state and there is
room for improvement spokesman jorg wojahn said. he added that there is generally
good co-operation with member states and the anti-fraud office on specific cases of
fraud with the statistics studied by nao providing a good overview for planning
strategic ways of detecting fraud .
s korea spending boost to economy south korea will boost state spending next year
in an effort to create jobs and kick start its sputtering economy. it has
earmarked 100 trillion won ($96bn) for the first six months of 2005 60% of its
total annual budget. the government s main problems are slumping consumption and a
contraction in the construction industry . it aims to create 400 000 jobs and will
focus on infrastructure and home building as well as providing public firms with
money to hire new workers. the government has set an economic growth rate target
of 5% for next year and hinted that would be in danger unless it took action.
internal and external economic conditions are likely to remain unfavourable in 2005
the finance and economy ministry said in a statement. it blamed continuing
uncertainties such as fluctuating oil prices and foreign exchange rates and
stagnant domestic demand that has shown few signs of a quick rebound . in 2004
growth will be between 4.7% and 4.8% the ministry said. not everyone is convinced
the plan will work. our primary worry centres on the what we believe is the
government s overly optimistic view that its front loading of the budget will be
enough to turn the economy around consultancy 4cast said in a report. the
problem facing south korea is that many consumers are reeling from the effects of a
credit bubble that only recently burst. millions of south koreans are defaulting on
their credit card bills and the country s biggest card lender has been hovering on
the verge of bankruptcy for months. as part of its spending plans the government
said it will ask firms to roll over mortgage loans that come due in the first half
of 2005 . it also pledged to look at ways of helping families on low incomes. the
government voiced concern about the effect of redundancies in the building trade.
given the economic spill over and employment effect in the construction sector a
sharp downturn in the construction industry could have other adverse effects the
ministry said. as a result south korea will give private companies also will be
given the chance to build schools hospitals houses and other public buildings. it
also will look at real estate tax system. other plans on the table include
promoting new industries such as bio-technology and nano-technology as well as
offering increased support to small and medium sized businesses. the focus will be
on job creation and economic recovery given that unfavourable domestic and global
conditions are likely to dog the korean economy in 2005 the ministry said.
cuba winds back economic clock fidel castro s decision to ban all cash transactions
in us dollars in cuba has once more turned the spotlight on cuba s ailing economy.
all conversions between the us dollar and cuba s convertible peso will from 8
november be subject to a 10% tax. cuban citizens who receive money from overseas
and foreign visitors who change dollars in cuba will be affected. critics of the
measure argue that it is a step backwards reflecting the cuban president s desire
to increase his control of the economy and to clamp down on private enterprise. in
a live television broadcast announcing the measure president castro s chief aide
said it was necessary because of the united states increasing economic aggression
. the ten percent obligation applies exclusively to the dollar by virtue of the
situation created by the new measures of the us government to suffocate our country
he said. the bush administration has taken an increasingly harsh line on cuba in
recent months. president bush s government which has been a strong supporter of
the 40-year-old trade embargo on cuba introduced even tighter restrictions on cuba
in may. cubans living in the us are now limited to one visit to cuba every three
years and they can only send money to their immediate relatives. a leading expert
on the cuban economy says that castro s tax plan smacks more of a desperate
economic measure than a political gesture. i think it is primarily an effort to
raise some cash says jose barrionuevo head of strategy for latin american
emerging markets for barclays capital. it underscores the fact that the economy is
in very bad shape and the government is looking for sources of revenue. the tax
will hit the families of cuban exiles hardest as they benefit from the money their
displaced relatives send home. this money known as remittances can amount to as
much as $1bn a year. those remaining in cuba will have to pay the tax. their
relatives abroad may choose to send money in other currencies which are not subject
to the tax such as euros or increase their dollar payments to compensate. however
many of cuban s poorest citizens could be worse off as a result. the tax will also
affect the two million tourists who visit cuba every year particularly those
americans who continue to defy a ban on travel there. cuba s tourist industry has
been one of its few economic success stories over the last ten years and according
to the un economic commission for latin america is now worth $3bn to the country.
the tax is designed to provide much-needed revenue for cuba s cash-strapped
economy. cuba badly needs dollars to pay for essential items such as food fuel and
medicine. much of cuba s basic infrastructure is in a state of disrepair. in recent
weeks cuba has suffered its most serious power cuts in a decade and there have
also been water shortages in parts of the island. cuba s economy had staged a
modest recovery during the mid 1990s as the collapse of the soviet union forced it
to embrace foreign capital decentralise trade and permit limited private
enterprise. however a decline in foreign tourism since 2002 periodic hurricanes
and the increasing costs of importing oil have put a strain on the economy. it has
however yet to be seen if the tax will provide a solution to the government s
economic problems. the tax could fuel an active black market in currency trading
mr barrionuevo said. the main impact could be that it will create a black market
which you typically see in countries like venezuela which have restrictions on
capital he says. mr barrioneuvo says the measure could be dropped if it has a
damaging effect on economic activity. it is intended to be a permanent measure but
i am not sure it can last too long.
london irish 19-33 wasps wasps made light of the absence of several internationals
to sink london irish with a trio of second-half tries. rob hoadley returned to
haunt his old club at the madejski stadium scoring the opening try in the 43rd
minute. tom voyce powered through the irish defence for wasps second try before
richard birkett went over unchallenged. mark van gisbergen added 18 points. irish
replied with three penalties and a mark mapletoft drop goal before scott staniforth
ran in a consolation try. barry everitt who replaced mapletoft late in the game
added the conversion to become the fourth premiership player to reach 1 000 points.
he joins jonny wilkinson tim stimpson and paul grayson in achieving that target.
wasps piled on the pressure in an attempt to grab a fourth try which would have
secured them a bonus point but they were denied by some desperate defending from
irish. director of rugby warren gatland revealed that harsh words at half-time
inspired his wasps side to raise their game after the restart. they got a
roasting and it was a good second-half performance when they came out and played to
instructions he said. gatland also singled out stand-in flankers tom rees and
john hart for special praise. they did very well. the back row played some
fantastic rugby he added. london irish coach gary gold felt the result exposed
his side s lack of consistency. irish trailed by just two points at the break and
gold said: for 55 minutes we lived with the best but we have got to get back for
the full 80 minutes. gold will now turn his attention to next week s powergen cup
semi-final at struggling leeds. we ve got a good chance but with leeds facing
possible relegation they re going to come out firing he added. horak staniforth
penney nordt bishop; mapletoft edwards; hatley van der walt hardwick; kennedy
casey; gustard dawson murphy. replacements: everitt for mapletoft (53) hodgson
for edwards (77) wheatley for hatley (71) paice for van der walt (60) strudwick
for kennedy (60) danaher for gustard (66) reid for murphy (47) van gisbergen;
voyce erinle hoadley roberts; king richards; payne greening dowd; shaw
purdy; hart rees dallaglio. replacements: priscott for roberts (71) green for
dowd (71) skivington for shaw (71) birkett for hart (57) gotting for rees (39).
not used: fury brooks
europe backs digital tv lifestyle how people receive their digital entertainment in
the future could change following the launch of an ambitious european project. in
nice last week the european commission announced its networked & electronic media
(nem) initiative. its broad scope stretches from the way media is created through
each of the stages of its distribution to its playback. the commission wants
people to be able to locate the content they desire and have it delivered
seamlessly when on the move at home or at work no matter who supplies the
devices network content or content protection scheme. more than 120 experts were
in nice to share the vision of interconnected future and hear pledges of support
from companies such as nokia intel philips alcatel france telecom thomson and
telefonica. it might initially appear to be surprising that companies in direct
competition are keen to work together. but again and again speakers stated they
could not see incompatible stand-alone solutions working. a long-term strategy for
the evolution and convergence of technologies and services would be required. the
european commission is being pragmatic in its approach. they have identified that
many groups have defined the forms of digital media in the areas that nem
encompasses. the nem approach is to take a serious look at what is available and
what is in the pipeline pick out the best bring them together and identify where
the gaps are. where it finds holes it will develop standards to fill them. what is
significant is that such a large and powerful organisation has stated its desire
for digital formats to be open to all and work on any gadget. this is bound to
please if not surprise many individuals and user organisations who feel that the
wishes of the holder of rights to content are normally considered over and above
those of the consumer. many feel that the most difficult and challenging area for
the commission will be to identify a solution for different digital rights
management (drm) schemes. currently drm solutions are incompatible locking certain
types of purchased content making them unplayable on all platforms. with the
potential of having a percentage of every media transaction that takes place
globally the prize for being the supplier of the world s dominant drm scheme is
huge. although entertainment is an obvious first step it will encompass the remote
provisions of healthcare energy efficiency and control of the smart home. the 10-
year plan brings together the work of many currently running research projects that
the ec has been funding for a number of years. simon perry is the editor of the
digital lifestyles website which covers the impact of technology on media
bollywood draws global stars british actress antonia bernath is making her debut in
kisna - the warrior poet marking a growing trend for non-indian stars to appear in
bollywood films. directed by bollywood veteran subhash ghai the film is set in
the british raj and bernath plays an army general s daughter who falls in love with
a rural boy kisna. i liked the fluid nature of film-making. we improvised quite a
lot says bernath. at times it felt very chaotic but mr ghai was quite clear
about what he wanted. picked from more than 200 girls in an audition in london
bernath cut short her education at bristol s old vic theatre school to take up the
opportunity. it is not often that somebody gets to play the lead role straight out
of a drama school. she spent three weeks learning hindi and taking dance lessons.
initially i was a bit sceptical about how people would respond to me bernath
says. but i found the hindi film industry very warm and encouraging. i even had a
few offers before the work on kisna was completed. films are one of india s
biggest exports and those like lagaan and monsoon wedding have broken the
traditional boundaries of colour and culture. spurred by this bollywood producers
are trying to go global in all aspects of film-making be it technical or artistic.
from young heart-throbs like nick moran of lock stock and two smoking barrels to
model sophie dahl many non-indian stars want to make the most of this opportunity.
bollywood has truly gone global says taran adarsh editor of indian film journal
trade guide. directors are now attempting to woo non-asian audience to increase
their share in the overseas film market. kisna has been shot simultaneously in
hindi and english with the english print shortened by an hour to accommodate the
western audience. the film even has a song composed in english by ar rahman the
director of the popular west end musical bombay dreams. identification is a
popular cinematic device. use of european or american actors can be viewed as a
step in that direction says adarsh. the cast of kisna also includes british
actors michael maloney caroline langrishe and polly adams. another actress
annabelle wallace plays the lead role in a bilingual romantic comedy dil jo bhi
kahey (whatever the heart says) which also stars indian screen legend amitabh
bachchan. actor and producer aamir khan s forthcoming venture the rising is set
against the backdrop of the indian mutiny of 1857 with british actor toby stephens
in a key role. but it isn t only the western actors looking eastwards. bollywood
sweetheart aishwarya rai recently seen in bride and prejudice alongside new
zealand actor martin henderson is building her international career. and many
other bollywood stars have their eyes set on hollywood. hollywood or bollywood it
s the box office that determines whether something is a passing phase or a trend
says adarsh. kisna - the warrior poet opens in the uk on 21 january.
injury doubts beset wales squad wales have a clutch of injury worries before
wednesday s international friendly against hungary in cardiff. west ham s gavin
williams (ankle) looks certain to be out so uncapped wrexham defender stephen
roberts is drafted in. defenders danny gabbidon and gareth roberts plus ryan giggs
have hamstring concerns while there are also doubts over robbie savage (groin).
however manchester united winger giggs is expected to recover in time to earn his
50th cap at the millennium stadium. there were also doubts over gabbidon s fellow
cardiff defender rhys weston but the full-back appears to have shrugged off the
knock he picked up in the bluebirds 1-0 loss to west ham on sunday. the news
leaves wales boss john toshack short in defence for his first game in charge with
aston villa s mark delaney injured and james collins with the under-21s. that could
clear the way for new faces danny collins and dave partridge to make their wales
debuts. coyne (burnley) jones (wolves) roberts (wrexham) collins (sunderland)
edwards (wolves) gabbidon (cardiff) page (cardiff) partridge (motherwell)
ricketts (swansea) roberts (tranmere) weston (cardiff) davies (tottenham)
fletcher (west ham) giggs (man utd) koumas (west brom) robinson (sunderland)
savage (blackburn) williams (west ham) bellamy (newcastle) earnshaw (west brom)
hartson (celtic).
£1.8m indecency fine for viacom media giant viacom has paid out $3.5m (£1.8m)
to end investigations into indecency in its us radio and tv shows. the settlement
to the federal communications commission (fcc) ends a long-running saga dating back
to 2001. the fcc was looking into 50 shows including those by shock jock howard
stern and two new york djs. stern recently announced he was leaving viacom while
the two djs were sacked after their show featured a couple purporting to have sex
in a church. after the church incident two years ago viacom agreed to install audio
delay equipment at its radio stations that broadcast live programming. it also
agreed to train its broadcasters and employees about indecency laws. the agreement
cancels investigations into about 50 radio and television shows said richard
diamond fcc deputy secretary of communications. the shows were broadcast by
viacom-owned stations across the united states. viacom has five days to pay the
$3.5m fine according to the agreement. the payment is not related to the fcc s
$550 000 (£293 000) fine levied against viacom after the exposure of singer janet
jackson s breast during the cbs super bowl halftime show in january. viacom is
contesting that fine. it is not the first time that viacom has paid out over
indecency charges. infinity broadcasting which is owned by viacom paid cumulative
fines totalling $1.7m (£907 000) in 1995 to settle fcc violations by stern.
fresh hope after argentine crisis three years after argentina was hit by a deadly
economic crisis there is fresh hope. the country s economy is set to grow about
8% this year after seeing 9% growth last year a sharp turnaround from 2002 when
output fell 11%. the unemployment rate is improving too: it is set to slip below
13% by the end of the year down from 20% in may 2002. true problems remain but
the overall picture is one of vast improvement. even the international monetary
fund (imf) admits this. the argentine authorities are proud should be proud of
the strong performance of the economy thomas dawson an imf director said
earlier this month. argentina has made a remarkable recovery from a hideous and
lengthy recession which in 2001 culminated in the government halting debt
repayments to its private creditors. the debt default sparked a deep and prolonged
economic crisis which at least initially was made worse by the government s
decisions. pension payments were halted and bank accounts frozen as part of
austerity measures introduced by the government to deal with the country s massive
debts. in response angry crowds of ordinary argentines took to the streets where
dozens of lives were lost in clashes with the police. two presidents and at least
three finance minister resigned in less than a month. argentina was on the brink of
collapse. the fix was found in the currency markets with the abandonment of the
peso s decade-long peg to the us dollar in february 2002. the subsequent
devaluation saw thousands of people s life savings disappear. scathes of companies
went bust. three years ago every sector [of the economy] was hit by the crisis
said entrepreneur drayton valentine. it really was dire. but since then the
general mood on the ground has improved dramatically in part because the
devaluation helped attract fresh direct investment from abroad and stimulate
business within brazil. agriculture and tourism are helping said entrepreneur
drayton valentine. mr valentine who was born in the united states but grew up in
argentina was fortunate: at the time of the crisis his savings were held in
dollar accounts abroad. but now he is using his money to help with the start-up a
trading company. he explained that initially his firm is going to export building
materials to spain and united states. then he would like to diversify to other
areas depending on the market. locally there is a sense of recovery many
companies are exporting now he said noting that a lot of firms which were
closed during the crisis are re-opening. but not all that shines is gold.
argentina is still burdened by its failure to pay private creditors at the end of
2001. president nestor kirchner s administration is still trying to hammer out an
agreement with the creditors but with the debts nominal value standing at around
$100bn it is not proving easy. debt defaults make further lending agreements both
difficult and expensive to negotiate. argentina s current offer implies that the
creditors would get just 25 cents for each dollar they are owed according to the
creditors. understandably they want more and until they do both they and others
are loath to continue lending. for president kirchner this proves a hopeless
challenge. real losses have been suffered and somebody has to pay observed jack
boorman adviser to imf s managing director rodrigo rato. everyone needs to keep
in mind the enormous cost on the part of both creditors and the argentine society
and people that will have been endured by the time a settlement is reached he
said. the cost is enormous and continues to be paid and will not be reversed by
any restructuring. with the international negotiations being troubled it is of
little help to president kirchner that the domestic situation remains strained as
well. this is partly because there are still bank account holders who are waiting
to recover some of their deposits. the situation is bad for those who had
previously chosen to save in argentina said carlos baez silva president of aara
an association that represents bank account and bond holders. few people have
recovered more than about half their savings mr baez silva estimated pointing out
that many of the savers who have lost out are pensioners or others who once trusted
the government people who set aside money for the future in the belief that their
investment would be safe. a lot of them invested in good faith he said. the
argentine state responded by taking most of their investments. the affair has made
mr baez silva disillusioned with the country s legal system. on occasion the
supreme court has ruled against the interests of the people he represents he says
insisting that the system cannot be trusted. people have to deposit their money in
the banks not necessarily because they trust them but because crime is so high
that people cannot have their money in their homes beneath their mattresses. mr
valentine who was born in the united states but grew up in argentina agreed. if
i have to save pesos [the local currency] there is not much problem but i will
think twice before i deposit dollars in a bank .
german jobless rate at new record more than 5.2 million germans were out of work in
february new figures show. the figure of 5.216 million people or 12.6% of the
working-age population is the highest jobless rate in europe s biggest economy
since the 1930s. the news comes as the head of germany s panel of government
economic advisers predicted growth would again stagnate. speaking on german tv
bert ruerup said the panel s earlier forecast of 1.4% was too optimistic and warned
growth would be just 1% in 2005. the german government is trying to tackle the
stubbornly-high levels of joblessness with a range of labour market reforms. at
their centre is the hartz-iv programme introduced in january to shake up welfare
benefits and push people back into work - even if some of the jobs are heavily
subsidised. the latest unemployment figures look set to increase the pressure on
the government. widely leaked to the german newspapers a day in advance they
produced screaming headlines criticising chancellor gerhard schroeder s social
democrat-green party administration. mr schroeder had originally come into office
promising to halve unemployment. still some measures suggest the picture is not
quite so bleak. the soaring official unemployment figure follows a change in the
methodology which pushed up the jobless rate by more than 500 000 in january.
adjusted for seasonal changes the overall unemployment rate is 4.875 million
people or 11.7% up 0.3 percentage points from the previous month. using the most
internationally-accepted methodology of the international labour organisation (ilo)
germany had 3.97 million people out of work in january. and ilo-based figures also
suggest that 14 000 new net jobs were created that month taking the number of
people employed to 38.9 million. the ilo defines an unemployed person as someone
who in the previous four weeks had actively looked for work they could take up
immediately.
lse sets date for takeover deal the london stock exchange (lse) is planning to
announce a preferred takeover by the end of the month newspaper reports claim.
the sunday telegraph said the lse s plan was further evidence it wants to retain
tight control over its destiny. both deutsche boerse and rival euronext held talks
with the london market last week over a possible offer. a £1.3bn offer from
deutsche boerse has already been rejected while euronext has said it will make an
all cash bid. speculation suggests that paris-based euronext has the facilities in
place to make a bid of £1.4bn while its german rival may up its bid to the £1.5bn
mark. neither has yet tabled a formal bid but the lse is expected to hold further
talks with the two parties later this week. however the sunday telegraph report
added that there are signs that deutsche boerse chief executive werner seifert is
becoming increasingly impatient with the lse s managed bid process. despite
insisting he wants to agree a recommended deal with the lse s board the newspaper
suggested he may pull out of the process and put an offer directly to shareholders
instead. the newspaper also claimed mr seifert was becoming increasingly
frustrated with the pace of negotiations since deutsche boerse s £1.3bn offer was
rejected in mid-december in particular the lse s decision to suspend talks over
the christmas period. meanwhile the german exchange s offer has come under fire
recently. unions for deutsche boerse staff in frankfurt have reportedly expressed
fears that up to 300 jobs would be moved to london if the takeover is successful.
others claim it will weaken the city s status as europe s financial centre while
german politicians are also said to be angry over the market operator s promise to
move its headquarters to london if a bid is successful. a further stumbling block
is deutsche boerse s control over its clearstream unit the clearing house that
processes securities transactions. lse shareholders fear it would create a monopoly
situation weakening the position of shareholders when negotiating lower
transaction fees for share dealings. lse and euronext do not have control over
their clearing and settlement operations a situation which critics say is more
transparent and competitive.
virus poses as christmas e-mail security firms are warning about a windows virus
disguising itself as an electronic christmas card. the zafi.d virus translates the
christmas greeting on its subject line into the language of the person receiving
infected e-mail. anti-virus firms speculate that this multilingual ability is
helping the malicious program spread widely online. anti-virus firm sophos said
that 10% of the e-mail currently on the net was infected with the zafi virus. like
many other windows viruses zafi-d plunders microsoft outlook for e-mail addresses
and then uses mail-sending software to despatch itself across the web to new
victims. to be infected users must open up the attachment travelling with the
message which bears the code for the malicious bug. the attachment on the e-mail
poses as an electronic christmas card but anyone opening it will simply get a crude
image of two smiley faces. the virus subject line says merry christmas and
translates this into one of 15 languages depending of the final suffix of the e-
mail address the infected message has been sent to. the message in the body of the
e-mail reads: happy holidays and this too is translated. on infected machines the
virus tries to disable anti-virus and firewall software and opens up a backdoor on
the pc to hand over control to the writer of the virus. the virus is thought to
have spread most widely in south america italy spain bulgaria and hungary. the
original zafi virus appeared in april this year. we have seen these hoaxes for
several christmases already and personally i prefer traditional pen and paper
cards and we recommend this to all our clients too said mikko hypponen who
heads f-secure s anti-virus team.
parker misses england clash tom shanklin will start in the centre for wales against
england in cardiff on saturday after sonny parker failed to recover from a trapped
neck nerve. shanklin was first-choice wing in the autumn tests but prefers centre
and will face england debutant mathew tait. dragons three-quarter hal luscombe
takes shanklin s wing berth. up front mefin davies plays at hooker open-side
martyn williams is fit to start and lock rob sidoli replaces veteran gareth
llewellyn. davies wins the vote ahead of robin mcbryde who sits on the bench
having recently returned to action for the scarlets following a neck injury.
sidoli is back for the first time since last season s six nations the blues second
row back to form after a niggling groin problem. williams sidoli s team-mate at
cardiff is set to win his 50th cap replacing the injured colin charvis after
making a quicker-than-expected recovery from a neck disc problem. initially when i
had the diagnosis it was a case of trying to get fit for the italy game next week
but fortunately my recovery has been a lot quicker than we all hoped williams
told bbc sport wales. i haven t started a game since 1 january and would have
preferred to have a couple of games in the lead-up to this but the good thing with
the injury is that i have kept up my fitness levels. i feel quite fresh and i just
can t wait to play again. williams says he expects a torrid time from an england
loose-forward trio of lewis moody joe worsley and andy hazell. they are three
top-class players especially worsley and moody. they have been there and done it
williams added. they were back-ups behind richard hill neil back and lawrence
dallaglio but now they have come forward and proved what good players they are -
there are no weaknesses there. luscombe gets the nod on the wing ahead of dragons
team-mate kevin morgan who wins a place on the bench alongside uncapped blues prop
john yapp. g thomas (toulouse (capt); h luscombe (dragons) t shanklin (blues) g
henson (ospreys) s williams (ospreys); s jones (clermont auvergne) d peel
(scarlets); g jenkins (blues) m davies (gloucester) a jones (ospreys) b cockbain
(ospreys) r sidoli (blues) d jones (scarlets) m williams (blues) m owen
(dragons). r mcbryde (scarlets) j yapp (blues) j thomas (ospreys) r jones
(ospreys) g cooper (dragons) c sweeney (dragons) k morgan (dragons).
text message record smashed uk mobile owners continue to break records with their
text messaging with latest figures showing that 26 billion texts were sent in
total in 2004. the figures collected by the mobile data association (mda) showed
that 2.4 billion were fired off in december alone the highest monthly total ever.
that was 26% more than in december 2003. the records even surpassed the mda s own
predictions it said. every day 78 million messages are sent and there are no signs
of a slow down. before december s bumper text record the previous highest monthly
total was in october 2004 when 2.3 billion were sent. text messaging is set to
smash more records in 2005 too said the mda with forecasts suggesting a total of
30 billion for the year. even though mobiles are becoming increasingly
sophisticated with much more multimedia applications texting is still one of the
most useful functions of mobiles. people are using sms to do much more too. booking
cinema tickets text voting and news or sports text alerts are growing popular.
mobile owners have also given the chance to donate to the disasters emergency
committee s (dec) asian tsunami fund by texting donate to a simple short code
number. looking further ahead in the year the mda s chairman mike short has
predicted that more people will go online through their mobiles estimating 15
billion wap page impressions. handsets with gprs capability - an always on net
connection - will rise to 75% while 3g mobile ownership growing to five million by
the end of 2005. these third generation mobiles offer a high-speed connection which
means more data like video can be received on the phone. globally mobile phone
sales passed 167 million in the third quarter of 2004 according to a recent report
from analysts gartner. that was 26% more than the previous year. it is predicted
that there would be two billion handsets in use worldwide by the end of 2005.
uk heading wrong way says howard tony blair has had the chance to tackle the
problems facing britain and has failed michael howard has said. britain is
heading in the wrong direction the conservative leader said in his new year
message. mr blair s government was a bossy interfering government that takes
decisions that should be made by individuals he added. but labour s campaign
spokesman fraser kemp responded: britain is working don t let the tories wreck it
again . mr howard also paid tribute to the nation s character for its generous
response to the asian quake disaster. the catastrophe was overshadowing the hopes
for the future at this usually positive time of the year mr howard said. we
watched the scenes of destruction with a sense of disbelief. the scale the speed
the ferocity of what happened on boxing day is difficult to grasp. yet britain s
response has shone a light on our nation s character. the last week has shown that
the warm caring heart of britain beats as strong as ever. he went on to reflect
on the values that most britons hold dear . looking ahead to the coming general
election he pledged to turn these beliefs into reality and set out the choices
he says are facing britain. how much tax do people want to pay who will give
taxpayers value for money the clean hospitals and good disciplined schools they
want who can be trusted to get a grip on the disorder on our streets and the
chaos in our immigration system mr blair has failed to tackle these problems he
claimed saying he has the wrong solution to them. the result is big government
and higher taxes eroding incentives undermining enterprise and denying people
choice. worst of all it is a government that has wasted people s money and failed
to tackle the problems families face today. the tories he said can cut crime and
improve public services without asking people to pay more taxes. we can have
progress without losing what makes britain great - its tolerance the respect for
the rule of law the ability of everyone to fulfil their potential. we simply need
to change direction. the election will give britain the chance to change. this is
the record mr blair will have to defend in the coming months he said urging
voters to hold him to account. but labour spokesman mr kemp said: it would be
more appropriate for this message to come out on 1 april not 1 january. let us
never forget that when michael howard was in government britain suffered mass
unemployment 15% interest rates record home repossessions and the introduction
of the poll tax. with labour britain is working. rather than alluding to false
promises michael howard should be starting 2005 with an apology to the british
people for the misery that the government of which he was a member inflicted upon
the country.
fast moving phone viruses appear security firms are warning about several mobile
phone viruses that can spread much faster than similar bugs. the new strains of
the cabir mobile phone virus use short-range radio technology to leap to any
vulnerable phone as soon as it is in range. the cabir virus only affects high-end
handsets running the symbian series 60 phone operating system. despite the warnings
there are so far no reports of any phones being infected by the new variants of
cabir. the original cabir worm came to light in mid-june 2004 when it was sent to
anti-virus firms as a proof-of-concept program. a mistake in the way the original
cabir was written meant that even if it escaped from the laboratory the bug would
only have been able to infect one phone at a time. however the new cabir strains
have this mistake corrected and will spread via short range bluetooth technology to
any vulnerable phone in range. bluetooth has an effective range of a few tens of
metres. the risk of being infected by cabir is low because users must give the
malicious program permission to download on to their handset and then must manually
install it. users can protect themselves by altering a setting on symbian phones
that conceals the handset from other bluetooth using devices. finnish security firm
f-secure issued a warning about the new strains of cabir but said that the viruses
do not do any damage to a phone. all they do is block normal bluetooth activity and
drain the phone s battery. anti-virus firm sophos said the source code for cabir
had been posted on the net by a brazilian programmer which might lead to even more
variants of the program being created. so far seven versions of cabir are know to
exist one of which was inside the malicious skulls program that was found in late
november. symbian s series 60 software is licenced by nokia lg electronics lenovo
panasonic samsung sendo and siemens.
doors open at biggest gadget fair thousands of technology lovers and industry
experts have gathered in las vegas for the annual consumer electronics show (ces).
the fair showcases the latest technologies and gadgets that will hit the shops in
the next year. about 50 000 new products will be unveiled as the show unfolds.
microsoft chief bill gates is to make a pre-show keynote speech on wednesday when
he is expected to announce details of the next generation xbox. the thrust of this
year s show will be on technologies which put people in charge of multimedia
content so they can store listen to and watch what they want on devices any time
anywhere. about 120 000 people are expected to attend the trade show which
stretches over more than 1.5 million square feet. highlights will include the
latest trends in digital imaging storage technologies thinner flat screen and
high-definition tvs wireless and portable technologies gaming and broadband
technologies. the show also includes several speeches from key technology companies
such as intel microsoft and hewlett packard among others. the story this year
remains all about digital and how that is completely transforming and
revolutionising products and the way people interact with them jeff joseph from
the consumer electronics association (cea) told the bbc news website. it is about
personalisation - taking your mp3 player and creating your own playlist taking
your digital video recorder and watch what you want to watch when - you are no
longer at the whim of the broadcasters. consumer electronics and gadgets had a
phenomenal year in 2004 according to figures released by ces organisers the cea
on tuesday. the gadget explosion signalled the strongest growth yet in the us in
2004. shipments of consumer electronics rose by almost 11% between 2003 and 2004.
that trend is predicted to continue according to cea analysts with wholesale
shipments of consumer technologies expected to grow by 11% again in 2005. the
fastest-growing technologies in 2004 included blank dvd media liquid crystal
display (lcd) tvs digital video recorders (dvrs) and portable music players.
this year we will really begin to see that come to life in what we call place
shifting - so if you have your pvr [personal video recorder] in your living room
you can move that content around the house. some exhibitors will be showcasing how
you can take that content anywhere said mr joseph. he said the products which
will be making waves in the next year will be about the democratisation of
content - devices and technologies that will give people the freedom to do more
with music video and images. there will also be more focus on the design of
technologies following the lead that apple s ipod made with ease of use and good
looks which appeal to a wider range of people a key concern. the cea predicted
that there would be several key technology trends to watch in the coming year.
gaming would continue to thrive especially on mobile devices and would reach out
to more diverse gamers such as women. games consoles sales have been declining but
the launch of next generation consoles such as microsoft s xbox and playstation
could buoy up sales. although it has been widely predicted that mr gates would be
showcasing the new xbox some media reports have cast doubt on what he would be
talking about in the keynote. some have suggested the announcement may take place
at the games developers conference in the summer instead. with more than 52% of us
homes expected to have home networks the cea suggested hard drive boxes - or media
servers - capable of storing thousands of images video and audio files to be
accessed through other devices around the home will be more commonplace. portable
devices that combine mobile telephony digital music and video players will also
be more popular in 2005. their popularity will be driven by more multimedia content
and services which will let people watch and listen to films tv and audio
wherever they are. this means more storage technologies will be in demand such as
external hard drives and flash memory like sd cards. ces runs officially from 6 to
9 january.
millions buy mp3 players in us one in 10 adult americans - equivalent to 22 million
people - owns an mp3 player according to a survey. a study by the pew internet
and american life project found that mp3 players are the gadget of choice among
affluent young americans. the survey did not interview teenagers but it is likely
that millions of under-18s also have mp3 players. the american love affair with
digital music players has been made possible as more and more homes get broadband.
of the 22 million americans who own mp3 players 59% are men compared to 41% of
women. those on high income - judged to be $75 000 (£39 000) or above - are four
times more likely to have players than those earning less than $30 000 ( £15 000).
broadband access plays a big part in ownership too. almost a quarter of those with
broadband at home have players compared to 9% of those who have dial-up access.
mp3 players are still the gadget of choice for younger adults. almost one in five
us citizens aged under 30 have one. this compares to 14% of those aged 30-39 and
14% of those aged 40-48. the influence of children also plays a part. sixteen
percent of parents living with children under 18 have digital players compared to
9% of those who don t. the ease of use and growth of music available on the net are
the main factors for the upsurge in ownership the survey found. people are
beginning to use them as instruments of social activity - sharing songs and taking
part in podcasting - the survey found. ipods and mp3 players are becoming a
mainstream technology for consumers said lee rainie director of the pew internet
and american life project. more growth in the market is inevitable as new devices
become available as new players enter the market and as new social uses for
ipods/mp3 players become popular he added.
desailly backs blues revenge trip marcel desailly insists there is no chance of
history repeating itself when chelsea take on barcelona on wednesday. the french
star was part of the chelsea side crushed 5-1 at the nou camp in the champions
league quarter-final second leg in 2000. things will be totally different this
time he told bbc sport. now everyone knows about chelsea and is a little bit
afraid of them. they are one of the major clubs in europe and the pressure will be
on barcelona. chelsea have not played barcelona since that quarter-final tie five
years ago. the blues had looked destined to progress after winning the first leg at
stamford bridge 3-1 courtesy of two goals from tore andre flo and one by
gianfranco zola. but they collapsed in the second leg going down to strikes from
rivaldo (2) luis figo dani and patrick kluivert. former chelsea captain desailly
who is now playing for al-gharafa in qatar says there is no comparison between
that side and the current blues team who are top of the premiership. mentally
they are much stronger even though a lot of their players are young the 36-year-
old said. we made some mistakes at the nou camp in 2000 - a lot of them were
individual mistakes. it would not happen now. this team has a new motivation and a
different mentality. world cup winner desailly saw huge changes during his time at
stamford bridge. he was signed for £4.6m from ac milan in 1998 by ruud gullit and
went on to play under gianluca vialli and claudio ranieri. but the biggest change
occurred when billionaire roman abramovich bought the club in 2003. desailly says
the russian s arrival helped to instil a winning mentality at the club as well as a
demand for success. the whole of chelsea is different now - the chairman the
manager and all the players he said. everything is new and there is a huge
determination to win. since that game in 2000 chelsea have gained more experience
in europe and were very close to reaching the champions league final last season.
desailly is one of the most decorated players in the history of football. he won
the 1998 world cup and 2000 european championship with france the champions league
in 1993 with marseilles and 1994 with ac milan two serie a titles and the fa cup
in 2000 with chelsea. he is now winding down his career in qatar alongside the
likes of frank lebeouf josep guardiola titi camara gabriel batistuta and
christophe dugarry. so he is full of admiration for two of his colleagues from the
great milan side of the mid-90s who are likely to line up against manchester united
on wednesday - paolo maldini and alessandro costacurta. i m happy that they have
managed to play so long at a high level he said. i made a vow to costacurta that
as long as he plays i will continue to play. and it s amazing that paolo has
managed to play at such a high level for such a long time.
uk broadband gets speed injection broadband s rapid rise continues apace as speeds
gear up a notch. an eight megabit service has been launched by internet service
provider uk online. it is 16 times faster than the average broadband package on the
market and will pave the way for services such as video-on-demand and broadband tv.
the service is possible due to a new regime which allows other operators to use bt
s exchanges and will initially only be available in towns. it represents a big
leap forward for broadband said chris stening uk online general manager. the
service comes with a hefty £39.99 monthly price tag but will mean users can
download mp3s in seconds and offers tv-quality video streaming. the service
includes wifi as standard meaning users can connect multiple pcs laptops and game
consoles from any room in the house. not everybody will be able to take advantage
of the service as it will be restricted to metropolitan areas. the service will
initially be available to users within 2km radius of 230 telephone exchanges in
areas such as london birmingham glasgow and cambridge. that represents about 4.4
million households. the service is possible due to a decision to loosen bt s
strangle-hold on telephone exchanges. the process known as local loop unbundling
was put in motion by the now defunct telecoms watchdog oftel but has only proved
popular in recent months due to falling costs. uk online is looking at the
possibility of bundling services such as cheap net telephone calls video-on-demand
and tv by 2005 if the service proves popular. the service is twice as fast as any
other service on offer in the uk and 16 times faster than most broadband services
said mr stening. it takes a big leap for broadband and we are very excited about
it he said. countries such as south korea and france have found the advantage of
upping the speeds of broadband. in south korea video-on-demand over the net is
cheaper than renting a dvd and online gaming is huge. mr stening believes the
service will appeal to people in multi-occupancy buildings as well as easing family
arguments. a typical family with two adults and two children is currently sharing
a 512 kilobit service. this will basically give them 2 megabits each he said.
kenyan school turns to handhelds at the mbita point primary school in western kenya
students click away at a handheld computer with a stylus. they are doing exercises
in their school textbooks which have been digitised. it is a pilot project run by
eduvision which is looking at ways to use low cost computer systems to get up-to-
date information to students who are currently stuck with ancient textbooks.
matthew herren from eduvision told the bbc programme go digital how the non-
governmental organisation uses a combination of satellite radio and handheld
computers called e-slates. the e-slates connect via a wireless connection to a
base station in the school. this in turn is connected to a satellite radio
receiver. the data is transmitted alongside audio signals. the base station
processes the information from the satellite transmission and turns it into a form
that can be read by the handheld e-slates. it downloads from the satellite and
every day processes the stream sorts through content for the material destined for
the users connected to it. it also stores this on its hard disc. the system is
cheaper than installing and maintaining an internet connection and conventional
computer network. but mr herren says there are both pros and cons to the project.
it s very simple to set up just a satellite antenna on the roof of the school but
it s also a one-way connection so getting feedback or specific requests from end
users is difficult. the project is still at the pilot stage and eduvision staff
are on the ground to attend to teething problems with the linux-based system. the
content is divided into visual information textual information and questions.
users can scroll through these sections independently of each other. eduvision is
planning to include audio and video files as the system develops and add more
content. mr herren says this would vastly increase the opportunities available to
the students. he is currently in negotiations to take advantage of a project being
organised by search site google to digitise some of the world s largest university
libraries. all books in the public domain something like 15 million could be put
on the base stations as we manufacture them. then every rural school in africa
would have access to the same libraries as the students in oxford and harvard
currently the project is operating in an area where there is mains electricity. but
mr herren says eduvision already has plans to extend it to more remote regions. we
plan to put a solar panel at the school with the base station have the e-slates
charge during the day when the children are in school then they can take them home
at night and continue working. maciej sundra who designed the user interface for
the e-slates says the project s ultimate goal is levelling access to knowledge
around the world. why in this age when most people do most research using the
internet are students still using textbooks the fact that we are doing this in a
rural developing country is very exciting - as they need it most.
fry set for role in hitchhiker s actor stephen fry is joining the cast of the
forthcoming film adaptation of the hitchhiker s guide to the galaxy. fry will
provide the voice of the guide an electronic book which accompanies the story s
hero arthur dent on his travels around the galaxy. martin freeman john malkovich
bill nighy and alan rickman are co-starring in the film due for release in may.
the late douglas adams original 1977 scripts have also been turned into a series
of successful books. being asked to do the voice of the guide is like having your
birthday on christmas day discovering a winning lottery ticket in your stocking
and having chocolate poured all over you said fry a self-confessed fan of the
book. the film s executive producer robbie stamp said that adams who died in 2001
would have been delighted with the choice of fry for the role. his humour and
intelligence are perfect for the voice of the guide added mr stamp. adams wrote
the screenplay based on his book before his premature death while a new radio
series was aired 26 years after the first broadcast and included many of the
original cast members. hollywood star malkovich will play religious cult leader
humma kavula which was especially created by adams for the new film. freeman who
starred in hit bbc comedy the office will play the role of arthur dent who begins
his intergalactic voyage following the destruction of the earth.
godzilla gets hollywood fame star movie monster godzilla has received a star on
hollywood s walk of fame honouring both his 50th birthday and the launch of his
28th film. an actor dressed as the giant creature breathed smoke over
photographers on monday as godzilla received the 2 271st star on hollywood
boulevard. godzilla should thank you for this historical and monumental star
said final wars producer shogo tomiyama. but unfortunately he cannot speak
english he added. hollywood s honorary mayor johnny grant said: i do hereby
proclaim this godzilla day in hollywood. he s loose he s wild and i m getting
the hell out of here he added. the premiere of godzilla: final wars at grauman s
chinese theatre followed the ceremony on hollywood boulevard. the monster was
joined by co-stars including japanese pop star and actor masahiro matsuoka.
director ryuhei kitamura said it may not be godzilla s final outing as it has been
billed. that s what the producers say. but the producer s a liar he said.
[godzilla s] been working for the last 50 years. so i think godzilla just deserves
a vacation. and producer shogo tomiyama added: so long as godzilla can fascinate
people i believe he will be resurrected by new generations of filmmakers in the
future. godzilla first appeared in 1954 as a prehistoric lizard woken by atomic
bomb tests.
more women turn to net security older people and women are increasingly taking
charge of protecting home computers against malicious net attacks according to a
two-year study. the number of women buying programs to protect pcs from virus
spam and spyware attacks rose by 11.2% each year between 2002 and 2004. the study
for net security firm preventon shows that security messages are reaching a
diversity of surfers. it is thought that 40% of those buying home net security
programs are retired. for the last three years that has gone up by an average of
13.2%. but more retired women (53%) were buying security software than retired men.
the research reflects the changing stereotype and demographics of web users as
well as growing awareness of the greater risks that high-speed broadband net
connections can pose to surfers. the study predicts that 40% of all home pc net
security buyers will be women in 2005. they could even overtake men as the main
buyers by 2007 if current rates persist according to the research. i think older
people have become more vigilant about protecting their pcs as we tend to be more
cautious and want an insurance policy in case something does go wrong said one
over-60 woman who took part in the research. you started off with young male
stereotype computer users for last 10 years paul goosens head of preventon told
the bbc news website. now we are seeing real people - both sexes and very often it
is women who have more access at home. but net service providers still need to
take more responsibility in making sure people are educated about net threats
before they go online particuarly if they are new to broadband he said. programs
also need to be tailored so that they can be installed by dial-up users with a
slower connection too said mr goosens. security software should be easy to use
with simple interfaces and instructions written in non-technical language he
added. the nature of the security threats are also becoming more than just about e-
mail viruses. high-profile complaints about rogue diallers and spyware or other
programs that surreptitiously install themselves on computers have also raised
awareness about the need to have a combination of anti-virus firewall and spyware-
removal programs too. without protection these kinds of programs can be picked up
just through surfing the web normally. more than 30 000 pcs a day globally are
being recruited into networks that spread spam and viruses a study from security
from symantec showed last year. viruses written to make headlines by infecting
millions are also getting rarer according to net security experts. programs are
being unleashed to directly profit criminal gangs many based in eastern europe
over those which are designed to show off technical skills or cause nuisance. the
research shows that more people are taking these criminal net threats more
seriously because said mr goosens they are reported in the press much more. you
are seeing older users being educated by the media and are seeing them picking up
on this threat. they are asking the right questions he explained. it is more
likely the younger users who naively assume that because they are using a reputable
service provider that they are safe to connect to the net. an unprotected
computer on a broadband connection can be breached and infected with viruses or
spyware within minutes. by the end of the year it is thought that more than 30% of
uk homes will have broadband net access. in july last year the number of uk
households accessing the net via broadband surpassed those using dial-up for the
first time according to the office of national statistics.
ireland 19-13 england ireland consigned england to their third straight six nations
defeat with a stirring victory at lansdowne road. a second-half try from captain
brian o driscoll and 14 points from ronan o gara kept ireland on track for their
first grand slam since 1948. england scored first through martin corry but had
tries from mark cueto and josh lewsey disallowed. andy robinson s men have now
lost nine of their last 14 matches since the 2003 world cup final. the defeat also
heralded england s worst run in the championship since 1987. ireland last won the
title then the five nations in 1985 but 20 years on they share top spot in the
table on maximum points with wales. and eddie o sullivan s side banished the ghosts
of 2003 when england were rampant 42-6 victors in claiming the grand slam at
lansdowne road. in front of a supercharged home crowd on a dry but blustery day in
dublin ireland tore into the white-shirted visitors from the kick-off and made
their intentions clear when o gara landed a fourth-minute drop-goal. england took
their time to settle but their first real venture into ireland s half produced a
simple score for corry. the number eight picked up the ball from the back of a ruck
and found an absence of green jerseys between himself and the irish line racing 25
yards to touch down. england fly-half charlie hodgson nailed the conversion from
out on the left but almost immediately o gara winning his 50th cap answered with
two penalties in quick succession. england were awarded a penalty of their own on
the halfway line after 20 minutes and hodgson the villain at twickenham coolly
bisected the posts. the first quarter was marked by periods of tactical kicking
but it was ireland who were showing more willingness to spread the ball wide to
their eager and inventive backs. a series of probes led by the talismanic o
driscoll back from hamstring injury resulted in a penalty but ireland chose to
kick for touch. from the line-out the ball was recycled back to o gara who
stroked his second drop-goal this time off the right upright. as the interval
approached wing josh lewsey was the catalyst for england s most promising attack.
the wasps star raced up his touchline and hodgson s cross-kick put in mark cueto
for an apparent score but the sale wing was ruled to have started in front of the
kicker. england began the second half well and had ireland pinned in their own
half. but another english indiscretion on a rare irish break-out awarded o gara a
kick at goal which he missed. england s pressure continued and a wave of attacks
saw centre jamie noon dragged down yards from the line before hodgson landed a
drop-goal. the lead was shortlived however. ireland raced upfield deft handling
from the backs including a clever dummy from geordan murphy on hodgson ending
with o driscoll going over in the right corner and touching down close to the
posts. o gara missed a penalty which would have put ireland nine points clear and
the home crowd breathed a sigh of relief when hodgson s cross-kick was fumbled by
lock ben kay near the line. anticipation of a home win sent the noise level sky-
high but o gara missed another chance to seal the game with a wayward drop-goal
attempt. inside the last 10 minutes england poured forward spurred on by scrum-
half matt dawson who replaced leicester s harry ellis. but despite one near miss
with the pack over the line - not checked on the tv replay by referee jonathan
kaplan - england were unable to pull off a face-saving win. ireland next face
france at lansdowne road in two weeks time before the potential title decider
against wales in cardiff. england are still to meet italy at twickenham in what is
now a wooden spoon decider and scotland. g murphy; g dempsey b o driscoll s
horgan d hickie; r o gara p stringer; r corrigan s byrne j hayes; m o kelly p
o connell; s easterby j o connor a foley. f sheahan m horan d o callaghan e
miller g easterby d humphreys k maggs. j robinson (capt); m cueto j noon o
barkley j lewsey; c hodgson h ellis; g rowntree s thompson m stevens; d
grewcock b kay; j worsley l moody m corry. a titterrell d bell s borthwick a
hazell m dawson a goode o smith.
us composer recreates bach score a us musicologist has recreated a lost musical
score by german composer johann sebastian bach. the 1728 composition called
wedding cantata bwv 216 was found among the papers of japanese pianist chieko hara
who died in japan in 2001 aged 86. the work written for the wedding of a daughter
of a german customs official was missing for 80 years. joshua rifkin - a composer
and leading interpreter of bach - has recreated the missing instrumental parts. he
said he originally wanted to let the lost cantata lie in rest. maybe a fragment
should stay a fragment said rifkin. then i thought of palaeontologists from one
bone they figure the entire dinosaur. this is my dinosaur. the eight rediscovered
pages consist of vocal pieces in german for soprano and alto with the seven
movements lasting for a total of between 20 and 25 minutes. the instrumental parts
were entirely lost except for two recycled movements a duet and an aria which had
been used elsewhere in bach s work. rifkin likened the challenge to a musical
rubik s cube . i could not reconstruct what bach wrote but i could give the people
of today an idea of what his music was like he said. it sounds like bach s music
but the listener should not know which part is bach s and which part is mine.
software watching while you work software that can not only monitor every keystroke
and action performed at a pc but also be used as legally binding evidence of wrong-
doing has been unveiled. worries about cyber-crime and sabotage have prompted many
employers to consider monitoring employees. the developers behind the system claim
it is a break-through in the way data is monitored and stored. but privacy
advocates are concerned by the invasive nature of such software. the system is a
joint venture between security firm 3ami and storage specialists bridgehead
software. they have joined forces to create a system which can monitor computer
activity store it and retrieve disputed files within minutes. more and more firms
are finding themselves in deep water as a result of data misuse. sabotage and data
theft are most commonly committed from within an organisation according to the
national hi-tech crime unit (nhtcu) a survey conducted on its behalf by nop found
evidence that more than 80% of medium and large companies have been victims of some
form of cyber-crime. bridgehead software has come up with techniques to prove to a
legal standard that any stored file on a pc has not been tampered with. ironically
the impetus for developing the system came as a result of the freedom of
information act which requires companies to store all data for a certain amount of
time. the storage system has been incorporated into an application developed by
security firm 3ami which allows every action on a computer to be logged.
potentially it could help employers to follow the trail of stolen files and
pinpoint whether they had been emailed to a third party copied printed deleted
or saved to cd floppy disk memory stick or flash card. other activities the
system can monitor include the downloading of pornography the use of racist or
bullying language or the copying of applications for personal use. increasingly
organisations that handle sensitive data such as governments are using biometric
log-ins such as fingerprinting to provide conclusive proof of who was using a
particular machine at any given time. privacy advocates are concerned that
monitoring at work is not only damaging to employee s privacy but also to the
relationship between employers and their staff. that is not the case said tim
ellsmore managing director of 3ami. it is not about replacing dialogue but there
are issues that you can talk through but you still need proof he said. people
need to recognise that you are using a pc as a representative of a company and that
employers have a legal requirement to store data he added.
yachvili savours france comeback france scrum-half dimitri yachvili praised his
team after they fought back to beat england 18-17 in the six nations clash at
twickenham. yachvili kicked all of france s points as they staged a second-half
revival. we didn t play last week against scotland and we didn t play in the first
half against england he said. but we re very proud to beat england at
twickenham. we were just defending in the first half and we said we had to put them
under pressure. we did well. yachvili admitted erratic kicking from england s
charlie hodgson and olly barkley who missed six penalties and a drop goal chance
between them had been decisive. i know what it s like with kicking. when you miss
some it s very hard mentally but it went well for us he said. france captain
fabien pelous insisted his side never doubted they could secure their first win
against england at twickenham since 1997. france were 17-6 down at half-time but
pelous said: no-one was down at half-time we were still confident. we said we
only had 11 points against us which was not much. the plan was to keep hold of
possession and pressure england to losing their composure. france coach bernard
laporte accepted his side had not played well. we know we have to play better to
defend the title he said. i m not happy we didn t score a try but we re happy
because we won.
safin plays down wimbledon hopes newly-crowned australian open champion marat safin
has ruled out any chance of winning wimbledon in the future. after losing in round
one last year safin said he had given up on wimbledon and winning his second
grand slam title has not changed his mind. i ll play but with no expectations. i
feel like i can t waste my time my energy on that surface he said. some people
they cannot play on clay. some people they cannot play on a hard court. me i can
t play on grass. however safin is hopeful that winning the australian open will
give him the belief he needs to win more grand slam titles. it s a relief for me.
two grand slams it s already something. but with this one i worked really hard for
it he said. basically i would love to win a couple more. i think i have a
chance if i continue this way. if (coach) peter lundgren will stick around with
me and wants to work with me for a bit longer i think i can make it. the 25-year-
old shocked pete sampras in the 2000 us open final to win his first major title but
then lost in two australian open finals. safin admitted he had begun to doubt
whether he would win another grand slam. i didn t expect that (to win the 2000 us
open) - it was against sampras i wasn t the favourite so i had no pressure
whatsoever he said. after the first final that i didn t win against thomas
johansson (in 2002) i couldn t see myself winning the grand slams anymore. i was
once in the semi-finals of the french open but i didn t believe i can win it. i
just couldn t handle the pressure. you need to believe in yourself and i didn t.
and after losing the first set 6-1 to lleyton hewitt in sunday s final safin said
he began to doubt himself again. i am 25. i m playing against hewitt. at least you
have to have the opportunity to win it at least have a chance he said. it s
like you go there and you lose first set 6-1 then you start to think: this is not
my day. the way i m playing is ridiculous. but then you start to really be a
little bit more selfish and try to find a way out of there. and i found it. i was
like really much i was much happier than in 2000 that s for sure because i get
over it.
china keeps tight rein on credit china s efforts to stop the economy from
overheating by clamping down on credit will continue into 2005 state media report.
the curbs were introduced earlier this year to ward off the risk that rapid
expansion might lead to soaring prices. there were also fears that too much stress
might be placed on the fragile banking system. growth in china remains at a
breakneck 9.1% and corporate investment is growing at more than 25% a year. the
breakneck pace of economic expansion has kept growth above 9% for more than a year.
rapid tooling-up of china s manufacturing sector means a massive demand for energy
- one of the factors which has kept world oil prices sky-high for most of this
year. in theory the government has a 7% growth target but continues to insist
that the overshoot does not mean a hard landing in the shape of an overbalancing
economy. a low exchange rate - china s yuan is pegged to a rate of 8.28 to the
dollar which seems to be in relentless decline - means chinese exports are cheap
on world markets. china has thus far resisted international pressure to break the
link or at least to shift the level of its peg. to some extent the credit controls
do seem to be taking effect. industrial output grew 15.7% in the year to october
down from 23% in february and inflation slowed to 4.3% - although retail sales are
still booming.
films on war triumph at sundance a study of the united states at war in the past 50
years has picked up one of the main awards at the 2005 sundance film festival in
utah in the us. why we fight scooped the grand jury prize for documentaries at
the world s leading independent film festival. british director sean mcallister s
the liberace of baghdad - about a pianist in war-torn iraq - won a special prize in
the world documentary category. both why we fight and the liberace of baghdad were
made for the bbc. why we fight is due to be screened on bbc four in march. the
sundance festival was founded by actor robert redford in 1981. this year s festival
- which ended on sunday after a 11-day run - has been dominated by the themes of
war and politics. in the new world cinema drama category the angolan film the hero
triumphed to win the grand jury prize. the film - an angolan/french/portuguese
production - tells the story of a veteran of the country s civil war who returns
home to face a new battle of survival. twelve films competing in the new world
cinema documentary category focused on countries and people under siege. finnish
film the three rooms of melancholia looks at the war in chechnya and shake hands
with the devil: the journey of romeo dallaire tells the story of a un mission to
rwanda during the 1994 genocide. but it was dutch documentary shape of the moon - a
study of an extended family in indonesia - which took the top prize. meanwhile
french-israeli production wall which looks at israel s controversial security wall
separating it from the palestinian territories picked up a world cinema special
jury prize for documentaries. in the main drama category forty shades of blue was
named winner of the grand jury prize. the film tells the tale of a forbidden tug-
of-love between a father his russian immigrant girlfriend and his son. during its
24-year history the sundance film festival has showcased successes such as
reservoir dogs the blair witch project and the full monty. last year s festival
provided a platform for hits such as open water napoleon dynamite garden state
and super-size me. the festival is held in the mountain resort of park city east
of salt lake city which sees its population rise from 7 500 to 45 000 during the
festival.
microsoft sets sights on spyware windows users could soon be paying microsoft to
keep pcs free of spyware. following the takeover of anti-spyware firm giant
microsoft said it would soon release a toolkit that strips machines of the
irritating programs. although initially free microsoft has not ruled out charging
people who want to keep this toolkit up to date. surveys show that almost every
windows pc is infested with spyware programs that do everything from bombard users
with adverts to steal login data. microsoft said that a beta version of the toolkit
to clean up windows machines should be available within 30 days. designed for pcs
running windows 2000 and xp the utility will clean out spyware programs
constantly monitor what happens on a pc and will be regularly updated to catch the
latest variants. before now many of microsoft s other security boosting programs
such as the firewall in windows xp have been given away free. but mike nash vice
president in microsoft s security business unit said it was still working out
pricing and licensing issues. charging for future versions has not been discounted
he said. we ll come up with a plan and roll that out he said. the plan could
turn out to be a lucrative one for microsoft. a recent survey by earthlink and
webroot found that 90% of pcs are infested with the surreptitious software and that
on average each one is harbouring 28 separate spyware programs. currently users
wanting protection from spyware have turned to free programs such as spybot and ad-
aware. spyware comes in many forms and at its most benign exploits lazy browsing
habits to install itself and subject users to unwanted adverts. other forms hijack
net browser settings to force people to view pages they would otherwise never
visit. at its most malign spyware watches everything that people do with their pc
and steals login information and other personal data. microsoft s announcement
about spyware comes after it bought small new york software firm giant company
software. terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
oil prices reach three-month low oil prices have fallen heavily for a second day
closing at three-month lows after news that us crude stocks have improved ahead of
winter. london brent crude closed at $40.15 on thursday - a drop of 5.1% - having
dived below $40 a barrel for the first time since mid-september. us light crude
traded in new york lost more than $2 to $43.25 its lowest close since 10
september. the price of both benchmark crudes has dropped 12% in two days. the
falls were triggered when the energy information administration (eia) said on
wednesday that us crude stocks were 3.5% higher than a year ago. the news calmed
worries about winter shortages. weak us fuel and heating oil stocks have been a
persistent factor in pushing up oil prices. it s amazing how quickly sentiment
changed said rick mueller an analyst at energy security analysis. analysts also
attributed the fall to mild early-winter weather which has tempered demand for
heating oil. the stronger fuel inventories helped boost us stock markets to nine-
month highs on wednesday though only the nasdaq index had hung onto those gains by
the end of thursday. in london the ftse 100 index closed 15 points higher at 4
751. the long-awaited drop in oil prices helped to ease persistent investor jitters
over the impact of energy costs on company profits and economic growth. however
traders warned that the fall could be short-lived if there is a cold snap in north
america this winter or any major supply problems in other parts of the world. the
price of crude is still up about 30% on the start of 2004 but has fallen from the
record of $55.67 set in late october. opec nations have increased production to 25-
year highs to meet global demand and this has helped rebuild us stocks hit by
supply disruptions after hurricane ivan in september. traders were also encouraged
by comments on wednesday from the energy minister of opec member algeria. chakib
khelil said the cartel was likely to keep output unchanged when it meets next week.
however some analysts believe the sharp fall in crude prices may harden opec s
attitude to over-production leading to a scaling back of oil output. fears still
remain over the level of us heating oil stocks which are rising but remain down on
2004 levels. a cold spell in north america would start to deplete supplies and
could spark further price rises. analysts however say prices will fall further if
inventories continue to rise. mother nature is going to be huge in the next
several weeks said kyle cooper at citigroup global markets. long term i think
we re headed to $30-35 but i don t think we re doing that yet. we have a lot of
winter left. john person president of national futures advisory services said
the eia data indicated there should be adequate supplies for the next three months
in the us. .
ronaldo considering new contract manchester united winger cristiano ronaldo said he
is close to agreeing to a new contract at old trafford. the portugal star who
joined in august 2003 on a five-year-deal is a regular in the united first-team.
the united board have already made an offer to renew the contract but i m trying
not to think about it he told the news of the world. my agent has spoken with
the club and it will be resolved soon. i think we ll reach a good agreement for
both sides. ronaldo refused to commit his long-term future to the club. nobody
knows what will come tomorrow. i like being here but who knows he added. there
aren t many bigger and better clubs than this one. it s my ambition to be at a big
club. i m happy but nobody knows the future.
bp surges ahead on high oil price oil giant bp has announced a 26% rise in annual
profits to $16.2bn (£8.7bn) on the back of record oil prices. last week rival
shell reported an annual profit of $17.5bn - a record profit for a uk-listed
company. bp added that it was increasing its fourth-quarter dividend by 26% to 8.5
cents and that it would continue with share buybacks. bp chief executive lord
browne said the results were strong both operationally and financially. the
company is earning about $1.8m an hour. despite the record annual profits figure
bp s performance was below the expectations of some city analysts. however bp s
share price rose 4p or nearly 1% in morning trading to 548p. its profit rise for
the year included profits of $3.65bn (£1.97bn) for the final three months of 2004 -
up from $2.89bn a year ago but below its third quarter. speaking on the bbc s
today programme on tuesday lord browne said the profits were not solely down to
the high oil price alone. the profits are up more than the price of oil is up
he said. lord browne pointed out that bp was reaping the benefits of its investment
in oil exploration. we have spent many years buying (assets) when the price is low
he said. the company has made new discoveries in egypt the gulf of mexico and
angola. however lord browne rejected calls for a windfall tax on his company s
huge profits saying that in the north sea it paid progressively more tax the more
profits it made. lord browne believes oil prices will remain quite high. currently
above $40 a barrel he said: the price of oil will be well supported above $30 a
barrel for the medium term. bp put production for the year at 3.997 billion
barrels of oil up 10% on 2003 but slightly lower than the four billion barrels it
had initially aimed for.
ukip could sue veritas defectors the uk independence party could take legal action
to unseat two london assembly members who defected to robert kilroy silk s veritas
party. damian hockney now veritas deputy leader and peter hulme-cross were
elected in 2004 on the list system. the party argues the pair should give up their
seats as they won them as ukip representatives not as individuals. mr hockney said
the law was clear that those elected on a list who quit their party should keep
their seats. ukip chairman petrina holdsworth urged the men to step down from the
gla in a letter. she said: the party has taken legal advice and it is clear that
we could take legal proceedings against you which could result in the return of our
seats and/or damages against you. we would however like you to be given an
opportunity to reflect on what you have done to restore your own credibility with
the electorate and return the seats to the party which won them fair and square at
the last election. mr hockney said the law worked in exactly the same way for the
gla as it did for other electoral list systems. the greater london act is clear
that if someone resigns who was elected on a list their party whip the seat
belongs to them and not the party. he said mr hulme-cross and himself had no
intention of resigning and added that they felt that it was ukip who were not being
true to the electorate. he accused the party of signing up to a deal with the
tories in europe rather than sticking to an independent stance. but the claim was
denied by ukip spokesman who said: mr hockney s accusations are like his sense of
political morals - empty. veritas was formed by mr kilroy-silk earlier this month
after he quit ukip following an unsuccessful bid to take over as leader.
us budget deficit to reach $368bn the us budget deficit is set to hit a worse-than-
expected $368bn (£197bn) this year officials said on tuesday. the cost of
military operations still needs to be factored in with analysts saying the deficit
could end up a further $100bn in the red. past congressional budget office (cbo)
forecasts said there would be a $348bn shortfall in the 2005 fiscal year. in recent
months the dollar has weakened amid market jitters about the size of the budget
and trade deficits. in november the gap between us exports and imports widened to
more than $60bn a record figure. the cbo says it envisages a further orderly
decline in the greenback over the next two years as the twin deficit drives dollar
investors away. but the non-partisan fiscal watchdog notes the declines will help
exporters and boost us economic growth. the budget deficit hit a record $412bn in
the 12 months to 30 september 2004 after reaching $377bn in the previous fiscal
year. the cbo also forecast a total shortfall of $855bn for the years from 2006 to
2015 an improvement on previous projections. however analysts say the new figures
fail to take into account the potential $2-$3.8 trillion costs of the president s
plan to revamp state pensions and extend tax cuts. the figure could also be
worsened by any further military costs. republicans have blamed the size of the
deficit on slow economic conditions after the 11 september attacks and ongoing
military operations in iraq and afghanistan. one of president george w bush s
election pledges was to halve the budget deficit within five years. but democrats
have accused the president of excluding iraq-related costs from previous budgets to
meet the aim of reducing the deficit a charge which the administration denies. on
tuesday the us administration asked congress for additional funds for military
operations.
band aid 20 single storms to no 1 the new version of the band aid song do they know
it s christmas has gone straight in at number one in the uk singles chart. the
charity record is also tipped to be this year s christmas number one. it features
vocals from the likes of chris martin dido robbie williams and the sugababes. the
original version - which was the christmas number one in 1984 - sold 750 000 copies
in its first week and 3.5 million in total. it was released in the us and reached
number 13 in the singles chart. however band aid 20 is not going to be released in
the us despite being sold in many countries around the world. us record shops are
stocking an import version of do they know it s christmas which is said to be
selling very well in los angeles and new york. british stars who appear on the
current recording such as dido and coldplay s chris martin are well known to
music fans across the atlantic along with u2 frontman bono. record company
universal is responsible for the global distribution of the single which will be
available across europe asia south america and canada. but music fans in the us
are still able to access the song and download it on band aid 20 s official
website. in 1985 a group of high-profile american stars known as usa for africa
came together to record their own fund-raising single we are the world. the song
was written by lionel richie and michael jackson with quincy jones as producer.
it topped the us charts for three weeks and went on win grammy awards for best
record and song. dionne warwick diana ross and tina turner were among the line-up
of performers. proceeds from the sales of the band aid 20 single will go towards
aid relief in africa in countries such as ethiopia and sudan. the money raised
will also be used to help combat hiv and aids across the continent. the band aid
trust which was set up 20 years ago when the original single was released handed
out $144m (£75m) to famine relief projects across africa between january 1985 and
november 2004.
gangsters dominate gaming chart video games on consoles and computers proved more
popular than ever in 2004. gamers spent more than £1.34bn in 2004 almost 7% more
than they did in 2003 according to figures released by the uk gaming industry s
trade body. sales records were smashed by the top title of the year gta: san
andreas - in which players got the job of turning central character cj into a crime
boss. the game sold more than 1 million copies in the first nine days that it was
on sale. this feat made it the fastest selling video game of all time in the uk.
although only released in november the sprawling story of guns gangsters game beat
off strong competition and by year end had sold more than 1.75 million copies.
there were also records set for the number of games that achieved double-platinum
status by selling more than 600 000 copies. five titles including sony eyetoy play
and ea s need for speed: underground 2 managed this feat according to figures
compiled by chart-track for the entertainment and leisure software publishers
association (elspa). electronic arts the world s biggest games publisher had 9
games in the top 20. 2004 was a stellar year said roger bennett director
general of elspa. in a year with no new generation consoles being released the
market continued to be buoyant as the industry matured and the increasingly diverse
range of games reached new audiences and broadened its player base - across ages
and gender he said. part of the success of games in 2004 could be due to the fact
that so many of them are sequels. 16 out of the top 20 titles were all follow-ups
to established franchises or direct sequels to previously popular games. halo the
sims driver need for speed fifa football burnout were just a few that proved as
popular as the original titles. despite this fondness for older games doom 3 did
not make it to the top 20. movie tie-ins also proved their worth in 2004. games
linked to shrek the incredibles spider-man harry potter and lord of the rings
were all in the top 20. elspa noted that sales of xbox games rose 37.9% during the
year. however sony s playstation 2 was the top seller with 47% of the £1.34bn
spent on games in 2004 used to buy titles for that console. despite winning awards
and rave reviews half-life 2 did not appear in the list. this was because it was
only released on pc and compared to console titles sold in relatively small
numbers. also the novel distribution system adopted by developer valve meant that
many players downloaded the title rather than travel to the shops to buy a copy.
valve has yet to release figures which show how many copies of the game were sold
in this way.
india unveils anti-poverty budget india is to boost spending on primary schools and
health in a budget flagged as a boost for the ordinary citizen. india s defence
budget has also been raised 7.8% to 830bn rupees ($19bn). the priority for finance
minister palaniappan chidambaram is to fight poverty and keep the government s
communist allies onside. but his options are limited by a new law which makes him
cut the budget deficit which he said would be 4.5% of gdp in the year to march
2005. the country s overall deficit is thought to be more than 10% if the spending
of india s 35 states and territories is included. under the fiscal responsibility
law mr chidambaram has to trim the deficit by 0.3 percentage points each year a
target he says he has now met for the current year. but the heavy spending on
poverty reduction means the 2005-6 target for the deficit will be 4.3% mr
chidambaram said - falling short of the new law s requirement. i was left with no
option but to press the pause button vis a vis the act he said. the following
year though would have to be back on track he warned. i may add that we are
perilously close to the limits of fiscal prudence and there is no more room for
spending beyond our means he said. the coming year s reduction has meant bringing
more of the businesses in india s burgeoning services sector into the tax system
and restructuring the personal tax system although there are numerous corporate
tax and duty reductions built into the budget. presenting his budget in the lower
house of parliament mr chidambaram said the indian economy was performing strongly
and that inflation has been reined in. he said india s economy grew 6.9% in 2004.
in his budget mr chidambaram has: - increased spending on primary education to
71.56bn rupees ($1.6bn) - increased spending on health to 102.8bn rupees
($2.35bn) - announced that 80bn rupees ($1.8bn) will be spent on building rural
infrastructure - pledged 102.16bn rupees ($2.3bn) for tsunami victims -
increased flow of funds to agriculture by 30% - announced a package for the sugar
industry in addition up to 100bn rupees ($2.3bn) to be spent on infrastructure
will be sourced by borrowing against the country s foreign exchange reserves
keeping budgeted spending under control. given the resilience of the indian
economy... it is possible to launch a direct assault on poverty mr chidambaram
said. the whole purpose of democratic government is to eliminate poverty. the new
indian government led by the congress party was voted into power last may after
it pledged to introduce economic reforms with a human face . the finance minister
says he is committed to continue reforming india s tax system while expanding the
tax base. as part of his reforms he has announced: - duty cuts on capital goods
and raw materials - expanded service tax net - raised the income-tax threshold
to 100 000 rupees ($2 300) - reduced income tax for those earning less than 250
000 rupees ($5 700) to 20% - reduced corporate tax rates to 30% an annual
economic survey released on friday said india needed to ease limit restriction on
foreign investment reform labour laws and cut duties apart from widening the tax
base for long-term economic growth. but mr chidambaram is under pressure from the
communist parties to focus on increasing social spending. the communists are also
hostile to measures seeking to increase foreign investment and allow companies to
hire and fire employees at will. in recent months they have expressed their
displeasure at the government s economic reform plans including increasing foreign
direct investment in telecommunication and aviation. in his last budget mr
chidambaram had pledged billions of dollars for improving education and health
services for the poor as well as special assistance for farmers.
no more concessions on terror charles clarke says he has no desire to offer more
concessions on his controversial anti-terror plans to get them on to the statute
book. mps voted in favour of the prevention of terrorism bill after mr clarke
agreed to key changes - but labour s majority was reduced to 14. the bill now faces
opposition from peers angry at house arrest proposals. lord strathclyde tory
leader in the lords said ministers should expect it to be substantially re-
written . the bill proposes control orders which as well as house arrest could
impose curfews tagging or bans on telephone and internet use. they would replace
current powers to detain foreign terror suspects without trial which the law lords
have ruled against. on monday mps voted 272-219 in favour of the bill after key
concessions from mr clarke. the government earlier saw its 161-strong majority cut
to just 14 as a cross-party amendment was narrowly rejected by the commons despite
the support of 62 labour rebels. mr clarke won over critics by announcing he would
introduce an amendment in the lords to ensure the most controversial control order
amounting to house arrest would be imposed by judges and not politicians. lord
strathclyde warned ministers that they should prepare themselves for substantial
rewriting of various aspects of the bill . they should consider far more seriously
the use of intercept evidence in any trial and i think they should drop the most
objectionable proposals which are for house arrest. but mr clarke told bbc radio
4 s today programme he believed the changes he had made to the bill to win over
critics in the commons should be sufficient to satisfy colleagues in the lords. no
bill goes through parliament without detailed consideration being made but i
believe that what i announced yesterday will be sufficient to secure the agreement
of the house of lords he said. i have no desire to make further so-called
concessions on the bill. mr clarke s proposed amendment will be debated by the
lords on tuesday without having been considered by mps. the debate is unlikely to
result in a vote. speaking after the commons debate shadow home secretary david
davies said the bill had been clearly very badly drawn-up and that the government
was trying to rush it through too quickly. he said it would be possible to rescue
the government and make the law tolerable by amending it in the lords. the scope
for miscarriages of justice is enormous he told bbc news. mark oaten for the
liberal democrats said monday night s vote showed the government had lost the
confidence of all sides of the house . he said: they need to rethink the bill and
extend the power of a judge to decide on all control orders build safeguards on
evidence and create charges against suspects. unless there is a major movement
this bill is doomed to fail. bbc news political editor andrew marr said: i think
that this is a bill in deep trouble. it s been unravelling in the house of commons
- it may unravel further. the government wants the new bill to pass into law by 14
march when the current powers expire.
parmalat boasts doubled profits parmalat the italian food group at the centre of
one of europe s most painful corporate scandals has reported a doubling in profit.
its pre-tax earnings in the fourth quarter were 77m euros (£53m; $100m) up from
38m in the same period of 2003. less welcome was the news that the firm had been
fined 11m euros for having violated takeover rules five years ago. the firm sought
bankruptcy protection in december 2003 after disclosing a 4bn-euro hole in its
accounts. overall the company s debt is close to 12bn euros and is falling only
slowly. its brands well-known in italy and overseas have continued to perform
strongly however and have barely lost revenue since the scandal broke. but a
crucial factor for the company s future is the legal unwinding of its intensely
complex financial position. on tuesday the company s administrator turnaround
expert enrico bondi sued morgan stanley its former banker to return 136m euros
relating to a 2003 bond deal. that brought to 49 the number of banks that mr bondi
has sued a mass of legal action that could bring in as much as 3bn euros. the
company has also sued former auditors and financial advisors for damages. and
criminal cases against the company s former management are proceeding separately.
mobile gaming takes off in india gaming on the move is one of the fastest-growing
activities among the tech-savvy in india says a report. the indian mobile gaming
market is expected to generate about $26m (£13.8m) by the end of 2004 according to
market analysts in-stat/mdr. in october mobile phone users grew by 1.4 million to
44.9 million overtaking the number of landlines said the telecom regulatory
authority of india. analysts say cheap rates and a huge youth market is driving the
market. india has a large population of under-25s and many in urban areas are fast
adopting mobiles as must-have gadgets. india s mobile gaming market will bring in
about $336m (£178m) by 2009 according to the report. mobile gaming is expected to
explode globally over the next few years. analysts predict that 220 million people
will be playing games on phones by 2009 generating billions for mobile companies.
services other than just voice calls which are offered by mobile operators in india
have as a result of the huge rise in subscribers grown significantly and rapidly.
the growth of this market sector has attracted publishers developers animators
musicians and content providers and is also stimulating the development of
innovative business models said clint wheelock director of in-stat/mdr s
wireless research group. mobile gaming is not just about fun; it also represents
one key element of a rich mobile entertainment experience for consumers and a
lucrative market opportunity for industry players. currently india has six big
games developers and four mobile operators that offer games to their subscribers
said the report. according to in-stat/mdr it is tipped to make up one of the most
important markets in the next wave of mobile multimedia growth. in january 2003
there were only 10 million mobile subscribers in india. many choose mobiles in
rural areas in order to bypass poorer telecoms infrastructure. despite this the
penetration rate is still much lower that other countries. less than 20% of india s
total population own a mobile in india compared to well over 50% in most european
countries. the trend echoes the uptake of mobiles in many developing economies
which continues to grow as people opt to leapfrog slower and more expensive state-
run fixed-line operators.
hantuchova in dubai last eight daniela hantuchova moved into the quarter-finals of
the dubai open after beating elene likhotseva of russia 7-5 6-4 and now faces
serena williams. australian open champion williams survived an early scare to beat
russia s elena bovina 1-6 6-1 6-4. world number one lindsay davenport and anastasia
myskina also progressed. davenport defeated china s jie zheng 6-2 7-5 while french
open champion myskina sailed through after her opponent marion bartoli retired
hurt. american davenport will now face fellow former wimbledon champion conchita
martinez of spain who ousted seventh-seeded nathalie dechy of france 6-1 6-2.
myskina will face eighth-seed patty schnyder from switzerland who defeated china s
li na 6-3 7-6 (10-8). the other quarter final pits wild card sania mirza of india
against jelena jankovic of serbia and montenegro who both won on tuesday. before
her meeting with martinez davenport believes there is some room for improvement in
her game. i started well and finished well but played some so-so games in the
middle she said. williams was also far from content. i don t know what i was
doing there she said. it was really windy and i hadn t played in the wind. all
my shots were going out of here. but hantuchova is in upbeat mood ahead of her
clash with the younger williams sister who was handed a first-round bye. i feel i
have an advantage (over serena) because i have already played two matches on these
courts she said. it is a difficult court to play on. very fast and sometimes you
feel you have no control over the ball.
iranian mps threaten mobile deal turkey s biggest private mobile firm could bail
out of a $3bn ($1.6bn) deal to build a network in iran after mps there slashed its
stake in the project. conservatives in parliament say turkcell s stake in irancell
the new network should be cut from 70% to 49%. they have already given themselves
a veto over all foreign investment deals following allegations about turkish firms
involvement in israel. turkcell now says it may give up on the deal altogether.
iran currently has only one heavily congested mobile network with long waiting
lists for new subscribers. turkcell signed a contract for the new network in
september. the new operator planned to offer subscriptions for about $180 well
below the existing firm s $500 price tag. but a parliamentary commission has now
ruled that turkcell s 70% controlling stake is too high. they say that turkcell is
a security risk because of alleged business ties with israel. parliament as a whole
- dominated by religious conservatives - will vote on the ruling on tuesday.
turkcell said the ruling would make more difficult... turkcell s financial
consolidation of irancell because its stake would be reduced to less than 50%. if
management control and financial consolidation of irancell cannot be achieved...
the realisation of the project will become risky it warned in a statement. the
firm has refused to comment on whether it has business dealings in israel although
like almost all gsm operators worldwide it has an interconnection deal with israeli
networks so that its customers can use their phones there. the two countries
strengthened ties in both defence and economic issues in 2004. israeli industry
minister ehud olmert was reported in june to have attended a meeting between ruhi
dogusoy turkcell s chief operating officer and executives from israeli telecoms
firms. telecoms is one of two areas specifically targeted by the new veto law on
foreign investments passed earlier in september. the other is airports a source
of controversy after the army closed tehran s new imam khomeini international
airport on its opening day in may 2004. again the allegation was that the part-
turkish tav consortium which built and ran it had links with israel.
johnny depp: the acting outlaw johnny depp whose latest role was peter pan creator
jm barrie in finding neverland is celebrated as one of hollywood s most maverick
talents. depp has become an unlikely major star given his preference for taking
dark and idiosyncratic roles instead of surefire box office hits. he has had a
long-running working relationship with the equally unconventional director tim
burton. depp was born in kentucky in 1963 and at first wanted to be a rock star
playing in a number of bands and supporting acts such as iggy pop and the b-52s in
florida. on a visit to los angeles his former wife introduced him to actor nicolas
cage. in 1984 he started his film career playing a doomed teenager in horror film
nightmare on elm street. two years later he played a soldier in oliver stone s
vietnam epic platoon. but it was tv that first made depp a star. he played
undercover cop tommy hanson in the us series 21 jump street for three years from
1987. in 1990 he began his partnership with burton in the dark fairy tale edward
scissorhands about a young man with blades for hands. he won plaudits in 1993 for
the downbeat film what s eating gilbert grape where he played a sensitive youth
looking after an overweight mother and a retarded younger brother played by
leonardo dicaprio. another role under burton ed wood starred depp as the crazed
cult film-maker wood in 1994. he played a much more serious sensitive role in his
next major film donnie brasco where he portrayed an undercover cop infiltrating a
mafia ring. in 1997 he directed his only film to date - the brave the story of an
indian man offered money to appear in a snuff film. two years later he played
hunter s thompson in terry gilliam s ambitious but poorly-received big screen
adaptation of fear and loathing in las vegas. he worked again with tim burton in
the 1999 horror film sleepy hollow and appeared opposite dame judi dench and
juliette binoche in chocolat. his performance in pirates of the caribbean which
earned him golden globe and bafta nominations had many critics thinking he based
it upon the mannerisms of his friend rolling stones guitarist keith richards. his
latest role in finding neverland explored jm barrie s relationship with sylvia
(kate winslet) and her children. depp s charismatic performance drew an audience of
adults and children alike into barrie s vivid imagination and he was called the
fifth child of the group by the film s director marc forster. he has two children
of his own with french singer vanessa paradis having previously been in a long-
term relationship with british model kate moss. the theme of children s literature
in depp s career - and his long association with tim burton - are set to continue
in his next role playing willy wonka in a remake of roald dahl s classic charlie
and the chocolate factory. british tv comedy fans might also remember depp s guest
role in the final episode of bbc sketch programme the fast show cited as his
favourite show. it was another surprise move in depp s varied and intriguing
career.
rank set to sell off film unit leisure group rank could unveil plans to demerge
its film services unit and sell its media business reports claim. rank formerly
famous for the carry on series will expose the shake-up at the announcement of its
results on friday the sunday telegraph reported. advisors goldman sachs are
understood to have valued its demerged deluxe film unit at £300m the report added.
speculation of a possible shake-up has mounted since rank announced a study into a
possible demerger in september. since mike smith s appointment as chief executive
in 1999 the group has focused on fewer businesses and embarked on a major cost-
cutting programme which has seen it dispose of a number of businesses including
the odeon cinema chain and the pinewood studios. the move left the group with three
core divisions: gaming hard rock and deluxe films which provides technical
services to hollywood studios. rank now aims to concentrate on its gaming bars
and hotels business including extending its hard rock brand to its casinos -
trials of which have been a success. it also owns deluxe media which makes and
distributes dvds and videos. however that business is seen as less successful.
last year it made profits of £21.5m on a turnover of £392.1m and experts suggest
its success in moving to dvds from vhs video could make it an attractive target for
a private equity buyer. a spokesman for the firm refused to comment on the reports
but said any results from the demerger study were likely to be set out when it
unveiled its results on friday. analysts predict the firm is likely to report a
slight drop in annual pre-tax profits to £170m from £194m last year. formed in the
1940s the firm was a leading uk film producer and cinema owner for many years. it
has now diversified into a range of other leisure activities - mainly in the uk -
including hotels roadside service areas and holiday centres. it now owns 34
grosvenor casinos the mecca bingo chain and more than 100 hard rock cafes in 38
countries.
prime minister s questions so who if anyone is playing politics with the security
of the nation michael howard has no doubt it is the prime minister who he claims
is ramming through parliament the controversial new anti-terror measures without
proper debate. he didn t say so but the tories believe the prime minister is
playing the fear card on this one so he can look tough in the run up to the general
election and they believe tony blair is using the issue to suggest the tories are
soft on terrorism. why on earth will the prime minister not simply take up the
tories offer to extend the existing powers temporarily to allow proper
parliamentary debate of the laws he demanded. the prime minister claims this is
the clearest indication that it is the tories who are playing politics with the
issue by attempting to score cheap political points in parliament. is not the
opposition against to the proposed laws in principle in which case delaying a
decision for further debate would be pointless what this is really about
believes mr blair is the tories spotting an opportunity to embarrass maybe even
defeat the government. and that is more important to them than national security.
liberal democrat leader charles kennedy avoided suggesting anyone was playing
politics with the issue. he preferred to state that as with other issues like id
cards the government s immediate instinct was authoritarian. as is his habit
nowadays the prime minister was less rough with mr kennedy than he had been with
mr howard - he prefers a more exasperated tone suggesting he believes the lib dems
have once again just missed the point. apart from all that it was electioneering
as usual. the very first question to the prime minister from derby north s bob
laxton asked him in effect if he would carry on the excellent policy of pouring
more resources into schools. later birmingham s sion simon even went so far as to
suggest the tories were such a shower that we should have the general election now.
the prime minister almost blushed. this was not the appropriate place to announce
election day he stammered. but can anyone be in any doubt that that announcement
is just days away - an announcement coming in the week beginning 4 april for an
election on 5 may is where the big money is in the commons. and perhaps that simple
fact alone means everyone is seen to be playing politics with just about everything
at the moment.
england to launch ref protest england will protest to the international rugby
board (irb) about the referee s performance in the defeat by ireland reports the
daily mail. england coach andy robinson has called on ex-international referees
colin high and steve lander to analyse several of jonathan kaplan s decisions. i
want to go through the tape with colin and steve robinson told the daily mail. i
want to speak to the irb about it. i think only one side was refereed. high the
rugby football union s referees manager claimed kaplan made three major errors
which changed the outcome of sunday s match. england were beaten 19-13 by the irish
in dublin their third straight defeat in the 2005 six nations. the international
rugby board will be disappointed high told the daily mail. jonathan kaplan is in
the top 20 in the world but that wasn t an international performance. it would not
have been acceptable in the zurich premiership. if one of my referees had done
that i would have had my backside kicked for making the appointment. if any
english referee refereed like that in a european match there would be an inquest.
no question about that. if someone had performed like that he would have been
pulled from the next game.
media seek jackson juror notes reporters covering singer michael jackson s trial
in california have asked to see questionnaires completed by potential jurors.
lawyers for news organisations said it was really vital for the responses of 250
potential jurors to be made public to serve as a check on the process . santa
barbara county superior court is due to consider the request on monday. mr jackson
denies child molestation. it is estimated his trial will cost santa barbara county
up to $4m (£2.13m). meanwhile michael jackson s mother has said she is 100%
certain her son did not commit the child abuse charges he faces. the court is
currently selecting 12 jurors and eight stand-by jurors for the trial a process
delayed until at least thursday after a member of the star s legal team was hit by
family illness. defence lawyers argued against the bid by associated press and
other news organisations to have potential jurors responses made public. the
release of the completed jury questionnaires does not serve any purpose other than
to add to the sensationalist coverage of this case a motion by mr jackson s
lawyers stated. the estimated total costs of the trial expected to last five
months range from $2.5m (£1.33m) to $4m (£2.13m) of local taxpayers money. those
estimates do not include costs to the city of santa maria the superior court or
for the investigation and prosecution of the case. the cost of security and other
needs around the courthouse has been estimated at $40 000 (£21 000) per day said
jason stilwell a special projects manager at the county administrator s office.
mr jackson 46 denies plying a boy with alcohol and molesting him. his mother
katherine jackson told us tv network fox news on sunday that her pop star son told
her he was innocent. i believe that for one reason - i know his character she
said. he loves children. you don t molest anything that you love. describing mr
jackson as a good person the mother-of-nine said she feared he would not be
given a fair trial. i can t sleep thinking about what these wicked people might
try to do to him she said.
brown outlines third term vision gordon brown has outlined what he thinks should be
the key themes of new labour s next general election bid. he said ensuring every
child in britain had the best start in life could be a legacy to match the nhs s
creation. the chancellor has previously planned the party s election strategy but
this time the role will be filled by alan milburn - a key ally of tony blair. the
premier insisted mr brown will have a key role in labour s campaign and praised
his handling of the economy. writing in the guardian newspaper mr brown outlined
his view of the direction new labour should be taking. as our manifesto and our
programme for the coming decade should make clear labour s ambition is not simply
tackling idleness but delivering full employment; not just attacking ignorance
disease and squalor but promoting lifelong education good health and sustainable
communities. bbc political editor andrew marr said that mr brown s article was a
warning shot to mr blair not to try and cut him out of the manifesto writing
process. it was as always coded and careful... but entirely deliberate was mr
marr s assessment. the prime minister was asked about mr brown s article and about
his election role when he appeared on bbc radio 4 s today programme. mr blair said
a decision had yet to be taken over how the election would be run but the
chancellor s role would be central . mr blair argued that under new labour the
country had changed for the better and that was in part because of mr brown s
management of the economy. and he pledged childcare would be a centrepiece of
labour s manifesto. he also predicted the next general election will be a tough
tough fight for new labour. but the prime minister insisted he did not know what
date the poll would take place despite speculation about 5 may. mr blair said he
was taking nothing for granted ahead of the vote - warning that the tory strategy
was to win power via the back door by hinting they were aiming to cut labour s
majority instead of hoping for an outright win.
stam spices up man utd encounter ac milan defender jaap stam says manchester united
know they made a mistake by selling him in 2001. the sides meet at old trafford
in the champions league game on wednesday and the 32-year-old s dutchman s presence
is sure to add spice to the fixture. united made a mistake in selling me stam
told uefa s champions magazine. i was settled at manchester united but they
wanted to sell me. if a club want to sell you there is nothing you can do. you can
be sold like cattle. sir alex ferguson surprised the football world - and stam -
by selling the dutchman to lazio for £16.5m in august 2001. the decision came
shortly after stam claimed in his autobiography that ferguson had tapped him up
when he was at psv eindhoven. but ferguson insisted he sold the defender because
the transfer fee was too good to refuse for a player past his prime. the affair
still rankles with the dutchman. i was settled at manchester united i had even
just ordered a new kitchen but they wanted to sell me he said. in what other
industry can a good employee be ushered out the door against their wishes of
course you can refuse to go but then the club have the power to put you on the
bench. i don t agree that players control the game. there have been opportunities
to confront them in the newspapers but i have turned them down. what s the point
wednesday s game at old trafford will provide an intriguing confrontation between
united s young attackers wayne rooney and cristiano ronaldo and milan s veteran
defence of stam paolo maldini cafu and alessandro costacurta. stam says rooney s
teenage stardom is in stark contract to his own start in the game. we can t all be
wayne rooneys - at his age i was training to be an electrician and thought my
chance of becoming a professional footballer had gone he said. starting late can
be a good thing. some kids who start early get bored. i had my youth - having fun
drinking beers blowing up milk cannisters. it sounds strange but it s a tradition
where i grew up in kampen - and i had done all the things i wanted to do.
daimlerchrysler s 2004 sales rise us-german carmaker daimlerchrysler has sold 2.1%
more cars in 2004 than in the previous year as solid chrysler sales offset a weak
showing for mercedes. sales totalled 3.9 million units worldwide during 2004 the
company said at the detroit motor show. a switch to new models hit luxury marque
mercedes-benz with sales down 3.1% at 1.06 million. chrysler avoided the fate of
us rivals ford and general motors both of whom lost ground to japanese firms. its
sales rose 3.5% to 2.7 million units. similarly on the up was the smart brand of
compact cars with the division s sales jumping by 21.1% during 2004 to 136 000.
the future of the brand - which is controlled by the mercedes group within
daimlerchrysler - remains in question however. smart has consistently lost money
since it started trading in 1998 and new model launches are now on hold said
mercedes chief executive eckhard cordes. in europe the smart will now go on sale
through regular mercedes dealerships as well as its own dealer network mr cordes
said.
chelsea hold arsenal a gripping game between arsenal and chelsea ended with the
honours finishing even at highbury. thierry henry produced a sublime strike to put
arsenal ahead but john terry levelled with a powerful header. henry s quickly-taken
free-kick put arsenal back in front but eidur gudjohnsen equalised with a header
from william gallas knockback. henry missed a golden chance when he blazed a shot
high late on and arsenal also had a penalty appeal rejected. henry s opener had
given arsenal the perfect start and set up an enthralling affair. the french
striker headed a long cesc faregas ball back to jose antonio reyes from the edge of
the chelsea area and immediately saw it headed back into his path from the
spaniard. and with his back to goal henry finished with aplomb when he took one
touch turned and struck an angled strike past the despairing dive of keeper petr
cech. henry epitomised a determination about the arsenal side but chelsea appeared
unruffled and equalised after 16 minutes. gunners keeper manuel almunia who got
the nod ahead of jens lehmann did well to save a well-struck frank lampard shot.
but he could not keep out terry s powered header from the resultant corner as
arsenal s weakness at set-pieces was again exposed. almost immediately henry went
close and chelsea gathered the loose ball before going straight up the other end
where gudjohnsen fluffed an effort. gudjohnsen did not make the same error minutes
later when he struck a sweet shot only for almunia to be equal to the task and
save. the homes side regained the lead in controversial fashion when robert pires
won a dubious free-kick. and given the option to take the 25-yard set-piece
quickly henry curled in a shot with cech still organising his wall. this time
arsenal did not allow chelsea to level so soon as they went into the break ahead.
chelsea brought striker didier drogba on to partner gudjohnsen up front after the
interval and the move reaped immediate reward. lampard swung in a cross which
gallas knocked back across goal and a deft header from gudjohnsen levelled matters
again. chelsea s main threat was coming from crosses and lampard missed a great
opportunity as he headed wide when left unmarked at the far post. the second half
failed to live up to the thrilling pace of the opening period but there were
flashes of brilliance. one of them came from the enigmatic robben when he jinked
his way through two arsenal defenders only to see his poked shot saved by almunia.
arsenal ended the match the stronger and worked a excellent chance for henry who
put a left-foot shot high from eight yards. subtitute robin van persie could also
have nicked a win for the highbury outfit but frustratingly sidefooted just wide.
matthieu flamini had a late penal appeal waved away before the final whistle which
maintained chelsea five-point premiership lead over arsenal. almunia lauren
toure campbell cole pires flamini fabregas reyes (clichy 82) bergkamp (van
persie 82) henry. subs not used: senderos hoyte lehmann. cole. henry 2 29.
cech paulo ferreira ricardo carvalho (drogba 45) terry gallas duff tiago
(bridge 45) makelele lampard robben gudjohnsen (parker 77). subs not used:
kezman cudicini. robben drogba lampard. terry 17 gudjohnsen 46. 38 153 g
poll (hertfordshire).
muslims discuss election concerns issues that muslims should be considering before
voting in the next general election are to be debated by uk community
representatives. the event is being held by the muslim association of britain
(mab) which believes muslim voters could influence the result in up to 50
constituencies. last year mab which opposed the war in iraq urged muslims not to
vote for labour in the european elections. but a spokesman stressed the meeting was
not necessarily anti-labour . this meeting is not anti-party in particular it s
anti-policy it s on the issues we are going to ask muslims to vote on mab
spokesman dr azzam tamimi said of tuesday s event. there are issues of concern to
muslims and muslims generally agree on them but have not in the past been aware of
how a vote can serve these issues. dr tamimi said the main issues muslims should
consider were what he referred to as the war on iraq the palestinian situation
the erosion of civil liberties for muslims in the uk and economic social and
education problems. approximately 1.1m of the uk s 1.6m muslims are of voting age.
previous election research has shown the overwhelming majority have traditionally
voted labour but more recent studies have suggested labour support has been
falling away significantly among some muslim voters. anger over the war in iraq
has appeared to be the main reason with many saying it was unjustified .
representatives from a number of muslim organisations will attend tuesday s event.
among them will be the muslim council of britain (mcb). the chairman of the mcb s
public affairs committee sher khan said the war in iraq would be a significant
factor affecting muslims voting intentions. i think it s going to be quite
significant because of the number of seats in which they could have an impact mr
khan said. however professor john curtice of the university of strathclyde is
sceptical about how much difference tactical voting by muslims could make. for the
most part the labour constituencies where there s a large muslim community are
relatively safe but there are one or two that are not quite so safe professor
curtice said. the constituencies where labour was most at risk from a muslim
tactical vote were bethnal green in east london and rochdale in lancashire he
added. in bethnal green former labour mp george galloway who founded the anti-war
party respect is standing against sitting mp oona king who had a 10 000-vote
majority in 2001. in rochdale the liberal democrats - the mainstream party a 2004
icm survey showed was benefiting most from muslim disaffection with labour -
secured second place in the 2001 election securing just under 6 000 votes fewer
than labour s lorna fitzsimons. but professor curtice said the muslim anti-war vote
could be split between the liberal democrats and respect meaning neither would
benefit much at the ballot box. ironically the tories might be the beneficiaries
if labour does lose seats which is generally the case he said. but dr tamimi
said mab s intention was not to empower the tories. we know the next government
will be labour but we are aiming to send a message that it will make a difference
if the muslims use their vote properly. if the next labour government has a
reduced majority that s a great achievement because having a very big majority has
been very harmful for politics in this country dr tamimi said.
tories pledge free sports lessons children would be offered two hours free sports
training a week by a future tory government the party has said. the club2school
policy would provide up to £250m yearly for local sports clubs in the uk to deliver
after-school sport. the extra coaching would be funded by the national lottery and
would come on top of the two hours of sport a week children are supposed to get in
school. shadow home secretary david davis said five million children were being
denied adequate sporting opportunities. the plans would help tackle the fastest
growing rate of obesity in the developed world he said. shadow sports minister
lord moynihan said the policy would empower local clubs and create a lasting
legacy. we aim to shift the emphasis on after-school sport provision away from our
overstretched teachers and schools directly in to the 151 000 sports clubs in the
uk. the tories say labour s plans to give all children two hours of sports lessons
a week in schools have failed. government figures show that in england in 2002 only
a third of schools at key stages 1 3 and 4 and two-fifths of schools at key stage
2 met that target. the tories also claim that of the £750m the prime minister
pledged in 2000 to invest on school sports facilities only £41m had been spent.
but the big lottery fund has said that complex capital projects are involved - and
it was confident the money would all be allocated by next year as intended.
wenger offers mutu hope arsenal boss arsene wenger would consider signing adrian
mutu once the striker has served his drugs ban. mutu was sacked by chelsea on
friday after testing positive for cocaine - a move wenger has backed. but he said:
i don t even wonder if that could happen because i think he will be suspended for a
long period. but once he has served his suspension he has the right again to
start from zero. i would then meet the player and see what he tells me. mutu faces
a ban of between six months and two years when the football association decides on
his punishment. chelsea decided to act before his case was heard and sacked the
striker on grounds of gross misconduct after it was revealed that he had failed a
drug test. but mutu has hit out at the club s decision saying: chelsea have
destroyed me. he told the sunday mirror: i don t know what i m going to do. i am
shocked and surprised by their decision. i didn t expect them to pay me while i
was suspended but i never thought they would sack me either. why didn t they wait
to do this now my career is in ruins. i might as well walk away from football.
what is there left for me chelsea have been criticised for their stance with
the professional footballers association accusing the club of failing in their
duty of care to the player. and mutu agreed adding: it is unfair. if they were
going to sack me they should have done it afterwards. why did they go public to
make an example of me it makes it very difficult for me now.
baghdad blogger on big screen a film based on the internet musings of the baghdad
blogger has been shown at the rotterdam film festival. the film has been directed
by the man who calls himself salam pax the author of the weblog about iraqi life
during and after the war. the movie version comes in the form of a series of shorts
made by pax on a hand-held camera. baghdad blogger is among a number of films about
iraq showcased at the dutch festival which runs until sunday. following the
fascination with the writing of salam pax - not his real name - he began a regular
column in the guardian newspaper and was given a crash course in documentary film-
making. for the film he travelled iraq to document the changing landscape of the
country and the problems it has faced since the invasion speaking to ordinary
iraqis about their experiences. the festival will also see the screening of
underexposure one of iraq s first features to emerge since the toppling of saddam
hussein. director oday rasheed made the film on discarded 1980s kodak film taken
from the remains for the former ministry of culture building. it centres on the
lives of families and strangers going about their everyday business as baghdad is
under siege. rasheed said the title was refers to the isolation felt by iraqis
under saddam s regime and the difficult time the country is now experiencing.
saddam s regime was hell but now i think the hell has doubled rasheed said. the
festival was also due to screen murdered dutch film-maker theo van gogh s film
about the treatment of woman under islam but it was withdrawn due to safety fears.
van gogh was shot and stabbed in november 2004 following death threats he received
about his film submission.
rock star sued by ex-girlfriend motley crue guitarist mick mars is being sued by
his ex-girlfriend for $10 million (£5.4 million) claiming he broke a promise to
take care of her. the woman robin mantooth said mars promised her repeatedly
that he would provide financial support in the event of the couple breaking up.
when they split in december mantooth says mars denied any such agreement. she is
asking a los angeles court to award her half the musician s property a monthly
allowance and damages. mantooth added that the pair became lovers in 1990 after
which she abandoned her career as a documentary film-maker to move in with the
guitarist at his malibu home. she is also claiming that mars 53 has failed to
provide her with any material support since they ceased to be a couple. motley crue
recently reunited after being apart for a period of five years. they originally
formed in the early 1980s and scored six hits in the uk including girls girls
girls in 1987. they are embarking on a world tour later this year which will take
in 60 cities across the us europe asia and australia. mars - real name bob allen
deal - underwent hip replacement surgery in october. he suffers from a degenerative
rheumatic disease which causes ligaments and tendons to attach to the bone.
tsunami cost hits jakarta shares the stock market in jakarta has seen its biggest
slide in a month after the country doubled the likely cost of rebuilding from the
asian tsunami. the fall came as indonesia said it expected debt repayments of up
to 30 trillion rupiah ($3.2bn; £1.7bn) to be frozen to help pay for the recovery.
by monday s close the jakarta stock exchange was down 2.1% at 1 011.15. bar a
slight dip at the new year the jse had risen steadily by 4.7% since the tsunami
hit on 26 december. construction and property companies in particular have gained
ground although banks were among the main fallers on monday. so far more than
100 000 people are believed to have been killed in indonesia the country closest
to the earthquake which triggered the great wave. on friday the government said
its five-year estimate of rebuilding costs for banda aceh province - much of which
was flattened by the quake and the tsunami - was 20 trillion rupiah ($2.2bn;
£1.1bn) twice what it had previously estimated. that cost could be defrayed by
temporary debt relief. on monday indonesian economy minister aburizal bakrie told
reporters that the paris club group of creditor countries was expected to freeze
20-30bn rupiah in payments due in 2005 and 2006. we hope we can resume the
repayments at least from 2007 mr bakrie said. french finance minister herve
gaymard said on sunday that the paris club had already agreed to a moratorium on
repayments for tsunami-hit countries ahead of its meeting on 12 january.
sec to rethink post-enron rules the us stock market watchdog s chairman has said he
is willing to soften tough new us corporate governance rules to ease the burden on
foreign firms. in a speech at the london school of economics william donaldson
promised several initiatives . european firms have protested that us laws
introduced after the enron scandal make wall street listings too costly. the us
regulator said foreign firms may get extra time to comply with a key clause in the
sarbanes-oxley act. the act comes into force in mid-2005. it obliges all firms
with us stock market listings to make declarations which critics say will add
substantially to the cost of preparing their annual accounts. firms that break the
new law could face huge fines while senior executives risk jail terms of up to 20
years. mr donaldson said that although the act does not provide exemptions for
foreign firms the securities and exchange commission (sec) would continue to be
sensitive to the need to accomodate foreign structures and requirements . there are
few if any who disagree with the intentions of the act which obliges chief
executives to sign a statement taking responsibility for the accuracy of the
accounts. but european firms with secondary listings in new york have objected -
arguing that the compliance costs outweigh the benefits of a dual listing. the act
also applies to firms with more than 300 us shareholders a situation many firms
without us listings could find themselves in. the 300-shareholder threshold has
drawn anger as it effectively blocks the most obvious remedy a delisting. mr
donaldson said the sec would consider whether there should be a new approach to
the deregistration process for foreign firms unwilling to meet us requirements.
we should seek a solution that will preserve investor protections without turning
the us market into one with no exit he said. he revealed that his staff were
already weighing up the merits of delaying the implementation of the act s least
popular measure - section 404 - for foreign firms. seen as particularly costly to
implement section 404 obliges chief executives to take responsibility for the firm
s internal controls by signing a compliance statement in the annual accounts. the
sec has already delayed implementation of this clause for smaller firms - including
us ones - with market capitalisations below $700m (£374m). a delegation of
european firms visited the sec in december to press for change the financial times
reported. it was led by digby jones director general of the uk s confederation of
british industry (cbi) and included representatives of basf siemens and cadbury
schweppes. compliance costs are already believed to be making firms wary of us
listings. air china picked the london stock exchange for its secondary listing in
its $1.07bn (£558m) stock market debut last month. there are also rumours that two
chinese state-run banks - china construction bank and bank of china - have
abandoned plans for multi-billion dollar listings in new york later this year.
instead the cost of sarbanes-oxley has persuaded them to stick to a single listing
in hong kong according to press reports in china.
spain coach faces racism inquiry spain s football federation has initiated
disciplinary action against national coach luis aragones over racist comments about
thierry henry. if found guilty aragones could lose his job or face a fine of about
£22 000. the federation had initially declined to take action against aragones
after comments he made during a national team training session in october. but its
president angel maria villar changed his mind after a request by spain s anti-
violence commission. aragones insisted the comments made to henry s arsenal club-
mate jose antonio reyes were meant to motivate the player and were not intended
to be offensive. i never intended to offend anyone and for that reason i have a
very easy conscience he said at the time. i m obliged to motivate my players to
get the best results. as part of that job i use colloquial language with which
we can all understand each other within the framework of the football world.
england s players made a point of wearing anti-racism t-shirts when training before
their friendly against spain in madrid last month. but the storm increased
following racist chanting by spanish fans at england s black players during the
game which spain won 1-0. spain s minister of sport jaime lissavetzky was quick to
give his backing to the federation s decision. everyone who has a public function
has to consider their declarations and make sure they do not give a negative image
he said. we are going to have zero tolerance in questions of racism.
format wars could confuse users technology firms sony philips matsushita and
samsung are developing a common way to stop people pirating digital music and
video. the firms want to make a system that ensures files play on the hardware
they make but also thwarts illegal copying. the move could mean more confusion for
consumers already faced by many different and conflicting content control systems
experts warned. they say there are no guarantees the system will even prevent
piracy. currently many online stores wrap up downloadable files in an own-brand
control system that means they can only be played on a small number of media
players. systems that limit what people can do with the files they download are
known as digital rights management systems. by setting up the alliance to work on a
common control system the firms said they hope to end this current fragmentation
of file formats. in a joint statement the firms said they wanted to let consumers
enjoy appropriately licensed video and music on any device independent of how
they originally obtained that content . the firms hope that it will also make it
harder for consumers to make illegal copies of the music movies and other digital
content they have bought. called the marlin joint development association the
alliance will define basic specifications that every device made by the electronics
firms will conform to. marlin will be built on technology from rights management
firm intertrust as well as an earlier drm system developed by a group known as the
coral consortium. the move is widely seen as a way for the four firms to decide
their own destiny on content control systems instead of having to sign up for those
being pushed by apple and microsoft. confusingly for consumers the technology that
comes out of the alliance will sit alongside the content control systems of rival
firms such as microsoft and apple. in many ways the different drm systems are akin
to the different physical formats such as betamax and vhs that consumers have
seen in the past said ian fogg personal technology and broadband analyst at
jupiter research. the difference is that it is very fragmented he said. it s
not a two-horse race it s a five six seven or even eight-horse race mr fogg
said consumers had to be very careful when buying digital content to ensure that it
would play on the devices they own. he said currently there were even
incompatibilities within drm families. although initiatives such as microsoft s
plays for sure program could help remove some of the uncertainty he said life
was likely to be confusing for consumers for some time to come. shelley taylor
analyst and author of a report about online music services said the locks and
limits on digital files were done to maximise the cash that firms can make from
consumers. apple s itunes service was a perfect example of this she said.
although itunes has been hugely successful apple could not justify its existence
if it did not help sell all those ipods she said. she said rampant competition
between online music services of which there are now 230 according to recent
figures could drive more openness and freer file formats. it always works out
that consumer needs win out in the long run she said and the services that win
in the long run are the ones that listen to consumers earliest. ms taylor said the
limits legal download services place on files could help explain the continuing
popularity of file-sharing systems that let people get hold of pirated pop. people
want portability she said and with peer-to-peer they have 100% portability.
cory doctorow european co-ordinator for the electronic frontier foundation which
campaigns for consumers on many cyber-rights issues expressed doubts that the
marlin system would achieve its aims. not one of these systems has ever prevented
piracy or illegal copying he said. he said many firms readily admit that their
drm systems are little protection against skilled attackers such as the organised
crime gangs that are responsible for most piracy. instead said mr doctorow drm
systems were intended to control the group that electronics firms have most hold
over - consumers. the studios and labels perceive an opportunity to sell you your
media again and again - the ipod version the auto version the american and uk
version the ringtone version and so on.
ban hits half-life 2 pirates hard about 20 000 people have been banned from playing
the half-life 2 game. game maker valve shut down the online accounts of the
players because it had evidence that their copy of the game had been obtained
illegally. copies of half-life 2 had been circulating on file-sharing systems soon
after it was officially released. experts said the success of the half-life 2 anti-
piracy system might tempt other game makers into creating their own version. half-
life 2 was officially released on 16 november but before gamers could get to grips
with the long-awaited title they were forced to authenticate their copy of the game
online. authentication involved setting up an account with valve s gaming community
system called steam and letting that check which copy of the game was being run.
in a statement detailing the banning of the accounts valve said this system helped
identify who had got hold of pirated copies. the method used was extremely easy
for valve to trace and confirm and so there is no question that the accounts
disabled were used to try and illegally obtain half-life 2 read the statement.
valve spokesman doug lombardi said that the company had not yet released sales
figures for the game and would not say what proportion of all steam players the 20
000 represented. one effect of steam s popularity has been to limit the copies of
the game sold in shops and artificially depress the game s ranking in the top ten.
even so the title debuted at no 3 in the uk charts. valve also said that a small
number of accounts were closed because people were using stolen credit cards to buy
copies of the game or were using stolen steam accounts. some of those who have been
banned by the move protested their innocence in the online forums on the main steam
site and said they were being punished for what other people did with their
account. some contributors to the forums wondered if the action might force more
piracy as people tried to get hold of successive copies of the game to keep ahead
of valve s anti-piracy actions. in its statement valve also said that rumours that
it distributed fake half-life 2 keys copies of the game or instructions on how to
hack the game just to catch pirates and cheats were false. the company said: the
hack came from the community as do they all. it added that most of those banned
simply tried to use copies of half-life 2 circulating on file-swapping systems such
as bit torrent rather than use hacks to get around the need for cd keys. rob fahey
editor of online news site gamesindustry.biz said the mass banning showed off the
power of the steam system. before now he said it has been hard for game makers to
do anything about piracy once the game was being played. but with this valve is
taking really effective steps against people using illegitimate copies of half-life
2 he said. if steam proves effective at cutting the piracy of games to a minimum
said mr fahey other game makers may be tempted to set up copycat systems. it s
not hard to see a point in the near future when every publisher wants you to run an
application on your system purely to allow you to play their games he said. this
could mean that computers get cluttered with poorly written steam-type systems that
are used to batter people with adverts. unless game firms were careful he said
they could face a backlash from consumers who soon get tired of maintaining
different accounts for every game they play.
dominici backs lacklustre france wing christophe dominici says france can claim
another six nations grand slam despite two lacklustre wins so far against scotland
and england. the champions only just saw off the scots in paris then needed
england to self-destruct in last week s 18-17 win. the english played better than
us but lost whereas we are still in the race for the grand slam said dominici.
we know our display was not perfect but we can still win the grand slam along
with ireland and wales. france ireland and wales all remain unbeaten after two
rounds of this year s rbs six nations with the two celtic nations playing by far
the more impressive rugby. france take on wales at the stade de france on 26
february and ireland in dublin on 12 march. but although france have yet to click
dominici says that they can still win the hard way as long as scrum-half dimitri
yachvili continues in his goalkicking form. if we have an efficient kicker on whom
we can rely on a solid defence and a team who play for their lives we can achieve
something dominici added. i said at the start of the competition that the
winners would be clearer from the third matches and that s exactly what is going
to happen. france coach bernard laporte will announce his starting line-up next
tuesday for the match against wales. wing jimmy marlu is definitely out with the
knee injury sustained at twickenham which is likely to sideline him for the rest
of the tournament. inspirational flanker serge betsen is a doubt with a thigh
injury but number eight imanol harinordoquy has shaken off his shoulder injury. in
the backs centre yannick jauzion and winger aurelien rougerie are all back in
contention after injury while brive back julien laharrague has received his first
call-up as a replacement for pepito elhorga.
eurovision greats to do battle stars of the eurovision song contest from the show
s 50-year history are to compete against each other to celebrate the contest s
anniversary. viewers will choose 14 past songs to be performed by the original
artists or others in the spirit of the originals. past eurovision performers
include abba celine dion bucks fizz nana mouskouri lulu and julio iglesias.
fans will then vote as usual to pick the all-time best eurovision song during the
show in denmark in october. the first contest was organised by the european
broadcasting union or ebu in 1956 and has become an annual event pitting pop
giants against musical minnows - with often surprising results. while some regard
it as an essential celebration of continental talent others see it as an equally
unmissable parade of the reasons some countries do not normally produce
international stars. the 50th annual contest will be held in kiev ukraine in may
after ukrainian singer ruslana won last year. the 50th anniversary special will be
held in denmark later this year because the danish broadcasting corporation came up
with the idea for the all-time contest. a plan to hold it in london was scrapped
because of problems finding a suitable venue. ireland has been the most successful
country in the show s history with seven victories followed by the uk france and
luxembourg with five each.
france starts digital terrestrial france has become the last big european country
to launch a digital terrestrial tv (dtt) service. initially more than a third of
the population will be able to receive 14 free-to-air channels. despite the long
wait for a french dtt roll-out the new platform s backers hope to emulate the
success of its uk free-to-air counterpart freeview. recent figures from the uk s
regulator ofcom showed freeview was more popular than the sky digital satellite
service. in the three months to september 2004 almost five times as many people
signed up to the uk s free-to-air dtt service compared with sky. almost 60% of uk
households have gone digital on at least one television set through cable
satellite or freeview. the french dtt platform is known as tnt which stands for
tv numerique terrestre or digital terrestrial television. but it is being branded
as television numerique pour tous or digital television for all . tnt is a joint
venture between public broadcaster france televisions and a handful of cable and
satellite operators. digital terrestrial tv will launch as a free-to-air platform
to start with adding pay-tv channels later. thirty-five contenders have bid for an
additional eight frequencies on top of the 14 already allocated. a couple of years
ago dtt had a bad image said olivier gerolami chief operating officer of tnt.
but everyone s impressed with dtt in the uk italy and germany and they realise it
is a very good idea. france is the poorest market in europe in terms of free-to-
air national channels so it has the potential to be one of the biggest dtt markets
mr gerolami added in remarks quoted by the us entertainment industry paper variety.
tnt aims to reach 35% of france s population at launch from 17 transmission sites.
the transmission area will initially include paris lille lyon and toulouse.
eventually there will be 115 sites reaching over 80% of homes. digital terrestrial
set-top boxes are available from as little as 70 euros (£50). a recent survey by
mediametrie found that 70% of people interviewed were aware of dtt and 25% were
planning to buy a digital receiver. consumer electronics companies such as nokia
sagem sony and thomson are gearing up for production. the conseil superieur de l
audiovisuel (csa) the french broadcasting regulator said: following the recent
success of freeview in the uk some manufacturers are optimistic about sales
prospects . media analysts believe that initially the majority of viewers will buy
inexpensive set-top boxes that are unable to support interactive services. the csa
said the current aim of reaching 85% of the population by 2007 was achievable but
the future of the remaining tv viewers required action by the public sector. for
the most part they are people living in mountainous or border areas which will
remain beyond the reach of digital terrestrial tv for years. up to 15 pay-tv
channels will launch on dtt between september 2005 and march 2006. leading pay-tv
operators canal plus and tps have submitted bids to market bouquets of channels.
free-to-air services will be broadcast in mpeg-2 format. but pay-tv operators will
be allowed to broadcast in mpeg-4 - a much better compression technology - which
will potentially allow for high-definition (hd) subscription services in the
future. tnt expects between 700 000 and one million dtt set-top boxes to be sold in
2005. it is difficult to tell how quickly it will take off said mr gerolami
but we re optimistic that it will revolutionise television in france. other
analysts were less optimistic predicting consumers would now be less likely to
sign up for pay-tv subscriptions. we think free dtt could put brakes on the
underlying growth of pay-tv in france said henri de bodinat vice-president of
the arthur d. little consultancy.
why cell will get the hard sell the world is casting its gaze on the cell processor
for the first time but what is so important about it and why is it so different
the backers of the processor are big names in the computer industry. ibm is one of
the largest and most respected chip-makers in the world providing cutting edge
technology to large businesses. sony will be using the chip inside its playstation
3 console and its dominance of the games market means that it now has a lot of
power to dictate the future of computer and gaming platforms. the technology inside
the cell is being heralded as revolutionary from a technical standpoint.
traditional computers - whether they are household pcs or playstation 2s - use a
single processor to carry out the calculations that run the computer. the cell
technology on the other hand uses multiple cell processors linked together to run
lots of calculations simultaneously. this gives it processing power an order of
magnitude above its competitors. whilst its rivals are working on similar
technology it is sony s which is the most advanced. the speed of computer memory
has been slowly increasing over the last few years but the memory technology that
accompanies the cell is a huge leap in performance. using a technology called xdr
created by american firm rambus memory can run up to eight times faster than the
current standard being promoted by intel. perhaps more important than any of the
technology is the cell s role in the imminent war on living rooms . the big trend
predicted for this year is the convergence of computers with home entertainment
devices such as dvd players and hi-fis. companies like microsoft and sony believe
that there is a lot of money to be made by putting a computer underneath the tv of
every household and then offering services such as music and video downloads as
well as giving an individual access to all the media they already own in one place.
microsoft has already made its first tactical move into this area with its windows
media center software which has been adopted by many pc makers. sony had a stab at
something similar with the psx - a variation on the playstation - last year in
japan although this attempt was generally seen as a failure. both companies
believe that increasing the capabilities of games consoles to make them as
powerful as pcs will make the technology accessible enough to persuade buyers to
give them pride of place on the video rack. sony and ibm want to make sure that
the dominance of the pc market enjoyed by microsoft and intel is not allowed to
extend to this market. by creating a radically new architecture and using that
architecture in a games console that is sure to be a huge seller they hope that
the cell processor can become the dominant technology in the living room shutting
out their rivals. once they have established themselves under the tv there is no
doubt that they hope to use this as a base camp to extend their might into our
traditional pcs and instigate a regime change on the desktop. cell is in fact
specifically designed to be deployed throughout the house. the links between the
multiple processors can also be extended to reach cell processors in entirely
different systems. sony hopes to put cells in televisions kitchen appliances and
anywhere that could use any sort of computer chip. each cell will be linked to the
others creating a vast home network of computing power. resources of the cells
across the house can be pooled to provide more power and the links can also be
used to enable devices to talk to each other so that you can programme your
microwave from your tv for example. this digital home of the future depends on the
widespread adoption of the cell processor and there are as with all things a
number of reasons it could fail. because the processor is so different it requires
programmers to learn a different way of writing software and it may be that the
changeover is simply too difficult for them to master. you can also guarantee that
microsoft and intel are not going to sit around and let cell take over home
computing without a fight. microsoft is going to be pushing its xbox 2 as hard as
possible to make sure that its technology not sony s will be under your tree next
christmas. intel will be furiously working on new designs that address the problems
of its current chips to create a rival technology to cell so that it doesn t lose
its desktop pc dominance. if cell succeeds in becoming the living room technology
of choice however it could provide the jump-start to the fully digital home of
the future. the revolution might not be televised but it could well be played with
a videogame controller.
brazil jobless rate hits new low brazil s unemployment rate fell to its lowest
level in three years in december according to the government. the brazilian
institute for geography and statistics (ibge) said it fell to 9.6% in december from
10.6% in november and 10.9% in december 2003. ibge also said that average monthly
salaries grew 1.9% in december 2004 from december 2003. however average monthly
wages fell 1.8% in december to 895.4 reais ($332; £179.3) from november. tuesday s
figures represent the first time that the unemployment rate has fallen to a single
digit since new measurement rules were introduced in 2001. the unemployment rate
has been falling gradually since april 2004 when it reached a peak of 13.1%. the
jobless rate average for the whole of 2004 was 11.5% down from 12.3% in 2003 the
ibge said. this improvement can be attributed to the country s strong economic
growth with the economy registering growth of 5.2% in 2004 the government said.
the economy is expected to grow by about 4% this year. president luiz inacio lula
da silva promised to reduce unemployment when he was elected two years ago.
nevertheless some analysts say that unemployment could increase in the next
months. the data is favourable but a lot of jobs are temporary for the
(christmas) holiday season so we may see slightly higher joblessness in january
and february julio hegedus chief economist with lopes filho & associates
consultancy in rio de janeir told reuters news agency. despite his leftist
background president lula has pursued a surprisingly conservative economic policy
arguing that in order to meet its social promises the government needs to first
reach a sustained economic growth. the unemployment rate is measured in the six
main metropolitan areas of brazil (sao paolo rio de janeiro belo horizonte
recife salvador and porto alegre) where most of the population is concentrated.
slovakia seal hopman cup success slovakia clinched the hopman cup for the second
time by beating argentina 3-0 in saturday s final in perth. daniela hantuchova put
the third seeds ahead recovering from a terrible start to beat gisela dulko 1-6 6-
4 6-4. dominik hrbaty who had not lost a set in his three singles matches in the
group stages then upset world number seven guillermo coria 6-4 6-1. hantuchova and
hrbaty then won the mixed doubles after coria was forced to withdraw because of a
sore back. slovakia s win made up for last year s final defeat to the united
states. i would like to congratulate daniela hrbaty said. i was so nervous
watching her today i almost had a heart attack. i also feel a little sorry for
guillermo because i get very excited whenever i play for my country. i show lots of
emotions and played such good tennis. world number 31 hantuchova ranked two
places above dulko looked nervous as she dropped the first four games of the
match. dulko who had lost all three of her singles matches in the group stages
grew in confidence and took the opening set in just 27 minutes. but hantuchova hit
back to take the next two and the match. i was so nervous because i really wanted
to win for the team and for dominik as he played so well all week she said. i
didn t think i was playing my best but i just tried to hang in there and fight hard
for every point for my country. slovakia won the cup on their first appearance in
1998 when karol kucera and karina habsudova beat france.
bbc should allow more scrutiny mps have urged the bbc to give watchdogs more
freedom to scrutinise how £2bn in licence fee money is spent. the public accounts
committee called for the national audit office to be given a free hand to
investigate how the bbc offers value for money. although six areas are to be opened
up to scrutiny the audit office should have more power to choose what it
investigated the mps said. the call was made in a report into the bbc s freeview
digital service. our aim is not to rewrite the storyline of eastenders but simply
to ensure that the bbc is as accountable to parliament as any other organisation
spending public money said the committee chairman mp edward leigh. the bbc s
spending is not subject to the full independent scrutiny and accountability to
parliament. parliament requires television owners to pay a licence fee and expects
the comptroller and auditor general on behalf of parliament to be able to
scrutinise how that money over £2 billion a year is used. a bbc spokeswoman
said: we share the committee s interest in ensuring the public money we receive is
spent well. though in its infancy we think the arrangements with the nao are
working well and should be given time to mature. the report said the freeview
digital service has had an impressive take up since its launch but the bbc must
still dispel confusion about the service. the committee found the bbc had succeeded
in ensuring subscription-free access to digital channels following the collapse of
itv digital in 2002. but the fact that one in four homes could not access freeview
remained a problem. the report said that while gaps in the coverage were largely
due to landscape issues there was need for detailed explanations on the freeview
website and on promotional literature as to why it was not available in specific
areas. the government has proposed switch off of the analogue television signal
with 2012 the most recently proposed date. the bbc launched freeview in 2002 as an
alternative to satellite subscription services such as sky to allow its digital
channels such as bbc three and news 24 to be seen. there have been an estimated
five million freeview set-top boxes sold since the launch and prices have fallen
considerably. the corporation plans to spend up to £138m on freeview before 2014 to
ensure people can receive the service throughout the uk and are aware of it.
slimmer playstation triple sales sony playstation 2 s slimmer shape has proved
popular with uk gamers with 50 000 sold in its first week on sale. sales have
tripled since launch outstripping microsoft s xbox said market analysts chart-
track. the numbers were also boosted by the release of the ps2-only game grand
theft auto: san andreas. the title broke the uk sales record for video games in its
first weekend of release. latest figures suggest it has sold more than 677 000
copies. it is obviously very very encouraging for sony because microsoft briefly
outsold them last week john houlihan editor of computerandvideogames.com told
bbc news. and with halo 2 [for xbox] out next week it really is a head-to-head
contest between them and xbox. although xbox sales over the last week also
climbed ps2 sales were more than double that. the figures mean sony is reaching
the seven million barrier for uk sales of the console. edinburgh-based developer
rockstar which is behind the gta titles has seen san andreas pull in an estimated
£24m in gross revenues over the weekend. in comparison blockbuster films like
harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban took £11.5m in its first three days at the
uk box office. the lord of the rings: the return of the king took nearly £10m over
its opening weekend although games titles are four to five times more expensive
than cinema tickets. gangster-themed gta san andreas is the sequel to grand theft
auto vice city which previously held the record for the fastest-selling video game
ever. the xbox game halo 2 released on 11 november in the uk is also widely
tipped to be one of the best-selling games of the year. the original title won
universal acclaim in 2001 and sold more than four million copies. mr houlihan
added that sony had done well with the ps2 but it definitely helped that the
release of san andreas coincided with the slimline ps2 hitting the shelves. the
run-up to christmas is a huge battlefield for games consoles and titles. microsoft
s xbox had been winning the race up until last week in sales. the sales figures
also suggest that it may be a largely adult audience driving demand since gta san
andreas has an 18 certificate. sony and microsoft have both reduced console prices
recently and are preparing the way for the launches of their next generation
consoles in 2005. both have hit crucial price points at around £100 and that
really does open up new consoles to new audience plus the release of two really
important games in terms of development are also driving those sales said mr
houlihan.
wasps 31-37 leicester leicester withstood a stunning wasps comeback to win a
pulsating heineken cup encounter at the causeway stadium. the tigers stormed 22-6
ahead within 18 minutes through tries from lewis moody geordan murphy and martin
corry. european champions wasps fought back through a josh lewsey try and mark van
gisbergen s boot and they were level at 31-31 with five minutes remaining. but it
was the visitors who kept their cool as andy goode kicked the tigers to victory
with a penalty and a drop goal. the closing moments saw desperate defence from
leicester as wasps turned down several penalties to go for the try they needed.
wasps pounded the line and a penalty try looked likely before referee nigel
williams controversially blew for full-time. fly-half goode was the tigers hero
kicking 22 points in total while leicester s overwhelming domination in the scrums
ultimately told. even their lack of discipline in defence - which presented the
admirable van ginsberg with 26 points - could not undo them as they held out for a
famous win. lawrence dallaglio s team have now got it all to do in the quest for a
quarter-final place given that two of their last three games are away - against
leicester and biarritz. however wasps rugby director warren gatland warned his
side will will not relinquish their european title without a fight. if we lose
next week then we are struggling said gatland. but we don t want to give this
trophy away. we worked so hard to win it last season we will go down fighting. we
have got to get our scrum right next week it is the biggest cause for concern.
leicester coach john wells saluted the outstanding work of graham rowntree and
julian white who were magnificent up front. they were the backbone of our
performance today said wells. and to score three tries against the european
champions at home was also something i am pleased about. van gisbergen; lewsey
erinle abbott voyce; king dawson; dowd greening green; shaw birkett; worsley
o connor dallaglio (capt). replacements: gotting mckenzie lock hart biljon
brooks hoadley. murphy; rabeni smith gibson healey; goode ellis; rowntree
chuter white m johnson (capt) l deacon; moody back corry. replacements
(from): buckland/cockerill morris kay w johnson/b deacon h tuilagi bemand a
tuiliagi lloyd vesty.
gardener wins double in glasgow britain s jason gardener enjoyed a double 60m
success in glasgow in his first competitive outing since he won 100m relay gold at
the athens olympics. gardener cruised home ahead of scot nick smith to win the
invitational race at the norwich union international. he then recovered from a poor
start in the second race to beat swede daniel persson and italy s luca verdecchia.
his times of 6.61 and 6.62 seconds were well short of american maurice greene s 60m
world record of 6.39secs from 1998. it s a very hard record to break but i
believe i ve trained very well said the world indoor champion who hopes to get
closer to the mark this season. it was important to come out and make sure i got
maximum points. my last race was the olympic final and there was a lot of
expectation. this was just what i needed to sharpen up and get some race fitness.
i m very excited about the next couple of months. double olympic champion marked
her first appearance on home soil since winning 1500m and 800m gold in athens with
a victory. there was a third success for britain when edged out russia s olga
fedorova and sweden s jenny kallur to win the women s 60m race in 7.23secs. maduaka
was unable to repeat the feat in the 200m finishing down in fourth as took the
win for russia. and the 31-year-old also missed out on a podium place in the 4x200m
relay as the british quartet came in fourth with russia setting a new world indoor
record. there was a setback for jade johnson as she suffered a recurrence of her
back injury in the long jump. russia won the meeting with a final total of 63
points with britain second on 48 and france one point behind in third. led the
way for russia by producing a major shock in the high jump as he beat olympic
champion stefan holm into second place to end the swede s 22-event unbeaten record.
won the triple jump with a leap of 16.87m with britain s tosin oke fourth in
15.80m. won the men s pole vault competition with a clearance of 5.65m with
britain s nick buckfield 51cm adrift of his personal best in third. and won the
women s 800m with britain s jenny meadows third. there was yet another russian
victory in the women s 400m as finished well clear of britain s catherine murphy.
chris lambert had to settle for fourth after fading in the closing stages of the
men s 200m race as sweden s held off leslie djhone of france. france s won the
men s 400m with brett rund fourth for britain. took victory for sweden in the
women s 60m hurdles ahead of russia s irina shevchenko and britain s sarah claxton
who set a new personal best. italy grabbed their first victory in the men s 1500m
as kicked over the last 200 metres to hold off britain s james thie and france s
alexis abraham. a botched changeover in the 4x200m relay cost britain s men the
chance to add further points as france claimed victory.
japan s ageing workforce: built to last in his twenties he battled tuberculosis for
eight years then went on to run his own clothing business before marrying in his
late thirties. and the 101-year-old torao toshitsune has eaten raw fish pretty much
every day throughout his life. mr toshitsune is one of japan s 23 000 centenarians
- a club that is growing by 13% annually and where the oldest member is 114. at
his neat osaka detached house where he lives with one of his sexagenarian
daughters mr toshitsune keeps a regular routine of copying out buddhist sutras and
preparing the traditional japanese tea ceremony. between tasks this remarkably
active senior citizen reveals what his next goal is: well what s most important
for me is to be japan s number one. mr toshitsune wants to outlive everyone. and
when it comes to longevity japan as a country appears to be doing just that.
women can expect to live until 85 men until 78 four years longer than americans
and europeans. on the outskirts of kyoto 83-year-old yuji shimizu contemplates
this phenomenon during a round of golf with his younger friends who are in their
seventies. i think this is because the food industry and the environment have
improved he remarks. on average we can live longer. whether it s the diet or
the traditional family structure where roles were clearly defined or just
something in the genes japan s elderly are remarkable. but while life may be a
game of golf for mr shimizu his grandchildren have huge problems ahead. japan is
the world s least fertile nation with childbirth rates of just two thirds of that
in the us. by 2007 japan s population is expected to peak at 127 million then
shrink to under 100 million by the middle of the century. this means 30 million
fewer workers at a time when the number of elderly will have almost doubled. in
the year 2050 if the birth rate remains the same people over 60 will make up over
30% of the population explains shigeo morioka of the international longevity
centre in tokyo. so how will japan s finances stay on track after a decade of
economic stagnation and huge deficit spending the public sector debt is already
about 140% of the country s gross domestic product (gdp) the highest rate among
industrialised countries. the international monetary fund predicts that as the
falling birth rate takes grip from 2010 the cost of running japan s welfare state
will double to more than 5% of gdp while current account balances will deteriorate
by over 2%. but unfortunately japan appears poorly prepared both financially and
politically. glen wood vice president of deutsche securities japan asks; who s
going to fund the pension fund for the next generation and indeed who are going to
be the new japanese worker who is going to build the economy who are going to be
the leaders who are going to be the producers of the gdp going forward one
option is further welfare reform. another is immigration possibly from the
philippines and indonesia. but so far any emerging policy appears restricted to a
limited number of nursing staff. standing next to tokyo harbour is a version of
new york s statue of liberty. but as yet japan is not ready for an ellis island.
japan has never really liked that option in its history and i think it s an option
that s becoming more and more plausible and necessary insists mr wood. in japan
as in europe which also faces a workforce decline immigration is a very sensitive
subject. but for the japanese economy facing 8% fewer consumers by 2050 means
slumping domestic sales of cars hi-tech kit and home appliances perhaps even
another property crash. of course the japanese could always have more children.
the government is currently considering financial rewards for procreative couples
similar to those in operation in australia. but there would be no pay back until
2030 when today s babies are taxpayers and the demographic crisis like in europe
starts to unfold in 2010. in contrast to japan - and of course the european union -
the us population is expected to increase by 46% to 420 million by the middle of
the century. although president bush must re-devise social security to take account
of a 130% rise in america s over 65s the imf foresees a positive contribution to
the us current account balance from the combined forces of fertility and
immigration. some voices in japanese industry are calling for radical changes to
the nature of the japanese labour market. they want a shift towards financial
services though doubts persist over the country s ability let alone willingness
to move away from manufacturing. japan still has problems getting a viable banking
system let alone shifting their auto business or their semi-conductor business or
the broad based tech manufacturing business overseas says mr wood. japan can
either drive some radical reforms or else run the risk of a vicious ageing
recession. falling demand and a lower tax take could result in soaring budget
pressures and a basket case currency. come 2020 japan could be more dependent on a
shrinking workforce than any other industrialised power. there are fears that the
world s number two economy is doomed to a permanent recession. but none of this is
mr toshitsune s concern anymore. at 101 he chuckles that he feels fine.
prince crowned top music earner prince earned more than any other pop star in
2004 beating artists such madonna and elton john in us magazine rolling stone s
annual list. the singer banked $56.5m (£30.4m) from concerts album and publishing
sales with his musicology tour and album. he kept madonna in second place as she
earned $54.9m (£29.5m) while embarking on her global re-invention tour. veterans
simon and garfunkel were in 10th place their comeback tour helping them earn
$24.9m (£13.4m) last year. prince returned to centre stage after a decade in the
commercial wilderness the magazine reported. the singer s 2004 tour took $90.3m
(£48.5m) in ticket sales and he sold 1.9 million copies of his latest album
musicology. although she grossed more than prince last year madonna remained in
second place because of the monumental production costs of her tour. heavy metal
band metallica s madly in anger with the world tour helped push their 2004 earnings
up to $43.1m (£23.1m). they were ahead of sir elton john who took fourth place and
almost $42.7m (£23m) from performances including a debut on the las vegas strip.
other seasoned performers in the list included rod stewart whose sold-out shows
and third volume of the great american songbook covers album helped net him £35m
(£19m). the highest-ranking rap act in the list was 50 cent who at number 19 took
$24m (£13m) to the bank.
uk economy ends year with spurt the uk economy grew by an estimated 3.1% in 2004
after accelerating in the last quarter of the year says the office for national
statistics (ons). the figure is in line with treasury and bank of england
forecasts. the ons says gross domestic product (gdp) rose by a strong 0.7% in the
three months to 31 december compared with 0.5% in the previous quarter. the rise
came despite a further decline in production output and the worst christmas for
retailers in decades. the annual figure marked out the best year since 2000 and
was also well ahead of the 2.2% recorded in 2003. growth in the final three months
of 2004 marked the 50th consecutive quarter of expansion. on the basis of the
latest information the uk has entered 2005 on course to continue its record period
of growth said paul boateng chief secretary to the treasury in a statement. the
ons said the services sector which accounts for nearly three-quarters of the uk
economy grew 1.0% in the quarter. the strong services figure was welcomed by
analysts given lacklustre retail sales in december and across the christmas
holiday period. the fact that other services components are doing so well suggests
to me that we are back to trend (growth) and i am not particularly concerned about
any further slowdown said ross walker uk economist at rbs financial markets.
however output in the production sector contracted 0.5% the second quarterly fall
in row and a state of affairs that some economists classify as a recession. however
the ons would not comment on the definition of a recession and whether the
manufacturing recovery was over. but steve radley chief economist at the
manufacturers organisation eef said: these figures remain at odds with what is
actually happening on the ground. whilst companies may be experiencing tougher
conditions this year recession is not a word that manufacturers would currently
recognise. the ons said a sharp fall in mining and quarrying which was driven by
oil and gas extraction was primarily responsible for the overall contraction in
manufacturing production figures. simon rubinsohn chief economist at gerrard
said: this outturn (of 0.7%) was well ahead of the market expectations and cast
doubt on the scare stories doing the rounds surrounding the current state of the uk
economy. and he said the gdp figures may help to push interest rate expectations
a little higher along the curve . the suggestion from the money markets is that
the next move is now more likely to be in an upward rather than a downward
direction. this is consistent with our own thinking said mr rubinsohn. the bank
of england s nine-strong rate-setting committee voted unanimously earlier this
month to keep interest rates steady at 4.75% minutes of the meeting showed on
wednesday.
q&a: malcolm glazer and man utd the battle for control of manchester united has
taken another turn after the club confirmed it had received a fresh takeover
approach from us business tycoon malcolm glazer. no formal offer has been made yet
but manchester united have confirmed they have received a detailed proposal from
the us entrepreneur which could lead to a bid. reports have put the offer at 300p
per share which would value manchester united at about £800m ($1.5bn). the
approach by the 76-year-old owner of the tampa bay buccaneers american football
team is reportedly being led by his two sons avi and joel. a previous approach to
the united board by mr glazer in october last year was turned down. however the
bbc has learnt that the club is unlikely to reject the latest plan out of hand. mr
glazer s previous offer involved borrowing large amounts of money to finance any
takeover. that would have left the club with debt levels which were deemed not...
in the best interests of the company by manchester united s board when they
rejected his approach last year. however mr glazer s latest offer is reported to
have cut the amount of borrowing needed by £200m. while united s board may be
casting a serious eye over mr glazer s latest proposals supporters remain fiercely
opposed to any deal. supporters group shareholders united - which has proved
adept in rallying opposition to mr glazer s campaign - said it would fight any
move. manchester united are a debt-free company. we don t want to fall into debt
and we don t need to fall into debt shareholders united s sean bones told the
bbc. united s players also appear unhappy at the prospect of a takeover. a lot of
people want the club s interest to be with people who have grown up with the club
and got its interests at heart rio ferdinand told bbc radio five live. no-one
knows what this guy will be bringing to the table. the key to any successful bid
will be attracting the support of united s largest shareholders the irish horse
racing tycoons john magnier and jp mcmanus. through their cubic expression vehicle
they own 28.9% of the club. mr glazer owns 28.1%. joe mclean a football specialist
at accountancy firm grant thornton said the support of mr magnier and mr mcmanus
was utterly crucial . mr glazer s bid will not proceed without their support and
they have previously indicated that they are holding their stake as an investment.
if that s the case the shares will therefore need a price attachment of about 300
pence maybe 305. if that s the case then mr glazer might well secure their
support - if he does this bid could well go ahead. indeed it is. malcolm glazer
was little-known in the uk until he started to build up his stake in manchester
united in late 2003. in february 2004 he said he was considering whether to bid
for the club. no bid emerged but mr glazer continued to increase his holding in
the club. in october 2004 manchester united said they had received a preliminary
approach which turned out to have come from mr glazer. however the board
rejected the move because of the amount of debt it would involve. at the club s
annual general meeting in november mr glazer took revenge by using his hefty stake
in the club to oust three directors from the board. legal adviser maurice watkins
commercial director andy anson and non-executive director philip yea were voted out
against the wishes of chief executive david gill. but the move led to bankers jp
morgan and public relations firm brunswick withdrawing from the glazer bid team.
japan bank shares up on link talk shares of sumitomo mitsui financial (smfg) and
daiwa securities jumped amid speculation that two of japan s biggest financial
companies will merge. financial newspaper nihon keizai shimbun claimed that the
firms will join up next year and already have held discussions with japanese
regulators. the firms denied that they are about to link up but said they are
examining ways of working more closely together. smfg shares climbed by 2.7% to 717
000 and daiwa added 5.3% to 740 yen. combining smfg japan s third-biggest lender
and daiwa the country s second-largest brokerage firm would create a company with
assets of more than $1 000bn (£537bn). smfg president yoshifumi nishikawa said that
the companies needed to bolster their businesses. both companies need to
strengthen retail and other operations he said adding that it s an issue we
have in common . daiwa said that although it is true that the two groups have been
engaging in various discussions to enhance cooperation there are no plans to enter
into negotiations to consolidate the two businesses . analysts said that
consolidation in japan s financial sector was likely to continue and that it was
likely to have a positive impact on earnings. cross-selling opportunities between
banks and brokers are increasing thanks to deregulation so we can expect the
relationship to get even stronger said heronry nozaki an analyst at
nikkocitigroup. the merger would be a good move he added.
double eviction from big brother model caprice and holby city actor jeremy edwards
have both left the celebrity big brother house in a surprise double eviction on
friday. caprice who left in the scheduled fourth eviction having gained just 5%
of the public vote afterwards said: i am so happy i am so glad i m out. edwards
then left in a surprise eviction with 12% of the vote. nineteen-year-old blazin
squad singer kenzie is currently favourite to win the £50 000 charity prize.
caprice had been the pre-show favourite to be voted out of the house with
bookmakers ladbrokes offering odds of 1/5 on her departure. ladbrokes spokesman
warren lush had said she was the hottest eviction favourite so far this series .
odds on kenzie s victory have been slashed from 4/6 to 1/2 although bookmakers
have said they are not ruling out a late rally from former happy mondays star bez.
the other remaining housemate is actress brigitte nielsen. dj lisa i anson became
the third housemate to be voted out on wednesday when she became the victim of a
surprise eviction during a game of hide-and-seek on the channel 4 show. i anson
said she was glad to be out and predicted that kenzie would emerge as the winner.
the winner is due to be announced on sunday night.
sella wants michalak recall former france centre philippe sella believes coach
bernard laporte must recall frederic michalak to give his side any chance of
beating ireland. sella admitted he had been impressed by current fly-half yann
delaigue in the rbs six nations to date. but he told bbc sport: michalak is the
answer both now and for the future. delaigue deserved his chance but the time has
come to bring back michalak. he does have weaknesses but has the all-round game to
upset ireland. the 22-year-old michalak has spent much of the tournament on the
bench after delaigue impressed for castres early in the season. with michalak
overlooked the french stuttered to narrow wins over scotland and then england
before ironically playing their best rugby in the defeat to wales. the wales game
was amazing to watch but never did i think the french could lose that game at half-
time said sella. their only mistakes were that they didn t score enough points
in the first half and were a little bit less focused in the second... but only a
little bit. sella however insisted the pressure had eased on the under-fire
laporte despite the defeat at the stade de france. this season is very important
for shaping a team for the 2007 world cup said sella which laporte is doing
very well. the french get better every game. it s difficult though when you
change a team and you change your tactics as everything has to gel. but he has the
players and the talent to take them all the way to world cup victory. as a result
it is important that people give him time. it may not seem good now that we re not
winning the grand slam but no one will care in two years time if we re world
champions. the majority of media criticism centred on the way in which france
produced a performance devoid of running rugby in their opening two games. but
while sella admitted he liked the more flowing style employed against wales he
said the win was most important . winning is all that matters he added. ok
the flair may not have been so good but the discipline organisation and defence
was there which are all important ahead of 2007. france play what sella believes
is their hardest game of the six nations against ireland in dublin on saturday 12
march. the french go into the game as clear underdogs. but sella added: people
forget that france can still win the six nations and they ll be focused on that.
but ireland will be going for even more in front of their home crowd. it s going to
be tough.
british stars denied major oscars british hopes of winning major oscars were dashed
as uk stars failed to win acting and directing prizes. despite three nominations
mike leigh s vera drake failed to take the director or screenplay awards and there
was no prize for star imelda staunton. kate winslet also lost to best actress
hilary swank while clive owen and sophie okonedo failed to win best supporting
actor awards. the uk s andrea arnold won the short film award for her gritty drama
wasp. arnold who presented children s television shows number 73 and motormouth
in the 1980s said it was totally overwhelming to win. wasp tells the story of a
single mother living on the breadline beating films by fellow uk nominees gary
mckendry and ashvin kumar. everyone worked extremely hard - they know who they
are arnold said as she accepted the prize. the beers are on me when we get home.
earlier british costume designer sandy powell won the oscar for the aviator
beating finding neverland s uk designer alexandra byrne in the process. i m very
thrilled for the film and all the people who worked with me said ms powell.
hopefully i ll be staying up to celebrate - i ve been sick for three days and want
to make it through the night. the british visual effects team behind harry potter
and the prisoner of azkaban were less fortunate however losing the oscar in that
category to spider-man 2. before sunday s ceremony owen was bookmakers favourite
for his role in romantic drama closer that had already clinched him a golden globe
award. it was the first time actress okonedo had been shortlisted chosen for her
performance in hotel rwanda about the 1994 rwandan genocide. it was also a debut
nomination for staunton 49 who played abortionist vera drake in mike leigh s
film. leigh had previously received three oscar nominations for secrets and lies
and topsy turvy. winslet said she was ecstatic about the fourth oscar nomination
of her career this time for her lead role in eternal sunshine of the spotless
mind. among other british talent nominated for oscars composer andrew lloyd webber
and lyricist charles hart were nominated for best original song for learn to be
lonely from the phantom of the opera movie. that award was won by al otro lado del
rio from the motorcycle diaries. cinematographer john mathieson who was nominated
for gladiator in 2001 was also up for the phantom of the opera but lost to the
aviator. finding neverland garnered another nomination for british talent with
gemma jackson shortlisted for the art direction prize. she lost in that category to
the aviator. a spokesman for the uk film council said: it is disappointing not to
have more british winners. he added: it was extraordinary to have 24 british
nominees in the initial list of nominees.
finding new homes for old phones re-using old mobile phones is not just good for
the environment it has social benefits too. research has found that in some
developing nations old mobile phones can help close the digital divide. the forum
for the future research found that the low cost of these recycled handsets means
they can have a very useful second life in poorer nations. but the forum found that
more needed to be done to collect old phones rather than let them rot in landfill
sites. the report reveals that approximately 15 million mobile phones go out of
use every year in the uk. of the 15 million that are swapped for newer models each
year only 25% get returned to mobile phone firms for recycling or re-use. the
slowly growing mass of unrecycled discarded phones has now reached 90 million
handsets the equivalent of 9 000 tonnes of waste estimates james goodman report
author and a senior adviser at the forum for the future. it s quite common for
people to have two or three phones just lying around said mr goodman. many of
these older phones could end up in landfill sites leaking the potentially toxic
materials they are made of into the wider world said mr goodman. far better he
said to hand the phone back to an operator who can send it overseas where it can
enjoy a second lease of life. we ve heard the environmental argument for handing a
phone back said mr goodman but there s a strong social argument too. older
mobile phones are proving particularly useful in poorer nations where people want
to use a mobile and keep in touch with friends and family but do not have the
income to buy the most up to date model. the forum for the future report took an
in-depth look at romania where reconditioned mobile phones were proving very
popular. it s an interesting country because it has a really crap fixed line
network said mr goodman and there s a real desire for people to get mobile
phones. but the relatively low wages in romania which is one of the poorest
countries in europe mean few people can afford a shiny new phone. the
affordability of the handsets is a real barrier to getting one he said.
reconditioned handsets have boosted take-up of mobiles as the report revealed that
almost one-third of romanian pre-pay mobile phone users were using reconditioned
handsets. the re-used handsets tend to be about one-third of the price of a new
handset. georgeta minciu a romanian part-time cleaner said: normally a mobile
phone would not be possible on my wages. i am a single parent - keeping in touch
with my daughter is important to me. this is the only way i can afford to have a
phone she said. mr goodman said phone operators and consumers needed to do more
to ensure that more of britain s mobile mountain made it overseas. but he added
those keen to use a mobile will not accept any old handset. if its more than a few
years old people are not going to want it he said.
new year s texting breaks record a mobile phone was as essential to the recent new
year s festivities as a party mood and auld lang syne if the number of text
messages sent is anything to go by. between midnight on 31 december and midnight
on 1 january 133m text messages were sent in the uk. it is the highest ever daily
total recorded by the mobile data association (mda). it represents an increase of
20% on last year s figures. wishing a happy new year to friends and family via
text message has become a staple ingredient of the year s largest party. while
texting has not quite overtaken the old-fashioned phone call it is heading that
way said mike short chairman of the mda. in the case of a new years eve party
texting is useful if you are unable to speak or hear because of a noisy background
he said. there were also lots of messages sent internationally where different
time zones made traditional calls unfeasible he said. the british love affair with
texting shows no signs of abating and the annual total for 2004 is set to exceed
25bn according to mda. the mda predicts that 2005 could see more than 30bn text
messages sent in the uk. we thought texting might slow down as mms took off but we
have seen no sign of that said mr short. more and more firms are seeing the value
in mobile marketing. restaurants are using text messages to tell customers about
special offers and promotions. anyone in need of a bit of january cheer now the
party season is over can use a service set up by jongleurs comedy club which will
text them a joke a day. for those still wanting to drink and be merry as the long
days of winter draw in the good pub guide offers a service giving the location and
address of their nearest recommended pub. users need to text the word goodpub to
85130. if they want to turn the evening into a pub crawl they simply text the word
next. and for those still standing at the end of the night a taxi service in
london is available via text which will locate the nearest available black cab.
long life promised for laptop pcs scientists are working on ways to ensure laptops
can stay powered for an entire working day. building batteries from new chemical
mixes could boost power significantly say industry experts. the changes include
everything from the way chips for laptops are made to tricks that reduce the power
consumption of displays. ever since laptops appeared the amount of time they last
between recharges has been a frustration for users. a survey carried out in 2000
by forrester research found that the shortness of battery life was the most
complained about feature of laptops. the focus back then was more on performance
and features said mike trainor chief mobile technology evangelist for chip giant
intel. for most of the 90s battery life was stuck on two to 2.5 hours. but now
he said laptops can last much longer. it was not just a case of improving battery
life by squeezing more out of the lithium ion power packs he explained. other
changes are needed to get to the holy grail of a laptop running for about eight
hours before needing a recharge. lithium ion is never going to get there by itself
he said. the industry has done a great job of wringing all possible energy storage
out of that technology that they can. some new battery chemistries promise to cram
more power into the same space said mr trainor though work still needed to be
done to get them successfully from the lab to manufacturing. he was sceptical that
fuel cells would develop quick enough to take over from solid batteries even though
they have the potential to produce several times more energy than lithium ion power
packs. in fuel cells you need to have pumps and separators and evaporation
chambers he said. it s a mini energy plant that needs to be shrunk and shrunk
and shrunk. intel has been working with component makers to test energy
consumption on all the parts inside a laptop and find ways to make them less power
hungry. this work has led to the creation of the mobile pc extended battery life
(ebl) working group that shares information about building notebooks that are more
parsimonious with power. some of the improvements in power use come simply because
components on chips are shrinking said mr trainor. intel has also changed the way
it creates transistors on silicon to reduce the power they need. on a larger scale
said mr trainor improvements in the way that voltage regulators are made can
reduce the amount of power lost as heat and make a notebook more energy efficient.
also said mr trainor research is being done on ways to cut energy consumption on
displays - currently the biggest power guzzler on a laptop. many laptop makers have
committed to creating 14 and 15 inch screens that draw only three watts of power.
this is far below the power consumption levels of screens in current notebooks. if
we can get close to eight hours that s a place that people see as extraordinarily
valuable that s what the industry has to deliver mr trainor said.
leaders meet over turkish eu bid tony blair has met italian prime minister silvio
berlusconi and german chancellor gerhard schroeder to talk about turkey entering
the eu. the downing street talks covered a range of other topics ahead of an eu
summit in brussels later in the week. mr blair is an enthusiastic proponent of
talks to bring turkey within the recently-expanded eu. italy and germany also
favour an early start to talks but there is scepticism in france and elsewhere.
some are worried that turkey s large and rapidly growing population and low average
income might make integration into the eu difficult. some are concerned that a
change of government could lead to turkey reneging on key human rights reforms it
has recently enacted. and many in france would prefer turkey to admit that world
war i-era killing of armenians constituted genocide. there are also issues in
france and the netherlands over the possible problems of integrating the first
major muslim nation into the eu. but mr blair and the labour government have been
the staunchest backers of turkish accession provided it sticks with human rights
and economic reform. mr blair s official spokesman said: the prime minister has
regular meetings with both of them and particularly in advance of european
councils. the key issue at this week s council will be that of turkey but they
will also discuss a range of other matters.
online commons to spark debate online communities set up by the uk government could
encourage public debate and build trust says the institute of public policy
research (ippr). existing services such as ebay could provide a good blueprint for
such services says the think-tank. although the net is becoming part of local and
central government its potential has not yet been fully exploited to create an
online commons for public debate. in its report is online community a policy
tool the ippr also asks if id cards could help create safer online communities.
adopting an ebay-type model would let communities create their own markets for
skills and services and help foster a sense of local identity and connection. what
we are proposing is a civic commons will davies senior research fellow at the
ippr told the bbc news website. a single publicly funded and run online community
in which citizens can have a single place to go where you can go to engage in
diversity and in a way that might have a policy implication - like a pre-
legislation discussion. the idea of a civic commons was originally proposed by
stephen coleman professor of e-democracy at the oxford internet institute. the
ippr report points to informal small scale examples of such commons that already
exist. it mentions good-practice public initiatives like the bbc s ican project
which connects people locally and nationally who want to take action around
important issues. but he adds government could play a bigger role in setting up
systems of trust for online communities too. proposals for id cards for instance
could also be widened to see if they could be used online. they could provide the
basis for a secure authentication system which could have value for peer-to-peer
interaction online. at the moment they have been presented as a way for government
to keep tabs on people and ensuring access to public services said mr davies.
but what has not been explored is how authentication technology may potentially
play a role in decentralised online communities. the key idea to take from systems
such as ebay and other online communities is letting members rate each other s
reputation by how they treat other members. using a similar mechanism trust and
cooperation between members of virtual and physical communities could be built.
this could mean a civic commons would work within a non-market system which lets
people who may disagree with one another interact within publicly-recognised rules.
e-government initiatives over the last decade have very much been about putting
basic information and service guides online as well as letting people interact with
government via the web. many online communities such as chatrooms mailing lists
community portals message boards and weblogs often form around common interests or
issues. with 53% of uk households now with access to the net the government
suggests mr davies could act as an intermediary or middleman to set up public
online places of debate and exchange to encourage more cosmopolitan politics and
public trust in policy. government already plays a critical role in helping
citizens trade with each other online. but it should also play a role in helping
citizens connect to one another in civic non-market interactions said mr davies.
there is a role for public bodies like the bbc libraries and government to bring
people back into public debate again instead of millions of cliques talking to
each other he added. the paper is part of the ippr s digital society initiative
which is producing a number of conferences and research papers leading up to the
publication of a manifesto for a digital britain.
uk gets official virus alert site a rapid alerting service that tells home computer
users about serious internet security problems is being launched by the uk
government. the service it safe will issue warnings about damaging viruses
software vulnerabilities and weaknesses on devices such as mobile phones. alerts
tell people how the threats affect them and what they can do to avoid trouble and
protect themselves. the service will be free and those who sign up can get e-mail
or text alerts. the scheme is aimed at home users and small businesses. the
government estimates it will issue security alerts about six to 10 times a year
based on previous experience of virus outbreaks. there is a clear need for easy-
to-understand and simple independent advice for non-technically minded people who
use computers either at home or at work said home office minister hazel blears.
the purpose of this new government service is to ensure computer users are aware of
the risks involved and how to deal with them easily and effectively without causing
alarm. those signing up will only be told about the most serious security threats
that have the potential to affect millions of people. full-time staff are being
employed to comb through the many hundreds of alerts issued each year by computer
security firms to spot which ones have the potential to catch out a large number of
people between alerts the service will occasionally send messages giving people
advice about safe ways to use their computers and phones. it safe will take our
technical expertise and use it to help home users understand the risks and keep
their computer systems mobile phones and a range of related consumer electronic
items safe said roger cumming director of the national infrastructure security
coordination centre (niscc). the niscc which is running the service also
stressed that those signing up would still need to use anti-virus software
firewalls and software updates to stay secure. warnings about security problems
will tell people what the problem is how it affects them and what they can do to
avoid trouble. alerts will not be issued unless users can do something to protect
themselves against the threat. this might include downloading an update from an
anti-virus vendor or updating software to close loopholes and fix vulnerabilities.
however no software patches or programs will actually be dispensed through the
site. the alerts will tell people how to go about getting hold of patches from
security firms. the niscc spokesman said the site and alerting service would stay
in existence for as long as there were security bugs on home computers and other
gadgets. government statistics show that more than half of all uk households own a
home computer. it was estimated that almost 13 million of these were able to access
the internet in 2004. the launch comes as the number of viruses and other malicious
programs in existence is reaching unprecedented numbers. in september 2004 the
number of malicious programs circulating topped the 100 000 mark. some fear that
this figure could hit 150 000 by september 2005. the creation of the national alert
service follows similar efforts in the netherlands and us. the national alerting
service for the netherlands (aka de waarschuwingsdienst) and the us national cyber
alerting service also tell citizens of serious security threats.
brits debate over urban music joss stone a 17-year-old soul singer from devon
beat dizzee rascal jamelia lemar and the streets to win best british urban act at
the brit awards. her victory has reignited the debate about what urban music is.
i m not really comfortable with the word urban. it s a word that s been
manufactured in this country and america to describe black music. the word urban
seems to cover such a broad range of black music that it s wrong. how far are the
brits removed from inner-city music and what people are doing it s so far removed
that i don t expect them to get it bang on. the music industry isn t championing
music from our particular genre very well anyway. people don t feel like that s
anything to do with us. i don t feel like urban music s just been celebrated by
[joss stone] winning or her being nominated or by the brits acknowledging that
there s an urban music scene because it s all a kick in the teeth at the end of the
day. it s not really relevant. if joss stone is the closest thing that they feel
comfortable championing because of what she looks like and how she sounds and who
she s signed to then so be it. it s got nothing to do with what s really going on.
urban as a genre is very broad. if you look underneath urban there are a number of
core elements that include hip-hop r&b garage and into that obviously comes soul.
joss stone is a soul artist. her first album was called the soul sessions. so urban
is a very broad brushstroke that is the umbrella over the top of sub-genres and
there are offshoots of all of those. joss stone has had amazing success [in the us]
given that she s a uk artist. what has really captured everybody s imagination is
that here you have a 17-year-old from devon with a voice to die for and a bunch of
really really good tunes and she looks good - i think that s what s done it. the
award for best british urban act was voted for by viewers of mtv base. i don t
think joss was not a worthy winner. she makes soul music and that definitely comes
under the category of what we describe as urban. the fact that she s from devon is
the interesting thing because most of the music we cover is made in large cities
and she s literally rural. the great thing about urban music is that there s a big
range. if there is some sort of root with black music or dance music in britain i
think that s where you can call it urban - that s where this new sub-category or
uber-category has come from. joss stone is certainly not old enough to have had
some of the experiences of an older soul singer but you couldn t argue that she
was being inauthentic with her emotions - it is coming from somewhere genuine. it
has to come across as real. that s the only cut-off point we have here and that s
the only way by which we judge people. what urban means to us as an organisation
is the politically correct term to describe music which originated from a black
background. music should become inclusive and if we are fighting for a multi-
cultural britain then we should be fighting for inclusion rather than exclusion.
if joss stone can be accepted within the urban music community i think acts from
other ethnicities doing classical music and rock should be accepted too. race doesn
t make a difference if everyone is included. out of all the awards dished out
yesterday i m still trying to find out what people of other races received any
sort of recognition or award. a type of music (especially street music) that
originates from a city and typically reflects or is characteristic of urban life.
she might not be urban but when did r&b become the hip hop tainted thing it is now
r&b stands for rhythm and blues remember! that joss stone is rubbish is certain.
if anyone deserves to win an award for urban music (i think probably should include
hip-hop soul & funk at least but not rock or pop) this year its the streets
although dizzee rascal stakes a good claim she definitely deserved to win a prize
joss stone s albums are quite simply amazing easily better than anything else that
was released last year. this whole debate about what is urban what isnt urban is
completely pointless and probably fueled by urban artists who weren t nominated or
didn t win. i cant see why people can t just congratulate her for the talent that
she is. she did deserve it but i agree with the comments about urban music. its a
stupid phrase and particularly british. in the states they tend to use hip hop and
r&b if i say hip hop here a lot of people have no idea what i m talking about.
very strange. what s in a name a rose by any other name etc... if people want to
call it urban why not if we really analysed it the term dance music is
misleading because it doesn t describe everything you can dance to. whilst i agree
that the term urban is open to interpretation it strikes me as simply weird that
joss stone has won. urban to me is what i hear being played in parties in the
inner cities - i live in brixton and have never heard the soul sessions pumping out
of of a bass heavy sound system in any parties i ve been to. good luck to joss
stone let s celebrate her victory - let s also question why with artists so
successful and talented as jamelia lemar kanye west dizzee rascal alicia keys
and outkast - we didn t see a single black artist on stage collecting an award. so
what you re saying is that any music that has black heritage is not allowed to be
sung by anyone who isn t black. and if it is then they shouldn t be acknowledged
for it even if they re pretty dam good at it she s 17 has an amazing voice and
won. good on her. oh but she s not black well let s make her feel real bad
about it then. how dare she! though hang on didn t the so-called public vote on
this one this idea of pigeonholing whatever is popular at the time is no
different than what was happening in the 1940s and 50s in relation to what jazz
was. the media then called anything that had a swinging beat syncopated melody or
soulful feeling jazz much to the chagrin of the artists. it would mean that
blues would be put in the same mould as bebop cool and ragtime all very
different styles at that time. jazz was and remains such a massively misunderstood
term. and so what of urban music in truth it s a lazy term to categorise music
that you don t really understand. soul and garage are worlds apart musically
(marvin gaye v tuff jam ) but no doubt have their connections. if we just let the
music speak for itself and not judge the success of an artist by the number of
awards won then maybe we can enjoy the music for what it is rather than what it
represents. i demand a prize for rural music! sucks to the cities- it s way better
out here. we have hay for one thing. excluding her from what has become known as
urban music would be as bad as excluding lenny kravitz or hendrix from rock music
for being black surely i dont understand the point that ty is making. if lemar
who makes music which is less soulful than joss work won he might have said
nothing. (btw i m black too) how can she be urban if she spent most of her life
in the devon countryside nonsense. i love joss to bits and don t care what her
branding is - it s amazing music full stop. stop puting it all in brackets and let
s just call it music and let s especially drop the black / urban tag - nearly all
music came from black origin this just sets an example that it is ok to pigeonhole
people and their music by their colour. surely the point of having an urban music
category is simply to acknowledge artists that are making what is (historically)
considered urban music irrelevent of the colour of their skin or where they
originate from. joss stone is simply singing a certain type of music that can be
considered urban in style just as someone from an inner city and indeed not from
the usa could sing country music. if that person was good at it and authentic in
sound would we criticise it being referred to as country music or the artist for
representing that style the term urban in reference to a music genre in uk has
developed in part from the controversy surrounding the branding of the mobo
awards. the very term music of black origin has confused and offended many
people. this is particularly strange given the existence of the asian music awards.
it appears that the use of black or white in relation to music makes people
feel uncomfortable. the term urban therefore has been invoked to sidestep the
debate of which type of music came first black or white thereby rendering the
issue colourblind. the result is now a redundant new debate as to what urban also
means. perhaps we should have created a new term altogether to describe the various
strains of soul/rnb and hip-hop one which does not also mean something else - as
we have done with crunk . urban is just a word that s come about recently to
describe black music that s become popular now. the word wasn t even in use or
common use five of six years ago. it s just a way of the industry clumping it all
together without having to call it black music because some people are
oversensitive and might call them racist for it. i m in a band that has been
called urban and i despise the label. i d hate to think i belonged to any neat
marketing niche because that s all it is. ever since the music channels and record
comapnies tried to fracture what they consider music of black origin these
labels have been used to undermine the status of good music into a commodity. look
at all the tv broadcasters unable to reach young people without condesending they
simply play some urban music on the soundtrack as if its some dreadful cheap lift
music. ignore the labels it is what it is just music. as a black man i think i
agree with some of
the statements at least the statements made by the key executives. black people
should lead the music they invented . we should stop calling a genre meaningless
northing is meaningless. the real question is would joss stone would have been that
successful doing the music she was doing if she were black same thing with
streets amy winehouse etc. who s ever heard of terri walker or rhian benson..
they are both 10 times better than joss stone and both of them have won urban music
awards and i think mobos but why not brits so what if joss stone won the
urban awards. her music is great soul and surely that is under the urban banner
what if the streets had won would people be whining because mike skinner is
white... it seems that a lot of the fuss is about race where the real issue should
be music and nothing else. urban is pc version for saying black music. i m not
doubting ms stone s talent but why didn t jamelia or lemar get a brit this
reminds me of what happened to craig david and soul ii soul in the past getting
nominations are easy to get but picking up a brit seems to be the hardest thing.
refreshing to see people making reasonable intelligent comments on any topic these
days. more power to you people! you have said it: there is music you like and
music you don t like - who cares what label you put on it that entire category
was a mess. how can you have people like dizzee rascal up against joss stone its
like putting eminem against bob geldof. she should have been nominated for best
british r & b act. joss stone deserved to win an award for her talents but i don t
think it was very urban of her to sing angels with robbie williams. urban is a
nonsense term - music of black origin well doesn t that include rock music made
in the inner cities well almost all bands end up making music in london/manchester
etc. and doesn t that make some weird implication that all black people live in
cities it doesn t make any sense. why does music have to be put into a genre it
s music you like it or you don t. simple as that. i play in a heavy metal band.
we are urban music as far as i m concerned. we live in cities and spend our working
life in an urban environment; it therefore directly shapes what we write musically.
urban seems to be the new name for all styles of black music. why it needed a
rebrand i don t know as the name is misleading. oasis originate from a city and
characterise the urban life they know therefore more than fit the term urban yet
as they re a white rock band they won t be described as such. joss stone has a
fantastic voice and great timing and delivery - what other reason do they need to
award her the brit all this urban and other such categorisation is just the red-
tape of the music business and is best ignored. yeah she deserved it. she is
talented. urban is a crap meaningless politically correct and probably actually
racist marketing term though. there s only two kinds of music: good and bad.
south bank awards honour hit soap coronation street has become the first soap to
triumph at the south bank show awards which traditionally reward highbrow and
groundbreaking culture. the soap beat fellow itv1 show filthy love and channel 4 s
shameless to win the best tv drama prize on thursday. little britain was named best
comedy while franz ferdinand beat morrissey and the libertines to the music award.
shane meadows dead man s shoes picked up the best film award beating shaun of the
dead and my summer of love. the two award ceremonies reflect the achievements the
industry believes have been made in the last year. in 2004 coronation street
pulled away from its bbc one rival eastenders in the ratings and dominated other tv
awards. last year the south bank award for best tv drama went to steven poliakoff
s period piece the lost prince while bloody sunday about the 1972 killings in
northern ireland won in 2003. in other south bank categories little britain s
second series beat nighty night and the green wing to the comedy trophy while alan
bennett s the history boys won in the theatre category. author david mitchell made
up for losing out in the booker prize to alan hollinghurst by beating him to the
literary award with his book cloud atlas. shameless state of play and clocking off
creator paul abbott got a lifetime achievement award while former grange hill
actress amma asante won the breakthrough award for writing and directing her first
film a way of life.
johnson accuses british sprinters former olympic champion michael johnson has
accused britain s top sprinters of lacking pride and ambition. at the moment the
biggest factor on the mind of british sprinters is to be number one in britain
the world 200m and 400m record holder told five live. athletics at the moment is
all about international competitions and they need to show a little more pride.
however linford christie countered: it s easy to criticise when you haven t gone
through the system here. johnson was involved in a verbal spat with britain s
darren campbell earlier this year. the american had cast doubt on campbell s claims
he had torn a hamstring in the wake of his failure to reach the olympic 100m and
200m finals. and the american remains highly critical of aspects of british
sprinting. the only time you see british sprinters getting upset or riled is when
there is a debate as to which one is better than the other he claimed. athletes
here have to compete more outside the uk. their focus has to be on being the best
in the world and not just on being the top british sprinter. speaking at an elite
coaches conference in birmingham johnson also argued that although there has been
more investment in the sport in britain it had not necessarily reaped the rewards.
you can t fix everything with money he admitted. you contrast the situation here
to that of some us athletes who have no funding. those who aren t funded might be
hungrier and more motivated because their road to success is a lot more difficult
and challenging. so when they get to the top they are more appreciative.
moody joins up with england lewis moody has flown to dublin to join england s camp
ahead of their rbs six nations game against ireland on sunday. despite joining the
squad the leicester flanker only has a slim chance of playing because of an
infection in his finger. a decision will be taken on saturday as to whether the 26-
year-old will be declared fit. if he fails to recover in time for the game his
place at the back of the pack will be taken by andy hazell. chris jones will then
start the game on the bench. the chances of him playing are very slim said coach
andy robinson. the infection is deeper than was thought. moody had to be put on
a drip in an attempt to force antibiotics through his infected finger. he suffered
the cut playing against france at twickenham and it became infected during a 10-
minute outing as a replacement for leicester against newcastle last saturday. the
mud got into it robinson added. he has had a big course of antibiotics but they
haven t done the job we hoped they would. robinson has already been forced to make
one change to the starting line-up with bath prop matt stevens coming in for the
injured phil vickery. the 22-year-old has only made 10 starts for his club but has
made 49 appearances from the bench. it can be frustrating but i ve had a lot more
game time this season and i m ready for it stevens said. i ve been on tour with
these boys and i ve been in the england set-up for two years so i know the calls
and the way they play. stevens will be winning his third cap on sunday after
coming on twice as a replacement on the tour to new zealand last year. robinson
has confirmed that fly-half charlie hodgson will be the first-choice kicker despite
his three missed penalties and a drop goal against france. charlie s state of mind
is very good said robinson. obviously we are all disappointed we lost the
french game and the circumstances in which we did. but he responded well last week
in his goalkicking for sale and he will be our first-choice kicker this week.
robinson also admits his side must improve their line-out work against irish duo
malcolm o kelly and paul o connell one of the most effective partnerships in the
game. in each game we ve missed a number of line-outs he added. it cost us the
game against wales but it has improved. it was better against france and will have
to go up another notch against ireland. it will be a huge battle. look at the way
they tore us apart last year. if it doesn t function we will be in for a torrid
time.
voters reject eu by two to one british voters would reject the european
constitution by two to one according to a poll posing the question the government
will put to the country. the daily telegraph poll suggests that 45% of people
would vote against the constitution and 24% in favour. however the yougov poll
which questioned 1 943 british adults online found 25% did not know how they would
vote if forced to decide tomorrow. only 51% of those polled had made up their minds
about the constitution. another 7% said they would not vote at all. the poll is
believed to be the first to pose the question which the government has chosen for
the upcoming referendum expected in 2006. the constitution will be incorporated
into uk law if there is a yes vote. ballot papers in the poll will ask: should
the united kingdom approve the treaty establishing a constitution for the european
union the government unveiled the question which will be asked earlier in the
week. the treaty was signed by all 25 current eu members in rome last october and
is due to come into force in november 2006 providing it is ratified by all member
states - several of which will hold a referendum. critics say the constitution is a
further step towards a federal europe but advocates say it ensures effective
operation of the enlarged 25-state eu. if we reject this treaty britain will be
isolated and weak in europe said foreign secretary jack straw after the question
was unveiled. mr straw along with the rest of the cabinet will back a yes vote.
meanwhile conservative shadow foreign secretary michael ancram said the referendum
question seems straightforward . but he accused the government of trying to
confuse the issue by putting the eu referendum question in the same bill as the
ratification of the constitution when they should be treated as two separate
issues .
macy s owner buys rival for $11bn us retail giant federated department stores is to
buy rival may department stores for $11bn (£5.7bn). the deal will bring together
famous stores like macy s bloomingdale s and marshall field s creating the
largest department store chain in the us. the combined firm will operate about 1
000 stores across the us with combined annual sales of $30bn. the two companies
facing competition from the likes of wal-mart tried to merge two years ago but
talks failed. sources familiar with the deal said that negotiations between the two
companies sped up after may s chairman and chief executive gene kahn resigned in
january. as part of the deal federated - owner of macy s and bloomingdale s - will
assume $6bn of may s debt bringing the deal s total value to $17bn. directors at
both companies have approved the deal and it is expected to conclude by the third
quarter of this year. may has struggled to compete against larger department store
groups such as federated and other retailers such as wal-mart. federated expects
the merger to boost earnings from 2007 but the deal will cost it $1bn in one-off
charges. we have taken the first step toward combining two of the best department
store companies in america creating a new retail company with truly national scope
and presence said terry lundgren federated s chairman. some analysts see the
merger as a rescue deal for may. without this deal may would have been to put it
bluntly washed up said kurt barnard president of barnard s retail consulting
group. federated has annual sales of $15.6bn while may s yearly sales are $14.4bn.
dvd review: spider-man 2 it s a universal rule that a film can either be a
superhero special effects extravaganza or it can be good. but spider-man 2 breaks
that rule in two. it s not fantastically deep but you get quickly drawn into the
tale of spidey versus doc ock and more so into the fate of poor peter parker.
gigantic action set pieces seamlessly work with more brooding personal torment and
it all looks stunning. a few effects look false but tobey maguire kirsten dunst
and alfred molina make this compelling. the other universal rule is that dvds of
superhero films will have making of features only about the effects. this disc
covers those special effects enough but as just one part of a detailed look at the
film. then there are commentaries trailers and a blooper reel. sometimes quality
comes in bulk: this set contains no less than 34 john wayne films ranging from the
westerns and war movies to the quiet man. now is that a christmas present or what
give this to someone on 24 december and you won t see them again until early in the
new year. it s not truly a complete collection and leans more toward wayne s
earlier films: there s no true grit for instance though there is hellraisers. the
films look well transferred to dvd though none has extras. it was very daft but
it knew it was and somehow this famous 1979 series became a cult favourite that s
been long awaited on dvd. this set has the first season of buck (gil gerard) and
wilma s (erin gray) tongue-in-cheek adventures and it s all as camp and gaudy as
you remember. but it s also a disappointment. the us dvd has this and the more po-
faced second season - and you can import it for just about the same price. the
bigger omission though is that there are no extras. that s particularly
disappointing because originally there were meant to be commentaries and stars
gerard and gray had agreed to do them.
man utd through after exeter test manchester united avoided an fa cup upset by
edging past exeter city in their third round replay. cristiano ronaldo scored the
opener slipping the ball between paul jones legs after just nine minutes. united
wasted a host of chances to make it safe as jones made some great saves but wayne
rooney put the tie beyond doubt late on with a cool finish. exeter had chances of
their own sean devine twice volleying wide and andrew taylor forcing tim howard to
save. united boss sir alex ferguson was taking few chances after their 0-0 draw in
the first game and he handed starts to paul scholes and ryan as well as ronaldo and
rooney. exeter began brightly with devine and steve flack seeing plenty of the ball
but it did not take united long to assert their authority and the hosts soon found
themselves a goal down. scholes played a lovely pass in to ronaldo on the left-hand
side of the six-yard box and the portuguese winger slid the ball between the legs
of jones to open the scoring. united sensed a chance to finish the tie as a
contest early on and ronaldo blazed over before jones saved well from scholes and
then rooney. the visitors pressure by now was incessant and rooney had another
shot blocked while ronaldo slammed well over the bar again from a good position.
just before the break giggs had a golden chance to double the advantage but the
welshman dragged a left-foot effort badly wide from 10 yards. in stoppage time
exeter created their best chance as alex jeannin swung in a cross from the left
that devine managed to flick goalwards but the ball flew wide of howard s goal.
the grecians came out after the break in determined fashion and howard had to show
safe hands to collect two searching crosses into the united box. rooney looked like
he might have sealed the result with a turn and shot but the ball stuck in the st
james park mud and jones raced back to gather on the goalline. moments later devine
had the chance to make himself a hero but he could only volley jeannin s brilliant
cross wide of howard s goal after being left unmarked six yards out. after rooney
had completely messed up a free-kick 20 yards out taylor showed him how it should
be done his stunning drive from distance forcing a flying stop from howard. the
home crowd were baying for a goal and they did get the ball into the net only for
devine s low effort to be ruled out for an obvious offside. the persistent rooney
eventually rounded jones with three minutes to go and slotted into an empty net to
book a home tie with middlesbrough in the fourth round. jones hiley sawyer gaia
jeannin moxey taylor (martin 89) ampadu (afful 69) clay flack (edwards 74)
devine. subs not used: rice todd. ampadu clay. howard phil neville gary
neville o shea fortune giggs (saha 70) miller (fletcher 66) scholes djemba-
djemba (silvestre 80) ronaldo rooney. subs not used: ricardo bellion. ronaldo 9
rooney 87. 9 033. p dowd (staffordshire).
howard rejects bnp s claim tory leader michael howard has dismissed claims that his
immigration policy was moving onto the turf of the british national party (bnp).
bnp leader nick griffin told the independent he expected some bnp voters to switch
to the tories over the issue. but mr howard said he rejected the idea that the
tories and bnp appealed to the same voting instincts. asked if he would welcome bnp
voters he told the bbc: i don t want anybody to vote for these extremist parties .
he added on bbc radio 4 s today programme: if you want good community relations
in this country...then you have to have firm fair immigration controls. the
tories have promised an upper limit on the number of people allowed into britain
with the slogan: it s not racist to impose limits on immigration . all parties are
stepping up campaiging in the run-up to the general election widely expected to be
called for 5 may. labour has unveiled its own points system for ensuring migrants
who want to work in the uk have skills that are required but have rejected
immigration quotas. the liberal democrats have warned both parties against
pandering to prejudice . mr griffin told the independent the tories plans were a
definite move onto our turf . he said: i quite freely accept that on a nationwide
basis the tories will con enough people to make a significant hole in our vote.
asked whether he was comfortable with the perception that the conservatives and the
bnp appeal to the same voting instincts mr howard told the bbc: i reject that
entirely . he said he found bnp s policies abhorrent but he said the uk had to
take a different approach to immigration which he said was out of control. the
government doesn t want to limit it in any way we do there s a legitimate
difference between us there which we can discuss in a calm rational and reasonable
way he said. he again rejected newspaper speculation that his own father entered
britain illegally.
a-listers flock to gervais sitcom hollywood actors samuel l jackson and ben stiller
have signed up for ricky gervais new sitcom the comedian has told bbc news. he
said they had both seen the scripts and had agreed to appear in an episode each of
the sitcom extras. they join british stars jude law and kate winslet who have been
booked for guest roles. the comic and actor said he had drawn up an a-list of stars
he wanted and all had agreed to be in it. we wanted actors who had iconic status
but that we could also deconstruct gervais told bbc news. it s not about the
zeitgeist. we wanted people who would still be around in 20 years not just the
winner of big brother to take part. gervais admitted he was cautious about
revealing who would be taking part until they had all signed on the dotted line.
but he has met with stiller and jackson and they enjoyed the scripts enough to
commit to it. i didn t want to start revealing names until it was all sorted
because people just mention people who haven t even been asked. i have been linked
with ridiculous stories recently such as i m going to be in a remake of 10 taking
dudley moore s part. i haven t been approached and i wouldn t take it anyway. he
said stiller and jackson would be playing twisted versions of themselves in
extras and that the jokes about them would sail pretty close to the bone . gervais
and his writing partner stephen merchant are currently refining the scripts for the
six-part series in which gervais plays a struggling actor who bitches about the
stars. meanwhile gervais is gearing up to promote his cartoon book flanimals which
is released in the us in march around the same time as nbc begin showing the us
version of the office. the film rights to flanimals have already been snapped up
but gervais is keen for the project to be taken slowly. a film will happen over
the next three years but i don t want it to be a $50m movie straight away because
it is not well enough known and it wouldn t be another spider-man or batman. i
would like to do something small on tv with it first.
sun offers processing by the hour sun microsystems has launched a pay-as-you-go
service which will allow customers requiring huge computing power to rent it by the
hour. sun grid costs users $1 (53p) for an hour s worth of processing and storage
power on systems maintained by sun. so-called grid computing is the latest buzz
phrase in a company which believes that computing capacity is as important a
commodity as hardware and software. sun likened grid computing to the development
of electricity. the system could mature in the same way utilities such as
electricity and water have developed said sun s chief operating officer jonathan
schwartz. why build your own grid when you can use ours for a buck an hour he
asked in a webcast launching sun s quarterly network computing event in california.
the company will have to persuade data centre managers to adopt a new model but it
said it already had interest from customers in the oil gas and financial services
industries. some of them want to book computing capacity of more than 5 000
processors each sun said. mr schwartz ran a demonstration of the service showing
how data could be processed in a protein folding experiment. hundreds of servers
were used simultaneously working on the problem for a few seconds each. although
it only took a few seconds the experiment cost $12 (£6.30) because it had used up
12 hour s worth of computing power. the sun grid relies on solaris the operating
system owned by sun. initially it will house the grid in existing premises and will
use idle servers to test software before shipping it to customers. it has not said
how much the system will cost to develop but it already has a rival in ibm which
argues that its capacity on-demand service is cheaper than that offered by sun.
anglers could face prosecution anglers and fishermen could find themselves
prosecuted under plans to crack down on animal cruelty a committee of mps has
warned. sloppy wording of the draft animal welfare bill could leave anglers facing
court even though it was not intended the environment select committee said. the
mps said they were concerned the government had not consulted directly on its
plans to improve animal welfare. they raised complex and emotive issues which
needed to be resolved mps said. they called for a cast-iron guarantee that the
government consults on any plans to regulate animal industries like pet fairs and
game bird rearing. the draft bill seeks to modernise and improve animal welfare
legislation and intends to protect kept animals and companion animals by
setting up a duty of care . in addition to maintaining existing cruelty offences
it creates an offence of neglect by keepers who fail to protect the animals for
whom they are responsible. the bill would allow animal welfare officers to
intervene to prevent harm to an animal as well as outlawing mutilation of animals
- unless it can be demonstrated to be in the animal s best interest. the
environment select committee made 101 recommendations after hearing evidence from
51 organisations and individuals. one was a call to amend the bill so that
prosecutions against those engaged in fishing were not inadvertently encouraged -
even if they were to later fail. we accept that neither commercial fishing nor
recreational angling should fall within the remit of the of the draft bill and we
therefore support the government s intention to exempt fishing as an activity.
but the committee said an amendment was needed to ensure cases were not brought.
however in exempting fishing the government should be careful to ensure that
those persons who catch fish are not given carte blanche to inflict unnecessary
suffering in the course of pursuing this activity the committee added. the
committee also said some legal protections for animals were downgraded by the bill
such as the law on abandonment of animals which would be significantly weakened .
mps urged the government to redraft clauses relating to the prosecution of cruelty
offences. this was because as it stood the draft bill would allow certain acts that
should be prosecuted - such as unnecessary suffering caused to an animal through
neglect or unnecessary mental suffering - to go unpunished. committee chairman
michael jack said: any change in the law as it affects animals always arouses
powerful emotions and great public interest. this draft bill is no exception. my
committee welcomes the development of an approach to animal welfare which doesn t
just wait for a problem to occur but enables action to be taken to protect animals
before irreversible suffering takes place. but mr jack said the bill very much
had the feel of a work in progress and urged the government to guarantee that
an obligation to consult will be enshrined in law before it extended legislative
plans to areas such as pet fairs circuses and game bird farms. the government
must work hard to take the rough edges of its initial proposals before the bill is
introduced to parliament he added.
nintendo handheld given euro date nintendo s new handheld console the ds will
launch in europe on 11 march the company has announced. the portable games
machine which features touch-screen control will retail for £99 in the uk (149
euros). nintendo said 15 games would be available in the uk at launch with prices
ranging from £19 to £29. more than 2.8 million ds consoles have been sold since it
first appeared in the us and japan at the end of 2004. rival sony has said it will
launch its first handheld console the psp in the us and europe before the end of
march. the psp is expected to compete for a large part of the same handheld market
despite sony s assertion that the machines are aimed at different consumers. the
15 games available on the european launch date will include nintendo s super mario
64 ds as well as titles from third-party developers such as ubisoft s rayman ds.
more than 120 games are in development for the new console nintendo has said. the
ds is backwards compatible with the game boy advance allowing the earlier machine
s back catalogue of 700 games to be played. additionally a short-range wireless
link for multiplayer gaming is built in to the ds with a download play option
which allows a group to play against each other even if just one person owns a
copy. other features include a short-range messaging application called pictochat
and a built-in microphone which is used in sega s launch title project rub.
nintendo has also announced a media adapter which will allow the console to play
music and video on the move. the launch price of £99 (149 euros) compares
favourably with the us price of $149 according to john houlihan editor of the
computerandvideogames.com magazine. it s a very very competitive price point.
there are some innovative features and nintendo has created quite a buzz he
says. however the line-up of games could have been stronger. everyone wanted to
see the eight-player mario kart ds for example. mr houlihan believes that there
is likely to be an audience for both the nintendo ds and sony s new psp with the
former aimed largely at a younger audience and the latter expected to be marketed
as a multimedia device. the psp is a sexy bit of kit but sony s attitude to the
psp has been very understated in europe so far mr houlihan said. the worldwide
handheld software market had an estimated worth of $2.6bn at the end of 2004
according to industry analysts screen digest. in the past games consoles and
handhelds have generally launched much later in europe than in other parts of the
world. however nintendo president satoru iwata said the company was pleased to
have offered such a short period of time between the us and european launch .
europe is an extremely important market for nintendo mr iwata added. nintendo
raised its sales targets for the ds console last december after selling a million
in the us and japan in just a few weeks.
slow start to speedy net services faster broadband in the uk is becoming a reality
as more internet providers offer super-fast services. some lucky britons can
already take advantage of uk online s 8 megabits per second service which was
launched in november 2004. bt retail has announced that it will trial the same
speed service with a national rollout by year end. other service providers are
expected to follow suit and a glut of new voice and video services will follow.
if the bandwidth is there then isps will buy it said jill finger a research
director at analyst firm idc. others will be watching bt retail s trials which is
initially for employees and later in the summer for customers with interest. for
bt retail she said the super-fast service could be a way of differentiating it
from other players. it has been losing market share and this could be one way of
gaining some of that back said ms finger. wanadoo is set to trial an 8mbps
service in the summer and also plans to roll out unbundled services - which means
it takes over the network from bt - which will provide speeds of up to 15mbps.
there is no timetable for this at the moment. cable firms ntl and telewest are also
bound to increase bandwidth at some time in the future and according to an ntl
spokesman are in a better position than bt in the long term. bt s network is
limited compared to that of cable. with all the other services coming on stream
such as video on demand the question is will 8mbps be enough he asked.
singapore growth at 8.1% in 2004 singapore s economy grew by 8.1% in 2004 its best
performance since 2000 figures from the trade ministry show. the advance the
second-fastest in asia after china was led by growth of 13.1% in the key
manufacturing sector. however a slower-than-expected fourth quarter points to more
modest growth for the trade-driven economy in 2005 as global technology demand
falls back. slowdowns in the us and china could hit electronics exports while the
tsunami disaster may effect the service sector. economic growth is set to halve in
singapore this year to between 3% and 5%. in the fourth quarter the city state s
gross domestic product (gdp) rose at an annual rate of 2.4%. that was up from the
third quarter when it fell 3.0% but was well below analyst forecasts. i am
surprised at the weak fourth quarter number. the main drag came from electronics
said lian chia liang economist at jp morgan chase. singapore s economy had
contracted over the summer weighed down by soaring oil prices. the economy s poor
performance in the july to september period followed four consecutive quarters of
double-digit growth as singapore bounced back strongly from the effects of the
deadly sars virus in 2003.
roundabout continues nostalgia trip the new big-screen version of the magic
roundabout released in the uk on friday is the latest attempt to turn children s
television into box-office gold. recent years have seen a less-than-successful
adaptation of the 1960s puppet show thunderbirds and a moderately successful
version of e nesbit s five children and it previously filmed by the bbc in 1991.
he-man and transformers which were cartoon favourites in the 1980s will soon
receive their own costly makeovers. with screen versions of the a-team the dukes
of hazzard and even blake s seven on the cards nostalgia is clearly big business.
but some critics complain that these expensive takes on iconic series of yesteryear
do not match up to our fond memories of the originals. the new version of the magic
roundabout which will be released as sprung! in the us replaces the stop-motion
models of the 1960s tv show with polished computer-generated animation. in a
similar fashion the 2004 thunderbirds used human actors and special effects in
place of the original s puppets and models. the films are squarely pitched at
younger audiences. pop stars robbie williams and kylie minogue provide voices in
the magic roundabout while the now-defunct boy band busted performed the
thunderbirds theme song. but while some reviewers have been won over there has
nonetheless been a significant backlash. this cg-animated adventure airbrushes the
sly charm and trippy otherworldliness which made the 60s stop-motion roundabout a
cult hit writes stella papamichael on the bbc movies site. and the recent puppet
comedy team america: world police was in part provoked by its directors outrage
that gerry anderson s thunderbirds was remade without its signature mannequins. dan
jolin reviews editor of empire magazine says classic children s tv shows have a
built-in audience that make them ideal for reinvention. i can understand why
people are taking these intellectual properties and repackaging them for the kids
of today. but i think it s backfiring. what s next - the clangers on some distant
planet with some giant cgi soup dragons chasing after them despite thunderbirds
disappointing global box-office performance - the film cost $42m (£22m) but only
recouped $21m (£11m) - the nostalgia craze shows no signs of abating. it can
therefore be only a matter of time before some other tv favourites receive the
hollywood treatment. after the success of garfield: the movie britain s shabby
tabby surely deserves his own film vehicle. with only 13 episodes made of the 1974
series there is plenty of room to explore the lives of the pink cat professor
yaffle and the mice of the marvellous mechanical mouse organ. furry recyclers
have already had one big-screen outing - 1977 s wombling free. but with
environmental issues still occupying our thoughts it is high time they made a
comeback. advances in special effects technology could do wonders for the bbc s
supernatural comedy . and the success of pirates of the caribbean must surely
herald a comeback for tv s most popular cartoon buccaneer . it might also remind
viewers the lewd character names often associated with the show never actually
existed. the magic roundabout is out in the uk on 11 february. how about
bringing catweazle to the big screen he could give gandalf a run for his money!
thundercats!! i loved it. should be fun to see on the big screen if some effort is
put in! it will bring my youth back! get your hands off the clangers! is nothing
sacred make a movie version of the banana splits! what about keanu reeves and
richard gere in a remake of the wooden tops or perhaps robbie williams could get
his much mooted acting career off the ground by taking on the role of andy pandy.
you forgot to mention the grearest of them all danger mouse! but then again it
couldn t be better than the original series could it it s always nice to see
these old toons re-released but after the abysmal thunderbirds movie (and the
song!) i think i ve been completely put off. just leave these classics alone as
good memories. i think remakes are a good idea. as the world moves on people tend
to look more and more into the past to things that make them feel safe. i believe
this is the whole reason retro has become so popular. as long as a remake does
justice to the original then all it can do is create a wider audience and possibly
entice a new generation of persons to enjoy and revive and old series. personally i
d like to see cartoons such as transformers thundercats and m.a.s.k. get full
hollywood remakes. leave them alone why ruin something that we all have very fond
memories of in the first place the thunderbirds film was apalling not a patch on
the puppet series i grew up with and the magic roundabout will never be the same
without the voice of eric thompson. love to see transformers with real actors and
cgi. and make it at least a 15 rating. part of the reason for the success of such
classics as the magic roundabout was that the characters were not the sweet and
cuddly creatures that you would expect. they were moody sarcastic and rather
human. just looking at the pictures of the animations for the new film show that
these characteristics have not been preserved. dougal never smiled like that! films
of this sort have an unfortunate habit of disneyfying everthing and they just lose
the real magic that made the show special in the first place. i have fond memories
of bod (not least of which because i look like him) and would like to see someone
attempt to make it into a film. it s got all the right material for an american
blockbuster - no plot and no story. bod would likely be played by tom cruise and
would undoubtedly have a girlfriend or two. it s all very well and good remaking
these classic tv shows and films with all the latest technology for a new
audience but for me a lot of the original charm is lost when they do this and
seems more like a money making exercise to cash in on the original success of the
programme than reinventing or improving it. it maybe that to an audience who have
never seen the originals they can watch them without prejudice but to people who
have grown up with all these shows such as thunderbirds and magic roundabout which
are part of our childhood they are never going to live up to expectation. it does
pose the question though that with all the long line of remakes being made are
film-makers running out of original ideas all i can say is bring back danger
mouse probably the greatest kids show ever. i recently re-watched some episodes
and realised that there was a level of humour shown in danger mouse that was
completely lost on me when i was a child. there was a new captain pugwash cartoon
made a couple of years back. again like so many of these nostalgia programmes the
animation - this time computer created flat-cell like animation - failed to match
the original s cut out paper technique for inventiveness and was woefully
inadequate. we live in a sampling world - the music industry has been pludering
past decades for inspiration clipping sounds from 20 years ago is much cheaper and
easier that doing something new. seems that the film and tv is doing the same now -
it s just cheaper to take ideas from the past and rework them rather than being
daring and trying something new. it got to be mr.benn. the story line about a man
who changes in a fancy dress shop steps into a door way and appears in another
time and place would be amazing! if they got a decent producer and writer the story
line could be great. and who to play the lead role well if it was a comedy then it
would have to be someone like steve martin. if its going to be an adventure then
johnny depp playing a role similar to the pirates of the caribbean character.
muffin the mule perhaps after all grannies and grandpas go to the cinema as well
you know! why can t the british film industry try making gerry anderson s ufo or
captain scarlet or saphire and steel or the tomorrow people. in today s media
it seems the past is the future. tv shows such as battlestar galactica have new
remakes dj s are sampling or re-working 70 s and 80 s music. even computer games
from 10-15 years ago are getting modern re-workings. personally i think it shows
that no one has any originality any more! why not just leave our misty-eyed
nostalgia alone. mary mungo and midge. but of course for most of the episodes the
lift would be out of order and they would have to use the stairs. plus would mary
be more of a vicky pollard character as she lives in a high rise council block
yeah but no but i wasn t even there! i d like to see mr. benn with brad pitt in
the title role. sean connery could play the mysterious costume shop owner. it
demonstrates a profound lack of imagination in today s film-makers that they
continually try to remake and remodel the past in an effort to cash in on
nostalgia. there are plany of modern children s book that would make excellent
films or tv programmes why not use them instead of rehashing the past mr. benn
with rowan atkinson as the lead. would have loved to see dungeons & dragons made
but unfortunately the film that it was made into didn t come up to scratch. the
only one that isn t to be remade as yet is thundercats which i d like to see. i m
an expat living in norway and i recently went through a period of buying the dvds
of many of my favourite children s programs for my 2 daughters. my dearest wish
however is to see a feature length version of noggin the nog appear on the big
screen!! very scandinavian... rainbow! i believe that childrens classics should
be left well alone and i will not be surprised if the magic roundabout does not do
well at the box office especially since it will be going up against the spongebob
squarepants
movie popular among children because it s original witty and modern. the magic
roundabout will never appeal to the children of today as it did all those many
years ago. how about classics like chorlton and the wheelies rentaghost
terrahawks bod.....oh the list could go on and on!!! if a transformers movie is
indeed on the cards then i ll be the first one on amazon buying a copy eagerly
waiting at the front door with a frothy mouth and a nervous twitch. repackage my
childhood and sell it to me at an extortionate price! i don t care! till then i ll
have to make do with the citreon c4 advert. i d luv to see willow the wisp on the
big screen but sadly without the late kenneth williams doing the voices it wouldnt
be the same. and who remembers trap door voiced by the late willie rushden superb
children s programme. could morph hold his own in a big screen movie or even
jamie and the magic torch....hmmmmm i could go on and on. danger mouse at 34 i m
showing my age. :-) noggin the nog was one of the best children s programs. the
problem with bringing it to the big screen is that no-one could approach oliver
postgate s wonderful voices. so in general leave well alone. the originals are good
because they are of their time and the methods used are an integral part of the
story. just imagine what could be achieved by using cgi in a remake of
fingerbobs... the already disturbing hand antics of the bearded hippy yoffi could
take on a whole new level with a more life-like fingermouse bob the builder
postman pat and fireman sam together in an epic adventure of fire post and bricks.
in the ultimate struggle to save the women they love from the evil clowns krusty
and gobo. will they triumph or will they fail miserably find out this fall. one
puppet show that i personally would love to see made into a live action movie is
joe 90. it would be worth the price of admission alone to see the large screen
version of joe s car. of course gerry anderson s supermarionation is a rich seam
of material worthy of big-screen big-budget action. it was only that thunderbirds
the movie was targetted as a children t movie that really let it down. after all
the children that remember those shows with such affection are now the parents of
children themselves. it s only because the people who were children when these
programmes were first shown have grown up and are plundering their childhoods isn
t it i d hate to see bagpuss with perfect animation - i love that done in a shed
clunkiness and you couldn t recreate the magic. perhaps if the remakes were done in
a look around you mock-authentic style i might be interested ... chorton and the
wheelies or jamie and his magic torch; that would be mega! this re-gurgitation of
old films and tv shows makes me angry - it is corporate laziness resting on the
safety of other people s ideas because it guarantees to bring in the $$$. the same
can be said of modern day pop bands who release other peoples material will young
etc. the sad fact is nostalgia sells big bucks in the short-term. the fact that
they will be forgotten in 6 months time is irrelevant (e.g. starsky & hutch) hence
the market is saturated with this mindless drivel but it can only be stopped if
people stop buying it! i pray they never do a remake of chorlton and the wheelies.
i m only 27 and don t remember the series from when it was on tv but have the set
on dvd and it s a classic. the fact it s so great comes from the fact that there
were very few special effects involved and compared to today s stuff it looks
amateurish. thats the appeal though it s so innocent (like chorlton himself) and
it would be a real shame if they did remake it.
uk youth interested in politics the majority of young people are interested in
politics holding strong opinions on policies and have a keen appetite for
direct action. research undertaken for voting watchdog the electoral commission
suggests 81% of 16 to 20-year-olds feel strongly about issues like crime and
education. the survey findings are being released to coincide with the launch of
the y vote mock elections 2005 initiative. mock elections are planned to take place
in schools across the uk. electoral commission boss sam younger said: we know
that young people often feel disengaged from democratic life and we believe in
working creatively to encourage their interest and participation. mock elections
can play an extremely valuable role in helping young people understand how the
democratic process works and why it matters he said. the survey of a sample of
500 british 16 to 20-year-olds and 500 21 to 25-year olds showed britain s young
people are far from apathetic about issues that matter to most of their lives . the
y vote initiative is being run jointly by the electoral commission the hansard
society and the department for education and skills in the run-up to local
elections and the general election possibly on 5 may. michael rafferty who is
mock elections project manager at the hansard society said he looked forward to
seeing schools and colleges across the uk participating in the mock votes.
web logs aid disaster recovery some of the most vivid descriptions of the
devastation in southern asia are on the internet - in the form of web logs or
blogs. bloggers have been offering snapshots of information from around the region
and are also providing some useful information for those who want to help. indian
writer rohit gupta edits a group blog called dogs without borders. when he created
it the site was supposed to be a forum to discuss relations between india and
pakistan. but in the wake of sunday s tsunami mr gupta and his fellow bloggers
switched gears. they wanted to blog the tsunami and its aftermath. one sri lankan
blogger in the group goes by the online name morquendi. with internet service
disrupted by the tsunami morquendi started sending sms text messages via cell
phone from the affected areas of sri lanka. we started publishing these smses
says mr gupta. morquendi was describing scenes like 1 600 bodies washed up on a
shore and people burying and burying and burying them. people digging holes with
their hands. and this was coming through an sms message. we didn t have visual
accounts on radio or on tv or in the print media. soon thousands of web users
around the world were logging on to read morquendi s first hand accounts. in one
message morquendi wrote about a sri lankan woman who was running home with a
friend when the wave hit. she was being swept away morquendi s message read.
she grabbed a tree with one hand and her friend with the other. she says she
watched the water pull her friend away. mr gupta says the power of morquendi s
text message blogs was palpable. he was running around looking for friends
burying bodies carrying bodies mr gupta says of morquendi. i can t even begin
to imagine the psychological state he was in when he was sending us reports and
doing the relief work at the same time. he was caught between being a journalist
and being a human being. others blogs are helping to spread information about
relief efforts. dina mehta is an indian blogger who s helping with the newly
created south east asia earthquake and tsunami blog. she says the blog is not meant
to be filled with first person accounts. what we re doing is we re building a
resource she says. anyone who says ok i want to come and do some work in india
volunteer in india or in sri lanka or malaysia this is the sort of one-stop-shop
that they can come to for all sorts of resources - emergency help lines relief
agencies aid agencies contacts for them etc. ms mehta also says she wishes that
governments in the region would realise the power of blogs. imagine if they had
this resource available to them if there was a disaster how quickly you could
funnel aid in and get people to help she says. bloggers in the united states are
also getting involved. ramdhan yadav kotamaraja is originally from india but now
lives in dallas. mr kotamaraja wanted to help those affected by the tsunami by
pooling money with concerned friends. so he set up an online payment system on his
website. then says mr kotamaraja the blogging world found out. all my blogger
friends started linking up my site and i saw a lot of people other than my
friends. i d say 70% of the donations came from people i don t know. it s simply
unbelievable to me that people that i don t know will come and start donating.
news spreads quickly on weblogs a phenomenon that helps bloggers expand their
audience and scope. in sri lanka blogger morquendi is recruiting others to help.
one recruit calls himself heretic. in one of his latest posts heretic asks: have
you ever seen fishing trawlers on the road ever seen a bus inside a house well
heretic writes that was just the least affected areas - so you can just imagine -
or can you he concludes: keep it blogged. clark boyd is technology
correspondent for the world a bbc world service and wgbh-boston co-production.
brown in appeal for labour unity gordon brown has made an appeal for unity after
reports claimed mr blair went back on a pledge to stand down before the next
general election. the chancellor would not comment on the reports but insisted he
would not be diverted or distracted from tackling the challenges faced by the
country. his only motivation was to ensure labour was re-elected he insisted. mr
blair earlier dismissed the claim he had reneged on a promise to stand aside for
gordon brown as old news. according to a new book brown s britain by sunday
telegraph journalist robert peston mr blair went back on a pledge to make way for
mr brown after cabinet allies intervened in june 2004. in an interview with bbc
one s breakfast with frost mr blair said: i ve dealt with this six months ago. i
said then you don t do deals over jobs like this - you don t. what both of us are
actually concentrating on are the issues that concern the country. in a separate
interview with bbc political editor andrew marr mr brown said: it s very
important that we all do what we can in a unified way to ensure the election of a
labour government. i think it is very important to stress that that is the
motivation that i have. that is my purpose in politics and that is what every day
i seek to do. and i am not going to be diverted or distracted nor is tony blair
by newspaper stories or books or rumours or gossip. the only reason why we are in
government is to get on with the job in a unified way to deal with the challenges
facing this country. mr brown also said he had discussed the general election
campaign with the prime minister on saturday and pledged to play his part as he had
been asked to do. but mr peston said the pair had mutual animosity and contempt
for each other and that mr blair had decided in november 2003 he would quit because
he felt he had lost voters trust because of the iraq war. he then changed his mind
in june 2004 following intervention from allies in the cabinet and the suspicion
that the chancellor was deliberately manoeuvring against him according to the
book. andrew marr said: this is enormously damaging. gordon brown knows it as well
as tony blair. i think the relationship is genuinely privately very poor indeed.
things are very difficult. he added: lots of ministers believe tony blair will
attempt to move gordon brown out of the treasury after the election. that depends
on whether there s still a labour government and their majority. senior mps are
expected to raise concerns about the latest reports of infighting at the regular
meeting of labour backbenchers on monday. health secretary john reid said those
fuelling such reports were damaging labour s re-election chances and would not be
easily forgiven. fresh speculation of a rift recently followed mr blair and mr
brown s separate responses to the asian tsunami. these rumours were fuelled by mr
blair s decision to hold his monthly media conference at the same time as a long-
planned speech by mr brown on uk plans to tackle global poverty with a new
marshall plan for africa. there was speculation the pair were trying to outdo each
other s response to the disaster. but the prime minister said he had discussed
these claims with the chancellor and dismissed them as a load of nonsense . tory
leader michael howard accused the prime minister and mr brown of squabbling like
schoolboys . liberal democrat parliamentary chairman matthew taylor said the
personal ambition of mr blair and mr brown was getting in the way of good
government .
super union merger plan touted two of britain s big trade unions could merge to
form a super union of two million members. the move by amicus and the transport
and general workers union (tgwu) would be a seen as a bid to carry more weight with
ministers and employers. amicus has 1.2 million members and the tgwu has 800 000.
any merger would have to be approved by the unions executives and their
membership. it is understood meetings will be held on wednesday about the proposal.
along with the gmb and unison the tgwu and amicus worked closely together in the
last year to hammer out a 56-point deal with labour s leadership over equality at
work holidays and pensions - the warwick agreement. both unions are remaining
tight-lipped about the merger rumours but one insider pointed out to the bbc news
website that nobody is denying suggestions a merger could be on the agenda when
the two unions executives hold their meetings on wednesday. amicus s executive was
due to meet in any case although the tgwu is holding specially scheduled talks.
gronkjaer agrees switch to madrid jesper gronkjaer has agreed a move to atletico
madrid from birmingham city. the 27-year-old winger spent just five months at st
andrews following a £2.2m move from chelsea in july after playing for denmark at
euro 2004. he is set to move during the january transfer window in a deal rumoured
to be about £1.4m subject to a medical. we will meet with the player s
representative to finalise the contract and decide when he will sign said
atletico sporting director toni munoz. gronkjaer has been targeted by blues fans
and was sarcastically applauded when taken off against everton last month. boss
steve bruce had said that he would be happy to let the danish international go if
the price was right. he added: i m not going to say the decision to let him go is
down to the fans reaction towards him. he has had a tough time since the summer
with the loss of his mother and finding it difficult to adjust to a new club and a
different area. he has been terrific and not missed a day s training and is
someone if your daughter brought them home you would be delighted. it just hasn t
quite worked out here for him. but we d like to get back most of what we spent.
blair backs pre-election budget tony blair has backed chancellor gordon brown s
pre-budget report amid opposition claims he was too bullish about the state of the
uk economy. in a speech in edinburgh the prime minister said thursday s report
reinforced stability and opportunity. and that would be central to labour s next
election campaign planning for which was already well advanced. mr brown earlier
denied his economic forecasts were too optimistic - but refused to rule out future
tax rises. he told bbc radio 4 s today programme: no politician should make the
mistake that john major and his colleagues made in 1992 of saying no matter what
the circumstances are they can make all sorts of guarantees on every individual
thing. that is not what politicians should do it would not be responsible to do.
mr brown insisted his spending plans were affordable and he could afford to be
optimistic because britain was now a stable low-inflation economy and house prices
were now stabilising. mr blair praised his chancellor for his role in creating
economic stability which he said was the cornerstone of labour s programme. in
a speech at edinburgh s napier university he said labour would publish over the
next few months a rich agenda for future policy in any possible third term . in
every area of work there is a detailed plan for the future much clearer than those
in 1997 or 2001. all of it fits together around common themes of opportunity
security and stability for all mr blair said. in his pre-budget report mr brown
surprised some city experts by forecasting uk growth at between 3% and 3.5% for
next year. many believe the figure is more likely to be under 3% - and fear tax
rises or spending cuts saying tax receipts have been overestimated. carl emmerson
from the institute for fiscal studies told bbc news: he thinks everything will
come out in the wash and it will in fact be ok. we re not so sure. david page
of investec securities said: his forecast that he will meet the golden rule with
a margin of £8bn is way too optimistic. it s going to take a significant
turnaround in the economy to meet these targets. conservative shadow chancellor
oliver letwin said: i can t find a single economic forecaster from the imf to the
institute of fiscal studies who believes anything other than the chancellor has got
a black hole in his finances. in order to deal with that he will have to raise
taxes after the next general election. mr letwin accused the chancellor of using
fancy statistics to hide public service failures. vincent cable for the liberal
democrats called on mr brown to open up the government s books to the national
audit office to see if he had met his golden rule . it is very clear that there
are some serious loose ends in government public spending mr cable told mps.
minister defends hunting ban law the law banning hunting with dogs in england and
wales is enforceable and very clear alun michael has said. the rural affairs
minister said it would become obvious if people flouted the law which came into
force on friday and pretended they were not. some 270 hunts met legally on
saturday killing a total of 91 foxes - only four were accidentally killed by
hounds. but anti-hunt campaigners said there had been widespread intimidation of
activists monitoring hunts. countryside alliance chairman john jackson said that
saturday had been a massive demonstration by the rural community of support for
hunting . people had turned out to show en masse that the hunting act was a bad
law he said adding that foxes and other animals had been killed legally as far
as he was aware. although hunting with dogs is now a criminal offence exercising
hounds chasing a scent trail and flushing out foxes to be shot are still legal.
addressing claims that the new law was unenforceable mr michael told bbc radio 4 s
today programme: there has been a lot of spin about this by those that support
hunting. the reality is that the law is very clear. you can t chase wild mammals
with a pack of dogs whether the wild mammal is a fox or a deer. if people do so
and pretend they re not it s going to become very clear. you can t hunt
accidentally. mr michael also denied the hunting ban had led to a breakdown of
trust between the government and rural communities. he said most people living in
the countryside were more concerned with issues like the economy the health
service and their children s future than hunting. but the league against cruel
sports claimed the new act had been broken even though the numbers of foxes killed
had fallen. thousands of hunt supporters turned out at 270 hunts across england and
wales on the first day of the ban with anti-hunt groups sending out 100 monitors
to check the law was not being broken. there were only four arrests - over alleged
hunting of hares in wiltshire - although it was not clear whether they were made
under the hunting act. they have been released on bail but police say they may
face prosecution under new poaching laws. but penny little who monitored the
bicester hunt in oxfordshire said she had witnessed gratuitous spiteful killing
of foxes . if people tried to run circles around this law the only outcome would
be that it was tightened up she said. mike hobday from the league against cruel
sports said video evidence of the law being broken would be passed onto police. he
said intimidation seemed to have been widespread and called on hunts to do more to
stop their supporters intimidating anti-hunt activists videoing hunts. but mr
jackson who had been at the bicester hunt in oxfordshire denied there was any
intimidation.
aaliyah claim dismissed by court late r&b star aaliyah s record company has failed
in an attempt to sue the video producer who booked the ill-fated flight on which
she died in 2001. a new york appeals court has told blackground records that only
the singer s parents had the right to launch a claim for wrongful death. the 22-
year-old singer s family came to an undisclosed settlement over a negligence claim
in 2003. aaliyah had completed a music video when the plane crashed in the bahamas.
she and eight others were killed on the plane which crashed as if left for
florida. blackground records lawyer frank penski said he had yet to examine the
decision and did not know whether they would pursue the case. an investigation
into the crash revealed the twin-engined cessna was overloaded by 700 pounds
(320kg). a post-mortem carried out on the remains of the pilot showed there was
cocaine and alcohol in his body. aaliyah was a rising star in music and film before
she was killed. she was honoured with a string of posthumous awards and her single
more than a woman went to number one in the uk.
mobiles rack up 20 years of use mobile phones in the uk are celebrating their 20th
anniversary this weekend. britain s first mobile phone call was made across the
vodafone network on 1 january 1985 by veteran comedian ernie wise. in the 20 years
since that day mobile phones have become an integral part of modern life and now
almost 90% of britons own a handset. mobiles have become so popular that many
people use their handset as their only phone and rarely use a landline. the first
ever call over a portable phone was made in 1973 in new york but it took 10 years
for the first commercial mobile service to be launched. the uk was not far behind
the rest of the world in setting up networks in 1985 that let people make calls
while they walked. the first call was made from st katherine s dock to vodafone s
head office in newbury which at the time was over a curry house. for the first nine
days of 1985 vodafone was the only firm with a mobile network in the uk. then on 10
january cellnet (now o2) launched its service. mike caudwell spokesman for
vodafone said that when phones were launched they were the size of a briefcase
cost about £2 000 and had a battery life of little more than 20 minutes. despite
that they were hugely popular in the mid-80s he said. they became a yuppy must-
have and a status symbol among young wealthy business folk. this was also despite
the fact that the phones used analogue radio signals to communicate which made them
very easy to eavesdrop on. he said it took vodafone almost nine years to rack up
its first million customers but only 18 months to get the second million. it s
very easy to forget that in 1983 when we put the bid document in we were
forecasting that the total market would be two million people he said. cellnet
was forecasting half that. now vodafone has 14m customers in the uk alone. cellnet
and vodafone were the only mobile phone operators in the uk until 1993 when one2one
(now t-mobile) was launched. orange had its uk launch in 1994. both newcomers
operated digital mobile networks and now all operators use this technology. the
analogue spectrum for the old phones has been retired. called global system for
mobiles (gsm) this is now the most widely used phone technology on the planet and
is used to help more than 1.2 billion people make calls. mr caudwell said the
advent of digital technology also helped to introduce all those things such as
text messaging and roaming that have made mobiles so popular.
wales win in rome wales secured their first away win in the rbs six nations for
nearly four years with a six-try victory in rome. tries from jonathan thomas tom
shanklin and martyn williams gave the visitors a 19-5 half-time advantage. luciano
orquera did reply with one for italy but second-half efforts from brent cockbain
shane williams and robert sidoli sealed victory. fly-half stephen jones added four
conversions as wales maintained their superb start to this year s tournament.
starting full of confidence after their victory over england the visitors scored
the opening try after just four minutes. diminutive wing shane williams fielded a
kick ahead and danced past the onrushing andrea masi and aaron persico into the
italian half. his pass to tom shanklin appeared forward but when the centre was
held up short the ball was switched left and michael owen s long cut-out pass gave
the lurking thomas an easy run-in. stephen jones who retained the kicking duties
despite gavin henson s heroics against england slotted an excellent conversion
from wide out. wales twice threatened further scores but failed to find the crucial
pass and italy hit back out of the blue in the 11th minute. henson sporting gold
boots rather than the silver variety that did for england beat two players with
ease out on the left touchline. but his attempted chip ahead was charged down by
orquera who snaffled the loose ball and hared away from halfway to score in the
right corner. with the welsh line-out stuttering and italy twice turning the
visitors scrum the home side s forward power brought them back into it. but a
clever high kick from henson almost brought a try for hal luscombe when roland de
marigny and ludovico nitoglia made a hash of claiming it as the ball bounced into
touch. wales regained control with a second try in the 21st minute henson lobbing
up a high kick to the left corner where shanklin jumped higher than nitoglia to dot
down his 15th test try. jones was unable to convert and de marigny then hit the
upright with a penalty attempt for italy. henson was also narrowly short with a
long-range effort at goal but wales ended the half with a vital third score to
give themselves some breathing space. henson sent luscombe streaking away and when
he off-loaded to martyn williams the flanker showed his nous to ground the ball
against the padding of the post jones adding the conversion. italy who lost
flanker mauro bergamasco with a head knock before half-time built up a head of
steam on the resumption. de marigny landed a penalty to make it 19-8 and a nitoglia
break through the middle threatened a try only for the move to break down with a
knock-on. but wales put the outcome beyond doubt with two superb tries in four
minutes before the hour. their fourth after 53 minutes was sparked by another mazy
run from shane williams who beat several players with ease and finished with a
powerful angled run from lock cockbain. before italy could recover from that blow
a strong surge from gareth thomas and great off-loads from martyn williams and
replacement kevin morgan saw shane williams scamper over. with jones converting
both for a 33-8 lead wales had the luxury of sending on five more replacements for
the final quarter. the icing on the cake came with a sixth try after more superb
support work shane williams and ceri sweeney combining to send sidoli over in the
left corner. the only downside for wales was a hamstring injury suffered by
luscombe. but after back-to-back wins at the start of the tournament for the first
time in 11 years they will travel to paris in a fortnight looking like genuine
contenders. r de marigny; mirco bergamasco w pozzebon a masi l nitoglia; l
orquera a troncon; a lo cicero f ongaro m castrogiovanni s dellape m bortolami
(capt) a persico mauro bergamasco s parisse. g intoppa s perugini ca del fava
d dal maso p griffen m barbini kp robertson. g thomas (capt); h luscombe t
shanklin g henson s williams; s jones d peel; g jenkins m davies a jones; b
cockbain r sidoli; j thomas m williams m owen. r mcbryde j yapp i gough r
sowden-taylor g cooper c sweeney k morgan. andrew cole (australia).
councils must find gypsy sites ministers are telling councils to find more sites
for travellers amid continuing rows concerning a string of unauthorised
encampments. councils are also to be given stronger powers to move on illegal
settlements by gypsy communities on rural land. more money is to be given to
councils to develop official caravan parks said housing minister yvette cooper. in
november mps urged ministers to make councils create sites because 3 500
travellers have no place to stop. ms cooper said an annual scheme to refurbish
existing traveller sites would now be extended to consider council bids for new
stopping places. that scheme has paid out £25m in four years with £8m available
for 2005. there are two major problems in the planning system at the moment
concerning gypsy and traveller sites said ms cooper. firstly local authorities
are not identifying enough appropriate locations either for private or public
sites. and secondly they do not have enough powers to deal swiftly with
development on inappropriate sites. the result is that there are too many
developments on inappropriate sites causing tensions and difficulties for both the
neighbouring communities and the gypsies and travellers. that is why we are
consulting on a new obligation on local authorities to identify more appropriate
sites as well as new powers to take immediate action if the development is in the
wrong place and cannot be tolerated in even the short-term because of risk to local
amenity and the environment. under the new regulations expected to be in force in
the spring officials will be able to serve temporary stop notices aimed at
preventing works on a site before a council has had chance to obtain a full legal
ban. many mps with rural constituencies particularly in eastern england have been
pressing the government to create stronger enforcement powers saying villagers are
suffering because of the legal delays in removing illegal encampments. andrew
ryder of the traveller law reform coalition said: we welcome talk about an
obligation on councils to identify land for gypsies and travellers so long as it
is a real obligation as opposed to a recommendation which could be and was easily
ignored. new accommodation proposals for travellers need to be backed up with
decent funding and intervention by the government when councils attempt to dodge
their responsibilities towards travellers as they often do. living on the side of
the road or being worn down by planning appeals legal action and eviction is no
one s idea of fun. in their november report mps from the committee scrutinising
the office for the deputy prime minister responsible for housing said most
illegal traveller encampments were caused by a lack of places to stop. numerous
communities and councils were paying for lengthy and expensive evictions against
travelling communities said the mps. in turn the problems had worsened because
councils were reluctant to voluntarily provide sites because of resistance from
residents. two of the most controversial traveller sites - cottenham in
cambridgeshire and minety in wiltshire - remain embroiled in an ongoing legal
battle.
rangers seal old firm win goals from gregory vignal and nacho novo gave rangers a
scrappy victory at celtic park that moves them three points clear of the champions.
rangers had rarely threatened until celtic goalkeeper rab douglas let defender
vignal s 25-yard drive slip through his grasp and into the net. opposite number
ronald waterreus had been rangers hero saving superbly from craig bellamy and
john hartson. striker novo secured victory lobbing douglas with eight minutes
remaining. it ended celtic s 11-game unbeaten run at home in old firm derbies and
gave rangers manager alex mcleish his first victory at the home of his glasgow
rivals. celtic had won their last six meetings on their home pitch including twice
already this season. they started confidently with new signing bellamy on loan
from newcastle united given his celtic debut up front with wales international
colleague john hartson and chris sutton dropping into midfield. it took bellamy
just four minutes to threaten taking on marvin andrews before delivering a low
drive that was held by waterreus at the second attempt. he had an even better
chance after hartson dispossesed sotiris kyrgiakos and sent his strike partner
clear with only the goalkeeper to beat. but waterreus did well to beat away bellamy
s disappointing low drive from 16 yards. waterreus came to the rescue again when
the ball fell to hartson just inside the box and the dutch goalkeeper made a brave
block. it was an old firm return for barry ferguson as mcleish stuck by the side
that thumped four goals past hibernian. but rangers found celtic harder to break
down and douglas was not threatened until 10 minutes after the break. dado prso
turned inside neil lennon only for the celtic goalkeeper to beat away his powerful
18-yard drive. a great defensive header by andrews prevented hartson pouncing from
five yards out. hartson foxed vignal at the edge of the rangers box but the
striker s shot on the turn was again beaten away by waterreus. rangers were
beginning to dominate the midfield and vignal collecting a knock back from
fernando ricksen broke the deadlock douglas somehow letting the frenchman s
dipping drive slip through his grasp. novo pounced on a moments hesitation in the
celtic defence to latch on to a long ball from ricksen and lob the ball over the
advancing douglas. ricksen appeared to be hit by a coin but it could not prevent
rangers celebrations at the final whistle. : douglas mcnamara balde varga
laursen petrov lennon sutton thompson bellamy hartson. subs: marshall
henchoz juninho paulista lambert maloney wallace mcgeady. : waterreus hutton
kyrgiakos andrews ball buffel ferguson ricksen vignal prso novo. subs:
mcgregor namouchi burke alex rae malcolm thompson lovenkrands. : m mccurry
pixies take on reading and leeds pixies foo fighters and iron maiden will headline
this summer s leeds and reading festivals. the trio of rock heavyweights will top
the bill for the three-day events at bramham park near wetherby and at richfield
avenue reading. they are the pixies and iron maiden s only uk festival gigs
while foo fighters are also at t in the park. the killers razorlight and queens of
the stone age are also playing the twin festivals to be held on 26-28 august.
other acts in this year s line-up include the charlatans marilyn manson and kings
of leon. pete doherty s band babyshamblers will appear on the nme/radio one stage
along with kasabian black rebel motorcycle club and bloc party. organiser mean
fiddler said more acts were still to be confirmed for the summer event. we are all
very excited to be going back to reading and intend to have a fantastic time said
iron maiden s bruce dickinson. we re sure fans will too. it will the first time
the veteran british metal band have played reading in 23 years. at leeds iron
maiden will headline the first day of the festival on the friday pixies will
follow on saturday and the foo fighters will close the event on sunday. the pixies
will headline the first day of reading while foo fighters will play on sunday and
iron maiden will close the event. weekend tickets are now on sale priced at £125
each.
brown ally rejects budget spree chancellor gordon brown s closest ally has denied
suggestions there will be a budget giveaway on 16 march. ed balls ex-chief
economic adviser to the treasury said there would be no spending spree before
polling day. but mr balls a prospective labour mp said he was confident the
chancellor would meet his fiscal rules. he was speaking as sir digby jones cbi
director general warned mr brown not to be tempted to use any extra cash on pre-
election bribes. mr balls who stepped down from his treasury post to stand as a
labour candidate in the election had suggested that mr brown would meet his golden
economic rule - with a margin to spare . he said he hoped more would be done to
build on current tax credit rules. he also stressed rise in interest rates ahead
of an expected may election would not affect the labour party s chances of winning.
expectations of a rate rise have gathered pace after figures showed house prices
are still rising. consumer borrowing rose at a near-record pace in january. if the
mpc (the bank of england s monetary policy committee) were to judge that a rate
rise was justified before the election because of the strength of the economy - and
i m not predicting that they will - i do not believe that this will be a big
election issue in britain for labour he told a parliamentary lunch. this is a
big change in our political culture. during an interview with bbc radio 4 s today
programme mr balls said he was sure mr brown s budget would not put at risk the
stability of the economy. i don t think we ll see a pre-election spending spree -
we certainly did not see that before 2001 he said. his assurances came after sir
digby jones said stability was all important and any extra cash should be spent on
improving workers skills. his message to the chancellor was: please don t give it
away in any form of electioneering. sir digby added: i don t think he will. i
have to say he has been a prudent chancellor right the way through. stability is
the key word - british business needs boring stability more than anything. we
would say to him don t increase your public spending don t give it away. but if
you are going to anywhere just add something to the competitiveness of britain
put it into skilling our people . that would be a good way to spend any excess.
mr balls refused to say whether mr brown would remain as chancellor after the
election amid speculation he will be offered the job of foreign secretary. i
think that gordon brown wants to be part of the successful labour government which
delivers in the third term for the priorities of the people and sees off a
conservative party that will take britain backwards mr balls told today. prime
minister tony blair has yet to name the date of the election but most pundits are
betting on 5 may.
jp morgan admits us slavery links thousands of slaves were accepted as collateral
for loans by two banks that later became part of jp morgan chase. the admission is
part of an apology sent to jp morgan staff after the bank researched its links to
slavery in order to meet legislation in chicago. citizens bank and canal bank are
the two lenders that were identified. they are now closed but were linked to bank
one which jp morgan bought last year. about 13 000 slaves were used as loan
collateral between 1831 and 1865. because of defaults by plantation owners
citizens and canal ended up owning about 1 250 slaves. we all know slavery existed
in our country but it is quite different to see how our history and the
institution of slavery were intertwined jp morgan chief executive william
harrison and chief operating officer james dimon said in the letter. slavery was
tragically ingrained in american society but that is no excuse. we apologise to
the african-american community particularly those who are descendants of slaves
and to the rest of the american public for the role that citizens bank and canal
bank played. the slavery era was a tragic time in us history and in our company s
history. jp morgan said that it was setting up a $5m scholarship programme for
students living in louisiana the state where the events took place. the bank said
that it is a very different company than the citizens and canal banks of the 1800s
.
troubled marsh under sec scrutiny the us stock market regulator is investigating
troubled insurance broker marsh & mclennan s shareholder transactions the firm has
said. the securities and exchange commission has asked for information about
transactions involving holders of 5% or more of the firm s shares. marsh has said
it is co-operating fully with the sec investigation. marsh is also the focus of an
inquiry the new york attorney-general into whether insurers rigged the market.
since that inquiry was launched in october marsh has replaced its chief executive
and held a boardroom shake-out to meet criticism by lessening the number of company
executives on the board. prosecutors allege that marsh - the world s biggest
insurance broker - and other us insurance firms may have fixed bids for corporate
cover. this is the issue at the heart of the inquiry by new york s top law officer
eliot spitzer and a separate prosecution of five insurers by the state of
california. the sec s investigation into so-called related party transactions
includes dealings in the trident funds managed by mmc capital the company s
private equity firm. marsh s new chief executive michael cherkasky is trying to
negotiate a settlement with mr spitzer. mr spitzer has built up a reputation as a
fierce critic and campaigner against corporate america s misdeeds. the uncertainty
unleashed by the scandal has prompted three credit rating agencies - standard &
poor s moody s and fitch - to downgrade marsh in recent weeks. according to the
financial times insurance analysts are now questioning whether marsh will be able
to maintain its strong record of earning growth as they draw up forecasts for the
first quarter of next year. doubts also exist over how much the company may have to
pay regulators and lawyers to put the scandal behind.
lib dems target the student vote students can decide the fate of mps in some seats
at the next election liberal democrat leader charles kennedy has claimed. the
party says the votes of students can win it 27 new seats at the poll. the figures
assume all students will vote in their university town. in fact some may vote
where the parents live. the lib dems say scrapping university fees wins them
student support. but the tories would also end fees and labour says both would cap
people s ambitions. the lib dems have named the 14 seats where there are enough
students to take the lib dems from second place to beat labour and the 13 where
they could go from second to beat the tories. launching his campaign to win
students votes at the london school of economics mr kennedy urged students to
make their mark . he underlined lib dem plans to scrap university fees and
reintroduce maintenance grants of up to £2 000. he said: top-up fees put students
off university especially those from a poorer background. and is it really right
that so many young people are starting out in life with mortgage-style debts
hanging round their necks mr kennedy also said students want action on the
environment and see the iraq war which his party opposed as a defining issue.
labour has pushed through plans to let universities charge fees of up to £3 000 a
year with the poorest students eligible for non-repayable support of up to £3 000.
ahead of mr kennedy s launch a labour spokesperson said: like the tories the
liberal democrats would restrict access to higher education and put a cap on
aspiration closing the door to students with good grades and restricting their
life ambitions. they are committed to abandoning labour s targets of getting 50%
of 18 to 30-year-olds going into higher education and under lib dem plans students
would even have to study near home. the conservatives say they would abolish
university tuition fees and instead offer large student loans at commercial rates
of interest. they say the lib dem policy would leave universities wholly dependent
for their income on the goodwill of the chancellor. shadow education secretary
tim collins is on thursday setting out a new scheme of vocational grants for 14 to
16-year-olds to tackle what he says are crippling skills shortages . the lib dem
analysis of the difference students could make to its election chances is based on
all students being registered to vote near their university not in their home
towns. although the expected 5 may election would be during term time students can
vote by post. the electoral commission and national union of students are worried
students in halls of residence can find it hard to register to vote. some hall
wardens are reluctant to register students because of data protection fears - but
students can get themselves registered. if the election is on 5 may voters need to
register by 11 march. - the seats where the lib dems say student votes can swing
the election for them are: bristol west cardiff central leeds north west
cambridge manchester gorton sheffield central oxford east newcastle-upon-tyne
central liverpool riverside holborn and st pancras oldham east and saddleworth
manchester withington islington south and finsbury birmingham yardley surrey
south west taunton orpington haltemprice and howden eastbourne isle of wight
dorset west bournemouth east wells canterbury cities of london and westminster
bournemouth west westmorland and lonsdale.
ferguson hails man utd s resolve manchester united s alex ferguson has praised his
players gutsy performance in the 1-0 win at aston villa. that was our hardest
away game of the season and it was a fantastic game of football end-to-end with
lots of good passing said the old trafford boss. we showed lots of character and
guts and we weren t going to lose. i look at that fixture and think we ve been
there and won while arsenal and chelsea have yet to come and villa may have some
players back when they do. ferguson also hailed senior stars ryan giggs and roy
keane who came off the bench for the injured john o shea. roy came on and brought
a bit of composure to the midfield which we needed and which no other player has
got. giggs was a tremendous threat and he brings tremendous penetration. all we
can do is maintain our form play as we are and we ll get our rewards.
williams stays on despite dispute matt williams insists he has no thoughts of
quitting as national coach as a result of the power struggle currently gripping
scottish rugby. the chairman chief executive and three non-executive directors
all departed in a row over the game s future direction. but williams said: i want
to make it clear that i m committed totally to scottish rugby. i ve brought my
family here and we ve immersed ourselves in scottish life. there s no way that i m
walking away. however he attempted to steer clear of taking sides in the dispute.
i d like to stress that the national team is separate to the political situation
he said. when you come to an undertaking like this and you are trying to make a
difference then there are always people who will begrudge you who are jealous and
want to try to drag you down. when you have that situation you have to have the
courage of your convictions to see it through. there was some very unhelpful and
uninformed comment that the national team had received a massive increase in budget
at the expense of other parts of scottish rugby and that is simply not the case.
like all good coaches you go and ask for an increase. but we were told in no
uncertain terms that the financial situation did not allow that. the idea that we
are lighting cigars with £20 notes while the rest of scottish rugby flounders is
absolutely untrue. we also attracted criticism because of the number of days
players spent with the national team. but let me give you the truth. our irish
counterparts whom we have to compete with in a few days time had 70 days
together at the summer. they are currently in camp now and they will have another
21 days in camp before the six nations. that means they will have 91 days away
from their club from july until the six nations. we on the other hand will have
16. there must be a win-win philosophy and attitude within scottish rugby and that
is what we are after - both groups winning not competing.
kenteris denies faking road crash greek sprinter kostas kenteris has denied claims
that he faked a motorbike crash to avoid a doping test days before the start of the
olympics. kenteris and fellow sprinter katerina thanou are set to learn if they
will face criminal charges this week. part of the investigation has centred on
whether they staged the crash. kenteris insisted: the accident happened. i went
crazy when i found out i had supposedly missed a test and i wanted to rush to the
olympic village. kenteris speaking on greece s alter television station also
claimed that he asked to be tested for banned substances in hospital after the
crash. i told the hospital which was an olympics-accredited hospital to call the
ioc and have me tested on the spot but no-one came. after a drama which dominated
newspaper headlines in greece as athens prepared for the start of the athens games
kenteris and thanou eventually withdrew. but kenteris has continually protested his
innocence - and on sunday blamed greek olympic committee officials and his former
coach christos tzekos for failing to inform him of the test. the 31-year-old
insisted he will be happy if he is charged so he can clear his name. if a decision
is taken to have charges filed against me i will accept it gladly. a prosecution
means that the case will be cleared... i want to go to the end and then we ll see
who s right and who isn t. kenteris a greek hero after winning gold in the 200m
at the 2000 olympics in sydney also confirmed that he was due to light the flame
at the athens opening ceremony. i had even rehearsed lighting the cauldron he
said.
eastwood s baby scoops top oscars clint eastwood s million dollar baby beat martin
scorsese s the aviator to the top awards at the oscars on sunday. the boxing drama
was named best picture and eastwood pipped scorsese to best director while its
stars hilary swank and morgan freeman won acting awards. the aviator took five
prizes including best supporting actress for cate blanchett. the biopic of howard
hughes led the nominations with 11. jamie foxx picked up best actor for playing
soul star ray charles in ray. many expected this to be scorsese s year - but he was
unsuccessful in the best director category for the fifth time in his career. he
has never won despite being nominated for such films as raging bull and goodfellas.
instead eastwood took his second oscar for best director after winning for
unforgiven in 1993. it was a wonderful adventure eastwood said. to make a
picture in 37 days it takes a well oiled machine. i am lucky to be here and lucky
to be still working. i ve got a lot of stuff to do yet. hilary swank picked up her
second best actress oscar for playing a female boxer in million dollar baby
beating stars including annette bening kate winslet and imelda staunton. i don t
know what i did in this life to deserve this she told the audience. i m just a
girl from a trailer park who had a dream. morgan freeman beat actors including
clive owen jamie foxx and alan alda to the prize for best supporting actor. he
thanked eastwood and described the film as a labour of love . this was the fourth
nomination of his career but his first win. backstage he said: a lot of people
say you re due - maybe you are maybe you aren t - it s an accolade. million
dollar baby s success was the night s biggest surprise after the aviator seemed to
have the advantage until the end of the ceremony. cate blanchett who won for
playing late screen legend katharine hepburn in the aviator said her award was an
indescribable surprise and honour . of hepburn she said: the longevity of her
career is inspiring to everyone. blanchett also paid tribute to the film s
director martin scorsese telling him: i hope my son will marry your daughter.
the aviator s other awards came for cinematography film editing art direction and
costume design. and jamie foxx who had two nominations this year paid tribute to
the beautiful legacy of soul legend ray charles who died last year and thanked
director taylor hackford. you took a chance man he said. that love for ray
charles was deep down in the earth somewhere and you opened it up. everybody s
drowning in this love. thank you for taking a chance and thank you for waiting 15
years to get me to do it. he broke down in tears when speaking about being
whipped by his grandmother whom he described as his first acting teacher when he
was young. in other awards cartoon hit the incredibles won best animated feature
and best sound editing. bittersweet comedy sideways won best adapted screenplay
while the original screenplay prize went to eternal sunshine of the spotless mind.
born into brothels about the children of prostitutes in calcutta was named best
documentary the sea inside was named best foreign language film and finding
neverland got the accolade for best musical score. spider-man 2 triumphed in the
visual effects category ray won best sound mixing and lemony snicket s a series of
unfortunate events picked up best make-up. former british tv presenter andrea
arnold who hosted children s shows motormouth and number 73 in the 1980s won best
short film for wasp. comedian chris rock who hosted the ceremony for the first
time received a standing ovation before getting the show under way.
mobiles not media players yet mobiles are not yet ready to be all-singing all-
dancing multimedia devices which will replace portable media players say two
reports. despite moves to bring music download services to mobiles people do not
want to trade multimedia services with size and battery life said jupiter. a
separate study by gartner has also said real-time tv broadcasts to mobiles is
unlikely in europe until 2007. technical issues and standards must be resolved
first said the report. batteries already have to cope with other services that
operators offer like video playback video messaging megapixel cameras and games
amongst others. bringing music download services based on the success of computer-
based download services will put more demands on battery life. fifty percent of
europeans said the size of a mobile was the most important factor when it came to
choosing their phone but more power demands tend to mean larger handsets. mobile
phone music services must not be positioned to compete with the pc music experience
as the handsets are not yet ready said thomas husson mobile analyst at jupiter
research. mobile music services should be new and different and enable operators
to differentiate their brands and support third generation network launches. other
problems facing mobile music include limited storage on phones compared to
portable players which can hold up to 40gb of music. the mobile industry is keen to
get into music downloading after the success of apple s itunes napster and other
net music download services. with phones getting smarter and more powerful there
are also demands to be able to watch tv on the move. in the us services like tivo
to go let people transfer pre-recorded tv content onto their phones. but the
gartner report on mobile tv broadcasting in europe suggests direct broadcasting
will have to wait. currently tv-like services where clips are downloaded are
offered by several european operators like italy s tim and 3. mobile tv will have
to overcome several barriers before it is widely taken up though said the report.
various standards and ways of getting tv signals to mobiles are being worked on
globally. in europe trials in berlin and helsinki are making use of terrestrial tv
masts to broadcast compressed signals to handsets with extra receivers. a service
from the norwegian broadcasting corporation lets people watch tv programmes on
their mobiles 24 hours a day. the service uses 3gp technology one of the standards
for mobile tv. but at the end of 2004 the european telecommunications institute
(etsi) formally adopted digital video broadcasting handheld (dvb-h) as the mobile
tv broadcasting standard for europe. operators will be working on the standard as a
way to bring real-time broadcasts to mobiles as well as trying to overcome several
other barriers. the cost and infrastructure needs to set up the services will need
to be addressed. handsets also need to be able to work with the dvb-h standard. tv
services will have to live up to the expectations of the digital tv generation too
which expects good quality images at low prices according to analysts. people are
also likely to be put off watching tv on such small screens said gartner. digital
video recorders like europe s sky+ box and video-on-demand services mean people
have much more control over what tv they watch. as a result people may see
broadcasting straight to mobiles as taking away that control. more powerful
smartphones like the xda ii nokia 6600 sonyericsson p900 and the orange e200
offering web access text and multimedia messaging e-mail calendar and gaming are
becoming increasingly common. a report by analysts instat/mdr has predicted that
smartphone shipments will grow by 44% over the next five years. it says that
smartphones will make up 117 million out of 833 million handsets shipped globally
by 2009.
telewest to challenge sky plus cable firm telewest is to offer a personal video
recorder (pvr) in a set -top box to challenge sky plus. sky plus is the market
leader in the field of digital video recorders in the uk with 474 000 subscribers.
pvrs record tv programmes to a hard drive letting viewers pause and rewind live
television and effectively time shift the viewing experience. a number of pvrs
incorporating freeview digital terrestrial tv are also on the market but their
success is limited. telewest s pvr will offer a 160gb hard drive which has storage
for up to 80 hours of programmes. the box has three tuners which means viewers can
record two channels simultaneously while watching a third channel. sky plus boxes
come in two versions - a 20gb version for £99 and a 160gb version for £399. sky
also charges a £10 subscription fee to the service unless viewers have a
subscription to one of its premium packages. telewest has yet to reveal pricing for
the new box or if it will be charging a subscription fee for the service. eric
tveter president and chief operating officer at telewest broadband said: we will
make our pvr set-top box available later this year putting a stop to missed soaps
interrupted films and arguments over which programmes to record. pvrs and
recordable dvd players are set to replace video recorders as the standard method of
recording and saving favourite tv programmes. last year high street retailer
dixons said it was going to stop selling vhs machines in favour of pvrs and
recordable dvd machines. sky has said it aims to have 25% of its subscribers using
sky plus by 2010 - it is predicting 10 million total subscribers by that date. it
currently has 7.4 million subscribers while telewest provides digital cable to 1.7
million customers.
marsh executive in guilty plea an executive at us insurance firm marsh & mclennan
has pleaded guilty to criminal charges in connection with an ongoing fraud and bid-
rigging probe. new york attorney general elliot spitzer said senior vice president
robert stearns had pleaded guilty to scheming to defraud. the offence carries a
sentence of 16 months to four years in state prison. mr spitzer s office added mr
stearns had also agreed to testify in future cases during the industry inquiry. we
are saddened by the development marsh said in a statement. the company added it
would continue to co-operate in the case adding it was committed to resolving the
company s legal issues and to serving our clients with the highest standards of
transparency and ethics . according to a statement from mr spitzer s office the
marsh executive admitted he instructed insurance companies to submit non-
competitive bids for insurance business between 2002 and 2004. those bids were then
conveyed to marsh clients under false and fraudulent pretences . through the
practice marsh was allowed to determine which insurers won business from clients
and so control the insurance market mr spitzer s office added. it also protected
incumbent insurers when their business was up for renewal and helped marsh to
maximise its fees a statement said. in one case an email showed mr stearns had
instructed a colleague to solicit a non-competitive - or b - quote from aig that
was higher in premium and more restrictive in coverage and so fixed the bids in a
way that would support the present provider chubb. the company is also still being
examined by us stock market regulator the securities and exchange commission (sec).
late last month the sec asked for information about transactions involving holders
of 5% or more of the firm s shares.
bets off after big brother leak a bookmaker has stopped taking bets on celebrity
big brother after claiming sensitive information about the channel 4 show had
been leaked. william hill made the move after four people tried to place bets on
friday s surprise double eviction. this is highly unlikely to have been an
inspired guess william hill spokesman rupert adams said. however a big brother
spokeswoman was satisfied that sensitive information about the show remained
confidential. the bookmaker said its suspicions had been aroused by betting for
the last two contestant evictions when people were still trying to place large
sums despite odds as short as 1/14. but william hill s overwhelming evidence came
on friday when four unknown callers asked to place bets on the show s surprise
double eviction. shortly afterwards model caprice and actor jeremy edwards left
the show. mr adams believed someone had gained access to figures which revealed how
viewers were voting and was using them to predict which celebrity would be evicted
next. we think somebody somewhere has got them and has been trying very hard to
take us to the cleaners he said. the bets were not taken. mr adams did not
believe anyone from channel 4 or big brother producer endemol had tried to place
the queried bets. but he added: they need to look at how many people are privy to
the sensitive information. big brother s spokeswoman said: only a handful of
senior production executives are privy to any sensitive information regarding
eviction voting and there are strict procedures in place to keep this information
strictly confidential. we do not feel the need to investigate this further as we
are satisfied that these measures are effective. the show s independent
adjudicator - the electoral reform services - was also satisfied she added. the
current series of celebrity big brother ends on sunday with happy mondays star bez
actress brigitte nielsen and blazin squad rapper kenzie competing for a £50 000
charity prize. bookmaker ladbrokes said it would continue to accept bets on the
final with kenzie its favourite at 2/9. we felt no need whatsoever to close the
book spokesman warren lush said. we ve seen absolutely no suspicious betting
patterns. mr lush added that people sometimes vote on short odds because they
think it s like buying money . you do have to risk quite a lot of money for a very
small gain but if they think there s no chance of an upset they will still do it
he said.
republic to face china and italy the republic of ireland have arranged friendlies
against china and italy which will take place at lansdowne road in march and
august. brian kerr s side will face the 54th ranked chinese on 29 march - just
three days after the world cup qualifier against israel in tel aviv. italy will
visit on 17 august in what will be a warm-up game ahead of the autumn world cup
qualifiers. in their last meeting the irish beat italy in the 1994 world cup
finals. however that is the republic s only victory in eight attempts against the
italians who have won all the other seven games. the 29 march game will be the
second time the republic have played china - the previous encounter back in june
1984 with the irish winning 1-0 in sapporo japan. brian kerr said: china have
made great progress over the last few years and will provide difficult opposition.
we all witnessed the performances of the asian teams in the last world cup and
china play a similar type of football. as for italy they make a welcome return to
dublin and will be a massive attraction because they are one of the great
traditional powers in the world. the game will be ideal preparation for the three
important world cup qualifiers in the autumn. ireland round off their world cup
campaign with games against france on 7 september cyprus on 8 october and
switzerland on 12 october.
butler launches attack on blair former civil service chief lord butler has
criticised the way tony blair s government operates accusing it of being obsessed
with headlines. he also attacked the way the iraq war was sold to the public
with important warnings on the strength of the intelligence left out. tory leader
michael howard said lord butler had given the most damaging testimony he could
remember. but downing street said mr blair should be judged by results not his
style. lord butler said mr blair bypassed the cabinet and relied instead on small
informal groups of advisers to help him make decisions. the prime minister s
official spokesman said the cabinet was still used to achieve a consensus on
important issues. but he added: you cannot in a modern government take every
decision in cabinet. it s just not possible. lord butler said the government had
too much freedom to bring in bad bills and to do whatever it likes and it
relied too much on the advice of political appointees. the former cabinet secretary
said in an interview with the spectator magazine: i would be critical of the
present government in that there is too much emphasis on selling there is too much
central control and there is too little of what i would describe as reasoned
deliberation which brings in all the arguments. mr howard described lord butler s
intervention as very important . this is from someone who was an insider at the
very heart of the blair government. it is certainly the most damaging testimony i
can ever remember from someone in such an eminent position. lord butler s report
earlier this year into iraq intelligence said the government s september 2002
weapons dossier did not make clear intelligence about claims that saddam hussein
had stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons was very thin . the reason for
this is that it would have weakened ministers case for war lord butler said in
his spectator interview which was conducted by the magazine s editor conservative
mp boris johnson. he said: when civil servants give material to ministers they
say these are the conclusions we ve drawn but we ve got to tell you the evidence
we ve got is pretty thin. similarly if you are giving something to the united
nations and the country you should warn them. asked why he thought the warnings
were not there lord butler said: one has got to remember what the purpose of the
dossier was. the purpose of the dossier was to persuade the british why the
government thought iraq was a very serious threat. when asked whether he thought
the country was well-governed on the whole he replied: well. i think we are a
country where we suffer very badly from parliament not having sufficient control
over the executive and that is a very grave flaw. we should be breaking away from
the party whip. the executive is much too free to bring in a huge number of
extremely bad bills a huge amount of regulation and to do whatever it likes - and
whatever it likes is what will get the best headlines tomorrow. all that is part
of what is bad government in this country. lord butler s assessment was backed by
his predecessor as cabinet secretary lord armstrong. lord armstrong told bbc two s
newsnight: i agree ... there doesn t appear to be the sort of informed collective
political judgement brought to bear on decision-making that those affected by
decisions are entitled to expect. liberal democrat deputy leader menzies campbell
said he thought lord butler s comments were well justified and mr blair s style
of leadership was corrosive of the whole system of government . but labour former
minister jack cunningham accused lord butler of basing his comments on the first
eight months of the incoming labour administration when he was cabinet secretary.
mr cunningham told bbc radio 4 s today programme: taken together robin butler s
comments are partial inaccurate and cannot be taken as anything other than
politically biased against the labour government.
british library gets wireless net visitors to the british library will be able to
get wireless internet access alongside the extensive information available in its
famous reading rooms. broadband wireless connectivity will be made available in
the eleven reading rooms the auditorium café restaurant and outdoor piazza
area. a study revealed that 86% of visitors to the library carried laptops. the
technology has been on trial since may and usage levels make the library london s
most active public hotspot. previously many were leaving the building to go to a
nearby internet café to access their e-mail the study found. at the british
library we are continually exploring ways in which technology can help us to
improve services to our users said lynne brindley chief executive of the british
library. surveys we conducted recently confirmed that alongside the materials
they consult here our users want to be able to access the internet when they are
at the library for research or to communicate with colleagues she said. the
service will be priced at £4.50 for an hour s session or £35 for a monthly pass.
the study conducted by consultancy building zones found that 16% of visitors came
to the library to sit down and use it as a business centre. this could be because
of its proximity to busy mainline stations such as kings cross and euston. the
study also found that people were spending an average of six hours in the building
making it an ideal wireless hotspot. since may the service has registered 1 200
sessions per week making it london s most active public hotspot. the majority of
visitors wanted to be able to access their e-mail as well as the british library
catalogue. the service has been rolled out in partnership with wireless provider
the cloud and hewlett packard. it will operate independently from the library s
existing network. the british library receives around 3 000 visitors each day and
serves around 500 000 readers each year. people come to view resources which
include the world s largest collection of patents and the uk s most extensive
collection of science technology and medical information. the library receives
between three and four million requests from remote users around the world each
year.
campaign cold calls questioned labour and the conservatives are still telephoning
the millions of people who have signed up to make sure they do not get marketing
cold calls . the parties say they can stick to the rules by ensuring that their
calls are not marketing - for instance by asking about people s voting intentions.
the lib dems are asking the watchdog overseeing the rules to stop the calls. the
information commissioner s office says surveys are allowed but there is a grey
area if personal data is kept. telephone call centres are expected to be used as
never before by all the three major parties in the run-up to the general election.
but seven million telephone numbers are on the telephone preference service (tps)
lists which ban unsolicited sales and marketing calls. both schemes are run by the
direct marketing association and backed by eu directives on privacy and electronic
communications. the rules on marketing calls apply as much to politicians as to
private sector companies. but that does not mean labour and the tories are not
calling people signed up to the tps. a labour party spokesman told the bbc news
website the party avoided those on tps lists when telephoning people about
membership or fundraising. but that did not happen for voter identification
calls. when we ask which party they will vote for that is not marketing and we
have very clear legal advice that it is not he said. so it is not covered by the
telephone preference service. he said the party always asked people if they would
be happy to be contacted again and if they said no they were not rung again. a
conservative spokeswoman said the party stuck to the rules when it rang tps
subscribers. she said: we do apply tps but in line with the law. we would not do
things that are not allowed in the law. a spokesman for the information
commissioner s office said it would be classed as marketing if political parties
telephoned people to encourage them to vote for them. but the rules did allow
polling organisations to telephone people about their voting intentions if they
recorded them only as part of a bigger set of statistics not person by person. if
a political party was doing that than it may be that also would not be marketing
he said. the spokesman said it might be considered unsolicited marketing if a
party recorded voting preferences with a view to marketing information in the
future. the spokesman said there was no yes or no answer and the area was pretty
grey . he added: if someone complained then we would investigate that. political
parties are aware of the regulations. at the last by-elections we reminded them.
lib dem chairman matthew taylor has now written to the watchdog saying: the advice
we have received on several previous occasions is that such phone calls are
illegal. he says evidence from local lib dem parties around the country suggests
there are significant numbers of such calls. i hope you can therefore take swift
and efficient action to ensure that this ceases he tells the commissioner. mr
taylor argues there should be new guidelines so all parties can act in the same way
if the watchdog believes the rules allow parties to ring tps numbers about voting
intentions and later urge those people to vote for them.
patti smith to host arts festival rock star patti smith has been made artistic
director of this year s meltdown festival to be held at london s south bank centre
in june. the punk pioneer follows morrissey david bowie and nick cave in
directing 15 days of concerts and events. smith has yet to decide the line-up for
meltdown which begins on 11 june. i want to touch on all aspects of our culture
perhaps with readings from genet and i have an idea for jeremy irons to read
proust she said. the 58-year-old us singer of because the night told the
observer newspaper that the festival would be her response to these material
exploitative and greedy times . it is important we explore the new but we should
also salute the best art there is aesthetically and spiritually she said. last
year s meltdown festival directed by the ex-smiths star morrissey included
appearances by singer jane birkin nancy sinatra and playwright alan bennett. he
also persuaded punk band the new york dolls to reform for a reunion show.
warning over tsunami aid website net users are being told to avoid a scam website
that claims to collect cash on behalf of tsunami victims. the site looks plausible
because it uses an old version of the official disasters emergency committee
webpage. however dec has no connection with the fake site and says it has
contacted the police about it. the site is just the latest in a long list of scams
that try to cash in on the goodwill generated by the tsunami disaster. the link to
the website is contained in a spam e-mail that is currently circulating. the
message s subject line reads urgent tsunami earthquake appeal and its text bears
all the poor grammar and bad spelling that characterises many other phishing
attempts. the web address of the fake site is decuk.org which could be close enough
to the official www.dec.org.uk address to confuse some people keen to donate.
patricia sanders spokeswoman for the disaster emergency committee said it was
aware of the site and had contacted the computer crime unit at scotland yard to
help get it shut down. she said the spam e-mails directing people to the site
started circulating two days ago shortly after the domain name of the site was
registered. it is thought that the fake site is being run from romania. ms sanders
said dec had contacted us net registrars who handle domain ownership and the net
hosting firm that is keeping the site on the web. dec was going to push for all
cash donated via the site to be handed over to the official organisation. bt and
dec s hosting company were also making efforts to get the site shut down she said.
ms sanders said sending out spam e-mail to solicit donations was not dec s style
and that it would never canvass support in this way. she said that dec hoped to get
the fake site shut down as soon as possible. all attempts by the bbc news website
to contact the people behind the site have failed. none of the e-mail addresses
supplied on the site work and the real owner of the domain is obscured in publicly
available net records. this is not the first attempt to cash in on the outpouring
of goodwill that has accompanied appeals for tsunami aid. one e-mail sent out in
early january came from someone who claimed that he had lost his parents in the
disaster and was asking for help moving an inheritance from a bank account in the
netherlands. the con was very similar to the familiar nigerian forward fee fraud e-
mails that milk money out of people by promising them a cut of a much larger cash
pile. other scam e-mails included a link to a website that supposedly let people
donate money but instead loaded spyware on their computers that grabbed
confidential information. in a monthly report anti-virus firm sophos said that two
e-mail messages about the tsunami made it to the top 10 hoax list during january.
another tsunami-related e-mail is also circulating that carries the zar worm which
tries to spread via the familiar route of microsoft s outlook e-mail program.
anyone opening the attachment of the mail will have their contact list plundered by
the worm keen to find new addresses to send itself to.
confusion over high-definition tv now that a critical mass of people have embraced
digital tv dvds and digital video recorders the next revolution for tv is being
prepared for our sets. in most corners of tv and technology industries high-
definition (hdtv) is being heralded as the biggest thing to happen to the
television since colour. hd essentially makes tv picture quality at least four
times better than now. but there is real concern that people are not getting the
right information about hd on the high street. thousands of flat panel screens -
lcds (liquid crystal displays) plasma screens and dlp rear-projection tv sets -
have already been sold as hd but are in fact not able to display hd. the uk is
the largest display market in europe according to john binks director of gfk
which monitors global consumer markets. but he added: of all the flat panel
screens sold just 1.3% in the uk are capable of getting high-definition. there
are 74 different devices that are being sold as hd but are not hd-ready according
to alexander oudendijk senior vice president of marketing for satellite giant
astra. they may be fantastic quality tvs but many do not have adaptors in them -
called dvi or hdmi (high-definition multimedia interface) connectors - which let
the set handle the higher resolution digital images. part of this is down to lack
of understanding and training on the high street say industry experts who
gathered at bafta in london for the 2nd european hdtv summit last week. we have to
be careful about consumer confusion. there is a massive education process to go
through said mr binks. the industry already recognised that it would be a
challenge to get the right information about it across to those of us who will be
watching it. eventually that will be everyone. the bbc is currently developing
plans to produce all its tv output to meet hdtv standards by 2010. preparations
for the analogue switch-off are already underway in some areas and programmes are
being filmed with hd cameras. bskyb plans to ship its first generation set-top
boxes to receive hdtv broadcasts in time for christmas. like its sky+ boxes they
will also be personal video recorders (pvrs). the company will start broadcasts of
hdtv programmes offering them as premium channel packages concentrating to
start with on sports big events and films in early 2006. but the set-top box
which receives hdtv broadcasts has to plug into a display - tv set - that can show
the images at the much higher resolution that hd demands if hdtv is to be real .
by 2010 20% of homes in the uk will have some sort of tv set or display that can
show hd in its full glory. but it is all getting rather confusing for people who
have only just taken to being digital . as a result all the key players those
who make flat panel displays as well as the satellite companies and broadcasters
formed a hd forum in 2004 to make sure they were all talking to each other. part of
the forum has been concerned with issues like industry standards and content
protection. but it has also been preoccupied with how to help the paying public
know exactly what they are paying for. from next month all devices that have the
right connectors and resolution required will carry a hd-ready sticker. this also
means they are equipped to cope with both analogue and hdtv signals and so comply
with the minimum specification set out by the industry. the logo is absolutely the
way forward said david mercer analysts with strategy analytics. but it is still
not appearing on many retail products. the industry is upbeat that the sticker
will help but it is only a start. we can only do so much with the position we are
in today with manufacturers said mr oudendijk. there may well be a number of
dissatisfied customers in the next few months. the european broadcast union (ebu)
is testing different flavours of hd formats to prepare for even better hdtv further
down the line. it is similarly concerned that people get the right information on
hdtv formats as well as which devices will support the formats. we believe
consumers buying expensive displays need to ensure their investment is worthwhile
said phil laven technical director for the ebu. the tv display manufacturers want
us to watch hd on screens that are at least 42in (106cm) to get the true impact
of hd they say although smaller displays suffice. what may convince people to
spend money on hd-ready devices is the falling prices which continue to tumble
across europe. the prices are dropping an average of 20% every year according to
analysts. lcd prices dropped by 43% in europe as a whole last year according to mr
oudendijk.
police detain chinese milk bosses chinese police have detained three top executives
at milk firm yili with reports suggesting that they are being investigated for
embezzlement. yili - full name inner mongolia yili industrial - confirmed its
chairman chief financial officer and securities representative were all in
custody. the company china s third-largest milk producer is to hold an emergency
meeting to debate the issue. a yili spokesman said it may now move to oust chairman
zheng junhuai. the spokesman did not say why the three had been detained by the
police. the official xinhua news agency said the arrest was linked to alleged
embezzlement. yili has recently been the subject of intense media speculation over
its financial operations. executives are suspected of wrongly using 417m yuan
($50.4m; £26m) of company funds to support a management buyout back in july 2003.
yili s shares were suspended on tuesday having fallen by 10% on monday. the
company and its two main rivals - market leader mengniu dairy and second place
bright dairy - dominate a chinese milk market that has grown by almost 30% over the
past five years. analysts wondered if the scandal at yili - the latest to befall
chinese companies this year - could be followed by further revelations of corporate
wrongdoing. investors wonder if yili s scandal one of a slew to be uncovered this
year isn t just the tip of the iceberg said chen huiqin an analyst at huatai
securities.
us economy shows solid gdp growth the us economy has grown more than expected
expanding at an annual rate of 3.8% in the last quarter of 2004. the gross
domestic product figure was ahead of the 3.1% the government estimated a month ago.
the rise reflects stronger spending by businesses on capital equipment and a
smaller-than-expected trade deficit. gdp is a measure of a country s economic
health reflecting the value of the goods and services it produces. the new gdp
figure announced by the commerce department on friday also topped the 3.5% growth
rate that economists had forecast ahead of friday s announcement. growth was at an
annual rate of 4% in the third quarter of 2004 and for the year it came in at 4.4%
the best figure in five years. however the positive economic climate may lead to a
rise in interest rates with many expecting us rates to rise on 22 march. in the
january-to-march quarter the economy is expected to grow at an annual rate of
about 4% economists forecast. in the final quarter of 2004 businesses increased
spending on capital equipment and software by 18% up from 17.5% in the third
quarter. consumer spending grew 4.2% in the final quarter down from the third
quarter s 5.1%.
highbury tunnel players in clear the football association has said it will not be
bringing charges over the tunnel incident prior to the arsenal and manchester
united game. arsenal s patrick vieira had earlier denied accusations that he
threatened gary neville before the 4-2 defeat. vieira also clashed with opposing
skipper roy keane and referee graham poll had to separate them. the referee has
confirmed that he is satisfied he dealt with the incident at the time said an fa
statement. it means united s win will pass off without further intervention from
the governing body whose new chief executive brian barwick was in the highbury
stands. i didn t threaten anybody. they are big enough players to handle
themselves said vieira. i had a talk with roy keane and that s it. gary neville
is a big lad he can handle himself. they just played better than us and deserved
to win. neville admitted there had been incidents before the game but insisted it
had not distracted his focus. there were a couple of things that did happen before
the game which disappoint you he said. especially from players of that calibre
but it s a tough game and we ve been around a long time. neville admitted that he
had not enjoyed the match which was punctuated by fouls and the sending off of
mikael silvestre for head-butting freddie ljungberg . i thought it was a horrible
game in the first half and it was not much better in the second he said. there
is no way that should have happened in a football match. after the match keane
accused vieira of starting the row. patrick vieira is 6ft 4in and having a go at
gary neville. so i said have a go at me he said. if he wants to intimidate
our players and thinks that gary neville is an easy target i m not having it.
manchester united manager sir alex ferguson added: vieira was well wound up for
it. i ve heard different stories. patrick vieira has apparently threatened some of
our players and things like that.
enron bosses in $168m payout eighteen former enron directors have agreed a $168m
(£89m) settlement deal in a shareholder lawsuit over the collapse of the energy
firm. leading plaintiff the university of california announced the news adding
that 10 of the former directors will pay $13m from their own pockets. the
settlement will be put to the courts for approval next week. enron went bankrupt in
2001 after it emerged it had hidden hundreds of millions of dollars in debt.
before its collapse the firm was the seventh biggest public us company by revenue.
its demise sent shockwaves through financial markets and dented investor confidence
in corporate america. the settlement is very significant in holding these outside
directors at least partially personally responsible william lerach the lawyer
leading the class action suit against enron said. hopefully this will help send
a message to corporate boardrooms of the importance of directors performing their
legal duties he added. under the terms of the $168m settlement - $155m of which
will be covered by insurance - none of the 18 former directors will admit any
wrongdoing. the deal is the fourth major settlement negotiated by lawyers who filed
a class action on behalf of enron s shareholders almost three years ago. so far
including the latest deal just under $500m (£378.8m) has been retrieved for
investors. however the latest deal does not include former enron chief executives
ken lay and jeff skilling. both men are facing criminal charges for their alleged
misconduct in the run up to the firm s collapse. neither does it cover andrew
fastow who has pleaded guilty to taking part in an illegal conspiracy while he was
chief financial officer at the group. enron s shareholders are still seeking
damages from a long list of other big name defendants including the financial
institutions jp morgan chase citigroup merrill lynch and credit suisse first
boston. the university of california said the trial in the case is scheduled to
begin in october 2006. it joined the lawsuit in december 2001alleging massive
insider trading and fraud claiming it had lost $145m on its investments in the
company.
russia gets investment blessing soaring oil sales and a budget surplus mean russian
debt is no longer a risky investment one of the world s leading credit rating
agencies says. standard & poor s has classed russian bonds as investment grade
up from their former speculative rating. russia s reputation among investors has
been hurt in recent months by the heavy tax bills and asset seizures imposed on
companies such as oil giant yukos. s&p said the solidity of government finances
outweighed the risk. russia is now a net creditor rather than a debtor. gold and
foreign currency reserves of $119bn beat its foreign public debt of some $113bn.
the other two major ratings agencies - fitch and moody s have long since upped
their rating of russia s sovereign debt. s&p had held back through fear that the
government was dragging its feet on economic and legal reforms. now though it has
finally followed suit. but the agency made it clear that the improved rating did
not mean that the risks were a thing of the past. instead with russian government
coffers brimming with tax revenues from energy sales s&p said the government s own
debt is looking a good bet. these improvements are so significant that they now
outweight the serious and growing political risk that continues to be a key ratings
constraint on russia wrote s&p credit analyst helena hessel. the yukos saga is
the most high-profile of the political risks to which ms hessel alludes. the
company s founder and ex-chief executive mikhail khodorkovsky is in jail on trial
for tax evasion and fraud. many believe the real motive for his prosecution is that
he threatened to use his wealth to set up a political alternative to president
vladimir putin. his company meanwhile is widely believed to have fallen victim to
the kremlin s wish to get russian energy resources as far as possible back under
state control.
intel unveils laser breakthrough intel has unveiled research that could mean data
is soon being moved around chips at the speed of light. scientists at intel have
overcome a fundamental problem that before now has prevented silicon being used to
generate and amplify laser light. the breakthrough should make it easier to
interconnect data networks with the chips that process the information. the intel
researchers said products exploiting the breakthrough should appear by the end of
the decade. we ve overcome a fundamental limit said dr mario paniccia director
of intel s photonics technology lab. writing in the journal nature dr paniccia -
and colleagues haisheng rong richard jones ansheng liu oded cohen dani hak and
alexander fang - show how they have made a continuous laser from the same material
used to make computer processors. currently says dr paniccia telecommunications
equipment that amplifies the laser light that travels down fibre optic cables is
very expensive because of the exotic materials such as gallium arsenide used to
make it. telecommunications firms and chip makers would prefer to use silicon for
these light-moving elements because it is cheap and many of the problems of using
it in high-volume manufacturing have been solved. we re trying to take our silicon
competency in manufacturing and apply it to new areas said dr paniccia. while
work has been done to make some of the components that can move light around
before now silicon has not successfully been used to generate or amplify the laser
light pulses used to send data over long distances. this is despite the fact that
silicon is a much better amplifier of light pulses than the form of the material
used in fibre optic cables. this improved amplification is due to the crystalline
structure of the silicon used to make computer chips. dr paniccia said that the
structure of silicon meant that when laser light passed through it some colliding
photons rip electrons off the atoms within the material. it creates a cloud of
electrons sitting in the silicon and that absorbs all the light he said. but the
intel researchers have found a way to suck away these errant electrons and turn
silicon into a material that can both generate and amplify laser light. even better
the laser light produced in this way can with the help of easy-to-make filters be
tuned across a very wide range of frequencies. semi-conductor lasers made before
now have only produced light in a narrow frequency ranges. the result could be the
close integration of the fibre optic cables that carry data as light with the
computer chips that process it. dr paniccia said the work was the one of several
steps needed if silicon was to be used to make components that could carry and
process light in the form of data pulses. it s a technical validation that it can
work he said.
eu referendum could cost £80m it could cost £80m to run a uk referendum on the
european constitution ministers have revealed. in a written parliamentary answer
constitutional affairs minister chris leslie said the poll was likely to cost the
same as a general election. mr leslie said the cost could not be compared with the
only previous british referendum held 30 years ago. ministers say the constitution
would make the european union work better but critics fear creating a super
state . labour mp john cryer whose question revealed the price estimate said the
cost surprised him but was not a central factor as it was important people had
their say. but he said it would have been better to have rejected the constitution
so avoiding the need for a referendum. the 2001 election cost £80m. no date for the
vote has been set but foreign secretary jack straw has suggested it is unlikely to
be held until early 2006 - after the predicted date for the next election. most
voters said the uk should stay in the common market in the 1975 referendum.
oscar nominees lack pulling power this year s clutch of oscar nominees have been
the least popular for 20 years according to box office figures. in the us the five
nominated for best film have been seen by 50% fewer people than movies in previous
years. while the awards are not based on box office popularity there is concern for
the ratings of the televised ceremony. we don t have a titanic or a lord of the
rings out there. i think it s fair to say it does concern us a bit said academy
executive director bruce davis. about 51 million people in the us have seen this
year s nominees compared with between 100 million and 118 million in recent years.
the last time combined attendance was so low was in 1984 when amadeus beat the
killing fields a passage to india places in the heart and a soldier s story to
best picture when 41 million saw the five films. last year s ceremony attracted
the highest audience in four years as viewers tuned in to see lord of the ring:
return of the king sweep the board. and the show reaped its biggest audience in
1997 when titanic took home 11 oscars. the film had taken $500m (£264m) worldwide
before the ceremony and eventually took $1.8bn (£952m). eyeballs starring at the
movie screen translates to eyeballs staring at the tv screen said paul
dergarabedian of box office tracker exhibitor relations. people like to have a
vested interest in what they re watching. when titanic does $1.8bn in worldwide
box office you ve got a lot of people with a vested interest. past years have
also seen blockbusters such as saving private ryan forrest gump and ghost compete
for oscars. the biggest box office hitter among this year s nominees is the aviator
which has taken $90m (£48m) in the us although takings in the uk have reached only
£7m so far. low-budget move sideways and finding neverland have so far grossed
about $45m (£24m) each. the year s biggest blockbusters do actually feature in the
oscar nominees but in the animation category. shrek 2 and the incredibles took
$436m (£231m) while the incredibles took $259m (£137m). mel gibson s the passion of
the christ which took $370m (£196m) in the us was largely ignored by academy
voters. but many in the film industry do not equate award and box office success.
i have never equated the academy awards with how much money a movie takes in said
nikki rocco head of distribution at universal which released nominee ray. that s
the people s choice awards. this is not about the public. this is about the
industry bestowing awards on what they think are the best films of the year.
french boss to leave eads the french co-head of european defence and aerospace
group eads philippe camus is to leave his post. mr camus said in a statement that
he has accepted the invitation to return full-time to the lagardere group which
owns 30% of eads. i will give up my role as soon as the board of directors asks me
to do so he said. airbus head noel forgeard is now set to replace mr camus
bringing the company s power struggle to an end. fighting between mr camus and mr
forgeard has hit the headlines in france and analysts feared that this fighting
could destabilise the defence and aerospace group. french finance minister herve
gaymard is on record as saying that he deplored the infighting at the company.
the company should now be able put this dispute behind it with the departure of mr
camus and with the clear support given to mr forgeard by the lagardere group the
main french shareholder of eads. the other main shareholders of eads are the french
government (15%) who also support mr forgeard and germany s daimlerchrysler
(30%). rainer hertrich the german co-head of eads will also step down when his
contract expires next year. mr camus recently came under pressure as it became
clear that the a380 superjumbo was running over budget. eads - airbus majority
owner - admitted earlier this week that the project was running 1.45bn euros (£1bn;
$1.9bn) over budget. but mr forgeard has denied this telling french media that
there is no current overrun in the budget. but for the sake of transparency we
told our shareholders last week that if we look at the forecast for total costs of
the project up to 2010 there is a risk that we will go over by around 10% which
is about 1bn euros (£686m; $1.32bn) he told france s lci television. due to enter
service in 2006 the a380 will replace the boeing 747 jumbo as the world s biggest
passenger aircraft.
budget aston takes on porsche british car maker aston martin has gone head-to-head
with porsche s 911 sports cars with the launch of its cheapest model yet. with a
price tag under £80 000 the v8 vantage is tens of thousands of pounds cheaper than
existing aston models. the vantage is the most important car in the history of our
company said aston s chief executive ulrich bez. aston - whose cars were famously
used by james bond - will unveil the vantage at the geneva motor show on thursday.
mr bez - himself a former executive at rival porsche - said the new car was the
company s most affordable car ever and makes the brand accessible . this in turn
would make aston martin globally visible but still very very exclusive he
added. first shown as a concept car at the 2003 north american international auto
show in detroit the v8 vantage will be available in the uk in late summer.
development costs for the vantage have been kept low by sharing a platform with
aston s db9 which mr bez described as the previous most important car for our
company . there is currently an 18 months waiting list for the db9 mr bez said.
the vantage will be built at the new aston factory in gaydon near warwick and
should more than double aston s total output from about 2 000 presently.
deutsche attacks yukos case german investment bank deutsche bank has challenged the
right of yukos to claim bankruptcy protection in the us. in a court filing on
tuesday it said the russian oil giant has few texas ties beyond bank accounts and
a texas-based finance chief. deutsche bank claimed yukos had artificially
manufactured a legal case to stop the sale of its main asset. it had wanted to help
fund gazprom s plans for a $10bn (£5.18bn) bid for yukos unit yuganskneftegas.
deutsche bank would have earned large fees from the deal which could not be
carried out because us chapter 11 bankruptcy rules made the kremlin s auction of
yuganskneftegas on 19 december illegal under us law. but the us bankruptcy court
judge in texas granted yukos an injunction that barred gazprom and its lenders from
taking part. yuganskneftegas will ultimately end up with gazprom. the winning
bidder at the auction was a previously unknown firm baikal finance group which
was snapped up days later by rosneft a russian oil firm that is in the process of
merging with gazprom. the effect of these transactions is to renationalise
yuganskneftegas. deutsche bank contends yukos filed for bankruptcy earlier this
month in texas in a desperate and unsuccessful bid to stave off the 19 december
auction of its top unit by the russian government which was in a tax dispute with
yukos. this blatant attempt to artificially manufacture a basis for jurisdiction
constitutes cause to dismiss this case deutsche bank said in its court filing.
mike lake a spokesman for yukos lawyers said on tuesday that the company stands
by its legal action. yukos is confident of its right to us bankruptcy protection
and we are prepared to be back in court defending that position again he said.
yukos has said it intends to seek $20bn in damages from the buyer of
yuganskneftegas once the sale finally goes through. in its filing deutsche bank
said houston was a jurisdiction in which yukos owns no real or personal property
and conducts no business operations. it also said the us bankruptcy court should
not become involved in a tax dispute between the federation and one of its
corporate citizens . it suggested the european court or an international
arbitration tribunal were more appropriate jurisdictions for the legal fight
between russia and yukos. the next hearing in the bankruptcy is expected on 6
january. analysts believe the tax dispute between the russian government and yukos
is partly driven by russian president vladimir putin s hostility hostility to the
political ambitions of ex-yukos boss mikhail khordokovsky. mr khodorkovsky is in
jail and on trial for fraud and tax evasion.
india opens skies to competition india will allow domestic commercial airlines to
fly long haul international routes a move it hopes will stoke competition and
drive down prices. however only state controlled carriers will be able to fly the
lucrative gulf routes to countries such as kuwait and saudi arabia for at least
three years. jet airways and air sahara are the two companies that will benefit
initially. india is looking to develop its airline industry as booming economic
growth drives demand for travel. monica chadha bbc delhi reporter said air
travel in india had increased by almost 20% from the previous year and was expected
to rise even further. infrastructure development is lagging demand however and
will have to improve. most international airports in the country are shabby and
ill-equipped to handle heavy air traffic ms chada said adding that while the
civil aviation minister has promised to modernise and privatise airports little
progress has been made. steps have been take to move things forward and the
government recently changed legislation that limited foreign investment in domestic
airlines. it raised the maximum stake holding allowed to 49% from 40%. local press
meanwhile have reported that the us and india will start negotiations about adding
more routes in january. jet airways is india s premier private domestic carrier;
air sahara is ranked third in the category.
man utd to open books to glazer manchester united s board has agreed to give us
tycoon malcolm glazer access to its books. earlier this month mr glazer presented
the board with detailed proposals on an offer to buy the football club. in a
statement the club said it would allow mr glazer limited due diligence to give
him the opportunity to take the proposal on to a formal bid. but it said it
continued to oppose mr glazer s plans calling his assumptions aggressive and his
plan damaging . many of manchester united s supporters own shares in the club and
the fan-based group shareholders united is strongly opposed to any takeover by mr
glazer. about 300 fans protested outside the old trafford ground two days ago.
rival local club manchester city has pleaded with visiting fans not to protest
inside its ground when the two teams play a televised match on sunday. manchester
united s response comes as little surprise as the board made clear. any board has
a responsibility to consider a bona fide offer proposal the club said in its
statement. should it become a firm offer it should be at a price that the board
is likely to regard as fair and on terms which may be deliverable . but it also
stressed that it stayed opposed to mr glazer s proposal. the board continues to
believe that mr glazer s business plan assumptions are aggressive the statement
said and the direct and indirect financial strain on the business could be
damaging. whether or not the bid is attractive in monetary terms in the case of
manchester united many investors hold the stock for sentimental rather than
financial reasons. at present mr glazer and his family hold a 28.1% stake making
them manchester united s second biggest shareholders. they own the successful tampa
bay buccaneers american football team based in florida. if the family makes a
formal offer they will need the support of the club s biggest shareholders. irish
horse racing millionaires jp mcmanus and john magnier own 29% of united through
their investment vehicle cubic expression and have yet to express a view on the
bid approach. a group of five mps are calling on the department of trade and
industry to block any takeover of the club by the us football magnate on public
interest grounds. they have signed a house of commons motion and tony lloyd the
manchester central mp whose constituency includes the club s old trafford ground
has pledged to take the matter to tony blair if necessary . the commons motion
says any takeover designed to transform the club into a private company would be
against the interests of those supporters and football . however the dti has
dismissed the proposal. a spokesman said the department did not believe there was a
case for changing the enterprise act so that takeovers of football clubs could be
looked at on non-competition grounds. mr glazer s offer values the club at £800m
($1.5bn). pitched at 300p per share it also relies less on debt to finance it than
an earlier approach from the us tycoon which was rejected out of hand. manchester
united shares closed at 270.25p on friday down 3.75p on the day.
microsoft makes anti-piracy move microsoft says it is clamping down on people
running pirated versions of its windows operating system by restricting their
access to security features. the windows genuine advantage scheme means people
will have to prove their software is genuine from mid-2005. it will still allow
those with unauthorised copies to get some crucial security fixes via automatic
updates but their options would be limited . microsoft releases regular security
updates to its software to protect pcs. either pcs detect updates automatically or
users manually download fixes through microsoft s site. those running pirated
windows programs would not have access to other downloads and add-ons that the
software giant offers. people who try to manually download security patches will
have to let microsoft run an automated checking procedure on their computer or give
an identification number. microsoft s regular patches which it releases for newly-
found security flaws are important because they stop worms viruses and other
threats penetrating pcs. some security experts are concerned that restricting
access to such patches could mean a rise in such attacks and threats with more pcs
left unprotected. but graham cluley senior consultant at security firm sophos
told the bbc news website that it was a positive decision. it sounds like their
decision to allow critical security patches to remain available to both legitimate
and illegitimate users of windows is good news for everyone who uses the net he
said. windows genuine advantage was first introduced as a pilot scheme in september
2004 for english-language versions of windows. microsoft s windows operating
system is heavily exploited by virus writers because it is so widespread and they
are constantly seeking out new security loopholes to take advantage of. the company
is trying to tackle security threats whilst cracking down on pirated software at
the same time. software piracy has cost the company billions it says. the company
announced earlier in january that it was releasing security tools to clean up pcs
harbouring viruses and spyware which 90% of pcs are infected with. the virus-
fighting program updated monthly is a precursor to microsoft s dedicated anti-
virus software. last year it introduced the windows xp counterfeit project a uk-
based pilot scheme which ran from november to december. the scheme meant that
anyone with pre-installed copies of the operating system in pcs bought before
november could replace counterfeit versions of windows xp with legal ones for free.
it is also increasing efforts to squash software piracy in china norway and the
czech republic where pirated software is a huge problem by offering discounts on
legitimate software to users of pirated copies windows. china in particular is a
problem with piracy estimated at 92% said mr cluley.
wilkinson to lead england fly-half jonny wilkinson has been named as england s new
rugby union captain for the three november tests. the 25-year-old newcastle star
takes over from lawrence dallaglio who retired from internationals in august.
england s acting head coach andy robinson said: he is a natural leader holds the
respect of the squad and is a formidable talent on the pitch. and he consistently
demonstrates the energy and commitment i feel is essential to be captain of
england. robinson added: there are several players in the squad i would feel
comfortable in calling upon to be england captain but for me jonny is in every way
the right player to take on this challenge. captaincy offers a challenging
environment for any player especially following in the footsteps of lawrence
dallaglio and before him the world cup captain martin johnson. but i am
confident jonny has what it takes to do an outstanding job as we look ahead towards
the next rugby world cup in france and i look forward to working with him.
wilkinson who has scored 817 points in 52 internationals kicked the winning drop-
goal in the final seconds of extra-time in england s 2003 rugby world cup triumph
against australia. but he then missed the entire 2004 six nations campaign while
recuperating from shoulder surgery before making his comeback for newcastle in the
zurich premiership in august. it s the ambition of so many players to one day be
captain of england and today i have realised a dream he said. i m honoured andy
wants me to be his captain and to follow lawrence and martin means a lot to me as
they are inspirational men who have given so much to england rugby over many years.
getting my first england cap against ireland six years ago was something i ll never
forget because to play for your country is very special. taking on the captaincy is
another important step in my career and i do so with immense pride. wilkinson made
his international debut in the 1998 six nations championship against ireland when
he came off the bench to replace paul grayson. he has been a regular in the
england starting line-up ever since played in all three lions tests in 2001 and
all but one of england s games in the 2003 world cup. he becomes the 117th captain
of england since fred stokes held the position in 1871. england s first autumn test
is against canada on 13 november followed by the visit of tri-nations champions
south africa a week later and then a world cup re-match with australia.
mallon wades into ne vote battle middlesbrough mayor ray mallon has been drafted in
to boost the yes campaign as the north east assembly referendum enters its final
week. the former police chief dubbed robocop for his zero tolerance style
clashed on thursday with sunderland no campaigner neil herron. mr mallon said an
assembly would give local people more of a say over key issues such as transport
and crime. but mr herron said north east people did not want or need an assembly.
the pair met on the platform at sunderland station as mr mallon toured the region
highlighting claimed improvements to transport if the area gets an assembly. but mr
herron - who gained fame as one of sunderland s metric martyrs and is running his
own no campaign alongside the official north east says no campaign - said he was
not convinced by mr mallon s arguments. the reality is that it is not going to
deliver he said. labour has had two-and-a-half years to convince people of this.
if you can t sell a deal in that time it is a bad deal. on wednesday mr mallon
provoked fury by branding the official no campaign two-bit tories in a
confrontation outside its durham headquarters. the campaign is being run by two-
bit conservatives who are not interested in what happens in the north east; they
are interested in hitting the labour party over the head he said. mr mallon is a
late recruit to the yes campaign after rejecting overtures from no campaigners
including he claims tory leader michael howard. most local observers believe the
contest is too close to call although little recent polling has been carried out.
yes campaign chairman john tomaney said he hoped for a late flurry of votes to
boost turnout - something he says will boost their cause. he added: the government
exerts a lot of political power in the north east. the accountability should be in
the north east as well. he also defended the decision to attack the official no
campaign s alleged political allegiances. we felt we had to show what people were
behind the no campaign - london tory spin doctors. graham robb spokesman for
north east says no said the yes campaign s decision to get personal dragged the
campaign into the gutter and showed they were rattled . and he hit back at mr
mallon s claim that an assembly would improve transport links in the region. it
can push paper around but it can not get people moving he said. some 487 939
people had returned their ballot papers by wednesday - a turnout of 25.7%. the
deadline for voting is next thursday 4 november.
casual gaming to take off games aimed at casual players are set to be even
bigger in 2005 according to industry experts. easy-to-play titles that do not
require too much time and that are playable online or downloadable to mobile
devices will see real growth in the coming year. the trend shows that gaming is not
just about big-hitting games console titles which appeal more to hardcore
gamers said a panel of experts. they were speaking before the annual consumer
electronics show in las vegas which showcases the latest trends in gadgets and
technologies for 2005. the panel also insisted that casual gamers were not just
women a common misconception which pervades current thinking about gamer
demographics. casual games like poker pool bridge bingo and puzzle-based titles
which can be played online or downloaded onto mobile devices were gender neutral
and different genres attracted different players. greg mills program director at
aol said its figures suggested that sports-based games attracted 90% of 18 to 24-
year-old males while puzzle games were played by 80% of females. games like bridge
tended to attract the over-50 demographic of gamers. but hardcore gamers who are
more attracted to blockbuster gamers which usually require hi-spec pcs like half-
life 2 or halo 2 on xbox also liked to have a different type of gaming
experience. when hardcore gamers are not playing halo they are playing poker and
pool based on our research said geoff graber director of yahoo games which
attracts about 12 million gamers a month. with the growth of powerful pc
technology and ownership broadband take-up portable players and mobile devices
as well as interactive tv casual gaming is shaping up to be big business in 2005
according to the panel. the focus for the coming year should be about attracting
third-party developers into the field to offer more innovative and multiplayer
titles they agreed. we are at a time where we are on the verge of something much
bigger said mr graber. casual games will get into their stride in 2005 will be
really big in 2006 and will be about community. with more people finding more to
do with their gadgets and high-speed connections casual games would start to open
up the world of gaming as a form of mass-market entertainment to more people. key
to these types of titles is the chance they give people who may not see themselves
as gamers to dip in and out of games when they liked. portal sites which offer
casual games like aol yahoo and realarcade as well as other games-on-demand
services allow people to build up buddy lists so they can return and play against
the same people. this aspect of community is crucial for gamers who just want to
have quick access to free or cheap games without committing long periods of time
immersed in £30 to £40 console or pc titles said the panel. about 120 000 people
are expected to attend the ces trade show which stretches over more than 1.5
million square feet and which officially runs from 6 to 9 january. the main theme
is how new devices are getting better at talking to each other allowing people to
enjoy digital content like audio video and images when they want and where they
want.
apple attacked over sources row civil liberties group the electronic frontier
foundation (eff) has joined a legal fight between three us online journalists and
apple. apple wants the reporters to reveal 20 sources used for stories which
leaked information about forthcoming products including the mac mini. the eff
representing the reporters has asked california s superior court to stop apple
pursuing the sources. it argues that the journalists are protected by the american
constitution. the eff says the case threatens the basic freedoms of the press.
apple is particularly keen to find the source for information about an unreleased
product code-named asteroid and has asked the journalists e-mail providers to hand
over communications relevant to that. rather than confronting the issue of
reporter s privilege head-on apple is going to the journalist s isps for his e-
mails said eff lawyer kurt opsahl. this undermines a fundamental first amendment
right that protects all reporters. if the court lets apple get away with this and
exposes the confidences gained by these reporters potential confidential sources
will be deterred from providing information to the media and the public will lose a
vital outlet for independent news analysis and commentary he said. the case
began in december 2004 when apple asked a local californian court to get the
journalists to reveal their sources for articles published on websites
appleinsider.com and powerpage.org. apple also sent requested information from the
nfox.com the internet service provider of powerpage s publisher jason o-grady. as
well as looking at how far corporations can go in preventing information from being
published the case will also examine whether online journalists have the same
privileges and protections as those writing for newspapers and magazines. the eff
has gained some powerful allies in its legal battle with apple including professor
tom goldstein former dean of the journalism school at the university of california
and dan gillmor a well-known silicon valley journalist. apple was not immediately
available for comment.
irish markets reach all-time high irish shares have risen to a record high with
investors persuaded to buy into the market by low inflation and strong growth
forecasts. the iseq index of leading shares closed up 23 points to 6661.89 on
thursday fuelled by strong growth in banking and financial stocks. a fall in the
rate of inflation to 2.3% in january gave a fresh boost to shares which have
advanced 4% this month. the economy is set for strong growth in 2005 while interest
rates remain low. several of ireland s biggest companies saw their market value
hit recent highs on thursday. allied irish banks ireland s biggest company by
capitalisation touched a five year peak while bank of ireland shares rose to their
highest level since august 2002. telecoms firm eircom which recently revealed
that it would re-enter the irish mobile phone market hit a yearly high. analysts
said that economic conditions were benign and irish shares were still trading at a
discount to other european markets. ireland ticks all the boxes as far as
international investors are concerned roy asher chief investment officer of
hibernian investment managers told reuters. buoyant economic conditions are set
to continue in ireland over the next few years and irish equities continue to offer
quality growth at a reasonable valuation. bernard mcalinden head of equity
research at ncb stockbrokers said equities represented good value compared to
other investments. it is still looking good he told reuters. we have seen good
economic data on ireland which benefits the financial stocks. ireland s economic
miracle is enjoying a second wind with 5% growth forecast for 2005 and 2006. the
economy cooled markedly between 2001 and 2003 after enjoying spectacular growth of
more than 10% in 2000. however it has bounced back strongly with growth of just
under 5% expected in 2004.
strong quarterly growth for nike nike has reported its best second-quarter earnings
helped by strong demand for its athletic shoes and converse sneakers. the global
sports giant said it posted a profit of $261.9m (£135.6m) for the three months to
30 november up from $179.1m in the same period last year. revenues increased 11%
to $3.1bn from $2.8bn for the same period in 2003. nike whose products are
endorsed by tiger woods among other sports stars said demand continues to grow .
the results came after a strong first quarter of the year for the firm based in
beaverton oregon. philip knight chairman and chief executive said: nike s
second-quarter revenues and earnings per share reached all-time high levels as a
result of solid performance across our global portfolio. our businesses in the
united states and emerging markets such as china russia and turkey combined with
favourable european exchange rates helped drive much of this growth. he added:
with the first half of our fiscal year in the books we remain confident that our
business strategy and consistent execution will allow us to deliver on our goals of
healthy profitable growth. the firm reported worldwide futures orders for
athletic footwear and gear scheduled for delivery from december 2004 to april 2005
of $4.9bn. that is 9.1% higher than such orders reported for the same period last
year.
mutant book wins guardian prize a book about the evolution of mutants and the
science of abnormality has won the guardian first book award 2004. armand marie
leroi a lecturer at london s imperial college scooped the £10 000 prize for
mutants: on the form varieties and errors of the human body. it is profoundly
cultured and beautifully written in the very best tradition of popular science
writing today said judge claire armistead. the award recognises and rewards new
writing across fiction and non-fiction. a panel of literary experts including
novelists hari kunzru and ali smith director sir richard eyre and comedian alexei
sayle chose the winner from a five-strong shortlist. the shortlist included
susanna clarke s jonathan strange and mr norrell a novel about the magic arts at
the turn of the 19th century and the places in between rory stewart s account of
his trek on foot across afghanistan. what we found so impressive about armand
marie leroi s book was the scope of its reference its elegance and its
inquisitiveness said ms armistead chair of the judges and the guardian literary
editor. while the subject matter of mutants unsettled some involved in the judging
process the overwhelming majority found it fascinating she added. her words were
echoed by iris director sir richard eyre who called marie leroi s work
extraordinarily thought provoking . the award for first time authors is open to
books from genres including fiction poetry biography memoir history politics
science and current affairs. previous winners include white teeth by zadie smith
in 2000 which went on to become a bestseller.
civil servants in strike ballot the uk s biggest civil service union is to ballot
its 290 000 members on strikes in protest at government plans to extend their
pension age to 65. the public and commercial services union will co-ordinate any
action with up to six other public sector unions. unions have already earmarked 23
march for a one-day strike which could involve up to 1.4 million uk workers. the
government says unions will be consulted before any changes are made to the pension
system. pcs leader mark serwotka warned there could be further walkouts unless
there was a government rethink. for a government that lectures everyone on choice
- choice on public service choice on this and choice on that - isn t it ironic
that they re saying to public sector workers there is no choice he said. if you
want the pension you were promised when you started you must work for an extra five
years - that is working until people drop. in the 20th century it s completely
unacceptable. bbc correspondent stephen cape said the combined unions represented
a formidable force which could embarrass the government in the run-up to the
general election. a stoppage involving civil servants in particular could
seriously disrupt or close government departments agencies and museums he said.
opposition to raising the retirement age is one thing all the unions are agreed on
our correspondent added. unison s 800 000 workers the transport and general
workers union s 70 000 and amicus 20 000 are among those being balloted about a
23 march walkout. deputy prime minister john prescott held a private meeting with
senior union figures on thursday night. our correspondent said that he understood
no deal had been offered in that meeting but that there was room for further
negotiations. there was some possibility of the strike action being avoided he
added.
prodigy join v festival line-up essex act prodigy are to headline the second stage
at this year s v festival joining main stage headliners scissor sisters and franz
ferdinand. the event which is in its 10th year will be held at two venues -
hylands park in essex and weston park in staffordshire on 20 and 21 august.
meanwhile rock veterans new order have joined the t in the park line-up alongside
athlete and green day. the manchester band will play on 9 july at scotland s
biggest festival. it will be their debut performance at the music event which is
held over the weekend of 9 and 10 july in balado near kinross. other bands at the
sold-out festival include queens of the stone age the killers keane the streets
and foo fighters. a month later at the v festival prodigy will play at weston
park on saturday 20 august and hylands park on sunday 21 august and the chemical
brothers vice versa. it will be the chemical brothers only uk festival performance
of the year. v festival director bob angus said: with the prodigy and the chemical
brothers now confirmed to headline the second stage we are headed for a really
stellar line-up. we pride ourselves on putting on an unbeatable live music
experience and v festival 2005 will not disappoint. tickets for the v festival go
on sale on friday 11 march.
charvis set to lose fitness bid flanker colin charvis is unlikely to play any part
in wales final two games of the six nations. charvis has missed all three of
wales victories with an ankle injury and his recovery has been slower than
expected. he will not figure in the scotland game and is now thought unlikely to
be ready for the final game said wales physio mark davies. sonny parker is
continuing to struggle with a neck injury but hal luscombe should be fit for the
murrayfield trip. centre parker has only a slim chance of being involved against
the scots on 13 march so luscombe s return to fitness after missing the france
match with hamstring trouble is a timely boost. said wales assistant coach scott
johnson: we re positive about hal and hope he ll be raring to go. he comes back
into the mix again adds to the depth and gives us other options. replacement
hooker robin mcbryde remains a doubt after picking up knee ligament damage in paris
last saturday. we re getting that reviewed and we should know more by the end of
the week how robin s looking added johnson. we re hopeful but it s too early to
say at this stage. steve jones from the dragons is likely to be drafted in if
mcbryde fails to recover.
the force is strong in battlefront the warm reception that has greeted star wars:
battlefront is a reflection not of any ingenious innovation in its gameplay but of
its back-to-basics approach and immense nostalgia quotient. geared towards online
gamers it is based around little more than a series of all-out gunfights set in
an array of locations all featured in or hinted at during the two blockbusting
film trilogies. previous star wars titles like the acclaimed knights of the old
republic and jedi knight have regularly impressed with their imaginative forays
into the far corners of the franchise s extensive universe and their use of weird
and wonderful new characters. battlefront on the other hand wholeheartedly revisits
the most recognisable elements of the hit movies themselves. the sights sounds
and protagonists on show here will all be instantly familiar to fans who may well
feel that the opportunity to relive star wars most memorable screen skirmishes
makes this the game they have always waited for. the mayhem can be viewed from
either a third or first-person perspective and you can either fight for the forces
of freedom or join darth vader on the dark side depending on the episode and type
of campaign as well as the player s personal propensity for good or evil. there is
ample chance to be a wookie shoot ewoks and rush into battle alongside a fired-up
luke skywalker. in each section the task is simply to wipe out enemy troops seize
strategic waypoints and move on to the next planet. it really is no more
complicated than that. locations include the frozen wastes of hoth the ice planet
from the empire strikes back complete with massive mechanical at-ats on the march.
there are also the dusty sinister deserts of tatooine and geonosis as well as the
forest moon of endor where return of the jedi s much-maligned ewoks lived. the
feel of those places is well and truly captured with both backdrops and characters
looking good and very authentic. it is worth noting though that on the playstation
2 the game s graphics are a curiously long way behind those of the xbox version.
the pivotal element behind battlefront s success is that it successfully gives you
the feel of being of being plunged into the midst of large-scale war. the number of
combatants noise and abundance of laser fire see to that and the sense of chaos
really comes over. speaking of noise battlefront is a real testament to the
strength of the star wars galaxy s audio motifs. the multitude of distinctive
weapon and vehicle noises are immensely familiar as are the stirring john williams
symphonies that never let up. there is also a particularly snazzy remix of one of
his themes in the menu section. it has to be said if the game did not have the boon
of being star wars it would not stand up for long. the gameplay is reliable bog-
standard stuff short on originality. there are also odd annoyances like the game
s insistence on re-spawning you miles away from the action an irritating price to
pay for not getting blown up the second you appear. and some of the weapons and
vehicles are not as responsive and fluid to operate as they might be. that said it
is still great fun to pilot a scout walker or speeder bike however non user-
friendly they prove. whilst it is firmly designed with multiplayer action in mind
battlefront is actually perfectly good fun as an offline game. the above-average ai
of the enemy sees to that although given the frenetic environments they operate in
their strategic behaviour does not need to be all that sophisticated. battlefront s
novelty value will doubtless wear off relatively fast leaving behind a slightly
empty one-trick-pony of a game. but for a while it is an absolute blast and one
of the most immediately satisfying video game offerings yet from george lucas
stable.
umaga ready for fearsome lions all blacks captain tama umaga has warned the
british and irish lions will be his most fearsome opponents yet ahead of their
summer tour. but umaga in england for saturday s irb rugby aid match also backed
new zealand to win the three-test series against the lions. he told bbc sport: it
s potentially the most fearsome line-up i ve ever come up against. they re awesome.
but i d back us all the way to beat them when they come over. lions boss sir clive
woodward is set to announce his squad for the june-july tour next month. when
woodward was appointed last year it was widely believed he would rely heavily on
his former england players. but umaga said: he d be hard pushed to do that now
considering the shape of the six nations. don t get me wrong england have got a
lot of talented guys and i m sure there are some of them who ll make the lions test
xv. but you can t disguise wales and ireland in particular. some of the tries they
ve scored have been great. i ll admit it ll be fairly awesome lining up against the
likes of brian o driscoll. umaga will meet o driscoll in saturday s rugby aid
match at twickenham with the irish captain leading the northern hemisphere side. o
driscoll is among a host of players in the northern hemisphere squad coached by
woodward that are tipped for lions call-ups. it ll be good for us to get an early
idea of some of these guys although a lot can change between now and june umaga
said. the 31-year-old admitted interest in the lions tour was immense calling it
the biggest thing to hit new zealand since lord of the rings . he added: as
players it s enough for us to be driven by the rarity of playing the lions. in
fact it s not just us all blacks - it s the talk of the country. umaga admitted
the fear of injury weighed on his mind ahead of saturday s charity game which
features a host of big names including george gregan andrew mehrtens and chris
latham. but he admitted the value of the cause - proceeds of the match will go to
aiding victims of the tsunami - easily won him over. the second [southern
hemisphere coach] rod macqueen made the approach i didn t hesitate. it was great
when new zealand rugby then gave me the all clear. thankfully i didn t know anyone
that was involved in the tragedy of the tsunami but you couldn t miss all the
horrific reports on the news. there are so many people that were affected are
still affected and will be affected for a long time. it s just good to know we can
do something minor to help out. - the match will be televised on bbc one at 1400
gmt on saturday.
dame julie pops in to see poppins mary poppins star dame julie andrews watched the
hit stage version of her classic film at a charity performance in london s west
end. it was the first time dame julie who shot to fame as the nanny in the 1964
disney movie had seen the musical staged at the prince edward theatre. she
watched laura michelle kelly 23 reprise the role on stage. the show has been one
of the west end s hottest tickets since opening in december winning two olivier
awards. kelly was named best musical actress at last month s ceremony and the
musical also won best choreography. but kelly said she was very nervous about
meeting dame julie because she was my absolute hero . the gala performance saw
dame julie 69 return to the theatre where she had her first starring role in a
performance of humpty dumpty in 1948. the mary poppins musical has been
masterminded by theatre impresario sir cameron mackintosh and directed by richard
eyre with choreography by matthew bourne. sir cameron said he hoped the production
which cost £9m to bring to the stage was a blend of the sweet-natured film and the
original book by pl travers. proceeds from thursday s show will go to charities
including absolute return for kids (ark) international relief agency operation usa
and drama school lamda.
ajax refuse to rule out jol move ajax have refused to reveal whether tottenham s
boss martin jol is on the dutch champions shortlist to become the amsterdam club s
new coach. jol who has coached in his native holland has guided spurs to the
premiership s top eight. an ajax spokesman told bbc sport: the coach must fit our
profile - a coach who understands the dutch league and offensive and distinctive
football. we need to find a solution soon so someone is in place for next season.
ronald koeman quit as ajax boss last week after their exit from the uefa cup. jol
has been linked with the vacant post at ajax with reports saying he has fallen out
with spurs sporting director frank arnesen. but in a statement on spurs website
jol said: i m happy here i m not in discussion with anyone else i don t want to
go elsewhere. ajax have enlisted the help of dutch legend johann cruyff currently
a consultant at barcelona to help find a new head coach. cruyff has admitted he
has been impressed by the way former rfc waalwijk coach jol has turned round spurs
fortunes since taking over from jacques santini. tonny bruins slot and ruud krol
are currently in charge of ajax who are third in the dutch league.
cheaper chip for mobiles a mobile phone chip which combines a modem and a computer
processor on one bit of silicon instead of two could make phones cheaper and more
powerful. the specially-designed chip developed by texas instruments could drive
down the cost of making mobiles capable of 3d gaming and 30-frame-a-second video.
currently rich multimedia features tend to be on more expensive handsets. the
technology omap-vox is being tested by firms in europe and asia and could appear
by the end of the year. texas which makes computer chips for more than half the
world s mobile phones said it was keen to make multimedia functions like video and
gaming more affordable. we re going to drive them down into meat-and-potatoes
phones that have the largest market share said doug rasor a marketing vice
president at texas. the chip also uses much less power than conventional chips
said texas which means less strain on mobile battery life. more than 50 million
people own a mobile in the uk but mobile operators are keen to encourage people to
move onto more sophisticated handsets that can do more. texas is keen to cash in on
the third generation (3g) of mobile technology which offers high-speed networks
for video streaming and other multimedia functions. but it faces stiff competition
from the likes of intel which is also looking to provide better chips for high-end
mobiles. competition to get people using 3g mobiles will grow in the next year as
almost all of the uk s operators have now launched third generation networks. a
recent survey by sony ericsson predicted that the number of 3g handsets sold in
2005 would double from 2004 to account for 10% of all phones sold. many consumers
are still to be convinced though. a further recent survey said that only 4% of
mobile owners were thinking of upgrading to 3g phones. many said they were confused
about the different ways to pay for phones and the vast array of features most have
onboard. but there will be continued demand for better chips as the industry
continues to develop new standards and future networks. earlier in january ntt
docomo and vodafone joined forces to develop the next generation of high-speed
networks known as super 3g intended to be 10 times faster than 3g services. the
first stage of development is to be completed by 2007 but no date has been set for
a commercial launch the newly-designed omap-vox chip set was announced ahead of the
start of a major mobile industry conference 3gsm which takes place in cannes
france this week.
butler strikes gold in spain britain s kathy butler continued her impressive year
with victory in sunday s 25th cross internacional de venta de banos in spain. the
scot who led gb to world cross country bronze earlier this year moved away from
the field with ines monteiro halfway into the 6.6km race. she then shrugged off her
portuguese rival to win in 20 minutes 38 seconds. meanwhile briton karl keska
battled bravely to finish seventh in the men s 10.6km race in a time of 31:41.
kenenisa bekele of ethiopia - the reigning world long and short course champion -
was never troubled by any of the opposition winning leisurely in 30.26. butler
said of her success: i felt great throughout the race and hope this is a good
beginning for a marvellous 2005 season for me. elsewhere abebe dinkessa of
ethiopia won the brussels iaaf cross-country race on sunday completing the 10 500m
course in 33.22. gelete burka then crowned a great day for ethiopia by claiming
victory in the women s race.
krispy kreme shares hit shares in krispy kreme doughnuts have taken a dunking on
wall street after the firm revealed it would have to restate its 2004 financial
reports. the company warned the move would cut its profits by $3.8m to $4.9m (£2m
to £2.6m) - or between 6.6% and 8.6%. krispy kreme said accounting errors had
forced the move adding that its board of directors made the decision to restate
its accounts on 28 december. however the company was unavailable to comment on why
it had delayed the news. it also warned it might have to further restate results
for 2004 and 2005. shares in krispy kreme sank 14.87% - or $1.83 - to close at
$10.48 on the news. the revelation comes just a month after the firm warned
earnings would be cut by as much as 7.6% as a result of accounting errors. krispy
kreme said the latest adjustments involved the way it accounted for the repurchase
of three franchise restaurants. it added it would now be reviewing how it accounts
for its leases. in a further blow the firm said it had been advised that some of
its franchise owners were not in compliance with their loan agreements and warned
it might need to borrow extra money if it was required to honour agreements on
franchisee debts or operating leases. krispy kreme added that it had enough cash
to fund its current operations but it could not borrow any more under its existing
agreements. there are many more questions than answers especially given increased
concerns regarding company liquidity jp morgan securities analyst john ivankoe
said in a research note on the firm. the announcement is the latest blow for the
one-time darling of wall street which has lost 80% of its stock value in just over
a year. the firm is currently facing securities and exchange commission
investigation of its accounts. shareholders have also launched lawsuits against the
group claiming it made false statements and inflated sales.
mourinho expects fight to finish chelsea manager jose mourinho expects the
champions league clash with barcelona to be a fight to the finish. mourinho is
relishing the first leg of the tie against his former club in the last 16 in the
nou camp. he said: i wouldn t be surprised if nothing had been decided by the last
minute of the return leg and the match had to go into extra time. i have to defend
what is mine and the champions league is mine at the moment. i m the last manager
to have won it. mourinho never coached barcelona assisting both sir bobby robson
and louis van gaal. but he is not envious insisting: i don t have to be jealous
about barcelona because they have 100 years of history and have won the european
cup once. i have been managing for five years and i have the same amount of
champions league trophies to my name. barcelona star ronaldinho admitted: i think
that it is going to be a difficult match for us because chelsea have a good team
full of big stars. i have seen chelsea a few times on television tactically they
are very good and they are very strong on the counter-attack. they pressure very
well and keep possession of the ball so it will be important that we play our own
game. i believe they are the two strongest teams in europe. nevertheless
barcelona are accustomed to playing big games at the nou camp where they have to
face the likes of real madrid each season. it is a special game the atmosphere in
the city changes there are lots of journalists but inside the dressing room there
is not a lot of difference ronaldinho added. we are only thinking of winning the
match with all respect to the opposition.
guantanamo four questioned the four britons freed from us custody in guantanamo bay
are expected to be allowed a visit by one relative. moazzam begg martin mubanga
feroz abbasi and richard belmar were held for three years accused of al-qaeda
links. mr begg s father azmat said he had been told he could see his son for 20
minutes and would say he was a hero . the men are being held at london s
paddington green police station where they are expected to be questioned by uk
anti-terror officers. but louise christian the lawyer representing mr abbasi and
mr mubanga said the families would be reunited with the men away from the station.
before being driven by police from birmingham to london azmat begg said he was
concerned for his son moazzam s mental state and was looking forward to giving him
a hug. as azmat begg arrived at the london police station there appeared to be
some confusion as to the visiting arrangements. police have said they have a duty
to investigate the men who were arrested on their return to the uk. but
metropolitan police commissioner sir john stevens said evidence obtained by mi5
while the four were in cuba was absolutely inadmissible in uk courts. in an
interview with the independent sir john said his officers would have to find other
evidence before the suspects could be tried in the uk. he told the newspaper: if
an admission is made it is a totally different ball game... it could be used as
evidence. the options are: if there is enough evidence they will be charged. if
not they will be released as soon as possible. the men have been allowed to meet
their lawyers. louise christian said that after being tortured and abused at
guantanamo bay the men s arrest was unfair and inappropriate. she told bbc news
she remained very concerned about their psychological state. gareth peirce lawyer
for mr begg said she was shocked at the condition of the men and appalled that the
authorities felt the need to detain them. washington has claimed all four were
enemy combatants who trained at camps run by al-qaeda. the pentagon says they were
freed after the uk government promised they would not be a threat to the national
security of the us or any of its allies. the detainees were immediately arrested
under section 41 of the terrorism act 2000 when they landed at raf northolt west
london on tuesday. massoud shadjareh from the muslim safety forum said: what
sort of homecoming is this they are innocent people. the muslim council of
britain urged that the men should receive counselling and medical help. we want
these men to be returned into the arms of their waiting family said iqbal
sacranie secretary general of the council.
tories outlining policing plans local communities would be asked to go to the polls
to elect their own area police commissioner under plans unveiled by the
conservatives. party leader michael howard said the new role would replace
inconspicuous police authorities. he said the new office would not supersede the
job of a chief constable. the lib dems said the plan could let extreme groups run
policing while labour criticised extravagant tory promises on policing.
responding to the plans the chairman of the police federation of england and wales
which represents rank and file officers said it was essential operational
independence was retained. jan berry said: it is a service not a political
football to be kicked around every time an election approaches. these plans could
result in those with extreme political views dictating what actually happens on the
ground she warned. outlining his crime manifesto mr howard said elected police
commissioners would be more accountable than police authorities which are made up
of local councillors and magistrates. the commissioner will have the powers which
existing police authorities have he told bbc radio 4 s today programme. the
trouble is and it s no reflection on the people who are on the police authority -
they are good people - but hardly anyone knows who they are. mr howard said the
authorities were not providing the local accountability that we want to see and
that elected police commissioners would be more visible. critics fear the move
could hand control of the police to single-issue campaigners who would ignore the
needs of the wider community. lord harris who sits on the executive of association
of police authorities said the plans seemed to suggest chief constables should be
told what to do by a single politician. that is overturning nearly 200 years of
the way in which we have organised policing in this country to avoid the
politicisation of policing decisions he said. liberal democrat home affairs
spokesman mark oaten said the plan was dangerous and could create conflict between
chief constables and elected officials . mr oaten said local people had too little
control over policing but a far better solution would be for elected councillors to
draw up a minimum policing guarantee with their chief constables. a labour party
spokesman criticised michael howard s record saying police numbers had fallen by 1
132 when he was home secretary. he said: today the tories are making more
extravagant promises on the police without making clear how they would pay for them
other than through fantasy savings to the asylum system. the tories insists the
commissioner role would not be like that of an american sheriff. other tory law and
order plans include building more prisons and making criminals serve full jail
sentences.
connick jr to lead broadway show singer and actor harry connick jr is to star in a
broadway revival of 1950s hit musical the pajama game. he will play the supervisor
of a us pyjama factory who has a romance with a union activist during labour
unrest. jeffrey richards the show s co-producer said connick was an actor of
enormous charisma and skill a wonderful singer and a bona fide star . he has
recently starred in hit us comedy will and grace as the husband of grace played by
debra messing. the musical will open in november said mr richards who added that
no other casting had been announced yet. the original book by george abbott and
richard bissell will be revised by playwright peter ackerman who co-wrote the
screenplay for the movie ice age. it has a score by richard adler and jerry ross
and adler is writing two new songs for the score which includes numbers including
hey there small talk and steam heat. connick appeared with his band on broadway in
1990 and he wrote the score for a musical based on emile zola s novel therese
raquin called thou shalt not. it had a three-month run on broadway in 2001.
saudi ncci s shares soar shares in saudi arabia s national company for cooperative
insurance (ncci) soared on their first day of trading in riyadh. they were trading
84% above the offer price on monday changing hands at 372 riyals ($99; £53) after
topping 400 early in the day. demand for the insurer s debut shares was strong - 12
times what was on sale. the listing was part of the country s plans to open up its
insurance market and boost demand in the sector. deregulation is expected to boost
demand for accident and damage cover. previously only ncci has been legally
allowed to offer insurance products within saudi arabia. however the authorities
have turned a blind eye to the many other firms selling insurance. saudi arabia now
wants a fully functioning insurance industry and is introducing legislation that
will clamp down on unauthorised companies. policy-makers also want to make having
insurance more of a requirement but first have to take steps to boost public
confidence in the system analysts said. as a result ncci is being developed as
the industry s flagship firm - publicly-listed with audited accounts. saudi arabia
sold 7 million ncci shares or about 70% of the company s total capital last month.
more than 800 000 applicants got 9 shares each for 205 riyals apiece.
liverpool pledge to keep gerrard liverpool chief executive rick parry insists the
club will never sell steven gerrard amid reports chelsea will renew their bid to
lure him from anfield. gerrard reiterated his desire to win trophies with the reds
after his superb champions league winner on wednesday. and parry has moved to
scotch claims that chelsea could launch a £35m bid. there is no chance of stevie
going in january said parry. that just won t happen. our intention is that we
will never let him go. gerrard scored a spectacular late goal to give liverpool a
3-1 win over olympiakos and book their place in the knockout stages. of course he
is ambitious but so are we parry added. we firmly believe that if we can satisfy
his ambition he will remain a liverpool player. we have an open and
straightforward relationship. we both know where we stand and that played a big
part in his decision to stay last summer. if he was not so committed to liverpool
he would have gone by now. gerrard had said before wednesday s game he would
consider leaving if the club was knocked out of europe with real madrid also
believed to be monitoring his situation. the main point i have made is i want to
be in a liverpool side which challenges for the champions league and the title all
the time he said afterwards. i want to be winning things with liverpool not
somewhere else. i am a fan as well and i think what i have said the supporters
will agree with. we have to build on wins like that not just settle for a great
win and then not progress any further. my goal was one of the most important i
have ever scored and i hope it turns out to be one of the most important for the
club for a long time. i know i put a lot of pressure on myself because of what i
said and i felt i needed a big performance but i am not going to go around
telling lies about how i feel. reds manager rafael benitez believes gerrard can
win everything he wants to without moving clubs. steven can win all he wants with
us and we need him. he has seen that we have a good team and we can do more things
in the future said benitez. but if we want to win more games important games
we need steven in the team. we need his strength the strong mentality he has and
his quality. i think he likes and wants the responsibility of leading this team.
uk discriminated against roma the government s immigration rules racially
discriminated against roma (gypsies) seeking entry into the uk the law lords have
ruled. it follows a home office move to cut asylum claims by stopping people
mostly roma from boarding flights to britain from the czech capital prague. civil
rights group liberty said it exposed racism at the heart of the government s
asylum policy . the home office said it had not meant to discriminate against
anyone. it said it would look at the implications of the ruling but pointed out
the controls were no longer in place because czechs are now entitled to free
movement across europe. the screening took place at the airport in july 2001 at a
time of concern about the number of asylum seekers entering britain. those refused
pre-clearance were effectively prevented from travelling to the uk because no
airline would carry them. lady hale sitting with lords bingham steyn hope and
carswell said many roma had good reason to want to leave the czech republic
because of persecution. but she said they were treated more sceptically than non-
roma passengers by immigration officers acting on racial grounds . lady hale said
immigration officers should have treated all would-be passengers in the same way
only using more intrusive questioning if there was a specific reason. liberty said
statistics suggested roma czechs were 400 times more likely to be stopped by
british immigration officials at prague airport than non-roma czechs. it took up
the case of six unnamed roma czechs refused entry to britain and that of the
european roma rights centre which said the measures unfairly penalised roma
people. it lost a high court action in october 2002 when a judge said the system
was no more or less objectionable than a visa control system. he ruled there was
no obligation on britain not to take steps to prevent a potential refugee from
approaching its border to claim asylum. the court of appeal then decided the
practice almost inevitably discriminated against roma but that this was justified
because they were more likely to seek asylum. immigration law allows officials to
discriminate against citizens from named countries but it does not allow officers
to go further than that. responding to the ruling a home office spokesman said:
the scheme was operated two years ago as a short-term response to the high levels
of passengers travelling from prague who are subsequently found to be ineligible
for entry to the uk. welcoming the ruling maeve sherlock chief executive of the
refugee council said: human rights abuses against the roma in eastern europe are
well documented and it is hugely troubling that the government sought to deny
entry to such a vulnerable group. amnesty international s jan shaw said: that the
government s own asylum policy was being operated discriminatorily is bleakly
ironic given that discrimination often lies at the heart of serious human rights
abuse not least in the czech republic. but the chairman of migration watch uk
sir andrew green said the house of lords decision was a step in the wrong
direction . the basic point is that the government has a duty to control our
borders and this decision appears to extend the race relations legislation beyond
sensible limits.
csa chief who quit still in job the head of the failing child support agency
widely reported to have resigned three months ago is still at the helm of the
troubled organisation. doug smith s departure was announced by work secretary alan
johnson on 17 november as mps grilled him over the agency s poor performance. his
resignation was referred to by both tory and lib dem leaders during that day s
prime ministers questions. officials now say he did not resign but will move on
under civil service rules. mr smith s departure was reported widely at the time as
his shouldering the blame for the failings of the child support agency. in january
the mps who make up the commons work and pensions committee published a highly
critical report into the failing agency noting the chief executive has now left
and hoping the new leadership will bring a fresh approach to what is a failing
organisation . on that day s today programme mr johnson was asked why mr smith had
been allowed to resign rather than be sacked. he replied: the chief executive
decided it was time to move on there is a new chief executive coming in. it now
emerges that the widespread belief mr smith made commander of the order of the
bath in the new year honours had left was wrong. a department for work and
pensions spokeswoman confirmed mr smith was still in post and that he would
continue in the job until a replacement was found. no date was ever given for doug
smith s departure she said adding that the post had been advertised. tory work
and pensions spokesman david willetts said families affected by csa failings would
wonder why mr smith was still in his job three months after his departure was
announced. the csa has been surrounded by controversy since its introduction in
1993 to assess and enforce child support payments by absent parents. the work and
pensions committee launched their inquiry into the csa s performance after it
became clear that despite the introduction of a simpler system of calculating
maintenance payments for new cases in 2003 a backlog of claims was still building
up. it is currently chasing outstanding payments of more than £720m while a
further £947m has been designated as unrecoverable . the mps found american it
giant eds £456m system was nowhere near being fully functional and the number of
dissatisfied disenchanted and angry customers continues to escalate . in november
when he surprised mps and the watching media by announcing mr smith s departure mr
johnson said: i should tell you that doug has decided that now is the time to
stand aside and to allow a new chief executive to tackle the challenges ahead.
doug has exceeded the four years that senior civil servants are now expected to
remain in a particular post. so doug believes that we have reached the natural
breakpoint at which he can hand over the reins. lib dem sir archy kirkwood who
chairs the commons work and pensions committee said that when mr johnson had
announced mr smith was going he got the clear impression the csa chief was
retiring though it had since emerged that was not the case and he may be seeking
new employment opportunities. he added his committee was duty bound to allow the
work and pensions secretary to get new management into place in the csa and it
would be premature to say anything further on the issue at the moment. but
committee member and tory mp nigel waterson said he was amazed mr smith was still
in his job. when mr smith and the secretary of state came to give evidence we
were led to believe he was going shortly he said. even if he was working out
three months notice he should have been clearing his desk by now. asked on
thursday about mr smith s position mr johnson told bbc radio 4 s world at one he
thought it was a non-story . he added that he had been absolutely open when he
announced mr smith s departure to the select committee and how people chose to
interpret it was a different thing . the major issue is have we got a new chief
executive coming into this very important agency as quickly as possible and have we
gone through the right selection process to make sure we ve got the right people
he added.
premier league planning cole date the premier league is attempting to find a
mutually convenient date to investigate allegations chelsea made an illegal
approach for ashley cole. both chelsea and arsenal will be asked to give evidence
to a premier league commission but no deadline has been put on when that meeting
will convene. it s hard to put a date on it a premier league spokesman confirmed
to bbc sport. it s not a formal situation where they ve got so much time to
respond. arsenal and england defender cole reportedly met blues boss jose mourinho
and chief executive peter kenyon in a london hotel 11 days ago. chelsea have yet to
officially confirm or deny the meeting which would be in breach of premier league
rule k3. now the gunners have asked for an inquiry to look into claims that their
player has been tapped up . both clubs have pledged to co-operate with the inquiry
which will be conducted on a single day as opposed to being run as an ongoing
evaluation. cole is in negotiations with the gunners over extending his current
deal which ends in 2007. and his arsenal team-mate robert pires has urged the
england left-back to stay at highbury. pires told the evening standard: he has
been at arsenal for ever. he is a very attacking left-back and i think he is
enjoying his football because at arsenal he plays in an offensive team. i am not
sure he will get the same pleasure at chelsea even though they are doing so well
at the moment. i have built a fantastic playing relationship with ashley. we play
together so well - we could do it with our eyes shut. but you have to respect the
decision of the player. everybody has that right.
hollywood hunts hits at sundance the sundance film festival the movie industry s
top destination for uncovering the next independent hits and new talent opens on
thursday. the event will see screen executives decamp from hollywood to park city
utah for 11 days to search for low-key movies that could make it big in 2005. open
water napoleon dynamite garden state and super-size me were all snapped up at
last year s festival. but stars like keanu reeves and pierce brosnan also have
films showing there. the festival is being opened by a screening of quirky comedy
happy endings starring former friends actress lisa kudrow and maggie gyllenhaal
on thursday. kudrow s friends co-star david schwimmer plays a divorced drunkard
in duane hopwood while brosnan stars as a hit man in comedy the matador. keanu
reeves appears in coming-of-age tale thumbsucker while kevin costner and michael
keaton are among the other big names whose films are involved. robert redford
founded sundance in 1981 and it has gone on to showcase future successes such as
reservoir dogs the blair witch project and the full monty. but it has received
criticism that it has become more commercial and mainstream over the years. as
much as the press argues that sundance has completely changed it hasn t changed
that much festival director geoffrey gilmore said. it s still a place for
discovery. it s a place for common ground among film-makers and audiences more than
it is the celebrity stuff. other films generating interest before this year s
festival include hustle & flow about an aspiring rapper the squid and the whale
an autobiographical film by writer-director noah baumbach and comedy/drama pretty
persuasion. it also has two new international cinema competitions.
blair told to double overseas aid tony blair is being urged to use all his
negotiating powers to end poor countries debt and double aid. some 45 million
children will die needlessly before 2015 and aid budgets are half their 1960 levels
oxfam says in a report paying the price. the call comes as the prime minister
prepares to assume the presidency of the g8 of top industrialised nations. as rich
countries get richer they re giving less and less. this scandal must stop oxfam
s barbara stocking said. the world s poorest children are paying for rich
countries policies in aid and debt with their lives. 2005 offers the chance for
an historic breakthrough but unless world leaders act now the year will end in
shameful failure the charity s director added. the report said: for rich
countries providing aid to help to end global poverty is an obligation and a
matter of justice not an act of charity. it also points out that in 1970 the g8
of top industrialised nations agreed to spend 0.7% of their incomes on aid. but 34
years later none of the organisations members have reached this target and many
have not yet set a timetable the report says. it argues that the price of not
investing in poor countries sustainable development will be felt across the world.
the report said: global poverty threatens our shared prosperity and security.
environmental crises and natural disasters disease and drug trafficking know no
national borders. poverty heightens the likelihood of conflict and unrest. new
threats to the peace and security of rich nations arise from poverty and gross
inequalities. criminal and terrorist networks are more likely to operate where
state institutions are weak. both the prime minister and chancellor gordon brown
have called for urgent action to fight world poverty. mr blair who has described
africa as a scar on the world s conscience has already said tackling world
poverty would be one his g8 priorities along with climate change and the aids
epidemic. mr brown has also pledged to write off the debt owed to britain by the
world s poor nations. a spokeswoman for the department for international
development said: the government had made a clear commitment to reaching 0.7% of
gross national income for overseas development aid by 2013. if britain s proposal
for an international finance facility were adopted the objective of 0.7% could be
achieved earlier by 2008-09. these additional resources will be used to increase
uk bilateral aid to africa to at least £1.25bn a year by 2008 and spend at least
£1.5bn on hiv/aids related work over the next three years.
india and iran in gas export deal india has signed a $40bn (£21bn) deal to import
millions of tonnes of liquefied natural gas from iran. firms led by the oil &
natural gas corporation (ongc) will also assist in the development of iranian oil
fields. ministers eager to gain access to energy supplies to meet the demands of a
booming economy secured a similar deal to one between iran and china. the
announcement comes as ongc said it was in talks to buy former assets of troubled
russian oil firm yukos. the agreements with iran were sealed after talks in new
delhi between middle east producers and asia s biggest energy consumers - china
india japan and south korea. iran - opec s second-biggest oil producer and one of
the world s top gas producers - has been pursuing a series of deals rewarding lng
buyers with participation in development of its oil fields. under the agreement it
will supply india with 7.5 million tonnes of lpg annually over a 25 year period
from 2009. ongc and the national iranian oil company (nioc) reached a preliminary
deal for indian firms to take part in the development of the yadavaran and jufeyr
oilfields both countries said in a statement. india s oil production has stagnated
over recent years and it is having to look abroad to secure future supplies. india
imports about 70% of its total oil consumption. consumption has jumped to 2.4
million barrels per day compared with 474 000 bpd in 1973.
web radio takes spanish rap global spin the radio dial in the us and you are likely
to find plenty of spanish-language music. but what you will not find is much
spanish-language hip-hop. hip-hop and rap are actually quite popular in the
spanish-speaking world but local artists are having trouble marketing their work
abroad. but now a us company is bringing rap and hip-hop en espanol to computer
users everywhere. los caballeros de plan g are one of mexico s hottest hip-hop
acts. they have a devoted fan base in their native monterrey. but most mexican hip-
hop fans not to mention fans in most of the spanish-speaking world rarely get a
chance to hear the group s tracks on the radio. you can t really just go on the
radio and listen to hip-hop in spanish... it s just not accessible says manuel
millan a native of san diego california. it s really hard for the spanish hip-
hop scene to get into mainstream radio. you usually have a very commercialised
sound and the groups are not really known around the country or around the world.
millan and two friends set out to change that - they wanted to make groups like los
caballeros de plan g accessible to fans globally. mainstream radio stations were
not going to play this kind of music and starting their own broadcast station was
economically impossible. so millan and his friends launched a website called
latinohiphopradio.com. the name says it all: it is web-based radio devoted to the
hottest spanish language rap and hip-hop tracks. the site which is in both in
english and spanish is meant to be easy to navigate. all the user has to do is
download a media player. there are no djs. it is just music streamed over the net
for free. suddenly with the help of the website los caballeros de plan g are
producing export quality rap. the web might be just the right medium for spanish
language hip-hop right now. the genre is in what millan calls its infant stage .
but the production values are improving and artists such as argentina s mustafa
yoda are pushing to make it better and better. mustafa yoda is currently one of the
hottest tracks on latinohiphopradio.com. he s considered the eminem of argentina
and the latin american hip-hop scene millan says. he really hasn t had that much
exposure as far as anywhere in the world but he s definitely the one to look out
for as far as becoming the next big thing in the spanish-speaking world. currently
the chilean group makisa is also in latinohiphopradio.com s top 10 as is cuban
artist papo record. every country s got it s own cultural differences and they try
to put those into their own songs millan says. latinohiphopradio.com has been up
and running for a couple of months now. the site has listeners from across the
spanish speaking world. right now mexico leads the way accounting for about 50%
of listeners. but web surfers in spain are logging in as well - about 25% of the
web station s traffic comes from there. that is not surprising as many consider
spain to be the leader in spanish-language rap and hip-hop. millan says that spain
is actually just behind the united states and france in terms of overall rap and
hip-hop production. that might be changing though as more and more latin american
artists are finding audiences. but one spaniard is still firmly in
latinohiphopradio.com s top 10. his name is tote king and manuel millan says that
he is the hip-hop leader in spain. on his track uno contra veinte emcees or one
against 20 emcees tote king shows he is well aware of that fact. it s basically
him bragging that he s one of the best emcees in spain right now millan says.
and it s pretty much true. he has the tightest productions and his rap flow is
impeccable it s amazing. latinohiphopradio.com is hoping to expand in the coming
year. millan says they want to include more music and more news from the world of
spanish language hip-hop and rap. clark boyd is technology correspondent for the
world a bbc world service and wgbh-boston co-production.
scrum-half williams rejoins bath bath have signed their former scrum-half andy
williams on a short-term deal from the neath-swansea ospreys. wales international
williams whose contract with the welsh region was due to expire in june has
agreed a contract until the end of the season. with martyn wood s injury likely to
keep him out until february bath need experienced back-up to nick walshe. said
williams: when this opportunity presented itself i did not really have to think
twice about it. williams capped by wales against romania in 2003 should figure
in the match squad for monday s zurich premiership match at sale sharks. he lost
his ospreys starting place to new zealander jason spice and has fallen further
behind in the pecking order. the welsh region has two outstanding young no 9
prospects in richie rees and rhodri wells. bath director of rugby jack rowell
though believes williams fits the bill perfectly. he has been playing regular
heineken cup and celtic league rugby and he has a great affection for bath rowell
told bath s official website. we are delighted to be able to welcome him back to
the club.
japan economy slides to recession the japanese economy has officially gone back
into recession for the fourth time in a decade. gross domestic product fell by
0.1% in the last three months of 2004. the fall reflects weak exports and a
slowdown in consumer spending and follows similar falls in gdp in the two previous
quarters. the tokyo stock market fell after the figures were announced but rose
again on a widespread perception that the economy will recover later this year. on
wednesday the government revised growth figures from earlier in 2004 which when
taking into account performance in the most recent period effectively tips japan
into recession. a previous estimate of 0.1% growth between july and september was
downgraded to a 0.3% decline. a recession is commonly defined as two consecutive
quarters of negative growth although the japanese government takes other factors
into account when judging the status of its economy. figures released by the
government s cabinet office showed that gdp on an annualised basis fell 0.5% in
the last three months of 2004. however politicians remain upbeat about prospects
for an economic boost later in the year. the economy has some soft patches but if
you look at the bigger picture it is in a recovery stage said economic and
fiscal policy minister heizo takenaka. gross domestic product measures the overall
value of goods and services produced in a country. the economy must be assessed
comprehensively and we cannot look at gdp alone mr takenaka stressed. ministers
pointed to the fact that consumer spending had been depressed by one-off factors
such as the unseasonably mild winter. analysts said the figures were disappointing
but argued that japan s largest companies had been recording healthy profits and
capital spending was on the rise. japan s economy grew 2.6% overall last year -
fuelled by a strong performance in the first few months - and is forecast to see
growth of 2.1% in 2005. however the economy s fragile recovery remains dependent
on an upturn in consumer spending a fall in the value of the yen and an
improvement in global economies. the results came in at the lower end of
expectations but we shouldn t be too pessimistic about the current state and the
outlook for the economy said naoki iizuka senior economist at the dai-ichi life
research institute. japan s economy has seen stretches of moderate growth over the
past decade but has periodically slipped back into recession.
optimism remains over uk housing the uk property market remains robust despite the
recent slowdown according to mortgage lender bradford & bingley and housebuilder
george wimpey. b&b said the buy-to-let market - in which the bank is a major
player - would continue to grow much faster than the wider mortgage market. the
comments came as it reported a 6% rise in profits to £280.2m ($532m). wimpey
reported a 19% rise in profits to £450.7m and said recent new home reservations
were better than expected. recent housing market surveys have indicated that the
uk property market has cooled in recent months after several years of rapid growth.
last week figures from the council of mortgage lenders (cml) indicated that the
popularity of buy-to-let mortgages - a key phenomenon of the housing boom - could
be waning. but b&b - which has a 22% share of the uk buy-to-let mortgage market -
said that while rates of growth were moderating the sector continues to grow at a
rate considerably above that of the whole mortgage market . overall b&b said that
housing market fundamentals remain strong . interest rates and unemployment are
both likely to remain at historically low levels real household incomes should
continue to grow and housing demand is likely to outstrip supply into the medium-
term. despite the upbeat tone shares in b&b were down more than 4% at 325.5p in
morning trade as analysts worried over future earnings growth. wimpey s profit
figures came in at the top of expectations with the numbers helped by buoyant
sales in the us offsetting a slight slowdown in the uk. wimpey said the uk housing
market had proved challenging last year. by late summer the market in general
had slowed sharply across the country and showed no real improvement during the
autumn it added. however the first seven weeks of this year had produced
promising signs wimpey said. visitor levels and interest in this period have been
encouraging and reservations have been at the stronger end of our expectations.
shares in wimpey were up 6% at 458.5p in morning trade.
fed warns of more us rate rises the us looks set for a continued boost to interest
rates in 2005 according to the federal reserve. minutes of the december meeting
which pushed rates up to 2.25% showed that policy-makers at the fed are worried
about accelerating inflation. the clear signal pushed the dollar up to $1.3270 to
the euro by 0400 gmt on wednesday but depressed us shares. the markets are
starting to fear a more aggressive fed in 2005 said richard yamarone of argus
research. the dow jones index dropped almost 100 points on tuesday with the nasdaq
also falling as key tech stocks were hit by broker downgrades. the dollar also
gained ground against sterling on tuesday reaching $1.8832 to the pound before
slipping slightly on wednesday morning. the release of the minutes just three
weeks after the 14 december meeting was much faster than usual indicating the fed
wants to keep markets more apprised of its thinking. this too is being taken in
some quarters as a sign of aggressive moves on interest rates to come. the key fed
funds rate has risen 1.25 percentage points during 2004 from the 46-year low of 1%
reached not long after the 9/11 attacks in 2001. that long trough might be
contributing to signs of potentially excessive risk-taking in financial markets
said the federal open markets committee (fomc) which sets interest rates. the odds
now favour a further boost to rates at the next meeting in early february
economists said. but the respite for the dollar which spent late 2003 being pushed
lower against other major currencies by worries about massive us trade and budget
deficits may be short-lived. you can t rule out a further correction... but we
don t think it s a change in direction in the dollar said jason daw at merrill
lynch. nothing fundamental has changed.
stars shine on bafta red carpet hollywood stars brought a touch of glamour to
london on saturday for the biggest night in the british film calendar. cate
blanchett leonardo dicaprio and richard gere were just some of the actors who
attended the 2005 bafta film awards. they emerged from limos at leicester square to
an uncertain british climate that threatened rain one moment and promised late
winter sunshine the next. but the gods were certainly shining on the thousands of
film fans who lined the red carpet to meet their idols. screaming built up into a
crescendo as more and more big name stars appeared. the biggest cheer of the night
was reserved for the aviator star leonardo dicaprio who paused in the chilly
february air to sign autographs for the throngs. he said the ear-piercing welcome
was unlike anything i ve ever encountered. it s very intense and very loud. best
actress winner imelda staunton who wore a green chiffon dress that sparkled with
sequins and beads told the bbc news website that vera drake was the highlight of
her career. her role as a backstreet abortionist in the gritty low-budget film has
already led to a clutch of awards and an oscar nomination. she said: never in a
million years did i think this was going to happen. being here and just being
nominated is great but i hope it means more people will go and see the film as
well. rooting for staunton in the best actress category was cate blanchett
herself nominated for her supporting role as hollywood icon katherine hepburn in
the aviator. shivering in a floor-length shimmering armani dress the australian-
born actress stopped to sign autographs and joked: it s tight but i love it.
glamour was also brought to the evening by actress sienna miller supermodel
claudia schiffer - who was supporting her director husband matthew vaughn - troy
actress diane kruger and star of the tv programme the oc micha barton. wearing a
caramel-coloured floaty frock by the designer alexander mcqueen miller told
reporters the red carpet experience was intense nerve-wracking and cold . the
younger stars of british film were also represented in the shape of emma watson
who plays hermione in the harry potter films. the 14-year-old said she was hoping
to meet dicaprio and keanu reeves but joked that they are probably a little too
old for me . actor christian slater who is currently starring in one flew over
the cuckoo s nest in london s west end was greeted by cries of christian
christian by the ever vocal crowd. keanu reeves who presented the best actress
award said being on the red carpet was an exciting part of his job. it is
always surreal and when it is nice it is nice he said. martin scorsese whose
movie the aviator went on to win best film said being honoured in the uk meant a
lot to him. he said: i am a great admirer of british cinema since the 1930s and
40s up until now. they give me a new energy when i see the best coming out of
england and every two or three years is a whole new cycle of tough and young film-
makers and even the older ones are making good films. to recognise me in this way
is a great honour. british actor clive owen who has won a golden globe and a
bafta for his supporting role in closer said it meant a lot to be at the
ceremony. he said: just to be here really at the baftas. the bottom line is it is
a celebration of british films.
german music in a zombie state the german music business - the third largest in
the world - is in the state of a zombie because it has failed to respond to the
challenge posed by downloading and piracy a leading industry figure has said. tim
renner the head of universal music germany until last year told bbc world service
s the music biz programme that the country s music industry was now struggling to
survive. renner warned that unless the industry accepted new realties - such as
downloading - its decline could become irreversible. the problem the music
industry has got is that they aren t willing to accept that the classic way of
doing business is over and out he stated. so the music industry in its current
form over here is pretty much in the state of a zombie. the music market in
germany peaked in 1997 with sales of 2.6bn euros (£1.8bn). since 2000 sales have
plummeted to just 1.6bn euros (£1.1bn) in 2003. in the space of one year - between
2002 and 2003 - cd album sales fell by 13.8%. but a study by the society for
consumer research found that at the same time more than twice as many recordable
cds had music recorded on them than cd albums were sold. mr renner pointed out that
because profit comes mainly from the longevity of a good-selling record this was
particularly damaging. you need time he added. however peter zombic the
managing director of the international federation of phonographic industry in
germany said he did not feel the situation was as dramatic as mr renner
believed. it s quite true that we have severe problems in germany - but that s
true in other parts of the world and in most developed markets too he argued. we
have a severe problem with piracy especially internet piracy and we also have a
severe problem of private copying. i don t agree that the music industry lost
control over the music market - in fact especially in regard to germany talent
the market is quite successful. he did however admit that copyright owners have
partly lost control of their copyright due to piracy and copying. but he refuted
suggestions that the industry had been too slow to respond to digital downloading.
we were the first to implement a download service - back in 1997 he argued. at
that time it was not successful because of the advent of piracy - it was the
napster time when p2p services became popular. it still is quite difficult for
the music industry to compete with a price that is zero as far as the illegal
product is concerned. mr zombic also called for a change to the perception in
germany that private copying of music is not a problem. german law does allow
people to make copies of cds for their family and close friends without fear of
breaking copyright. mr zombic said that this legal framework was a huge problem .
there is a widespread attitude that private copying is a hobby it s nice it s fun
he added. we try to make clear it s not nice and it s not fun - it s endangering
the creativity in our country.
junk e-mails on relentless rise spam traffic is up by 40% putting the total amount
of e-mail that is junk up to an astonishing 90%. the figures from e-mail
management firm email systems will alarm firms attempting to cope with the amount
of spam in their in-boxes. while virus traffic has slowed down denial of service
attacks are on the increase according to the firm. virus mail accounts for just
over 15% of all e-mail traffic analysis by the firm has found. it is no longer
just multi-nationals that are in danger of so-called denial of service attacks in
which websites are bombarded by requests for information and rendered inaccessible.
email systems refers to a small uk-based engineering firm which received a
staggering 12 million e-mails in january. the type of spam currently being sent has
subtlety altered in the last few months according to email systems analysis. half
of spam received since christmas has been health-related with gambling and porn
also on the increase. scam mails offering ways to make a quick buck have declined
by 40%. january is clearly a month when consumers are less motivated to purchase
financial products or put money into dubious financial opportunities said neil
hammerton managing director of email systems. spammers seem to have adapted their
output to reflect this focussing instead on medically motivated and pornographic
offers presumably intentionally intended to coincide with what is traditionally
considered to be the bleakest month in the calendar he said.
gta sequel is criminally good the grand theft auto series of games have set
themselves the very highest of standards in recent years but the newest addition
is more than able to live up to an increasingly grand tradition. the 18
certificate gta: san andreas for the playstation 2 could have got away with merely
revisiting a best-selling formula with a more-of-the-same approach. instead it
builds and expands almost immeasurably upon the last two games and stomps carefree
over all the driv3r and true crime-shaped opposition. even in the year that will
see sequels to halo and half-life it is hard to envisage anything topping this
barnstorming instant classic. the basic gameplay remains familiar. you control a
character on this occasion a youth named cj who sets out on a series of self-
contained missions within a massive 3d environment. cj can commandeer any vehicle
he stumbles across from a push-bike to a city bus to a plane. all come in handy as
he seeks to establish his presence in a tough urban environment and avenge the
dreadful deeds waged upon his family. to make things worse he is framed for murder
the moment he arrives in town and blackmailed by crooked cops played by samuel l
jackson and chris penn. the setting for all this rampant criminality is the
fictional us state of san andreas comprising three major cities: los santos which
is a thinly-disguised los angeles san fierro aka san francisco and las venturas
a carbon copy of las vegas. san andreas sucks you in with its sprawling range cast
of characters and incredibly sharp writing. its ability to capture the ambience of
the real-world versions of these cities is something to behold assisted no end by
the monumental graphical advances since vice city. the streets and vast swathes of
countryside are by turns gloriously menacing grungy and preppy. flaunting awesome
levels of graphical detail the game s overall look particularly during the many
unusual weather conditions and dramatic sunsets is stupendous. the outstanding
bread-and-butter gameplay mechanics provide a solid grounding for the elaborate
plot to hang on. cars handle more convincingly than ever a superb motion blur
kicks in when you hit high speeds and there s more traffic to navigate than
before. park your vehicle across the lanes of a freeway and within seconds there
will be a huge pile-up. pedestrians are also out in force and are a loquacious
bunch. cj can interact with them using a simple system on the control pad. they
will pass comments on his appearance and credibility aspects that the player now
has control over. clothes tattoos and haircuts can all be purchased and funding
these habits can be achieved by criminal means or by indulging in mini-games like
betting on horses and challenging bar patrons to games of pool. the character will
put on or lose weight according to how long he spends on foot or in the gym. he
will have to pause regularly in restaurants to keep energy levels up but will
swell up as a result of over-eating. and at last this is a gta hero who can swim.
at a time when games are once again under fire for their supposed potential to
corrupt the young san andreas violence or specifically the freedom it gives the
player to commit violence are sure to inflame the pro-censorship brigade.
developers rockstar have not shied away from brutality and in some respects ramp
it up from past outings. when hijacking a car for example cj will gratuitously
shove the driver s head into the steering wheel rather than just fleeing with the
vehicle. indeed the tone is darker than the jokey vice city. the grim subject
matter here hardly lends itself to gags in quite the same way as the cheesy 80s
setting of the last game. this title incidentally is set in 1992 but that is
really neither here nor there apart from the influence it has on the radio
playlists. the wit is still present just more restrained than in previous outings.
a further reason for this is that the incredible range of in-vehicle radio stations
available means you will spend less time happening upon the hilarious talk radio
options where gta games trademark humour is anchored. the quality of voice acting
and motion capture is simply off-the-chart. the game s rather odious gangland
lowlifes swagger and mouth off in a way that rings very true indeed. it is a
testament to san andreas magnificence that it has a number of prominent flaws but
plus-points are so numerous that the niggles don t detract. the on-screen map for
instance is needlessly fiddly an unwelcome change from past editions. there is
also a very jarring slowdown at action-packed moments. and the game suffers from
the age-old problem that can be relied upon to blight all games of this genre
setting you back a vast distance when you fail right at the very end of a long
mission. but the gameplay experience in its entirety is overwhelmingly positive.
you simply will not be bothered by these minor failings. san andreas is among the
few unmissable games of 2004.
us manufacturing expands us industrial production increased in december according
to the latest survey from the institute for supply management (ism). its index of
national manufacturing activity rose to 58.6 last month from 57.8 in november. a
reading above 50 indicates a level of growth. the result for december was slightly
better than analysts expectations and the 19th consecutive expansion. the ism said
the growth was driven by a significant rise in the new orders. this completes a
strong year for manufacturing based on the ism data said chairman of the ism s
survey committee. while there is continuing upward pressure on prices the rate of
increase is slowing and definitely trending in the right direction. the ism s
index of national manufacturing activity is compiled from monthly responses of
purchasing executives at more than 400 industrial companies ranging from textiles
to chemicals to paper and has now been above 50 since june 2003. analysts expected
december s figure to come in at 58.1. the ism manufacturing index s main sister
survey - the employment index - eased to 52.7 in december from 57.6 in november
while its prices paid index measuring the cost to businesses of their inputs
also eased to 72.0 from 74.0. the ism s new orders index rose to 67.4 from 61.5.
italy to get economic action plan italian prime minister silvio berlusconi will
unveil plans aimed at kickstarting the country s sputtering economy on thursday
night in rome. he will present an action plan for the development of italy in a
meeting with industrialists and trade union leaders. mr berlusconi is expected to
table reforms aimed at boosting research and development (r&d) spending and the
competitiveness of small firms. also in focus will be bankruptcy laws and the slow
pace of the legal system. the prime minister is scheduled to start the meeting at
1830 gmt. the government has been accused of underfunding r&d making it harder
for italy to compete with other european nations and leading to a brain-drain of
the country s brightest talents. analysts say that hiring and firing staff is still
too difficult and expensive hampering the development of small- and medium-sized
businesses. as a result they say italy s corporate landscape is filled with
numerous smaller companies that are often reluctant to become bigger because of all
the extra hassle that would accompany the running of a larger firm. at the same
time bankruptcy laws make it difficult for failed company directors to set up new
businesses and emerge from their debts a situation that is hampering italy s
entrepreneurial spirit. the government says that it has set about tackling the
problems adding that getting growth going was the responsibility of all of italy s
60 million population. according to il sole 24 ore italy s business newspaper the
government will focus on opening up markets infrastructure research making more
incentives available bankruptcy law the slow pace of the justice system . mr
berlusconi has previously promised to cut taxes by 6.5bn euros ($8.6bn; £4.5bn)
this year in an effort to get people and companies to spend. he has also promised
to cap spending on transport education and health so as to trim the ballooning
budget deficit. italy plans to raise as much as 25bn euros from privatisations in
2005 including a partial flotation of the post office and utility enel. critics
argue that these moves do not go far enough and could make italy s problems worse.
limiting government spending will lead to job losses they counter while the
income tax cuts will have a negligible effect on sentiment and ultimately favour
the wealthy. the country has been one of the eurozone s worst economic performers
in recent years. growth was 1.1% in 2004 up from just 0.3% in 2003 and 0.4% in
2002 - an improvement but still a long way from ideal. at the same time business
and consumer confidence has dipped and analysts have raised concerns that what
little spending there is stems from italians dipping into their savings accounts or
using credit cards. without a pick up in national growth they say the money could
eventually run out bringing italy s economy to a juddering halt. consumer spending
accounts for about two-thirds of italy s economy.
kidman wins photographer battle actress nicole kidman has won a restraining order
against two paparazzi photographers who she claims left her fearful of leaving her
sydney mansion. the oscar-winning star took action against jamie fawcett and ben
mcdonald after a bugging device was found outside her home earlier this week.
lawyers for the pair denied allegations they had planted the device. the australian
actress is currently in sydney to film her latest movie eucalyptus with russell
crowe. kidman was prompted to take action following a reported high-speed car chase
with members of the paparazzi in sydney last weekend. according to local newspaper
the daily telegraph the incident involved paparazzi driving through red lights and
on the wrong side of the road in pursuit of kidman s vehicle. lawyers for mr
fawcett and mr mcdonald denied that the pair were involved in the chase. kidman
sought the apprehended violence orders - normally used in australia in cases of
domestic violence and similar incidents - after being advised to do so by local
police. nicole would like to make it clear that she acknowledges she is a public
figure and that reporters and photographers have a job to do and she respects that
said kidman s publicist wendy day. however these are specific actions against two
individuals who over a period of time have caused her to feel threatened
intimidated and unable to leave her home without fearing for her safety.
magistrate lee gilmore who issued the restraining order at waverley local court in
sydney said she understood the photographers were entitled to earn a living but
there had to be limits to their behaviour. miss kidman says she s willing to put
up with some of it but it s gone beyond that she said. i do believe the
allegation in relation to the driving is a serious issue.
o leary agrees new villa contract aston villa boss david o leary signed a three-
and-a-half year contract extension on thursday securing his future at the club
until summer 2008. o leary s future was in question but villa chairman doug ellis
said he was happy to secure the deal. david s record since his arrival in 2003 is
excellent and he shares the board s amibitions in taking this club forward he
told villa s website. for this reason it was important we got this right. o leary
put pen to paper after deals were sorted for his right-hand men roy aitken and
steve mcgregor. it was important to me roy and steve an integral part of my team
should stay for the same time o leary said on thursday ahead of signing his new
deal. someone has to try and put aston villa back where they should belong and i m
up for the challenge. earlier in december there were rumours o leary would quit if
he is not offered a new deal before the end of the season. but he denied that
saying he was happy to take on the challenge of improving villa s fortunes in the
long term. i want to make sure by the end of the five years i would have been in
charge that villa are achieving top six finishes in the premiership on a regular
basis said o leary who took over at villa park in may 2003. but to achieve that
and take the next step forward we do need to bring in quality players. i would
like a couple next month if at all possible to set us on the way. meanwhile o
leary has rapped skipper olof mellberg for his comments before sunday s derby with
birmingham. mellberg spoke of his dislike of villa s rivals ahead of the match
which steve bruce s side won 2-1. i ve had more than a quiet word with olof. it s
been said within the whole group not as a one-to-one he told villa s website.
you shouldn t leave yourself open to be shot down. you shouldn t give people the
chance to take cheap shots at you and he set himself up for that.
steel firm to cut 45 000 jobs mittal steel one of the world s largest steel
producers could cut up to 45 000 jobs over the next five years its chief
executive has said. the netherlands-based company is due to complete its $4.5bn
acquisition of us firm isg next month making it one of the largest global firms of
its kind. however lakshmi mittal has told investors the combined company will have
to shed thousands of jobs. the indian-born magnate did not say where the job losses
would fall. mr mittal told us investors that once the acquisition of international
steel group was completed the company would aim to reduce its workforce by between
7 000 and 8 000 annually. this could see its workforce trimmed from 155 000 to 110
000 staff by 2010. we are investing in modernisation so employees will go down
mr mittal told the conference in chicago. mittal steel was formed last year when
mr mittal s lnm holdings merged with dutch firm ispat. a combination of mittal
steel and isg would have annual sales of $32bn (£16.7bn; 24.1bn euros) and a
production capacity of 70 million tonnes. a mittal steel spokeman said that no
decisions on job cuts have been made yet. we are trying to create a sustainable
steel industry and if we want to do that we have to invest in new technology a
spokesman said. mittal steel has operations in 14 countries. many of its businesses
- particularly those in eastern europe - were previously state owned and have huge
workforces. it employs 50 000 staff in kazakhstan alone and has large operations
in romania the czech republic south africa and the united states.
church urges nelly show boycott church ministers are trying to prevent rapper nelly
performing in arkansas saying they do not want his vile and filthy lyrics in
their town. more than 20 jonesboro ministers urged music fans to boycott nelly s
12 march concert at arkansas state university in a bid to have it cancelled.
jonesboro is a wonderful city because of what does not come here said the
reverend adrian rodgers. but a venue spokesman said more than 5 500 tickets had
been sold so far. mr rodgers of the fullness of joy church said he was concerned
about the rapper s lyrics that include references to drugs sex and violence and
songs that the minister said were demeaning to women. ministers were worried that
bringing such acts to jonesboro would lead to problems. tear the tickets up mr
rodgers said. do not go and do not allow your children to go. tim dean director
of the arkansas state university venue said ticket sales had been brisk. it would
appear that with ticket sales over 5 000 many others have expressed their right to
find nelly s music entertaining and worth spending their time and money on he
said. nelly has sold more than 30 million singles and albums worldwide and in
september 2004 simultaneously occupied the number one and two positions in the us
albums chart. he has had 12 uk hit singles including hot in herre dilemma and
recent number one over and over.
gates opens biggest gadget fair bill gates has opened the consumer electronics show
(ces) in las vegas saying that gadgets are working together more to help people
manage multimedia content around the home and on the move. mr gates made no
announcement about the next generation xbox games console which many gadget lovers
had been hoping for. about 120 000 people are expected to attend the trade show
which stretches over more than 1.5 million square feet and runs from 6 to 9
january. the latest trends in digital imaging storage technologies thinner flat
screen and high-definition tvs wireless and portable technologies gaming and
broadband technologies will all be on show over the three days. mr gates said that
a lot of work had been done in the last year to sort out usability and
compatibility issues between devices to make it easier to share content. we
predicted at the beginning of the decade that the digital approach would be taken
for granted - but there was a lot of work to do. what is fun is to come to the
show and see what has been done. it is going even faster than we expected and we
are excited about it. he highlighted technology trends over the last year that had
driven the need to make technology and transferring content across difference
devices seamless . gaming is becoming more of a social thing and all of the
social genres will use this rich communications. and if we look at what has been
going on with e-mail instant messaging blogging entertainment - if we can make
this seamless we can create something quite phenomenal. mr gates said the pc
like microsoft s media centre had a central role to play in how people would be
making the most out of audio video and images but it would not be the only device.
it is the way all these devices work together which will make the difference he
said. he also cited the success of the microsoft xbox video game halo 2 released
in november which pushed xbox console sales past playstation in the last two
months of 2004 for the first time in 2004. the game which makes use of the xbox
live online games service has sold 6.23 million copies since its release. people
are online and playing together and that really points to the future he said.
several partnerships with device and hardware manufacturers were highlighted during
mr gates speech but there were few major groundbreaking new technology
announcements. although most of these affected largely us consumers the
technologies highlighted the kind of trends to come. these included what mr gates
called an ecosystem of technologies like sbc s iptv a high-definition tv and
digital video recorder that worked via broadband to give high-quality and fast tv.
there were also other deals announced which meant that people could watch and
control content over portable devices and mobile phones. ces features several more
key speeches from major technology players such as intel and hewlett packard as
well as parallel conference sessions on gaming storage broadband and the future
of digital music. about 50 000 new products will be unleashed at the tech-fest
which is the largest yet. consumer electronics and gadgets had a phenomenal year in
2004 according to figures released by ces organisers the cea on tuesday. the
gadget explosion signalled the strongest growth yet in the us in 2004. that trend
is predicted to continue with wholesale shipments of consumer technologies expected
to grow by 11% again in 2005.
seamen sail into biometric future the luxury cruise liner crystal harmony
currently in the gulf of mexico is the unlikely setting for tests of biometric
technology. as holidaymakers enjoy balmy breezes their ship s crew is testing
prototype versions of the world s first internationally issued biometric id cards
the seafarer s equivalent of a passport. along with the owner s picture name and
personal details the new seafarers identity document incorporates a barcode
representing unique features of its holder s fingerprints. the cards are due to be
issued in february next year in line with the revised un convention on seafarers
identity documents of june 2003. tests currently under way in the caribbean are
designed to ensure that new cards and their machine readers produced by different
companies in different countries are working to interoperable standards. results
of the current tests which involve seafarers from a wide range of occupations and
nationalities will be published by the international labour organisation (ilo) by
the end of november. crystal cruises which operates the crystal harmony is
exploring the use of biometrics but has not yet committed to the technology.
authenti-corp the us technology consultancy has been working with the ilo on its
technical specifications for the cards. if you re issued a seafarer s id in your
country you want to be sure that when the ship lands in a port in say my country
you can validate yourself using whatever equipment we have installed authenti-
corp s ceo cynthia musselman told the bbc s go digital programme. she said french
jordanian and nigerian nationals would be the first seafarers to get the new id
cards since their countries have already ratified the convention. it aims to combat
international terrorism whilst guaranteeing the welfare the one million seafarers
estimated to be at sea. the convention highlights the importance of access to shore
facilities and shore leave as vital elements to a sailor s wellbeing and therefore
it says to safer shipping and cleaner oceans. by increasing security on the seas
as well as border control and protection the cards will hopefully reduce the
number of piracy problems around the world said ms musselman. it should be a
safer environment for seafarers to work in and will allow people protecting their
borders to have confidence that the people getting off the ship are in fact
seafarers.
barclays shares up on merger talk shares in uk banking group barclays have risen on
monday following a weekend press report that it had held merger talks with us bank
wells fargo. a tie-up between barclays and california-based wells fargo would
create the world s fourth biggest bank valued at $180bn (£96bn). barclays has
declined to comment on the report in the sunday express saying it does not respond
to market speculation. the two banks reportedly held talks in october and november
2004. barclays shares were up 8 pence or 1.3% at 605 pence by late morning in
london on monday making it the second biggest gainer in the ftse 100 index. uk
banking icon barclays was founded more than 300 years ago; it has operations in
over 60 countries and employs 76 200 staff worldwide. its north american divisions
focus on business banking whereas wells fargo operates retail and business banking
services from 6 000 branches. in 2003 barclays reported a 20% rise in pre-tax
profits to £3.8bn and it has recently forecast similar gains in 2004 predicting
that full year pre-tax profits would rise 18% to £4.5bn. wells fargo had net income
of $6.2bn in its last financial year a 9% increase on the previous year and
revenues of $28.4bn. barclays was the focus of takeover speculation in august when
it was linked to citigroup though no bid has ever materialised. stock market
traders were sceptical that the latest reports heralded a deal. the chief
executive would be abandoning his duty if he didn t talk to rivals but a deal
doesn t seem likely reuters quoted one trader as saying.
low-cost airlines hit eurotunnel channel tunnel operator eurotunnel has seen sales
fall in the face of the upsurge in european low-cost airlines. the firm said sales
were down 4% in 2004 to 789m euros ($1.03bn; £548m). the impact of the development
of no-frills airlines is being felt ever more strongly said chief executive jean-
louis raymond. income from its vehicle-carrying shuttle services fell 7% although
15% more passengers meant a 2% rise in railway revenue. the cross-channel truck
market is improving eurotunnel said but warned that it was not benefiting since
much of the traffic was in containers destined for ports. the passenger-only trains
which use the tunnel are run by a separate company eurostar. eurotunnel is still
struggling with debts of more than 6bn euros. the company is currently kept afloat
by the 200-plus banks to whom it owes the money. a shareholder revolt threw out the
old board in 2004. but the bbc s business editor jeff randall said the banks
could yet step in and take over altogether. at the moment it can t even service
the interest on its debt he said. this is a company in the departure lounge of
life.
zambia confident and cautious zambia s technical director kalusha bwalya is
confident and cautious ahead of the cosafa cup final against angola on saturday in
lusaka. bwalya said: nothing short of victory will do. however bwalya warned his
side not to be too complacent. i don t want my team to be too comfortable or too
sure of victory as it is going to be a difficult game. for me the main aim of the
game is to enjoy and to win. zambia have shown their determination to win this
final by recalling nine of their foreign-based players. however the 41 year-old
bwalya who became the oldest player to appear in the competition when he played
and scored against mauritius is uncertain whether he will take to the field or
not. the chipolopolo fans however are not being so cautious with a victory
concert already scheduled for after the match featuring some of the country s top
musicians. both sides are hoping to win the competition for a record third time
and so keep the trophy for good. the chipolopolo won the first two editions of the
regional tournament for southern african nations in 1997 and 1998. they were
prevented from a third straight win by angola who knocked out the zambians at the
semi-final stage in 1999. that victory for angola also marked a first defeat in 14
years for zambia at lusaka s independence stadium where saturday s game is being
played. angola named just four overseas-based players in their preliminary squad.
the palancas negras have been unable to secure the release of many of their
portugal-based players.
radcliffe proves doubters wrong this won t go down as one of the greatest marathons
of paula s career. but as a test of character it was the toughest race she s ever
taken part in. a win in the new york marathon doesn t make up for the
disappointment of athens in any shape or form but it will offer hope and
reassurance for next year. if paula s last experience of the year had been athens
it would have been very difficult to look forward with any optimism. she can now
draw a line under this year and make plans about her future. even if she d lost
this race there would have been a lot of positives to take out of it. she knows
she can dig deep if she needs to. it was a strong field with a number of the girls
going into the race with expectations of winning. and although two hours 23 minutes
wasn t one of paula s best times it wasn t far off the record on a difficult
course. i was speaking to paula in the lead-up to this race and she said that in
many ways she was facing a no-win situation. she thought that if she won people
would say why couldn t she do that in athens and if she lost people would say
her career was over. and a lot of people were wondering what would happen if paula
was forced to drop out of this race as she did in the marathon and 10 000m in
athens. but that was never on the cards. she might have been beaten but she would
have kept running. the reasons she was forced to pull out in athens - the niggling
injuries her lack of energy and the oppressive conditions - weren t at play here.
the only question was what position she could finish in. most important of all
despite all the hype in the media ahead of this race there were never doubts in
paula s mind. if she wasn t confident she wouldn t have run. after all if you re
the best in the world at an event you ll always have expectations of winning. now
paula will take part in the run london 10km race in london at the end of the year
have a well-earned rest over christmas and go into next year with a lot of
optimism.
jones happy with henson heroics wales fly-half stephen jones admitted he was happy
to hand gavin henson responsibility for taking the match-winning kick against
england. jones had missed three earlier shots at goal when wales 9-8 down were
awarded a long-range penalty with four minutes left in cardiff. i knew the
percentages of gavin reaching it were far higher than me jones said. when he
said he wanted it there were no problems. jones had seen a long-range effort fall
a whisker under the crossbar on the hour before charlie hodgson put england in
front with 10 minutes left. i looked at where it was and i knew i was going to
struggle to make it jones added. i said to gareth (thomas the wales captain)
this is touch and go. it was out of my range and obviously gavin is phenomenal
when it comes to distance. he was confident and fancied it. there were no
questions that he d miss it the way he was playing. he had a superb game. jones
was happy to hail henson s heroic contribution to wales first win over england in
cardiff since 1993. physically he s a specimen: he s a balanced player he glides
when he runs and obviously he s got a great kicking game as well jones said.
his defence was superb he made some great hits and he had a great game. i m glad
he s welsh. victory over england for the first time since 1999 will no doubt fuel
expectations of what wales might achieve in this year s six nations. but they now
face three away fixtures in italy france and scotland before completing their
campaign against ireland in cardiff. people all over the world want to see wales
back at the top table of world rugby said a proud coach mike ruddock. but we are
not there yet. the next step is finding the consistency to get further wins. we
have to travel this week and we can t afford to get too giddy about this result.
we have got to be professional and keep focused on facing italy. none more so
than henson who can now expect to have the same sort of spotlight thrust upon him
as the likes of jonny wilkinson and brian o driscoll. the confident 23-year-old is
undaunted by the prospect of dealing with such weighty expectations however. i m
the sort of player who likes pressure on me he said. it makes me more
concentrated and i think i perform better under more pressure. i set a high
standard against england and i ve got to back it up next week. two years ago when
we played italy i wasn t involved and we lost so we ve got to put that right next
week.
february poll claim speculation reports that tony blair is planning a snap
general election for february 2005 have been described as idle speculation by
downing street. a spokesman said he had no idea where the reports in the sunday
times and sunday telegraph had come from. the papers suggest ministers believe the
government could benefit from a baghdad bounce following successful iraq
elections in january. a british general election was last held in february in 1974.
in that election edward heath lost and failed to build a coalition with the
liberals. harold wilson took over and increased his majority later in the year in a
second election the latest speculation suggests the prime minister favours a
february poll in order to exploit his current opinion poll lead over conservative
leader michael howard. but that strategy could prompt criticism he was seeking to
cut and run after less then four years of a parliamentary term. the papers report
that alan milburn labour s head of elections strategy has played a key role in
the plan for a february election which would include a new year advertising blitz.
new labour s campaign both newspapers said would be centred around the slogan
britain is working . a labour party spokesman said the election date was ultimately
a matter for mr blair but he was unaware of anything to suggest it would be in
february. most commentators have been expecting an election on 5 may. the last
election was in june 2001.
budget to set scene for election gordon brown will seek to put the economy at the
centre of labour s bid for a third term in power when he delivers his ninth budget
at 1230 gmt. he is expected to stress the importance of continued economic
stability with low unemployment and interest rates. the chancellor is expected to
freeze petrol duty and raise the stamp duty threshold from £60 000. but the
conservatives and lib dems insist voters face higher taxes and more means-testing
under labour. treasury officials have said there will not be a pre-election
giveaway but mr brown is thought to have about £2bn to spare. - increase in the
stamp duty threshold from £60 000 - a freeze on petrol duty - an extension of
tax credit scheme for poorer families - possible help for pensioners the stamp
duty threshold rise is intended to help first time buyers - a likely theme of all
three of the main parties general election manifestos. ten years ago buyers had a
much greater chance of avoiding stamp duty with close to half a million properties
in england and wales alone selling for less than £60 000. since then average uk
property prices have more than doubled while the starting threshold for stamp duty
has not increased. tax credits as a result the number of properties incurring
stamp duty has rocketed as has the government s tax take. the liberal democrats
unveiled their own proposals to raise the stamp duty threshold to £150 000 in
february. the tories are also thought likely to propose increased thresholds with
shadow chancellor oliver letwin branding stamp duty a classic labour stealth tax .
the tories say whatever the chancellor gives away will be clawed back in higher
taxes if labour is returned to power. shadow treasury chief secretary george
osborne said: everyone who looks at the british economy at the moment says there
has been a sharp deterioration in the public finances that there is a black hole
he said. if labour is elected there will be a very substantial tax increase in the
budget after the election of the order of around £10bn. but mr brown s former
advisor ed balls now a parliamentary hopeful said an examination of tory plans
for the economy showed there would be a £35bn difference in investment by the end
of the next parliament between the two main parties. he added: i don t accept
there is any need for any changes to the plans we have set out to meet our spending
commitments. for the lib dems david laws said: the chancellor will no doubt tell
us today how wonderfully the economy is doing he said. but a lot of that is
built on an increase in personal and consumer debt over the last few years - that
makes the economy quite vulnerable potentially if interest rates ever do have to go
up in a significant way. snp leader alex salmond said his party would introduce a
£2 000 grant for first time buyers reduce corporation tax and introduce a citizens
pension free from means testing. plaid cymru s economics spokesman adam price said
he wanted help to get people on the housing ladder and an increase in the minimum
wage to £5.60 an hour.
claxton hunting first major medal british hurdler sarah claxton is confident she
can win her first major medal at next month s european indoor championships in
madrid. the 25-year-old has already smashed the british record over 60m hurdles
twice this season setting a new mark of 7.96 seconds to win the aaas title. i am
quite confident said claxton. but i take each race as it comes. as long as i
keep up my training but not do too much i think there is a chance of a medal.
claxton has won the national 60m hurdles title for the past three years but has
struggled to translate her domestic success to the international stage. now the
scotland-born athlete owns the equal fifth-fastest time in the world this year. and
at last week s birmingham grand prix claxton left european medal favourite russian
irina shevchenko trailing in sixth spot. for the first time claxton has only been
preparing for a campaign over the hurdles - which could explain her leap in form.
in previous seasons the 25-year-old also contested the long jump but since moving
from colchester to london she has re-focused her attentions. claxton will see if
her new training regime pays dividends at the european indoors which take place on
5-6 march.
tutu s guantanamo release call archbishop desmond tutu has called for the release
of the remaining inmates at guantanamo bay and terror suspects detained without
trial in the uk. his comments follow news that all four britons held by the us in
the cuban camp will be freed within weeks. the south african archbishop said
detentions without trial were unacceptable and distressing . twelve foreign
nationals are being held indefinitely without trial in the uk under anti-terror
laws. referring to the detentions in cuba archbishop tutu told bbc news: it is
utterly unacceptable. the rule of law is in order to ensure that those who have
power don t use their power arbitrarily and every person retains their human rights
until you have proven conclusively that so-and-so is in fact guilty. moazzam begg
from birmingham and martin mubanga richard belmar and feroz abbasi from london
have been held by the us at guantanamo bay for almost three years. on tuesday
foreign secretary jack straw told the commons that the us had agreed to release the
four after intensive and complex discussions over security. the britons were
detained as part of the us-led war on terror . the archbishop added: whilst we
are saying thank you that these have been released what is happening to those left
behind we in south africa used to have a dispensation that detained people
without trial and the world quite rightly condemned that as unacceptable. now if
it was unacceptable then how come it can be acceptable to britain and the united
states. it is so so deeply distressing. following mr straw s announcement lawyer
louise christian who represents mr abbasi and mr mubanga said the government
should have acted sooner. foreign nationals detained in the uk are being held at
belmarsh and woodhill prisons. in december the house of lords the uk s highest
court ruled that the anti-terror measures broke human rights laws. but the men are
still behind bars. archbishop tutu criticised the measures saying: i am opposed
to any arbitrary detention that is happening even in britain. shami chakrabarti
director of civil rights group liberty has called on the government to practise
what it preaches and either free or charge the detained men. but the home office
defended the measures. a spokesman said: these individuals cannot currently be
prosecuted because some evidence such as that provided by third parties cannot
safely be disclosed in criminal proceedings without putting others at risk. it is
also currently the case that intelligence gained from covert intercepts cannot be
used in a court of law.
dementieva prevails in hong kong elena dementieva swept aside defending champion
venus williams 6-3 6-2 to win hong kong s champions challenge event. the russian
ranked sixth in the world broke williams three times in the first set while
losing her service once. williams saved three championship points before losing the
match at the victoria park tennis court. it s really a great start to the year no
matter whether it s an exhibition or not. i was trying to play my best and i really
did it said dementieva. this will give me all the confidence before the grand
slams. i was trying so hard to win this tournament. williams 24 was disappointed
with her display. she played some nice points but it was mostly me committing
unforced errors - four or five errors in each game she said. before the match
organizers auctioned off rackets belonging to the players raising £115 000 for
victims of the tsunami disaster.
india seeks to boost construction india has cleared a proposal allowing up to 100%
foreign direct investment in its construction sector. kamal nath commerce and
industry minister announced the decision in delhi on thursday following a cabinet
meeting. analysts say improving india s infrastructure will boost foreign
investment in other sectors too. the indian government s decision has spread good
cheer in the construction sector according to some indian firms. a spokesman for
dlf builders dr vancheshwar told the bbc this will mean better offerings for
consumers as well as builders. he said the firm will benefit from world class
strategic partnerships design expertise and technology while consumers will have
better choice. the government proposal states that foreign investment of up to
100% will be allowed on the automatic route in the construction sector on
projects including housing hotels resorts hospitals and educational
establishments. the automatic route means that construction companies need only get
one set of official approvals and do not need to gain clearance from the foreign
investment promotion board which can be bureaucratic. the government hopes its new
policy will create employment for construction workers and benefit steel and
brick-making industries. mr nath also announced plans to allow foreign investors
to develop a smaller area of any land they acquired. foreign investors can enter
any construction development area be it to build resorts townships or commercial
premises but they will have to construct at least 50 000 square meters (538 000
square feet) within a specific timeframe said mr nath without specifying the
timeframe. previously foreign investors had to develop a much larger area
discouraging some from entering the indian market. this measure is designed to
discourage foreign investors from buying and selling land speculatively without
developing it. anshuman magazine managing director of cb richard ellis - an
international real estate company - told the bbc this was a big positive step.
however chittabrata majumdar general secretary of the centre of indian trade
unions (citu) said allowing fdi in the country is compromising india s own self
reliance . he said no country can develop on the basis of foreign investment
alone. mr majumdar also said an assessment should be made as to whether foreign
investment is indeed beneficial to the country - in terms of employment and money
generated - or just another way of international companies filling their deep
pockets.
music mogul fuller sells company pop idol supremo simon fuller has sold his 19
entertainment company to an us entrepreneur in a $156m (£81.5m) deal. robert
sillerman s sports entertainment enterprises which is to be renamed cfx recently
also bought an 85% share in the estate of elvis presley. mr fuller has been
appointed to the cfx board and will plan and implement the company s creative
strategy. the 19 firm handles a roster of music artists tv shows and pr strategies
for stars including the beckhams. the deal sees mr fuller receive £64.5m in cash
and about 1.9 million shares in sports entertainment. there will also be a further
£19.2m in either cash or stocks by the end of the financial year in june. mr fuller
has signed a long-term agreement with the company which will see him continue to
expand and develop entertainment brands. he said: this is a hugely exciting new
partnership for myself and 19 entertainment. ckx will provide 19 with a powerful
platform for global growth and allow us to fully take advantage of all the amazing
opportunities that lie ahead. i cannot wait to get started. mr fuller was the
creative drive behind pop idol and its us offspring american idol. 19 management
runs the careers of many of its successful contestants including will young gareth
gates and kelly clarkson. the company was set up 15 years ago by mr fuller taking
the name from his first successful single - 19 by paul hardcastle. fuller was the
driving force behind the spice girls phenomenon using canny marketing and catchy
pop songs to secure their place as the most lucrative girl group in history. he
then put together s club 7 who had their own tv show as well as a music career. mr
sillerman s deal to buy the presley estate sees him control the operation of
graceland as well as money from the late star s music and films. presley s
daughter lisa marie retains possession of graceland and many of her father s
personal effects .
cup holders man utd visit everton holders manchester united and premiership leaders
chelsea both face difficult away ties against premiership opposition in the fa cup
fifth round. united were drawn against everton while chelsea face a trip to
newcastle. brentford and hartlepool - the only sides left from outside the top two
divisions - will replay for the right to travel to southampton. burnley s reward
for a place in the last 16 was a home tie against lancashire rivals blackburn. the
tie between manchester united and everton could see the return of teenage striker
wayne rooney to his former club for the first time since his acrimonious £27m move.
nottingham forest boss gary megson could face a trip back to old club west brom if
they come through their fourth-round replay against tottenham. arsenal were handed
a potential home tie against fellow londoners west ham providing the hammers come
through their replay against sheffield united. charlton will play leicester and
bolton await the winners of the derby-fulham replay. : bolton v derby or fulham
west bromwich albion or tottenham v nottingham forest everton v manchester united
charlton athletic v leicester city burnley v blackburn southampton v brentford or
hartlepool newcastle v chelsea arsenal v west ham or sheffield united ties to be
played on 19/20 february.
video phone help for deaf people deaf people who prefer to communicate using
british sign language (bsl) could soon be having their phone conversations relayed
using webcams or videophones and an interpreter. the video relay service is being
piloted by the royal national institute for deaf people (rnid) but the
organisation says unless the service is provided at the same rate as voice calls it
will be beyond most people s pockets. the rnid is urging telecoms regulator ofcom
to reduce the cost of the service from the current £7.00 per minute and make it the
same as ordinary phone calls. the service works by putting a deaf person in visual
contact with a bsl interpreter via a webcam or video phone and the interpreter
then relays the deaf person s conversation using a telephone and translates the
other person s response into sign language. for many deaf people especially those
born deaf bsl is a first and preferred means of communication. until now the
only alternative has been to use textphones which means having to type a message
and have it relayed via an operator. in the past i ve used textphones but they
have problems said robert currington who is taking part in the pilot. i
communicate in bsl; my written english is not very good and it takes me longer to
think in english and type my message. i sometimes find it difficult to understand
the reply. the rnid says the uk is lagging behind other countries which are
already making relay services available at the cost of an ordinary phone call.
there are no technical or economic reasons for not providing equivalent access to
services for deaf people said rnid technology director guido gybels. in the us
and australia sign language relay services have already been made universally
available at the same cost as a voice call. by failing to provide and fund the
video relay service for sign language users the telecommunications sector is
effectively discriminating against an already disenfranchised group. ofcom says
it has plans to review the services that telecoms companies are obliged to provide
early next year. and new technology including the video relay service will be
discussed with interested parties in the near future. but a spokesman said its
powers were limited by legislation. any proposals to extend existing arrangements
to cover new services would be for government to consider he said. mr currington
like many of the uk s 70 000 bsl users will be hoping that a way can be found to
make a cost-effective service available. the relay service makes phone
conversations a pleasure he said. i can show my emotions more easily in bsl in
the same way hearing people express emotions through voice calls.
john peel replacement show begins the permanent replacement for late dj john peel s
bbc radio 1 show goes on air on tuesday with three hosts chosen to fill the
legendary presenter s slot. rock dj huw stephens will go on air in the 2300 slot
every tuesday with black music champion ras kwame on wednesdays and dance dj rob
da bank on thursdays. rob da bank filled in after peel had a heart attack aged 65
in october. all three will play diverse unpredictable and non-commercial songs
under the banner of the onemusic show. radio 1 said the station was not trying to
replace peel but would rise to the challenge of keeping his legacy alive with
unpredictable music. the three djs were chosen for their in-depth musical
knowledge across a variety of musical genres the station said. rob da bank is
one of the hosts of the blue room an early morning weekend show which plays
electronic and dance music. huw stephens has been one half of the thursday night
show bethan and huw in wales which explores new music especially up-and-coming
acts in wales. and ras kwame is host of 100% homegrown on radio 1 s digital station
1xtra dedicated to showcasing the best hip-hop and garage. another change to the
station line-up will see sara cox return after maternity leave. she will host the
lunchtime show on saturdays from this week. good luck to all three of them not
one dj could fill peels boots so it s probably a good idea to get them all
contributing. this time next year i hope we are saying how well these djs have done
but i fear this time next year we will really realise how much john peel will be
forever missed. very good idea to continue the legacy without attempting to
replace john peel. also there will surely be a wider spectrum for international
music as three top radio djs unite under the one world name. congratulations! the
whole glory of john peel was the fact he was not commited to one genre. he played
what he liked across the range of music.... this is not going to be the same and
all they seem to be doing is what they already have. bring back steve lamacq. the
obvious heir to john peel is the marvellous wonderful and talented claire kember
from totallyradio.com. this lady is young and fresh and is one of the most
knowledgeable and likeable people in british broadcasting today. everyone who
listens to her show understands and compares her to the ledgendary john peel. bbc
radio should seek out the real talent from internet radio stations people who are
making a real impact on the world of music and the world in general.
barcelona title hopes hit by loss barcelona s pursuit of the spanish title took a
blow on sunday as they fell to a 2-0 defeat at home to atletico madrid. fernando
torres gave athletico an ideal start with a goal in the first minute. ronaldino
wasted a second-half chance to equalise for barca when he put a penalty wide but
torres made no such mistake with a last-minute spot-kick. the defeat coupled with
real madrid s 4-0 win over espanyol on saturday reduces barca s lead to four
points. former everton midfielder thomas gravesen scored his first goal for real in
the comfortable victory at the bernabeu. zinedine zidane had opened the scoring
before raul bagged a brace. gravesen who replaced zidane completed the scoring in
the 84th minute with a low shot. david beckham watched by sven-goran eriksson
came off in the 67th minute with a shoulder injury but should be fit for england s
game against holland. england team-mate michael owen came on for raul after 76
minutes with the game already won. real have now won six consecutive primera liga
games since coach wanderley luxemburgo took charge.
radcliffe yet to answer gb call paula radcliffe has been granted extra time to
decide whether to compete in the world cross-country championships. the 31-year-
old is concerned the event which starts on 19 march in france could upset her
preparations for the london marathon on 17 april. there is no question that paula
would be a huge asset to the gb team said zara hyde peters of uk athletics. but
she is working out whether she can accommodate the worlds without too much
compromise in her marathon training. radcliffe must make a decision by tuesday -
the deadline for team nominations. british team member hayley yelling said the team
would understand if radcliffe opted out of the event. it would be fantastic to
have paula in the team said the european cross-country champion. but you have to
remember that athletics is basically an individual sport and anything achieved for
the team is a bonus. she is not messing us around. we all understand the problem.
radcliffe was world cross-country champion in 2001 and 2002 but missed last year s
event because of injury. in her absence the gb team won bronze in brussels.
us in eu tariff chaos trade row the us has asked the world trade organisation to
investigate european union customs tariffs which it says are inconsistent and
hamper trade. the eu s own institutions have noted the uneven way eu customs rules
are applied but failed to act the us trade representative s office said. small and
mid-sized us firms were worst-hit it added. the eu expanded from 15 to 25 member
states in may. the us said it filed the complaint after talks failed to find a
solution. the move came in the same week that the us and eu stepped back from
confrontation in a tense dispute over aircraft subsidies to european manufacturer
airbus and us firm boeing. new eu trade commissioner peter mandelson said on
tuesday that the two sides had agreed to reopen talks in the aircraft subsidies row
which led to tit-for-tat wto filings in last autumn. explaining why it has asked
the wto to set up a dispute settlement panel on customs barriers the us trade
representative s office said that it wants to tackle the issue early in the eu s
process of dealing with the problems of enlargement . ten countries mostly in
eastern europe joined the eu in may. the us said its trade with the 25 eu member
countries was worth $155.2bn (£82.8bn) in 2003. although the eu is a customs union
there is no single eu customs administration a statement issued on behalf of
robert zoellick us trade representative said. lack of uniformity coupled with
lack of procedures for prompt eu-wide review can hinder us exports especially for
small to mid-sized businesses an eu spokesman in washington dismissed the us
complaint. we think the us case is very weak. they haven t come up with any
evidence that us companies are being harmed said anthony gooch. it could take
several months for the wto s dispute settlement panel to report its findings.
china s shanda buys stake in sina chinese online game operator shanda interactive
entertainment has bought a 20% stake in sina the country s biggest internet portal
firm. the move may be a precursor to a full takeover with analysts saying that a
better-known international firm may also now show an interest in sina. shanda said
that it may boost its stake in sina even buying it outright. a merger would create
a firm that offers online role-playing games news entertainment and wireless
messaging. sina said that the purchase of a stake by shanda would have no impact
on its business. the board of directors said in a statement that it would
continue to act in the best interests of all the company stakeholders including
shareholders employees and customers . both companies are listed on the new york
stock exchange s (nyse) technology-dominated nasdaq index. in a filing with the us
securities and exchange commission sina said its shares were purchased between 12
january and 10 february for about $230m. rumours about a possible takeover boosted
sina s shares by more than 10% on friday. they added an extra 6.4% to $27.24 in
electronic trading after the trading session had finished. and there may be more
gains amid bid speculation when trading resumes in new york on tuesday after monday
s public holiday analysts forecast. there could still be some potential parties
that could still counter bid said wallace cheung an analyst at dbs vickers.
even though shanda has 20% of sina they still have quite a long way to take full
control. however mr cheung noted that a foreign company trying to take control of
a chinese internet portal firm with its ability to filter and pass on news may
not be viewed very favourably by beijing.
concern over rfid tags consumers are very concerned about the use of radio
frequency id (rfid) tags in shops a survey says. more than half of 2 000 people
surveyed said they had privacy worries about the tags which can be used to monitor
stock on shelves or in warehouses. some consumer groups have expressed concern that
the tags could be used to monitor shoppers once they had left shops with their
purchases. the survey showed that awareness of tags among consumers in europe was
low. the survey of consumers in the uk france germany and the netherlands was
carried out by consultancy group capgemini. the firm works on behalf of more than
30 firms who are seeking to promote the growth of rfid technology. the tags are a
combination of computer chip and antenna which can be read by a scanner - each item
contains a unique identification number. more than half (55%) of the respondents
said they were either concerned or very concerned that rfid tags would allow
businesses to track consumers via product purchases. fifty nine percent of people
said they were worried that rfid tags would allow data to be used more freely by
third parties. ard jan vetham capgemini s principal consultant on rfid said the
survey showed that retailers needed to inform and educate people about rfid before
it would become accepted technology. acceptance of new technologies always has a
tipping point at which consumers believe that benefits outweigh concerns. with the
right rfid approach and ongoing communication with consumers the industry can
reach this point. he said that the survey also showed people would accept rfid if
they felt that the technology could mean a reduction in car theft or faster
recovery of stolen items. the tags are currently being used at one tesco
distribution centre in the uk - the tags allow the rapid inventory of bulk items.
they are also in use as a passcard for the m6 toll in the midlands in the uk. mr
vetham said the majority of people surveyed (52%) believed that rfid tags could be
read from a distance. he said that was a misconception based on a lack of awareness
of the technology. at least once consumer group - consumers against supermarket
privacy invasion and numbering (caspian) - has claimed that rfid chips could be
used to secretly identify people and the things they are carrying or wearing. all
kinds of personal belongings including clothes could constantly broadcast
messages about their whereabouts and their owners it warned.
us hacker breaks into t-mobile a man is facing charges of hacking into computers at
the us arm of mobile phone firm t-mobile. the californian man nicholas lee
jacobsen was arrested in october. mr jacobsen tried at least twice to hack t-
mobile s network and took names and social security numbers of 400 customers said
a company spokesman. the arrest came a year after t-mobile uncovered the
unauthorised access. the us secret service has been investigating the case. t-
mobile has stringent procedures in place where we monitor for suspicious activity
so that limited his activities and we were able to take corrective action
immediately peter dobrow a t-mobile spokesperson said. it is thought that mr
jacobsen s hacking campaign took place over at least seven months during which time
he read e-mails and personal computer files according to court records. although
mr jacobsen 21 managed to get hold of some data it is thought he failed to get
customer credit card numbers which are stored on a separate computer system said
mr dobrow. t-mobile confirmed that the us secret service was also looking into
whether the hacker accessed photos that t-mobile subscribers had taken with their
camera phones. the associated press agency reported that mr jacobsen also read
personal files on the secret service agent who was apparently investigating the
case. a los angeles grand jury indicted mr jacobsen with intentionally accessing a
computer system without authorisation and with the unauthorised impairment of a
protected computer between march and october 2004. he is currently on bail. t-
mobile is a subsidiary company of deutsche telekom and has about 16.3 million
subscribers in the us.
jones medals must go if guilty world anti-doping agency (wada) chief dick pound
says marion jones should be stripped of all her medals if found guilty of taking
banned substances. victor conte of balco laboratories claims the american
sprinter regularly used drugs to enhance her performance. if she is found guilty
she should be stripped of all her medals and banned for two years said pound.
asked if there was a timescale as to what medals could be taken pound said: that
is not an issue at all. however under international olympic committee (ioc) rules
athletes can only be stripped of their medals if caught within three years of the
event. jones who won five medals at the 2000 olympics denies using drugs and says
she will take legal action over conte s allegations. balco laboratories is the firm
at the centre of a wide-reaching investigation into doping in the us. pound
continued: if she has indeed taken drugs it is going to be a big disappointment
for a lot of people.
lasting influence of legend charles ray charles who has won a string of posthumous
grammy awards belonged to a pioneering generation of artists that had a huge
influence on the course of rock and pop music. his sound encompassed so many
styles - blues gospel jazz rock n roll even country - and had a real impact
on the nascent uk beat and r&b scenes. compared in stature to elvis presley by
some commentators charles songs cast their spell on such 1960s stalwarts as joe
cocker steve winwood eric burdon and van morrison. his influence has extended to
contemporary artists such as norah jones with whom he recently recorded a duet. if
james brown was the godfather of soul then ray charles was indisputably one of its
founding fathers. along with sam cooke he was instrumental in bringing together
the gospel fervour of the deep south baptist church with the devil s music of r&b
to pave the way for a new generation of soul artists. without charles it is hard
to imagine the tear-stained atlantic r&b sound of aretha franklin otis redding or
wilson pickett. he was also a talented jazz composer arranger and band leader
playing at the newport jazz festival and carnegie hall and recording with noted
jazz musicians such as milt jackson and david fathead newman. unfortunately he
also shared another trait common among many jazz artists of the era - that of
heroin addiction which led to him being arrested in 1965. his string of 1950s
atlantic r&b successes included songs that would be covered by the first-generation
rock n roll greats including i ve got a woman (roy orbison elvis presley) and
hallelujah i love her so (eddie cochran). after the exuberance of his 1959
signature song what d i say charles turned towards a more pop-oriented style
recording hoagy carmichael s sentimental string ballad georgia on my mind and the
upbeat hit the road jack. he also won acclaim in the country arena with his
interpretations of hank williams standards such as your cheating heart and you win
again. more than 40 years after its release his 1962 abc album modern sounds in
country and western music is still regarded as a classic. his version of don gibson
s i can t stop loving you topped the pop and r&b charts in the us. in 1972 he made
a rare foray into protest songs with his album a message from the people. on it
he took a stand on poverty and civil rights - echoing similar recordings of the era
from progeny such as stevie wonder james brown curtis mayfield and marvin gaye.
more than 20 years later he would embrace contemporary production with his 1993
album my world which featured hip-hop beats - although charles claimed at the time
not to know what hip-hop was. among the tributes that poured in from all sections
of the music world when charles died aged 73 in june 2004 was one from his friend
the producer quincy jones who described him as a brother in every sense of the
word . there will never be another musician who did as much to break down the
perceived walls of musical genres as much as ray charles did he said. former
manfred mann singer paul jones who sang on 1960s hits such as come tomorrow and
sha la la said charles was one of his heroes. i m quite sure my own writing was
influenced by him he told bbc news online. i would put money on the proposition
that ray charles will have an influence on music forever.
benitez joy as reds take control liverpool boss rafael benitez was satisfied after
his team s 3-1 win over bayer leverkusen despite conceding a goal in the last
minute. before the game if you had said the score will be 3-1 i would have
happily accepted that said benitez. but you must realise that you have to
concentrate right to the very last seconds of a game at this level. i have
confidence that we can complete the task in germany. i am always confident and we
must be positive. benitez defended goalkeeper jerzy dudek whose failure to hold
on to dimitar berbatov s weak drive allowed franca to score with the last kick of
the game - and give the german team a lifeline for the second leg. for me it was
not jerzy dudek s fault added benitez. he had played a very good game - and had
we scored our other chances nobody would be talking about about their goal. it
would not have mattered. if we had scored our other chances it would not have been
worth remembering that last goal. in my opinion jerzy played well made two very
fine saves - and i am happy with him. if we lose 2-0 we are out but i think we can
score in germany - certainly one and that will make all the difference. and the
liverpool boss is looking forward to having skipper steven gerrard who was
suspended for the anfield leg back for the return in germany. steven gerrard is
a key player for us said benitez. when he is on the pitch he makes everyone else
play better - and the opposition pay special attention to him - which gives space
for others. steven is one of the best players in the world but i need a team that
is not about just one player. there must be 11 players on the pitch all doing well.
rap boss arrested over drug find rap mogul marion suge knight has been arrested
for violating his parole after he was allegedly found with marijuana. he was
arrested in barstow california on saturday following an alleged traffic offence.
he is expected to be transferred to a state prison while a decision is made on
whether he should be released. mr knight founder of death row records served a
10-month jail term in 2004 for punching a man while on parole for an assault
conviction. police said mr knight was stopped on saturday after performing an
illegal u-turn and a search of his car allegedly found marijuana. he is also
accused of not having insurance. a 18-year-old woman in the car was arrested for
providing false information and having a fake id card. she was later released. it
was his second alleged violation having previously served half of a nine-year
sentence for breaking the terms of his parole. mr knight 39 was jailed in october
1996 following his involvement in a fight with a rival gang just hours before
rapper tupac shakur was killed in a las vegas drive-by shooting. he was driving
shakur s car at the time and was shot in the head. at the time he was on probation
for assaulting two musicians. mr knight a former bodyguard set up death row
records in the early 1990s with shakur and dr dre among his protegees. but the
label has always been dogged by allegations it supports gang culture and fuels the
east and west coast rap rivalry.
dawson wins england squad recall wasps scrum-half matt dawson has been recalled to
england s training squad ahead of the rbs six nations and been reinstated in the
elite player squad. coach andy robinson dropped dawson for the autumn tests after
he missed training to film a question of sport. i always said i would consider
bringing matt back if i felt he was playing well robinson said. he merits his
return on current form. newcastle s 18-year-old centre mathew tait is also in the
training squad. it s obviously an honour to be asked to train with england said
tait who has burst into contention recently. i look forward to going down and
doing the sessions but the most important thing at the moment is sunday s game
against newport so i m not looking any further than that. robinson has invited 42
players to attend a three-day session in leeds next week in which his squad will
train in part with the leeds rhinos rugby league squad. with mike tindall ruled
out of the opening two matches and will greenwood sidelined for the entire six
nations tait is one of six or seven contenders for the two centre berths. stuart
abbott jamie noon ollie smith olly barkley and henry paul - who retains his
place despite his early substitution against australia - are also in the mix. ben
cohen could also be considered after switching from the wing for his club
northampton recently. prop phil vickery and lock simon shaw both return to the
squad after missing the autumn tests through injury while wasps wing tom voyce is
recalled. the group also includes bath flanker andy beattie and leicester hooker
george chuter. beattie has matured greatly as a player these past two seasons
robinson said. jonny wilkinson tindall and martin corry have all been included
despite their unavailability for the opening two matches against wales and france.
the revised 56-man elite squad includes wasps hooker phil greening who replaces
the retired mark regan and sale wing mark cueto. cueto was selected for the
november internationals despite not being part of the group but scored four tries
in three england appearances. leicester scrum-half harry ellis has also been
promoted from the senior national academy and will contest the number nine jersey
with dawson and gloucester s andy gomarsall. the players in robinson s elite squad
can only play 32 matches for club and country. they can be called up for a total of
16 training days in addition to the recognised international weeks for each of the
years leading up to the next world cup. balshaw cohen cueto lewsey robinson
simpson-daniel voyce abbott noon paul smith tait tindall barkley hodgson
king wilkinson dawson ellis gomarsall. chuter thompson titterrell rowntree
sheridan stevens vickery white borthwick brown l deacon grewcock kay shaw
beattie corry forrester hazell jones moody vyvyan j worsley. abbott
balshaw borthwick a brown chuter cohen corry cueto dawson ellis flatman
gomarsall greening greenwood grewcock hazell hill hodgson kay king lewsey
moody noon paul robinson rowntree shaw simpson-daniel thompson tindall
titterrell vickery vyvyan white wilkinson j worsley m worsley. barkley
beattie christophers l deacon forrester c jones palmer rees sheridan
skinner smith stevens tait voyce. dowson haughton monye roques p
sanderson.
buffy creator joins wonder woman the creator of buffy the vampire slayer is to take
on a new female superhero after signing up to write and direct the wonder woman
movie. joss whedon described the dc comics character as the most iconic female
heroine of our time . in a way no one has met her yet he said. what i love
most about icons is finding out what s behind them exploring the price of their
power. linda carter played the character in the 1970s tv series. the character of
wonder woman famed for her red and gold costume was born on paradise island and
was blessed with the powers of strength and flight. the film is being produced by
joel silver producer of the matrix trilogy. there s no one better than joss to
adapt the legendary wonder woman comic book character created in the 1940s into a
dynamic feature film for 21st century audiences said silver. wonder woman was
the first great female superhero to emerge from comic books and later inspire
millions of fans in her television incarnation... but this groundbreaking heroine
has yet to be reinvented for the feature film arena. whedon created the character
of buffy in the screenplay for the 1992 film. he distanced himself from the movie
because of the direction it eventually took and the film bombed. but he did not
give up on the slayer and went on to write and executive produce seven seasons of
the cult tv series. he also produced the spin-off angel series. he is currently
directing the film serenity based on his short-lived sci-fi series firefly.
parties warned over grey vote political parties cannot afford to take older uk
voters for granted in the coming election says age concern. a survey for the
charity suggests 69% of over-55s say they always vote in a general election
compared with just 17% of 18 to 24 year olds. charity boss gordon lishman said if a
decisive blow was struck at the election it would be by older voters who could be
relied on to turn out. a total of 3 028 adults aged 18 or over were interviewed for
the study. mr lishman urged the next government to boost state pension. he also
called for measures to combat ageism and build effective public services to
support us all in an ageing society . older people want to see manifesto
commitments that will make a difference to their lives mr lishman said.
political parties must wake up to the fact that unless they address the demands and
concerns of older people they will not keep or attract their vote. in the survey
carried out by icm research 14% of people aged between 18 and 34 said they never
voted in general elections. among the over-65s 70% said they would be certain to
vote in an immediate election compared with 39% of people under 55. age concern
says the over-55s are united around key areas of policy they want the government
to focus on. for 57% pensions and the nhs were key issues while the economy was
important for a third and tax was a crucial area for 25%.
god cut from dark materials film the director and screenwriter of the film
adaptation of philip pullman s his dark materials is to remove references to god
and the church in the movie. chris weitz director of about a boy said the
changes were being made after film studio new line expressed concern. the books
tell of a battle against the church and a fight to overthrow god. they have
expressed worry about the possibility of perceived anti-religiosity weitz told a
his dark materials fans website. pullman s trilogy has been attacked by some
christian teachers and by the catholic press as blasphemy. weitz who admitted he
would not be many people s first choice to direct the films said he regarded the
film adaptation as the most important work of my life . in part because it is
one of the few books to have changed my life he told bridgetothestars.net. the
award-winning trilogy - northern lights the subtle knife and the amber spyglass -
tell the story of oxford school child lyra belacqua. she is drawn into an epic
struggle against the church which has been carrying out experiments on children in
an attempt to remove original sin. as the books progress the struggle turns into a
battle to overthrow the authority a figure who is god-like in the books. weitz
who directed american pie and about a boy said new line feared that any anti-
religiosity in the film would make the project unviable financially . he said:
all my best efforts will be directed towards keeping the film as liberating and
iconoclastic an experience as i can. but there may be some modification of terms.
weitz said he had visited pullman who had told him that the authority could
represent any arbitrary establishment that curtails the freedom of the individual
whether it be religious political totalitarian fundamentalist communist what
have you . he added: i have no desire to change the nature or intentions of the
villains of the piece but they may appear in more subtle guises. there are a
number of christian websites which attack the trilogy for their depiction of the
church and of god but pullman has denied his books are anti-religious. his agent
told the times newspaper that pullman was happy with the adaptation so far. of
course new line want to make money but mr weitz is a wonderful director and philip
is very supportive. you have to recognise that it is a challenge in the climate of
bush s america
jamelia s return to the top r&b star jamelia had three brit nominations to go with
her triple triumph at last year s mobo awards. the birmingham-born singer full
name jamelia davis was signed to a record label at the age of 15 and released her
first single so high at 18. she released four number ones from her 2000 album drama
including the top five hit money featuring the vocals of reggae artist beenie man.
she racked up five mobo nominations in 2000 winning one for best video. but in the
same year she also fell pregnant and decided to take a break from music to bring up
her daughter teja who was born in march 2001. while she originally planned to get
back to work pretty swiftly after giving birth it was actually two years before she
released another single. during her absence r&b music exploded and a whole host of
female artists were on the scene meaning jamelia had to once again prove herself.
her comeback song bout featuring rah digga only just scrapped into the top 40. it
was her next single superstar that really put her back on the map as one of
britain s most popular female r&b singers holding her own in a music scene
dominated by us artists such as beyonce and ashanti. superstar was followed by
thank you winner of best single at the 2004 mobos which reached number two in the
uk charts. the autobiographical song which deals with domestic abuse hit number
one in new zealand and australia. next came the song see it in a boy s eyes which
was especially written for her by coldplay s chris martin. his involvement with the
song meant not only was it given massive publicity but it was also greeted
favourably by a new audience who would not usually listen to r&b. she now combines
singing with modelling and supporting charities including the nspcc and make trade
fair. despite her huge success in recent years jamelia remains down-to-earth about
her fame and her chances of lasting in the fickle music business partly due to
motherhood. when i first got into the industry i d be away from home for months
at a time. but now i have other things in my life. i still want to make it but it
s not the end of the world if i don t commented jamelia.
microsoft releases bumper patches microsoft has warned pc users to update their
systems with the latest security fixes for flaws in windows programs. in its
monthly security bulletin it flagged up eight critical security holes which
could leave pcs open to attack if left unpatched. the number of holes considered
critical is more than usual. they affect windows programs including internet
explorer (ie) media player and instant messaging. four other important fixes were
also released. these were considered to be less critical however. if not updated
either automatically or manually pc users running the programs could be vulnerable
to viruses or other malicious attacks designed to exploit the holes. many of the
flaws could be used by virus writers to take over computers remotely install
programs change and delete or see data. one of the critical patches microsoft
has made available is an important one that fixes some ie flaws. stephen toulouse
a microsoft security manager said the flaws were known about and although the
firm had not seen any attacks exploiting the flaw he did not rule them out. often
when a critical flaw is announced spates of viruses follow because home users and
businesses leave the flaw unpatched. a further patch fixes a hole in media player
windows messenger and msn messenger which an attacker could use to take control of
unprotected machines through .png files. microsoft announces any vulnerabilities in
its software every month. the most important ones are those which are classed as
critical . its latest releases came the week that the company announced it was to
buy security software maker sybari software as part of microsoft s plans to make
its own security programs.
critics back aviator for oscars martin scorsese s the aviator will win best film at
the oscars according to the uk s leading movie critics. but several of those
surveyed by the bbc news website think the veteran film-maker will lose the best
director prize to clint eastwood. most of the critics tipped jamie foxx and hilary
swank to scoop best actor and actress for ray and million dollar baby respectively.
the jury comprised experts and critics from the top uk film publications. the panel
also revealed which nominees they would personally prefer to win. all expect the
aviator to win best film but many think it will be a close race between scorsese s
howard hughes biopic and eastwood s boxing drama million dollar baby. the other
films nominated are wine comedy sideways factual drama finding neverland and ray
charles biopic ray. i m pretty sure this is the year of the aviator though my
own choice would be sideways said the observer s philip french. sideways should
win but it doesn t have a hope said jamie graham of total film a position shared
by film 2005 presenter jonathan ross. the form going in to the oscars points to
the aviator but i liked million dollar baby more said tim dams news editor of
trade weekly screen international. five of the eight critics tipped scorsese to
win best director with mr dams heat s charles gant and empire s angie errigo
plumping for eastwood. sideway s alexander payne ray s taylor hackford and british
director mike leigh - nominated for period drama vera drake - are considered
outsiders in this category. up until recently i could have sworn scorsese would
get it just for being scorsese ms errigo told the bbc news website. but i m
beginning to think eastwood will get it. i d be very happy for mike leigh to win
but i don t think he has any chance said charles gant film editor of heat. foxx
s portrayal of ray charles has already seen him win prizes at the golden globes
baftas and screen actors guild awards. mr dams said this made him out-and-out
favourite to be named best actor on oscar night. everyone would be incredibly
surprised if he didn t win he said. if you re a betting man he s as close as
you get to a certainty. if paul giamatti was nominated for sideways it would be a
different game says total film s jamie graham. but foxx will and should win.
with vera drake star imelda staunton nominated for best actress alongside kate
winslet britain has a good chance of victory - on paper. jonathan ross for one
will be very happy if winslet wins for eternal sunshine of the spotless mind. but
while wendy ide of the times still thinks staunton has a chance heat s charles
gant believes her bafta win will cut little ice with academy voters. i d like
staunton to win but her chances are not that great said mr gant who predicted a
second oscar for hilary swank. i think swank will win said mr french. imelda
has got as far as she s going to get playing that role. staunton is also the
personal choice of steven gaydos executive editor of industry magazine variety.
but while he tipped swank to win he predicted it would be a close contest.
everything has the ability to flip by one vote and go the other way he told the
bbc news website. there s not a sense that it s obvious how it s going to go.
meanwhile thousands of people have voted in a bbc radio five live poll to find the
best film never to have won a best picture oscar. the audience voted overwhelmingly
for the shawshank redemption the 1994 frank darabont tale of hope and humanity
which received 52% of the online votes and 68% of the text messages. the other two
finalists citizen kane and a matter of life and death split the remaining votes
roughly equally. this year s academy awards will be shown in the uk by sky movies 1
at 0130 gmt on monday. - tim dams screen international: film - the aviator;
director - clint eastwood; actor - jamie foxx; actress - hilary swank. - angie
errigo empire: film - the aviator; director - clint eastwood; actor - jamie foxx;
actress - hilary swank. - philip french the observer: film - the aviator;
director - martin scorsese; actor - jamie foxx; actress - hilary swank. - charles
gant heat: film - the aviator; director - clint eastwood; actor - jamie foxx;
actress - hilary swank. - steven gaydos variety: film - the aviator; director -
martin scorsese; actor - jamie foxx; actress - hilary swank. - jamie graham total
film: film - the aviator; director - martin scorsese; actor - jamie foxx; actress -
hilary swank. - wendy ide the times: film - the aviator; director - martin
scorsese; actor - jamie foxx; actress - imelda staunton. - jonathan ross film
2005: film - the aviator; director - martin scorsese; actor - jamie foxx; actress -
hilary swank. - tim dams screen international: film - million dollar baby;
director - clint eastwood; actor - jamie foxx; actress - hilary swank. - angie
errigo empire: film - the aviator; director - martin scorsese; actor - jamie foxx;
actress - hilary swank. - philip french the observer: film - sideways; director -
martin scorsese; actor - jamie foxx; actress - imelda staunton. - charles gant
heat: film - sideways; director - mike leigh; actor - jamie foxx; actress - imelda
staunton. - steven gaydos variety: film - million dollar baby; director - clint
eastwood; actor - don cheadle; actress - imelda staunton. - jamie graham total
film: film - sideways; director - alexander payne; actor - jamie foxx; actress -
hilary swank. - wendy ide the times: film - sideways; director - alexander payne;
actor - don cheadle; actress - imelda staunton. - jonathan ross film 2005: film -
sideways; director - clint eastwood; actor - jamie foxx; actress - kate winslet.
ukraine revisits state sell-offs ukraine is preparing what could be a wholesale
review of the privatisation of thousands of businesses by the previous
administration. the new president viktor yushchenko has said a limited list of
companies is being drawn up. but on wednesday prime minister yulia tymoshenko said
the government was planning to renationalise 3 000 firms. the government says many
privatised firms were sold to allies of the last administration at rock-bottom
prices. more than 90 000 businesses in all from massive corporations to tiny
shopfronts have been sold off since 1992 as the command economy built up when
ukraine was part of the soviet union was dismantled. ms tymoshenko said
prosecutors had drawn up a list of more than 3 000 businesses which were to be
reviewed. we will return to the state that which was illegally put into private
hands. a day earlier mr yushchenko - keen to reassure potential investors - had
said only 30 to 40 top firms would be targeted. the list will be limited and final
and will not be extended after its completion he said. an open-ended list could
further damage outside investors fragile faith in ukraine said stuart hensel of
the economist intelligence unit. but the government seemed keen not to make the
review look like the kind of wholesale renationalisation which many fear in russia
mr hensel said. as a result it was planning to resell rather than keep firms in
state hands. they re aware of the need not to scare investors and to be careful
of internal divides within ukraine he said. they don t want to be seen to be
transferring assets from one set of oligarchs to a new set. foreign investment in
ukraine at about $40 a head in 2004 is one of the lowest among ex-soviet states.
mr yushchenko became president after two elections in december the first of which
was annulled amid allegations of voting irregularities and massive street protests.
his opponent viktor yanukovich still has huge support in the country s eastern
industrial heartland. mr yushchenko s administration has accused its predecessor
led by ex-president leonid kuchma of corruption. the privatisation review s number
one target is a steel mill sold to a consortium which included viktor pinchuk mr
kuchma s son-in-law for $800m (£424m) despite higher bids from several foreign
groups. the mill krivorizhstal is one of the world s most profitable. we say
krivorizhstal was stolen and at any cost we will return it to the state mr
yushchenko told an investors conference in kiev. one of the jilted bidders
netherlands-based group lnm said it welcomed the possibility that the mill might
be back on the market. if the original privatisation is annulled and a new tender
issued then we would look at it with great interest a spokesman told bbc news. a
resale of krivorizhstal could potentially triple the price according to the
economist intelligence unit s mr hensel. but he warned that the government could
decide to take the easy route of revaluing the company and charging the existing
owners the revised price rather than undertaking a fresh sale. that way mr
yushchenko can go to the public and say he has forced the oligarchs to play by the
rules he told bbc news.
winemaker rejects foster s offer australian winemaker southcorp has rejected a
takeover offer worth 3.1bn australian dollars ($2.3bn; £1.8bn) from brewing giant
foster s group. southcorp whose brands include penfolds rosemount and lindemans
dismissed the offer as inadequate. the two companies held four days of talks after
foster s bought an 18.8% stake in southcorp on 13 january. a merger would create a
global player with worldwide annual sales of 39m cases and revenues of a$2.6bn.
southcorp said foster s a$4.17-a-share takeover proposal offered a excellent
strategic fit but undervalued the company. southcorp s board has informed foster
s that it is not prepared to recommend the offer as it does not adequately reflect
the strategic value of the company said southcorp chairman brian finn. southcorp
said foster s takeover offer was opportunistic . however it said that the offer
may represent an opening bid opening up the possibility of foster s returning
with an improved offer. foster s said a combination of the two companies would
create a global player with an unrivalled collection of premium wine brands.
despite being best known for brewing foster s lager foster s is already one of
australia s largest wine producers owning the beringer and wolf blass brands among
others. the combination of foster s and southcorp will transform the global wine
industry and significantly enhance australia s competitive position on the global
stage said trevor o hoy foster s chief executive officer. foster s spent a$584m
on buying an 18.8% stake in southcorp from the oatley family which founded the
rosemount estates business and later merged it into southcorp. shares in both
companies were suspended while the two held talks about a deal. southcorp s shares
rose 12% to a$4.76 on news of the offer but foster s shares fell 3.7% to a$5.44.
child access law shake-up planned parents who refuse to allow former partners
contact with their children could be electronically tagged under plans being
considered by ministers. curfews and community service orders were other options
which could be used if court orders to allow parental access were defied lord
falconer said. the constitutional affairs secretary outlined some of the plans on
tuesday. he denied fathers activists had forced the changes telling the bbc
there is a recognition that something is wrong . between 15 000 and 20 000 couples
go to court to resolve access disputes each year although in nine out of 10
separations there is no court intervention. lord falconer told bbc radio 4 s today
programme he hoped voluntary mediation could help solve disputes before they
reached court. but he opposed compulsory mediation saying that it would lead to
many people taking part with the wrong attitude. other plans include: - parenting
plans to give advice on access arrangements based on real-life examples that have
worked in the past - extending in-court conciliation - more informal hearings
before contested court cases - better access to legal emotional and practical
advice by telephone and internet - legal aid changes to give incentives for early
resolution of disputes. judges can already jail parents who breach contact orders
but that was a nuclear option which was rarely used as it was not seen as being
in the child s interests a spokesman said. the aim of the new legislation was to
provide a medium range of penalties such as fines community service orders
compulsory anger management or parenting classes or curfews. failure to comply
with these measures could result in offenders being electronically tagged. on the
possibility of tagging uncooperative parents lord falconer said: tagging may be
going too far but let s have a debate about that. full details of the new powers
will not be revealed until a bill is published in the next two weeks a spokesman
said. the government s proposals have met with disapproval from fathers rights
groups. john ison from the controversial group fathers 4 justice said: it is
very disappointing. what we have got is a cynical case of recycling existing
legislation. jim parton from families need fathers said the new proposals
lacked compulsion . we would like to see couples develop a plan and then have it
as a source of a court order - then you know where you stand you know what the
minimum access is. otherwise you see people make agreements which then fall
apart. mr parton said he had been told by children s minister margaret hodge there
was not enough time to pass the bill through parliament before the general election
which is likely to take place in may. the conservatives have called for an equal
split between parents on access to be made law. theresa may shadow secretary for
the family told bbc radio 4 s today programme that the government s plans were
inadequate and were papering over the cracks of the current system . she said a
conservative government would bring a radical reform of the family courts as
well as enforcing a legal presumption of co-parenting and compulsory mediation .
we want to make courts the last resort rather than the first resort she added.
the government says children cannot simply be divided up like property when a
marriage collapses. the liberal democrats have argued for flexibility in deciding
access rules rather than having rigid targets .
corry backs skipper robinson england forward martin corry says jason robinson is
the right man to lead the national team back to winning ways. after losses to
wales and france critics have started to wonder whether robinson can captain from
full-back. but corry has backed robinson who was given the role after the injury
to fly-half jonny wilkinson ahead of this weekend s trip to ireland. jason is
doing a tremendous job. every week my respect for him goes up corry told bbc
radio five live. he is an inspirational captain. when he talks with the squad he
talks with a lot of sense. the players have a lot of respect for him. it s an
honour to be in the england side and an honour to play under him. england are
under immense pressure following their poor start to the year and victory is vital
if they are to rescue their six nations campaign. but corry insists england are in
the right frame of mind for the contest. there is apprehension going into every
game he added. but you have to use that fear and put it into a positive mindset.
when the whistle goes on sunday what has happened in the past does not count for
anything. we have not performed but if we put in a performance on sunday then we
can start turning results around. there are a lot of changes taking place with
england and we are at the start of something. we have not got off to the greatest
of starts but you need to experience the bad the before you can fully appreciate
the good. a trip to lansdowne road is daunting at any time especially against an
ireland side that are flying high after two impressive wins. they are the form team
of the tournament and are tipped to claim their first grand slam since 1948. but
corry is relishing the prospect of taking on the irish in their own backyard. they
are full of confidence and are playing a great team game he said. the forwards
are creating a great platform and they have explosive runners out wide. if you
look at the team on paper they have stars from one to 15. it s a huge task but it
is a great opportunity for us. lansdowne road is a tremendous venue to play in and
we have to use it to our advantage.
cardinal criticises iraq war cost billions of pounds spent on conflict in iraq and
in the middle east should have been used to reduce poverty cardinal cormac murphy-
o connor has said. the head of the catholic church in england and wales made the
comments on bbc radio 4 and will re-iterate his stance in his christmas midnight
mass. the cardinal used a christmas message to denounce the war in iraq as a
terrible waste of money. he and the archbishop of canterbury have both spoken out
about the war. speaking on bbc radio 4 s thought for the day slot he criticised
the fact that billions have been spent on war instead of being used to bring
people out of dire poverty and malnourishment and disease . the cardinal said 2005
should be the year for campaigning to make history poverty . he added: if the
governments of the rich countries were as ready to devote to peace the resources
they are willing to commit to war that would be to see with new eyes and speak
with a new voice and perhaps then others would listen to us with new ears. the
cardinal will touch on this theme again on friday night when he will tell the
congregation of 2 000 at westminster cathedral that peace is worth always
striving for . how is it that peace has not arrived the cardinal will ask.
how is it that there is war in iraq violence in the holy land and the horror of
pain and death amongst the poor and deprived who suffer from injustice and thus do
not find peace how can one wish a happy christmas for our fellow christians in
iraq or in the holy land or those who suffer in africa unless you and i in
whatever way is open to us say and do what makes for peace both the cardinal and
archbishop of canterbury dr rowan williams appealed for the weapons inspectors to
be given more time in iraq before the war started. dr williams has since criticised
the government over its case for war saying the failure to find weapons of mass
destruction had damaged faith in the political system. on friday the cardinal
will ask the congregation to search for peace. it is possible it is real it is
worth always striving for because of the promise of our saviour he will say.
i also wish you peace in your homes because peace in your home is the beginning of
peace in the homes of the community. a spokesman said downing street had no
comment to make. but prime minister tony blair has said he will put africa at the
top of the agenda when britain chairs the g8 summit next year.
gadget show heralds mp3 season partners of those who love their hi-tech gear may
want to get their presents in early as experts predict a gadget shortage this
christmas. with apple s ipod topping wish lists again there may not be enough
ipod minis to go round predicts oliver irish editor of gadget magazine stuff.
the ipod mini is likely to be this year s tracey island said mr irish. stuff has
compiled a list of the top 10 gadgets for 2004 and the ipod is at number one. for
anyone bewildered by the choice of gadgets on the market stuff and what hi-fi are
hosting a best-of gadget show in london this weekend. star of the show will be sony
s qrio robot an all-singing all-dancing football-playing man-machine who can
even hold intelligent conversations. but he is not for sale and sony has no
commercial plans for the robot. he will greet visitors and is flying in from
japan. he probably has his own airplane seat that is how highly sony prize him
said mr irish. also on display will be a virtual keyboard which projects itself
onto any flat surface. the event will play host to a large collection of digital
music players from companies such as creative sony and philips as well as the
ubiquitously fashionable ipod from apple. suggestions that it could be a gaming or
wireless christmas are unlikely to come true as mp3 players remain the most popular
stocking filler said mr irish. demand is huge and apple has promised that it can
supply enough but people might struggle to get their hands on ipod minis said mr
irish. for those who like their gadgets to be multi-talented the gizmondo a
powerful gaming console with gps and gprs that also doubles up as an mp3 player
movie player and camera could be a must-have. what is impressive is how much it
can do and how well it can do them said mr irish. this christmas gadgets will
not be an all-male preserve. women will be getting gadgets from husbands and
boyfriends as well as buying them for themselves said mr irish. gadgets nowadays
are lifestyle products rather than just for geeks.
making your office work for you our mission to brighten up your working lives
continues - and this time we re taking a long hard look at your offices. over the
next few months our panel of experts will be listening to your gripes about where
you work and suggesting ways to make your workspace more efficient more congenial
or simply prettier. this week we re hearing from marianne petersen who is
planning to convert a barn in sweden into a base for her freelance writing work.
click on the link under her photograph to read her story and then scroll down to
see what the panel have to say. and if you want to take part in the series go to
the bottom of the story to find out how to get in touch. working from home
presents a multitude of challenges. understanding your work personality allows you
to work in terms of your own style. do you feel confident about your work output
without conferring with others are you able to retain discipline and self motivate
to get the job done do you build on the ideas of others - or are you a more
introspective problem solver . in order for a virtual office to succeed keeping
the boundary between work and home life is essential. it may be useful to be quite
rigid about who is allowed to visit and to keep strict office hours. referring to
the space as work will give those around you a clear message that this is
professional space. it is imperative to consider how to bring the outside world
into yours keeping up to date with developments and maintaining a network.
isolated work environments mean this has to be carefully thought out and a
strategy has to be developed that suits both your personality and your industry.
joining professional groups or forming a loose association of like-minded people
may assist. it is useful to structure these meetings in advance as often they get
relegated to less important status when times are busy - with the danger that when
the workload eases they have to be resurrected. prior to any interior work
being undertaken it is essential to ensure that the roof and walls are made water-
and-weather-tight and the structure is checked for stability. it appears that the
roof trusses may need repairs and additional bracing. ideally the roof should be
replaced with an outer material in keeping with the character and location of the
barn. this would also allow for a well-insulated inner skin to be provided which
should be light coloured. it is likely that the most efficient way of heating the
building is with electricity. in order to provide this the owner will need to have
an electrical engineer calculate the potential heating power and lighting load to
make sure the mains supply and distribution capacity are adequate. ideally it
would be good to have a mains water supply and some means of drainage for toilet
and washing facilities. the walls should be dry lined with a single skin of
plasterboard laid over rockwool slab which will allow good wall insulation and the
power and lighting circuits to be concealed and the walls should be painted in a
light colour. the owner mentions she might lay a new floor over the existing
planks; this will improve the insulation and offer a level surface. i would suggest
laying new oak veneer planks which can work in with the character of the barn. as
for lighting consider a combination of floor mounted uplights wall lights (wall
washers) and selected downlights. use a combination of mains voltage fluorescent
fittings and dimmable units which can vary the light levels and the feel of the
interior. please click on the link to the right here to see my ideas for
marianne s barn. the layout of this office reflects the need to have a working
area and a more relaxed meeting space. large desk space and extensive storage would
combine with tub chairs to maximise the space available. the finishes chosen for
the furniture will need to reflect the unusual setting while the lighting and
temperature control mechanisms used will further influence the workplace.
regarding accessing the internet via the connection in the main house your plan of
going wireless is sensible. a wireless router/access point in the house with a
wireless lan card in the pc in the renovated area may be sufficient. however
important points to consider are the distance between the two buildings and the
nature of the materials through which the signals have to pass which could result
in a weak signal strength. you may require an additional wireless access point in
the renovated area. your local it supplier will be able to advise on this. if you
haven t already invested in robust firewall and anti-virus software it is
essential to do so to protect your investment. to really take advantage of
wireless technology you might consider a laptop computer and a docking station
with external mouse and monitor. or you could use one of the new tablet computers
which allow you to write directly on the screen and convert into text with built-in
hand recognition software. and finally you will save money and space by
considering a multi-function product for print scan copy and fax.
galloway targets new labour mp george galloway is to stand against pro-iraq war
labour mp oona king at the next general election. mr galloway who on thursday won
£150 000 in libel damages from the daily telegraph said he would contest bethnal
green in london for respect. the glasgow kelvin mp who was expelled from labour
over his anti iraq war stance accused ms king of being a new labour stooge . ms
king said she was delighted at the chance to take on mr galloway. mr galloway s
current constituency is set to disappear under planned boundary changes in
scotland. the 50-year-old mp launched respect the unity coalition in january
along with 1 000 anti-war activists and the muslim association of britain. the
party s declared aims are an end to the occupation of iraq the repeal of anti-
union laws and the end of privatisation. speaking from a cafe in brick lane east
london mr galloway said he had accepted the party s invitation to stand with
great honour and pride . he added: here in this constituency of bethnal green and
bow there is a new labour stooge mp. a stooge who will sing any song make any
speech do any dance do anything she is told to by tony blair - irrespective of
how her constituents are adversely affected or how strongly they feel to the
contrary. ms king has represented the constituency since 1997. she said: i m
delighted i ve been given the chance to finish him (mr galloway) off and believe
me i will. i know many people around the country will be grateful not least his
constituents in scotland who he has shamelessly abandoned. in june s european
parliament elections respect failed to gain enough votes for an mep but did come
first in tower hamlets borough most of which is covered by the commons
constituency of bethnal green and bow. a month later it gained a council seat in a
by-election in st dunstan s and stepney green ward tower hamlets. mr galloway said
that in next year s expected general election and local elections a year later the
party would turn the east end of london into a fortress . both the conservatives
and the liberal democrats have chosen prospective parliamentary candidates for
bethnal green and bow from the bangladeshi population which makes up almost half
the electorate. the telegraph was sued for libel by mr galloway after the newspaper
claimed he received money from saddam hussein s regime in iraq. the newspaper said
it was in the public interest to publish the claims based on documents found in
baghdad. mr justice eady said he was obliged to compensate mr galloway... and to
make an award for the purposes of restoring his reputation .
o sullivan could run in worlds sonia o sullivan has indicated that she would like
to participate in next month s world cross country championships in st etienne.
athletics ireland have hinted that the 35-year-old cobh runner may be included in
the official line-up for the event in france on 19-20 march. provincial teams were
selected after last saturday s nationals in santry and will be officially announced
this week. o sullivan is at present preparing for the london marathon on 17 april.
the participation of o sullivan currentily training at her base in australia
would boost the ireland team who won the bronze three years agio. the first three
at santry last saturday jolene byrne maria mccambridge and fionnualla britton
are automatic selections and will most likely form part of the long-course team. o
sullivan will also take part in the bupa great ireland run on 9 april in dublin.
howard dismisses tory tax fears michael howard has dismissed fears from some
conservatives that his plans for £4bn tax cuts are too modest. he defended the
package saying it was a plan for the tories first budget and he hoped to be able
to go further. the tories on monday highlighted £35bn in wasteful spending they
would stop to allow tax cuts reduced borrowing and more spending on key services.
labour and the liberal democrats say the party s sums do not add up and claim it
would cut frontline services. the tory tax plan follows complaints from some of the
party s mps that mr howard and shadow chancellor oliver letwin have taken too long
to unveil the proposals. now they have promised a figure but have yet to reveal
which taxes would be targeted. tory backbencher edward leigh said the proposals
were a step in the right direction but he told the financial times: i would come
up sooner with much greater tax cuts. interviewed on bbc radio 2 s jeremy vine
show mr howard said: it is perfectly true that i am being attacked on one side by
people who think we ought to be promising much much bigger tax cuts and spending
cuts. on the other side there are people who say we won t be able to achieve
these tax cuts. i think we have got it about right. mr howard said voters faced a
clear choice at the next election between more waste and more tax under labour and
tory value for money and lower taxes. he added: i would like to be able to do more
and over time i am sure we will be able to do more but at the start we have got
to recognise there is a limit to what we can do in one go in our first budget. i
have got to be responsible about this. the latest tory plans came as campaigning
for the election - widely expected in may - gathered pace. the liberal democrats
launched their pre-election platform with leader charles kennedy saying his party
was the authentic opposition particularly on the iraq war council tax and
university tuition fees. lib dem treasury spokesman vince cable also branded the
tory plans as fantasy economics . labour hit back at the tory proposals even
before their publication with election coordinator alan milburn accusing mr howard
of producing a fraudulent prospectus . the party on tuesday challenged the tories
to publish the full report from david james the trouble-shooter they asked to
identify possible savings. but the tories are in turn demanding that tony blair
spell out which taxes he would raise if he wins the election.
murray returns to scotland fold euan murray has been named in the scotland training
squad after an eight-week ban ahead of saturday s six nations match with ireland.
the glasgow forward s ban for stamping ended on 2 february. i m just happy to be
back playing and be involved with the squad said murray on monday. hopefully i
can get a couple of games under my belt and i might have a chance of playing later
in the six nations. i m just glad to be part of it all. backs: mike blair
(edinburgh rugby) andy craig (glasgow rugby) chris cusiter (the borders) simon
danielli (the borders) marcus di rollo (edinburgh rugby) phil godman (edinburgh
rugby) calvin howarth (glasgow rugby) ben hinshelwood (worcester warriors)
andrew henderson (glasgow rugby) rory lamont (glasgow rugby) sean lamont (glasgow
rugby) dan parks (glasgow rugby) chris paterson (edinburgh rugby) gordon ross
(leeds tykes) hugo southwell (edinburgh rugby) simon webster (edinburgh rugby)
forwards: ross beattie (northampton saints) gordon bulloch (captain glasgow
rugby) david callam (edinburgh rugby) bruce douglas (the borders) jon dunbar
(leeds tykes) iain fullarton (saracens) stuart grimes (newcastle falcons) nathan
hines (edinburgh rugby) allister hogg (edinburgh rugby) gavin kerr (leeds tykes)
nick lloyd (saracens) scott lawson (glasgow rugby) euan murray (glasgow rugby)
scott murray (edinburgh rugby) jon petrie (glasgow rugby) robbie russell (london
irish) tom smith (northampton saints) jason white (sale sharks).
brookside actress keaveney dies actress anna keaveney who appeared in brookside
my family and a touch of frost has died of lung cancer aged 55. keaveney who
played brookside s marie jackson when the channel 4 soap began in 1982 died on
saturday. born in runcorn cheshire she also starred in numerous films including
1989 s shirley valentine. she played nellie in mike leigh s latest film vera drake
which won the golden lion prize for best film at this year s venice film festival.
and most recently she appeared alongside richard wilson in itv s king of fridges
and with martin clunes in doc martin. other tv appearances included the part of
matron in itv drama footballers wives and a cameo role as tom farrell s mother
sheila in bbc comedy gimme gimme gimme. keaveney s career also included stage
performances in neaptide for the national theatre private lives and the rise and
fall of little voice. the actress died in hospital. her agent barry brown said:
anna was due to have had another operation on friday but unfortunately she was too
weak.
qpr keeper day heads for preston queens park rangers keeper chris day is set to
join preston on a month s loan. day has been displaced by the arrival of simon
royce who is in his second month on loan from charlton. qpr have also signed
italian generoso rossi. r s manager ian holloway said: some might say it s a risk
as he can t be recalled during that month and simon royce can now be recalled by
charlton. but i have other irons in the fire. i have had a yes from a couple of
others should i need them. day s rangers contract expires in the summer.
meanwhile holloway is hoping to complete the signing of middlesbrough defender
andy davies - either permanently or again on loan - before saturday s match at
ipswich. davies impressed during a recent loan spell at loftus road. holloway is
also chasing bristol city midfielder tom doherty.
defection timed to hit tax pledge with impeccable and precisely-calculated timing
tory defector robert jackson and his new labour bosses have attempted to overshadow
michael howard s latest announcement on taxation and spending. with just about
everyone in westminster now working towards a may general election mr howard is
eager to map out some clear and distinctive policies aimed at finally shifting the
tories resolutely depressing poll showings. the big idea is his £35bn savings on
waste and bureaucracy which mr howard has pledged to plough back into public
services and tax cuts. and it was virtually certain his pledge on tax cuts was
meant to be the core message from his interview on the bbc one s breakfast with
frost programme. he and his shadow chancellor oliver letwin have been edging
towards an announcement on this front for some months now but without any concrete
pledges. but mr howard announced that of the £35bn he has earmarked from savings
£12bn will be used to plug labour s claimed financial black hole with any left over
going to tax cuts in mr letwin s first budget. he would not be precise but there
are already suggestions he is set to announce lifting the threshold on income tax
and reforming or abolishing inheritance tax. but he did for the first time say
there would be such tax cuts. at this election people will have a clear choice
between mr blair who will waste more and tax more and the conservative party which
will give value for money and tax less . it is the tories attempt to open that
famed clear blue water between them and the labour party and return to a
traditional tory agenda that will both reassure the middle england voters who have
abandoned him and appeal to core conservative voters. so it is a pretty safe bet to
assume that when robert jackson finally decided to jump ship and swim over to the
labour benches his new masters decided to time the announcement for the greatest
possible impact. mr howard however was dismissive. these things happen from time
to time. there are disagreements between robert jackson and me. the election is
not going to be decided on what robert jackson did he added. and that is
certainly true. the election will be decided on the economy stupid . other issues
like the iraq war and the trust thing will also play a major part. but it is the
economy that will probably be the greatest influence over the way people finally
vote. and many on the tory benches have been crying out for mr howard to get back
onto the old tory tax cuts agenda. mr howard knows that risks accusations that as
a result he would slash public services so he has attempted to shoot that fox
first. with polls suggesting voters would rather any government cash surpluses were
spent on schools and hospitals before tax cuts he has suggested that is exactly
what he will do. whether this will finally be enough to shift those polls remains
to be seen.
boro suffer morrison injury blow middlesbrough midfielder james morrison has been
ruled out for up to eight weeks after an operation on tuesday. the 18-year-old
who has played in 13 of the club s last 14 games had surgery to repair a double
hernia. a club spokesman confirmed: it is a bilateral sportsman s hernia which
was operated on yesterday. morrison was sent for scans after being substituted at
half-time during boro s 2-1 uefa cup win over graz ak in which he scored the
equaliser. his injury is the latest blow for the teessiders who have been without
gaizka mendieta george boateng and mark viduka for extended periods. meanwhile
the kick-off time for boro s uefa cup match at sporting lisbon on 17 march has been
brought forward from 2115 gmt to 1945 gmt.
houllier praises benitez regime former liverpool manager gerard houllier has
praised the work of his anfield successor rafael benitez. houllier was angry at
reports that he has been critical of benitez since the spaniard took over at
liverpool. but houllier told bbc sport: in private and in public i have stressed
i believe rafa is doing a good job. he is the right man at the right place. rafa
is a good coach and a good man. i ve spoken to him since he has been at liverpool
and never criticised him. houllier also revealed he is now ready to return to the
game after leaving liverpool in may following six years at anfield. the former
france boss has been linked with a host of jobs and pulled out of the race to
succeed mark hughes as wales national coach. he has been working for uefa covering
the premiership for french television and also coaching in brazil with national
coach carlos alberto perreira. houllier said: if a good club comes up at the right
time then yes i am ready to come back. it has been interesting to watch games
from a different perspective and i have learned things. i have been involved in
football since leaving liverpool and my batteries are recharged. houllier has
been impressed with the quality in the premiership after watching as a pundit -
particularly with jose mourinho s work at leaders chelsea. he said: chelsea are
doing very well. they have some very good creative players in damien duff and arjen
robben and didier drogba showed he can change the face of a game when he came on
against newcastle. they have got a good team spirit and are strong mentally. they
have shown they can cope with all the pressure put on them because of the
expectations and cope well with jose s principles. jose had results before he came
to chelsea and i think he will have an impact in the premiership because he manages
his team very cleverly. and houllier away from his brief at liverpool has been
hugely impressed with the premiership. he said: it is a very exciting league. it
is entertaining goals are scored and teams are always trying to win. it has been
very interesting to watch the game from a different perspective. games switch from
end-to-end and there is more pace to the premiership than other leagues. it is a
very good product.
format wars could confuse users technology firms sony philips matsushita and
samsung are developing a common way to stop people pirating digital music and
video. the firms want to make a system that ensures files play on the hardware
they make but also thwarts illegal copying. the move could mean more confusion for
consumers already faced by many different and conflicting content control systems
experts warned. they say there are no guarantees the system will even prevent
piracy. currently many online stores wrap up downloadable files in an own-brand
control system that means they can only be played on a small number of media
players. systems that limit what people can do with the files they download are
known as digital rights management systems. by setting up the alliance to work on a
common control system the firms said they hope to end this current fragmentation
of file formats. in a joint statement the firms said they wanted to let consumers
enjoy appropriately licensed video and music on any device independent of how
they originally obtained that content . the firms hope that it will also make it
harder for consumers to make illegal copies of the music movies and other digital
content they have bought. called the marlin joint development association the
alliance will define basic specifications that every device made by the electronics
firms will conform to. marlin will be built on technology from rights management
firm intertrust as well as an earlier drm system developed by a group known as the
coral consortium. the move is widely seen as a way for the four firms to decide
their own destiny on content control systems instead of having to sign up for those
being pushed by apple and microsoft. confusingly for consumers the technology that
comes out of the alliance will sit alongside the content control systems of rival
firms such as microsoft and apple. in many ways the different drm systems are akin
to the different physical formats such as betamax and vhs that consumers have
seen in the past said ian fogg personal technology and broadband analyst at
jupiter research. the difference is that it is very fragmented he said. it s
not a two-horse race it s a five six seven or even eight-horse race mr fogg
said consumers had to be very careful when buying digital content to ensure that it
would play on the devices they own. he said currently there were even
incompatibilities within drm families. although initiatives such as microsoft s
plays for sure program could help remove some of the uncertainty he said life
was likely to be confusing for consumers for some time to come. shelley taylor
analyst and author of a report about online music services said the locks and
limits on digital files were done to maximise the cash that firms can make from
consumers. apple s itunes service was a perfect example of this she said.
although itunes has been hugely successful apple could not justify its existence
if it did not help sell all those ipods she said. she said rampant competition
between online music services of which there are now 230 according to recent
figures could drive more openness and freer file formats. it always works out
that consumer needs win out in the long run she said and the services that win
in the long run are the ones that listen to consumers earliest. ms taylor said the
limits legal download services place on files could help explain the continuing
popularity of file-sharing systems that let people get hold of pirated pop. people
want portability she said and with peer-to-peer they have 100% portability.
cory doctorow european co-ordinator for the electronic frontier foundation which
campaigns for consumers on many cyber-rights issues expressed doubts that the
marlin system would achieve its aims. not one of these systems has ever prevented
piracy or illegal copying he said. he said many firms readily admit that their
drm systems are little protection against skilled attackers such as the organised
crime gangs that are responsible for most piracy. instead said mr doctorow drm
systems were intended to control the group that electronics firms have most hold
over - consumers. the studios and labels perceive an opportunity to sell you your
media again and again - the ipod version the auto version the american and uk
version the ringtone version and so on.
fockers keeps us box office lead film comedy meet the fockers sequel to meet the
parents has topped the us box office for a third week. the movie which stars ben
stiller robert de niro dustin hoffman and barbra streisand took $28.5m (£15.2m)
making a total of 204.3m (£109m). michael keaton thriller white noise was second
with $24m (£12.8m) despite negative reviews. martin scorsese s howard hughes biopic
the aviator came third with $7.6m (£4m) and a total of $42.9m (£22.8m). children s
adventure lemony snicket s a series of unfortunate events starring jim carrey and
meryl streep fell two places to fourth position with $7.4m (£3.9m). it is also
the ninth jim carrey film to hit the $100m (£53.2m) mark according to exhibitor
relations. and fat albert a live-action adaptation of bill cosby s tv cartoon
fell one place to number five with takings over the three days beginning on friday
of $5m (£2.6m). ocean s twelve took sixth place in the us chart with $5.4m (£2.8m)
but it led the non-us chart at the weekend according to hollywood reporter with
an estimated $17.7m (£9.4m) and total takings of $137m (£73m). the incredibles took
$300m (£160m) outside the us while meet the fockers topped box office charts in
australia and mexico with non-us takings of $19.35m (£10.2m).
radcliffe tackles marathon tasks paula radcliffe faces arguably the biggest test of
her career in the new york city marathon on sunday. back under the spotlight of
public scrutiny she will attempt to erase the double disappointment of the athens
olympics where she failed to finish the marathon and then the 10 000m. bbc sport
examines the challenges facing radcliffe ahead of the big race. the ability to
run a gruelling 26.2 miles relies largely upon an athlete s belief that they can do
it. every runner will hit the wall at some stage and see written on it are you
strong enough to finish the question could hit radcliffe hard after she was
unable to complete her last two races in high-profile and emotional circumstances.
sports psychologist hugh richards says the 30-year-old must draw on her past
achievements to conquer a potential crisis of confidence. there is an old adage
get straight back on the horse that threw you richards told bbc sport. paula
has got all those great runs in her history as well as the two upsets in athens.
she must not lose faith in what has already been proven is a very effective
strategy for distance running. if she were to change her preparation and tactics
that would be madness. she wants to start rebuilding her confidence through
performance accomplishment. for much of the watching media and public there can
only be two possible outcomes in new york - win or lose. if radcliffe crosses the
line first she will have proved her critics wrong. but if she fails to triumph she
risks being labelled a has-been and her profile will suffer. and for any athlete
that can have repercussions in terms of sponsorship appearance fees as well as
further self esteem issues. athletes need to try and stay focused on their
internal controls and ignore external questions explains richards who has worked
with past olympians. she must not get caught up in someone else s agenda.
radcliffe s best friend and fellow distance runner liz yelling revealed the 30-
year-old is already aware she will be exposing herself to more public scrutiny in
new york. she just thought well they can t think any worse of me now yelling
told bbc sport. she s just doing what she wants to do and not thinking about the
consequences of it. radcliffe described her decision to enter the new york
marathon as impulsive but she is certain to have a tick-list of personal goals.
her aims could be as simple as completing a race and making sure she is still
enjoying running but richards says she must avoid more emotional targets such as
redemption. you can t change history warned richards. only one person can win
the marathon but lots of people can be successful. paula has to figure out what
sort of things will she feel satisfied achieving by the end of the race. the
course from staten island to central park is renowned as one of the toughest in the
world. it is also not the kind of fast course that tends to suit radcliffe better
with the undulating finish through the park testing the legs final reserves.
radcliffe has never raced there before and will enter the unknown just 77 days
after the athens marathon. it s suggested after a major marathon you take a full
month off and start building up again said yelling herself a marathon runner.
but that is only for long-term health and fitness. when you finish a marathon you
are still very fit and can recover quickly. so physically it is possible for paula.
richards also points out conditions in new york will be more conducive to a strong
physical display from radcliffe. the heat stress was the primary factor that
tripped her up in athens he said. and that just isn t going to be there in new
york that s been taken out of the equation. radcliffe concedes she will
probably learn a lot from her bad experiences in athens in time. and richards and
yelling agree she could turn the trauma to her advantage starting in new york.
how you respond to adversity is what marks you out as elite or not argues
richards. one of the challenges of massive set backs is how you turn them into
opportunities. and yelling says: i think this will probably make paula. i think
it will drive her on and she ll come out of it a better athlete.
labour attacked on howard poster labour has been accused of using anti-semitic
images in posters which critics claim depict tory leader michael howard as fagin.
the poster shows mr howard hypnotising people with a pocket watch saying: i can
spend the same money twice. the image prompted concern from the editor of the
jewish chronicle but labour insists it is simply anti-tory. labour later took the
image off its website saying an alternative idea had proved more popular with
party members. the party will now use focus groups to test a poster showing mr
howard and shadow chancellor oliver letwin with a blackboard reading: 2+2=5 . the
hypnotism poster has been compared to the portrayal of the dickens character fagin
in the stage version of the musical oliver! there was controversy over another
poster choice offered to labour members. it showed mr howard and mr letwin - who
are both jewish - as flying pigs. mr howard did not comment on the anti-semitism
claims when asked about the poster on monday. instead he pointed to how tony blair
had in 1997 complained about personalised abusive campaigning . mr howard told
greater manchester radio: it is such a pity that mr blair doesn t practise what he
preaches. jewish chronicle editor ned temko said there had been a mixed reaction
to the first poster but e-mails from jewish chronicle readers showed deeper concern
about the hypnotism image. shylock and fagin are inextricably linked to notions of
centuries-old prejudice he told bbc radio 4 s world at one. whatever the idea is
i think it s a difficult exercise to use images like that and to argue that you can
divorce them from their historical context or meaning. mr temko said he blamed
cock-up not conspiracy saying he did not detect inherent anti-semitism in any of
the parties election campaigns. the poster is among one of a series of ideas
shown to labour members who have been asked to choose which one should be used
ahead of the election. labour mp louise ellman said the hypnotism image was
insensitive but urged people not to rush to call things anti-semitic when they only
challenged tory economic policies. labour campaign spokesman fraser kemp said the
poster had been misunderstood. the image simply portrayed mr howard as a hypnotist
he argued. concern has been expressed and clearly we have to take those views on
board but i would emphasise that if you see the posters the common theme... is
that the tories are trying to con you. a labour spokesman later said the timing of
removing the controversial image from the party s website was not affected by the
row. this has been up on the website for two weeks and there has only been a fuss
in the last four days so a substantial number of people voted before there was any
fuss he said. but a conservative spokeswoman said: this poster campaign - which
was offensive to many people - was a big misjudgement by labour s campaign team.
henman to face saulnier test british number one tim henman will face france s cyril
saulnier in the first round of next week s australian open. greg rusedski the
british number two is in the same quarter of the draw and could face andy roddick
in the second round if he beats swede jonas bjorkman. local favourite lleyton
hewitt will meet france s arnaud clement while defending champion and world number
one roger federer faces fabrice santoro. women s top seed lindsay davenport drew
spanish veteran conchita martinez. henman came from two sets down to defeat
saulnier in the first round of the french open last year so he knows he faces a
tough test in melbourne. the seventh seed who has never gone beyond the quarter-
finals in the year s first major and is lined up to meet roddick in the last eight
is looking forward to the match. he s tough player on any surface he s got a lot
of ability he said. we had a really tight one in paris that went my way so i m
going to need to play well from the outset because he s a dangerous competitor.
switzerland s federer seeded one is the hot favourite having won three of the
four grand slam titles in 2004. he has beaten santoro in five of their seven
previous encounters but is taking nothing for granted. it s a tricky match
federer said. i played him at the us open and won quite comfortably then. but you
never know if the rhythm is a bit off he can keep you guessing and make it
difficult. the most important thing though is to get used to playing five-set
matches and winning them. the 23-year-old could meet four-time champion andre
agassi in the quarter-finals before meeting russian marat safin the player he beat
in last year s final. eighth-seeded american agassi is set to play a qualifier in
round one if he can shake off a hip injury which ruled him out of the kooyong
classic. second seed andy roddick will open his campaign against irakli labadze of
georgia. the american could meet rusedski in the second round seventh seed henman
in the quarter-finals and hewitt in the last four. hewitt is hoping to become the
first australian man to win the event since mark edmondson in 1976. the 23-year-old
has never been beyond round four in eight attempts at melbourne park but has at
least secured the opposite half of the draw to federer who beat him in the
australian open wimbledon and us open last year. safin seeded four opens his
campaign against a qualifier with 16th seed tommy haas the player he beat in the
semi-finals in 2002 a possible fourth-round opponent. in the women s draw
davenport could encounter eighth-seeded venus williams in the quarter-finals and
third-ranked anastasia myskina the french open champion in the semi-finals.
bronchitis ruled davenport the 2000 australian open champion out of her sydney
quarter-final on thursday. venus williams who lost to younger sister serena in the
melbourne final two years ago opens against eleni daniilidou of greece. serena
williams who won her fourth consecutive grand slam at the 2003 australian open
was drawn in the bottom quarter with second seed amelie mauresmo a runner-up in
1999. serena will open against another frenchwoman camille pin while mauresmo
plays australia s samantha stosur. wimbledon champion maria sharapova seeded
fourth drew a qualifier in the first round but could meet fellow russian svetlana
kuznetsova the us open winner in the last eight 1 roger federer (switzerland) 2
andy roddick (us) 3 lleyton hewitt (australia) 4 marat safin (russia) 5 carlos
moya (spain) 6 guillermo coria (argentina) 7 tim henman (britain) 8 andre agassi
(us) 9 david nalbandian (argentina) 10 gaston gaudio (argentina) 11 joachim
johansson (sweden) 12 guillermo canas (argentina) 13 tommy robredo (spain) 14
sebastien grosjean (france) 15 mikhail youzhny (russia) 16 tommy haas (germany)
17 andrei pavel (romania) 18 nicolas massu (chile) 19 vincent spadea (us) 20
dominik hrbaty (slovakia) 21 nicolas kiefer (germany) 22 ivan ljubicic (croatia)
23 fernando gonzalez (chile) 24 feliciano lopez (spain) 25 juan ignacio chela
(argentina) 26 nikolay davydenko (russia) 27 paradorn srichaphan (thailand) 28
mario ancic (croatia) 29 taylor dent (us) 30 thomas johansson (sweden) 31 juan
carlos ferrero (spain) 32 jurgen melzer (austria) 1 lindsay davenport (us) 2
amelie mauresmo (france) 3 anastasia myskina (russia) 4 maria sharapova (russia)
5 svetlana kuznetsova (russia) 6 elena dementieva (russia) 7 serena williams (us)
8 venus williams (us) 9 vera zvonareva (russia) 10 alicia molik (australia) 11
nadia petrova (russia) 12 patty schnyder (switzerland) 13 karolina sprem
(croatia) 14 francesca schiavone (italy) 15 silvia farina elia (italy) 16 ai
sugiyama (japan) 17 fabiola zuluaga (colombia) 18 elena likhovtseva (russia) 19
nathalie dechy (france) 20 tatiana golovin (france) 21 amy frazier (us) 22
magdalena maleeva (bulgaria) 23 jelena jankovic (serbia and montenegro) 24 mary
pierce (france) 25 lisa raymond (us) 26 daniela hantuchova (slovakia) 27 anna
smashnova (israel) 28 shinobu asagoe (japan) 29 gisela dulko (argentina) 30
flavia pennetta (italy) 31 jelena kostanic (croatia) 32 iveta benesova (czech
republic)
newcastle 27-27 gloucester newcastle centre mathew tait answered his critics as he
scored one try and made another but he could not stop gloucester grabbing a draw.
the falcons were 22-6 down at the break before tait recently axed by england after
just one six nations outing inspired his side to a 27-22 lead. a last-gasp
touchdown from luke narraway pulled the visitors level. but gloucester missed out
on victory when henry paul fluffed the conversion and seti kiole was denied a late
try. newcastle had a couple of chances at the start of the second half with line-
outs in the corner. but they failed to make them count until joe shaw found dave
walder who released mark mayerholfer in his own 22. the former all black broke
clear and popped the ball up for tait on halfway. he chipped ahead for michael
stephenson to scorch through for the try which walder converted to give newcastle
a lifeline. they grabbed it with both hands mayerhofler breaking through and tait
making a brilliant early run to cut inside and race 30m to score. walder converted
to make it 22-20 before he was just wide with a 40m penalty in the 70th minute.
mayerhofler then scythed through the middle for a try after hall charlton popped
the ball up and walder s conversion took newcastle 27-22 ahead. with three minutes
of normal time left narraway was driven over for a try in the corner which
levelled the scores at 27-27. henry missed the conversion but gloucester nearly won
it when kiole broke through only to be hauled down by charlton and tom may.
walder; may tait mayerhofler stephenson; wilkinson grindal; isaacson long
ward; gross hamilton; mccarthy harris dowson. replacements: peel wilson
thompson parling sititi charlton shaw. goodridge; garvey simpson-daniel
fanolua kiole; paul gomarsall; wood curnier powell; eustace brown; forrester
buxton balding. replacements: elloway sigley cornwell narraway page davies
mauger.
uk coal plunges into deeper loss shares in uk coal have fallen after the mining
group reported losses had deepened to £51.6m in 2004 from £1.2m. the uk s biggest
coal producer blamed geological problems industrial action and operating flaws
at its deep mines for its worsening fortunes. the south yorkshire company led by
new chief executive gerry spindler said it hoped to return to profit in 2006. in
early trade on thursday its shares were down 10% at 119 pence. uk coal said it was
making significant progress in shaking up the business. it had introduced new
wage structures a new daily maintenance regime for machinery at its mines and
methods to continue mining in adverse conditions. the company said these actions
should significantly uplift earnings . it expected 2005 to be a transitional year
and to return to profitability in 2006. the recent rise in coal prices has failed
to benefit the company as most of its output had already been sold it said. total
production costs were £1.30 per gigajoule uk coal said but the average selling
price was just £1.18 per gigajoule. we have a long journey ahead to fix these
issues. we continue to make progress and great strides have already been made
said mr spindler. uk coal operates 15 deep and surface mines across nottinghamshire
derbyshire leicestershire yorkshire the west midlands northumberland and
durham.
xbox 2 may be unveiled in summer details of the next generation of microsoft s xbox
games console - codenamed xenon - will most likely be unveiled in may according to
reports. it was widely expected that gamers would get a sneak preview of xbox s
successor at the game developers conference (gdc) in march. but a microsoft
spokeswoman confirmed that it would not be at gdc. sony microsoft and nintendo are
all expected to release their more powerful machines in the next 18 months. the
next xbox console is expected to go on sale at the end of the year but very few
details about it have been released. it is thought that the machine may be unveiled
at the electronic entertainment expo (e3) in los angeles which takes place in may
according to a reuters news agency report. e3 concentrates on showing off the
latest in gaming to publishers marketers and retailers. the gdc is aimed more at
game developers. microsoft chief bill gates used the gdc event to unveil the
original xbox five years ago. since its launch microsoft has sold 19.9 million
units worldwide. at the consumer electronics show earlier this year there was
very little mention of the next generation gaming machine. in his keynote speech
mr gates only referred to it as playing an essential part of his vision of the
digital lifestyle. but the battle between the rival consoles to win gamers hearts
and thumbs will be extremely hard-fought. sony has traditionally dominated the
console market with its playstation 2. but earlier this year microsoft said it had
reached a european milestone selling five million consoles since its european
launch in march 2002. hit games like halo 2 which was released in november helped
to buoy the sales figures. gamers are looking forward to the next generation of
machines because they will have much more processing and graphical power. they are
also likely to pack in more features and technologies that make them more central
as entertainment and communications hubs. although details of playstation 3 xenon
and nintendo s so-called revolution are yet to be finalised developers are
already working on titles. rory armes studio general manager for games giant
electronic arts (ea) in europe recently told the bbc news website in an interview
that ea was beginning to get a sense of the capabilities of the new machines.
microsoft had delivered development kits to ea but he said the company was still
waiting on sony and nintendo s kits. but he added the playstation 3 was rumoured
to have a little more under the hood [than xbox 2] .
children vote shrek 2 best film young uk film fans voted animated hollywood hit
shrek 2 best film at the children s bafta awards on sunday. more than 6 000
children voted in the only category chosen by fans. harry potter and the prisoner
of azkaban runner-up in the poll was the choice of the bafta experts who named it
best feature film. bbc one saturday morning show dick and dom in da bungalow won
two awards - best entertainment and best presenters for richard mccourt and dominic
wood. former playschool presenter floella benjamin was awarded the special award
for outstanding creative contribution to children s film and television. she first
appeared on playschool 25 years ago and was made an obe in 2001 for services to
broadcasting. south american-themed cartoon joko! jakamoko! toto! won the honour
for pre-school animation and its writer tony collingwood for original writer.
debbie isitt won the award for best adapted writer for her work with jacqueline
wilson s the illustrated mum which won the award for best schools drama. schools
factual (primary) - thinking skills: think about it - hiding places schools
factual (secondary) - in search of the tartan turban pre-school live action -
balamory animation - brush head drama - featherboy factual - serious desert
interactive bafta - king arthur international category - 8 simple rules for dating
my teenage daughter
blair defends terror law changes the prime minister has defended measures to allow
house arrest without trial saying several hundred people in the uk are plotting
terror attacks. the government is facing opposition from tory and lib dem mps and
its own backbenchers as it prepares for the final commons debate on the changes.
but tony blair said there could be no concession on the basic principle . mr blair
told the bbc the control orders would only be used in the most limited
circumstances. critics in the opposition and civil rights activists are worried
that the home secretary will have the power to issue the detention orders. but the
government has so far resisted pressure for judges to be responsible for making the
orders instead saying judges will be able to quash them. an explanation is being
sent by home secretary charles clarke to all mps and peers ahead of the final
debate in the house of commons. on sunday conservative shadow home secretary david
davis claimed judges would get the powers to issue detention orders. and liberal
democrat leader charles kennedy said some concessions had already been offered by
the government during last-minute negotiations. some 32 labour mps voted against
the legislation last week. barbara follett whose first husband was killed while
under house arrest in south africa during the apartheid era confirmed she would
vote against the government. but the government is continuing to insist that
control orders must be issued by the home secretary. mr blair told bbc radio 4 s
woman s hour: we are being advised by the police and the security services...
what they say is you have got to give us powers in between mere surveillance of
these people - there are several hundred of them in this country who we believe are
engaged in plotting or trying to commit terrorist acts - you have got to give us
power in between just surveying them and being able being sure enough of the proof
to prosecute them beyond reasonable doubt. and these will be restrictions on their
liberty that we will use only in the most limited circumstances. a yougov poll in
the daily telegraph suggested 75% of respondents thought action was sometimes
necessary against people who had not committed an offence but who had been found by
intelligence services to be planning a terrorist attack. but tory leader michael
howard told bbc news that the government was again making a mistake in rushing
anti-terrorism legislation. i very much hope it would be possible to reach a
compromise on this. he said after meeting tony blair he had been left with the
impression that he really wasn t interested in any of the various proposals we
have put forward . mr clarke wants house arrest and other powers to replace
indefinite jail for terror suspects - something the law lords have ruled against on
the basis that it breaches human rights. bbc political correspondent vicky young
said some form of concession on the measures was likely to be needed to get the
legislation through the house of lords where labour does not have a majority and
would require support from other parties. shami chakrabarti director of civil
liberties pressure group liberty said who was able to issue the control orders was
not the main issue. she said the legislation was a travesty and a perversion of
justice and would remain unpalatable even if a judge was involved early in the
process.
games firms face tough future uk video game firms face a testing time as they
prepare for the next round of games consoles the industry warns. fred hasson
head of tiga which represents independent developers said that more uk firms
would go under due to greater risks in making new titles. three leading uk video
game companies also predicted that more firms would close as they struggled to
adapt. microsoft sony and nintendo are expected to release new consoles in the
next 18 months. microsoft has said repeatedly that it wants to be first to the
market and some analysts predict that xbox 2 will be released in the us before the
end of 2005. the new machines will all have much greater processing and graphical
power which will have a huge impact on development of next generation games. mr
hasson said: in the last four years we have probably lost a third of independent
developers. he said there were about 150 independent developers left in the
industry and more were likely to close. once the cull has finished its likely to
present those still standing with great opportunities he said. mr hasson said
the industry was predicting that developments costs and teams were likely to need
to double in order to cope with the demands of the new machines. that figure was
endorsed by three independent companies contacted by the bbc news website -
codemasters climax and rebellion. as consoles get more powerful the content
gets more detailed and that means more cost said gary dunn development director
at codemasters which develops games in house and also publishes titles. jason
kingsley chief executive of rebellion said the transition from the current
generation of consoles to the new machines was difficult because the production
quality expected by consumers will be that much bigger . he added: we have been
through five technology transitions and survived so far. each one has involved the
death of some people. all companies said they were investing in new tools - called
middleware - in order to try and avoid staff numbers spiralling out of control.
simon gardner president of climax s action studio said: we are investing in
superior tools and editors. we are investing upfront to generate this content
without the need for huge teams. it s vital we avoid huge teams. he said climax
was already directing about 20% of its resources to preparation for next generation
titles. mr dunn warned that companies could face a short supply of programming
development and artistic talent. if companies are hiring bigger and bigger teams
at some point the talent is going to run out. mr hasson said games developers were
beginning to realise that they had to be more business-like . there are still
some developers who were involved in games from the bedroom coding days. some of
them are still making games for peer group approval - that has to stop.
no ads for passion oscar campaign producer mel gibson will not be using paid
advertisements to promote the passion of the christ to voters in next year s
academy awards. gibson and his icon productions partner bruce davey said they
would not be campaigning in print radio or tv for success at the oscars in
february. this film should be judged on its artistic merit not who spends more
money on advertising davey said. but dvds will be sent to oscar voters who will
be invited to screenings. icon spent very little on advertising the film which
deals with the last hours of jesus christ s life when it was released earlier this
year - instead it made the film available for special screenings at churches. it
went on to gross over $600m (£322m) in ticket sales worldwide. over recent years
marketing films to the members of the academy of motion picture arts and sciences
has become a multi-million dollar industry. last year the academy formed a
committee to tighten the rules after the campaigns spilled over into personal
attacks between studios. academy president frank pierson praised gibson s move for
working to restore the oscars as a celebration and appreciation of excellence
and resisting the crass commercialisation that was threatening the integrity of
the award .
labour s eu propaganda a taxpayer subsidised propaganda exercise on the eu is
being used to lull the british public into a false sense of security say the
tories. shadow foreign secretary michael ancram told mps a new white paper was
part of trying to soften up opinion ahead of the referendum on the eu constitution.
his claims were denied by foreign secretary jack straw who accused the tories of
running scared of debate. eu cooperation would help get better uk immigration
controls he argued. mr straw used thursday s commons debate to launch the new
white paper on the prospects for the eu in 2005. security stability and prosperity
would be the key themes when the uk took over the chairmanship of the eu in july
said mr straw. africa and climate change would also feature highly. he said the uk
was trying to ensure future eu budgets were limited to 1% of europe s economic
output and were spent where it adds most value . mr straw promised to continue to
ensure the uk s budget rebate secured in 1984 by margaret thatcher was fully
justified . we like all other countries have a veto on any changes proposed in
this area he said. mr ancram condemned the document which the foreign office
says has cost about £2 500 to design print and deliver. isn t the reason that the
government is now involved in a taxpayer subsidised propaganda exercise to try to
sell the new eu to the country in advance of the forthcoming referendum and general
election he asked. the tory spokesman also criticised the government for
claiming the eu constitution would make europe easier to understand. the
government last week had to publish a commentary of 500 pages to try and explain
this easy and simple constitution to the british people he said. who are they
trying to kid the proposed question for the constitution referendum is: should
the united kingdom approve the treaty establishing a constitution for the european
union the electoral commission on thursday said it was satisfied the question was
easy to understand. the government has suggested the referendum on the constitution
could take place in spring 2006 with the tories set to campaign for a no vote.
mr ancram said ministers were prolonging uncertainty by putting the vote off until
the latest date possible. the foreign secretary hit back by saying tory attitudes
to europe had helped keep the party out of power for more than a decade. mr straw
argued cooperation with european partners could bring a level playing field on
immigration and asylum controls. you are setting your face against all of these
things he added. for the liberal democrats sir menzies campbell said the uk
should not ignore the need to reform the eu common agricultural policy. change was
particularly important for developing countries wanting access to markets he
argued. sir menzies was among those worried about plans backed by the uk to lift
the arms embargo imposed on china after the tiananmen square massacre. mr straw
said no decisions had been taken - chinese human rights had improved but not by
enough.
jackson film absolute disaster a pr expert has told the michael jackson child
abuse trial that the tv documentary at the heart of the case was an absolute
disaster . ann kite told the court in the californian town of santa maria she was
hired to crisis manage the fallout after the programme had aired in 2003. jurors
saw the film in which the pop star held hands with the alleged victim on tuesday.
mr jackson denies 10 charges of child abuse and false imprisonment. if convicted
he could face up to 21 years in prison. ms kite suggested jackson s associates had
been intent on launching a smear campaign against the accuser s family after the
airing of martin bashir s film living with michael jackson. she told the court that
in the aftermath of the broadcast a jackson lawyer had told her the boy s mother
would be made to look like a crack whore . jackson s defence questioned ms kite s
credibility pointing that she worked for the singer s team for less than a week
before being fired and had never met or spoken to the star. ms kite said she
received a phone call on 13 february 2003 from a jackson associate marc schaffel
who said the boy and his family had left the neverland ranch where they had been
staying. ms kite told the court she had later asked jackson s lawyer david
legrand what had happened. i said `don t make me believe that these people were
hunted down like dogs and brought back to the ranch she said. ms kite began to
work for mr jackson in february 2003 after the controversial film was televised in
the us and europe. the documentary sparked a media storm and the subsequent
investigation into mr jackson s relationship with the boy. in the film the singer
said he did not see anything wrong with sharing a bed with a child. questioned by
the prosecution ms kite said her plan had been to move media coverage of the star
away from a focus on his human frailties to concentrate more on his musical genius.
ms kite said that an additional problem was the release of documents relating to a
previous allegation of child abuse against mr jackson. the smoking gun website
publication was beyond disaster ms kite said. correspondents say the reference
is important because it was unclear whether the prosecution would be able to bring
up the previous case in front of the jury. the judge is studying whether the
prosecution s first witness reporter martin bashir is in contempt of court. the
defence protested after mr bashir who interviewed jackson for the tv documentary
refused to answer nearly all their questions citing a california shield law
intended to allow journalists to protect their sources. in the prosecution s
opening statement on monday tom sneddon told the court that mr jackson had shown
the boy porn and plied him with wine in order to molest him. he said the singer
had visited sexually explicit websites and showed the boy - who was 13 at the time
- and his younger brother pornography at his ranch.
correction agency plans dropped plans to create a single correctional agency for
scotland have been scrapped. the scottish executive will not now merge the
scottish prison service with local authority social work criminal justice
departments. the national correctional agency would have provided a one-stop
justice system but has been abandoned in the wake of stiff opposition. instead
scottish councils and the prison service will be compelled to work more closely to
cut reoffending. the plan was to ensure offenders were monitored by the same body
during and after prison preventing many from being lost in the system and helping
more of them to stop reoffending. scotland s reoffending rate is high with more
than 60% of prisoners reconvicted within two years of release from jail. this is
leading to an ever-expanding prison population and the executive wants to tackle
the problem. ministers thought merging the prison service with the council-
controlled criminal justice social work departments which provide community
sentences might have provided an answer. however following a consultation on the
idea justice minister cathy jamieson has decided to drop the plans. instead ms
jamieson will change the law to help produce a closer working relationship between
both elements of the justice system. she will announce the move in her criminal
justice plan on monday aiming to break down the barriers between what happens in
prison and what happens in the community . the new measures will place a new
statutory duty on the sps to work with local authorities and others in area
partnerships. a national advisory board on offender management will also be created
to advise ms jamieson on the sps s role and performance in reducing reoffending.
the minister said: better joint working will help prisons play a much stronger
role in ending reoffending behaviour and in particular help address the revolving
door of reoffending that sees offenders entering prison for short periods during
which little is done to address the behaviour that brought them there. communities
who are paying the price for this reoffending - both in terms of crime and in terms
of prison costs - expect better. it costs the taxpayer £35 000 a year to provide
each prison place and that cost is increasing. taxpayers who suffer the
consequences of crime also end up paying for keeping those people in prison.
therefore as we continue to invest in the service it is only right that we seek
to ensure that that service becomes more accountable to the public it serves to
ministers and to parliament.
vera drake leads uk oscar hopes mike leigh s film vera drake will lead british
hopes at this year s academy awards after getting three nominations. imelda
staunton was nominated for best actress for her role in the abortion drama while
leigh received nods for best director and original screenplay. kate winslet was
also nominated in the best actress category for her role in eternal sunshine of the
spotless mind. and clive owen and sophie okonedo both got nominated for supporting
roles in closer and hotel rwanda respectively. owen has already been made
bookmakers favourite for best supporting actor for the role in closer that has
already clinched him a golden globe award. and it is the first nomination for
actress okonedo chosen for her performance in hotel rwanda about the 1994 rwandan
genocide. it is also a debut nomination for staunton 49 who told bbc news 24 she
had not thought the film would appeal to academy voters. it was an extraordinary
time making the film and i can t believe what has happened this morning she said.
i hope it just shows mike up to be the extraordinary filmmaker he is. we are also
dealing with a very difficult subject matter and it is amazing to have it accepted
in this way. leigh who had previously received three oscar nominations for
secrets and lies and topsy turvy told bbc news 24 the latest success was
amazing . he said: we hoped that imelda staunton would get a nomination but i
never expected to get director and screenplay. it s just absolutely wonderful. i
think people are aware that it s about life - and i hope it is the warmth and
compassion that really talks to people. winslet said she was ecstatic about the
fourth nomination of her career. being nominated means so much to me. to be
nominated for a film that was released a while ago i feel so honoured and
overwhelmed she said. john woodward chief executive of the uk film council said
it was extremely heartening to see british filmmaking talent recognised on the
global stage. britain has a hugely talented industry and these nominations show
why national lottery investment in film pays major dividends for our culture and
economy. among a total of 24 british nominees composer andrew lloyd webber and
lyricist charles hart are up for best original song for learn to be lonely from
the phantom of the opera movie. cinematographer john mathieson who was nominated
for gladiator in 2001 is also up for the phantom of the opera. and finding
neverland has garnered two more nominations for brits. gemma jackson who has also
worked on bridget jones s diary and iris is up for art direction while costume
designer alexandra byrne whose previous films have included captain corelli s
mandolin and elizabeth is in the running. the uk has two contenders in the best
live action short film category. wasp was made by ex-children s tv presenter andrea
arnold while little terrorist is the work of ashvin kumar. this year s awards will
be handed out in hollywood on 27 february.
foxx and swank take actors awards jamie foxx and hilary swank have won the screen
actors guild awards for best male and female film actors boosting their oscars
hopes this month. foxx s portrayal of late soul-singer ray charles in ray had
already earned him a prestigious golden globe award. swank triumphed for playing a
gutsy female boxer in million dollar baby. modest wine country comedy sideways
knocked out favourites million dollar baby and the aviator by taking the top prize
for best cast performance. the screen actors guild (sag) represents us film and tv
actors. its winners often go on to win oscars. in other nominations cate blanchett
triumphed as the best supporting actress for her role as katharine hepburn in the
aviator. veteran actor morgan freeman took the best supporting actor award for
playing a prize-fighter turned gym manager in million dollar baby. thank you for
ray charles for just living so complex and so interesting and making us all just
come together said foxx accepting his award in los angeles on saturday. he also
praised the film director: thank you for taylor hackford for taking a chance with
an african-american film. taylor you re my director of the year. swank too was
full of praise for her director and co-star clint eastwood. i bow down to you
swank said to the 74-year-old eastwood. you are a talent beyond compare. if i m
half the person you are and half the talent you are when i m 74 i will know that i
ve accomplished something great. both foxx and swank are now considered to be
among the favourites to get oscars - the hollywood s ultimate prize. however swank
has to overcome a strong challenge from annette bening a nominee for the theatre
farce being julia. meanwhile ballots for oscars - the hollywood s top honours -
were mailed earlier this week to members of the academy of motion picture arts and
sciences. the voting is due to end on 22 february - five days before the ceremony.
apple makes blogs reveal sources apple has won its legal fight to make three
bloggers reveal who told them about unreleased products. the bid to unmask the
employees leaking information was launched in december 2004 following online
articles about apple s asteroid product. now apple has won the right to see e-mail
records from the three bloggers to root out the culprit. a lawyer for the three
bloggers said the ruling set a dangerous precedent that could harm all news
reporters. apple s lawsuit accused anonymous people of stealing trade secrets
about the asteroid music product and leaking them to the powerpage apple insider
and think secret websites. all three are apple fan sites that obsessively watch the
iconic firm for information about future products. apple is notoriously secretive
about upcoming products which gives any snippets of information about what it is
working on all the more value. the lawsuit to reveal the names of the leakers was
filed against the power page and apple insider sites. the separate legal fight
with think secret has yet to be resolved. in the ruling handed down this week by
santa clara county superior court judge james kleinberg apple can now get its
hands on e-mail records from the bloggers net providers. in making his ruling
judge kleinberg said that laws covering the divulging of trade secrets outweighed
considerations of public interest. california has so-called shield laws which
protect journalists from prosecution if what they are writing about can be shown to
be in the public interest. the judge wrote: ...it is not surprising that hundreds
of thousands of hits on a website about apple have and will happen. but an
interested public is not the same as the public interest . judge kleinberg said the
question of whether the bloggers were journalists or not did not apply because laws
governing the right to keep trade secrets confidential covered journalists too.
the electronic frontier foundation which is acting as legal counsel for power page
and apple insider said the ruling had potentially wide implications. anyone who
reports on companies or the trade press should be concerned about this ruling
said eff lawyer kurt opsahl. mr opsahl said the eff was planning to appeal against
the ruling because the bloggers were journalists and us federal laws stop net firms
handing over copies of e-mail messages if the owner of that account does not give
their consent.
campaigners attack mtv sleaze mtv has been criticised for incessant sleaze by
television indecency campaigners in the us. the parents television council (ptc)
which monitors violence and sex on tv said the cable music channel offered the
cheapest form of programming. the group is at the forefront of a vociferous
campaign to clean up american television. but a spokeswoman for mtv said it was
unfair and inaccurate to single out mtv for criticism. the ptc monitored mtv s
output for 171 hours from 20 march to 27 march 2004 during the channel s spring
break coverage. in its report - mtv smut peddlers: targeting kids with sex drugs
and alcohol - the ptc said it witnessed 3 056 flashes of nudity or sexual
situations and 2 881 verbal references to sex. brent bozell ptc president and
conservative activist said: mtv is blatantly selling raunchy sex to kids.
compared to broadcast television programmes aimed at adults mtv s programming
contains substantially more sex foul language and violence - and mtv s shows are
aimed at children as young as 12. there s no question that tv influences the
attitudes and perceptions of young viewers and mtv is deliberately marketing its
raunch to millions of innocent children. the watchdog decided to look at mtv s
programmes after janet jackson s infamous wardrobe malfunction at last year s
super bowl. the breast-baring incident generated 500 000 complaints and cbs - which
is owned by the same parent company as mtv - was quick to apologise. mtv
spokeswoman jeannie kedas said the network follows the same standards as
broadcasters and reflects the culture and what its viewers are interested in. it s
unfair and inaccurate to paint mtv with that brush of irresponsibility she said.
we think it s underestimating young people s intellect and level of sophistication.
ms kedas also highlighted the fact mtv won an award in 2004 for the fight for your
rights series that focused on issues such as sexual health and tolerance.
cabinet anger at brown cash raid ministers are unhappy about plans to use whitehall
cash to keep council tax bills down local government minister nick raynsford has
acknowledged. gordon brown reallocated £512m from central to local government
budgets in his pre-budget report on thursday. mr raynsford said he had held some
pretty frank discussions with fellow ministers over the plans. but he said local
governments had to deliver good services without big council tax rises. the
central government cash is part of a £1bn package to help local authorities in
england keep next year s council tax rises below 5% in what is likely to be a
general election year. mr raynsford said nearly all central government departments
had an interest in well run local authorities. and he confirmed rows over the issue
with ministerial colleagues. obviously we had some pretty frank discussions about
this he told bbc radio 4 s the world at one. but he said there was a recognition
that a good settlement for local government was important to health education
and other government departments . ministers had to be sure local government could
deliver without unreasonable council tax increases he added. mr raynsford
dismissed a suggestion the move was designed to keep council taxes down ahead of an
expected general election. this is a response to the concerns that have been
voiced by local government about the pressures they face. mr raynsford also plans
to make savings of £100m by making changes to local government pensions schemes.
these would raise the age from which retiring workers could claim their pensions
and limit how much they received if they retired early. he insisted the changes
were very modest and designed to tackle the problem of workers retiring very
early . but general secretary of the public services union unison dave prentis
criticised the plans. if you want world class public services you don t get that
by hitting people as they approach retirement.
aviator creator in oscars snub the man who said he got oscar-nominated movie the
aviator off the ground and signed up leonardo dicaprio has been shut out of the
academy awards race. charles evans jr battled over his role with the people who
eventually made the film and won a producer s credit. but he is not on the list of
producers who can win a best film oscar due to a limit on the number of nominees.
the oscars organisers have picked two of the aviator s four producers to be
nominated for best film. up to three producers can be named per film but the
studios behind the aviator and million dollar baby failed to trim their credits -
so the academy of motion pictures arts and sciences (ampas) has done it for them.
the aviator s nominated producers are michael mann and graham king - with mr evans
and sandy climan mr mann s former deputy left off. mr evans sued mr mann in 2001
claiming he came up with the idea spent years developing it and persuaded dicaprio
to play hughes - but said he was later excluded from the project. the two sides
settled out of court in a deal that has remained secret apart from the fact mr
evans name has appeared as a producer when the film s credits roll. at the golden
globes mr evans - who was named among the winners when the film won best drama
film - evaded a security guard to have his photo taken with dicaprio director
martin scorsese mr mann and mr king. ampas decided to limit the number of
producers who could be nominated after shakespeare in love s victory in 1999 saw
five producers collect awards. the eligible names for the aviator and million
dollar baby were decided by ampas producers branch executive committee on
wednesday. the decision also saw clint eastwood get his third personal nomination
for million dollar baby. he is now named in the best film category as well as being
nominated for best director and best lead actor. the academy awards ceremony will
be held in hollywood on 27 february. chinese actress ziyi zhang star of crouching
tiger hidden dragon hero and house of flying daggers is the latest name to be
added to the list of presenters on the night.
brits return keane to number one brits success has helped return keane s award-
winning album hopes and fears back to the top of the uk album chart. the debut
album which took the best british album title at the brits on tuesday moved up
seven places from number eight to number one. also capitalising on brits success
were the scissor sisters whose eponymous album moved three places to number two. u2
s latest single sometimes you can t make it on your own took the top spot in the
singles chart ahead of elvis. the track from their current album how to dismantle
an atomic bomb pushed eminem s like toy soldiers from number one to number three.
elvis wooden heart which entered the chart at number two is the sixth in a
series of 18 reissues to mark the 70th anniversary of presley s birth. there are
currently six re-released elvis tracks occupying spots in the top 40 singles chart
including are you lonesome tonight at number 20 it s now or never at number 27 and
jailhouse rock at number 37. soldier by destiny s child ti and lil wayne debuted
at number four while almost here the duet from former westlife star brian
mcfadden and delta goodrem fell from number three to number five. there was more
follow up to brits success for franz ferdinand won best rock act and best british
group last week. their self-titled album moved from 13 to number four. last week s
number one album tourist by athlete fell to number three.
video phones act as dating tools technologies from e-mail to net chatrooms
instant messaging and mobiles have proved to be a big pull with those looking for
love. the lure once was that you could hide behind the technology but now video
phones are in on the act to add vision. hundreds have submitted a mobile video
profile to win a place at the world s first video mobile dating event. the top 100
meet their match on 30 november at london s institute of contemporary arts (ica).
the event organised by the 3g network 3 could catch on as the trend for unusual
dating events like speed dating continues. it s the beginning of the end of the
blind date as we know it said graeme oxby 3 s marketing director. the response
has been so promising that 3 says it is planning to launch a proper commercial
dating service soon. hundreds of hopefuls submitted their profiles and special
booths were set up in a major london department store for two weeks where expert
tips were given on how to visually improve their chances. the 100 most popular
contestants voted by the public will gather at the ica in separate rooms and meet
by phone. dating services and other more adult match-making services are proving
to be a strong stream of revenue worth millions for mobile companies. whether it
does actually provide an interesting match for video phone technologies remains to
be seen. flic everett journalist and dating expert for company magazine and the
daily express thinks technology has been liberating for some nervous soul-mate
seekers. there are currently about 1.3 million video phones in use in the uk and
three times more single people in britain than there were 30 years ago with more
people buying video mobiles 3g dating could be the basis for a successful and safe
way to meet people. one of the problems with video phones is people don t really
know what to video. it is a weird technology. we have not quite worked out what it
is for. this gives it a focus and a useful one she told bbc news. i would never
have thought online dating would take off the way it did she said. lots of
people find it easier to be honest writing e-mail or text than face-to-face. lots
people are quite shy and they feel vulnerable. when you are writing it comes
directly onto the page so they tend to be more honest. but the barrier that comes
with sms chat and online match-making is that the person behind the profile may not
be who they really are. scare stories have put people off as a result according to
ms everett. many physical clues body language odd twitches are obviously missing
with sms and online dating services. still images do not necessarily provide all
those necessary cues. it could really take off because you do get the whole
package. with a static e-mail picture you don t know who the person is behind it
is. so checking out a potential date by video phone also gives singletons a
different kind of barrier an extra layer of protection; a case of wlts before
wltm. if you are trapped in real-life blind date context you can t get away and
you feel embarrassed. with a video meeting you really have the barrier of the
phone so if you don t like them you don t have to suffer the embarrassment. there
is a more serious side to this new use of technology though. with money being made
through more adult-themes content and services which let people meet and chat the
revenue streams for mobile carriers will grow with 3g thinks paolo pescatore
mobile industry specialist for analysts idc. wireless is a medium that is being
exploited with a number of features and services. one is chatting and the dating
element is key there he said. the foundation has been set by sms and companies
are using media like mms and video to grow the market further. but carriers need
to be wary and ensure that if they do launch such 3g dating services they ensure
mechanism are in place to monitor and be aware who is registers and accesses these
services on regular basis he cautioned. in july vodafone introduced a content
control system to protect children from such adult content. the move was as a
result of a code of practice agreed by the uk s six largest mobile phone operators
in january. the system means vodafone users need to prove they are over 18 before
firewalls are lifted on explicit websites or chat rooms dealing with adult themes.
the impetus was the growing number of people with handsets that could access the
net and the growth of 3g technologies.
domain system scam fear a system to make it easier to create website addresses
using alphabets like cyrillic could open a back door for scammers a trade body has
warned. the internationalised domain names system has been a work in progress for
years and has recently been approved by the internet electronic task force. but the
uk internet forum (ukif) is concerned that the system will let scammers create fake
sites more easily. the problem lies in the computer codes used to represent
language. registering names that look like that of legitimate companies but lead
users to fake sites designed to steal passwords and credit card details could
become a whole lot easier for determined scammers says stephen dyer director of
ukif. domain names are the real language addresses of websites rather than their
internet protocol address which is a series of numbers. they are used so people
can more easily navigate the web. so-called ascii codes are used to represent
european languages but for other languages a hybrid of a system called unicode is
used. so for example website paypal could now be coded using a mixture of the
latin alphabet and the russian alphabet. the resulting domain as displayed to the
users would look identical to the real site as a russian a look just like an
english a . but the computer code would be different and the site it would lead
users to could be a fake. this is more than just a theory. a fake paypal.com has
already been registered with net domain giant verisign by someone who has followed
the debate around the internationalised domain name (idn) system said mr dyer. as
the idea was to prove a point rather than be malicious the fake domain has now been
handed back to paypal but it sets a worrying precedent mr dyer said. although the
idn problem is well known in technical circles the commercial world is totally
unaware how easily their websites can be faked said mr dyer. it is important to
alert users that there is a new and invisible and almost undetectable way of
diverting them to what looks like a perfectly genuine site he added. there are
solutions. for instance browsers could spot domains that use mixed characters and
display them in different colours as a warning to users. mr dyer acknowledged that
it would be a huge undertaking to update all the world s browsers. another solution
to introduce idn-disabled browsers could be a case of throwing out the baby with
the bath water he said. centr the council of european national top level domain
registries agrees. a rush to introduce idn-disabled browsers into the marketplace
is an overly-zealous step that will harm public confidence in idns - a technology
that is desperately needed in the non-english speaking world the organisation
said in a statement.
italy 17-28 ireland two moments of magic from brian o driscoll guided ireland to a
workmanlike victory against italy. a pair of classic outside breaks from the
ireland captain set up tries for geordan murphy and peter stringer. italy led 9-8
early in the second half but stringer s try gave ireland a lead they never lost.
the hosts cut the gap to 18-12 with 10 minutes left and nearly scored through
ludovico nitoglia but denis hickie s try ensured an irish victory. italy came
flying out of the blocks and took the lead through a luciano orquera penalty after
seven minutes. it could have been better for the hosts but the fly-half missed two
kickable penalties and ireland drew level with a ronan o gara penalty midway
through the first half. the italians were driving at the heart of the irish defence
and for the first quarter the irish pack struggled to secure any ball for their
talented backs. when they finally did just before the half-hour mark o driscoll
promptly created a sparkling try for murphy. the ireland captain ran a dummy
scissors and made a magical outside break before drawing the full-back and putting
the diving murphy in at the corner. o gara missed the twice-taken conversion and
the visitors found themselves trailing once again. roland de marigny took over the
kicking duties for italy from the hapless orquera and he landed a penalty either
side of the break to edge italy into a 9-8 lead. the only ireland player offering
a real threat was o driscoll and it was his break that set up the second try for
the visitors. shane horgan threw an overhead pass as he was about to be forced into
touch and stringer scooted over with o gara landing the tricky conversion. a
penalty apiece saw ireland leading 18-12 as the game entered the final quarter but
they were lucky to survive when italy launched a series of attacks. winger nitoglia
dropped the ball as he reached for the line and italy nearly rumbled over from a
driving maul. an o gara penalty put ireland more than a converted try ahead and
they made the game safe when hickie latched onto an inside pass from murphy and
crossed for a converted try. o driscoll limped off late on joining centre partner
gordon d arcy on the sidelines and the final word went to italy. prop martin
castrogiovanni powered over for a try which was fitting reward for an italian pack
which had kept the irish under pressure throughout. de marigny; mi bergamasco
canale masi nitoglia; orquera troncon; lo cicero ongaro castrogiovanni;
dellape bortolami; persico ma bergamasco parisse. perugini intoppa del fava
dal maso griffen pozzebon robertson. murphy horgan o driscoll d arcy hickie
o gara stringer corrigan byrne hayes o kelly o connell s easterby leamy
foley. sheahan horan o callaghan miller g easterby humphreys dempsey. p o
brien (new zealand)
ivanovic seals canberra victory serbia s ana ivanovic captured her first wta title
with a straight-sets victory over hungarian melinda czink in the final of the
canberra classic. the 17-year-old took 83 minutes to take the match 7-5 6-1.
ivanovic beat czink in the last round of qualifying but the hungarian made the main
draw as a lucky loser after katarina srebotnik withdrew injured. ivanovic said: i
was really nervous in the beginning but i pulled through and didn t do too much
wrong. a junior wimbledon finalist last year she added: it s my first wta title
and to win it has really given me more energy to practice and improve. ivanovic
will play 32nd seed iveta benesova of the czech republic in the first round.said of
the australian open in melbourne.
uk directors guild nominees named martin scorsese and clint eastwood are among the
nominees for the top prize at the directors guild of great britain awards now in
their second year. the oscar rivals will compete for the international film prize
at the ceremony to be held at the curzon mayfair cinema in london on 20 march.
other nominees include bill condon for kinsey and michel gondry for eternal
sunshine of the spotless mind. mike leigh s vera drake is among the nominees for
best british film. the awards will see eastwood and scorsese once again competing
for the directing prize following last weekend s oscars. clint eastwood won best
director for million dollar baby beating scorsese who was nominated for a fifth
time for the howard hughes biopic the aviator. mike leigh will compete for the
british film prize with shane meadows for dead man s shoes roger michell for
enduring love and my summer of love director pawel pawlikowski. nominees for best
foreign film include spain s pedro almodovar for bad education and hong kong
director wong kar-wai for 2046. in the tv categories comedy series early doors and
the alan clark diaries will compete for the best directing award for a 30-minute
television show while the directors of shameless hustle and bodies are all
nominated for the 60-minute television prize. the directors of omagh and sex
traffic are among the nominees for a television movie or mini-series. american
beauty s sam mendes will receive a lifetime achievement award for his work in film
and theatre while theatre director simon mcburney will be given an award for
outstanding directorial achievement.
de niro film leads us box office film star robert de niro has returned to the top
of the north american box office with his film hide and seek. the thriller shot
straight to the number one spot after taking $22m (£11.7m) at the box office. de
niro recently spent three weeks at the top with comedy meet the fockers which was
at number five this week. oscar hopefuls the aviator million dollar baby and
sideways all cashed in on their multiple nominations with stronger ticket sales.
in hide and seek de niro plays a widower whose daughter has a creepy imaginary
friend. despite lukewarm reviews from critics the film took more than the expected
$18m (£9.5m). the element of a real actor in a psychological thriller certainly
elevated it said bruce snyder president of domestic distribution at 20th century
fox. clint eastwood s million dollar baby led the oscar hopefuls with $11.8m
(£6.3m) coming in at number three during its first weekend of wide release. the
aviator a film biography of howard hughes that leads the oscar field with 11
nominations was at number six for the weekend with $7.5m (£4m). oscar best-picture
nominee sideways entered the top ten for the first time in its 15th week of
release. it came in seventh $6.3 (£3.35m). last week s top film ice cube s road-
trip comedy are we there yet slipped to second place with $17m (£9m) while coach
carter fell two places to number four taking $8m (£4.25m) in its third week.
rounding out the top ten were in good company - starring dennis quaid and scarlett
johansson - racing stripes and assault on precinct 13.
mobiles rack up 20 years of use mobile phones in the uk are celebrating their 20th
anniversary this weekend. britain s first mobile phone call was made across the
vodafone network on 1 january 1985 by veteran comedian ernie wise. in the 20 years
since that day mobile phones have become an integral part of modern life and now
almost 90% of britons own a handset. mobiles have become so popular that many
people use their handset as their only phone and rarely use a landline. the first
ever call over a portable phone was made in 1973 in new york but it took 10 years
for the first commercial mobile service to be launched. the uk was not far behind
the rest of the world in setting up networks in 1985 that let people make calls
while they walked. the first call was made from st katherine s dock to vodafone s
head office in newbury which at the time was over a curry house. for the first nine
days of 1985 vodafone was the only firm with a mobile network in the uk. then on 10
january cellnet (now o2) launched its service. mike caudwell spokesman for
vodafone said that when phones were launched they were the size of a briefcase
cost about £2 000 and had a battery life of little more than 20 minutes. despite
that they were hugely popular in the mid-80s he said. they became a yuppy must-
have and a status symbol among young wealthy business folk. this was also despite
the fact that the phones used analogue radio signals to communicate which made them
very easy to eavesdrop on. he said it took vodafone almost nine years to rack up
its first million customers but only 18 months to get the second million. it s
very easy to forget that in 1983 when we put the bid document in we were
forecasting that the total market would be two million people he said. cellnet
was forecasting half that. now vodafone has 14m customers in the uk alone. cellnet
and vodafone were the only mobile phone operators in the uk until 1993 when one2one
(now t-mobile) was launched. orange had its uk launch in 1994. both newcomers
operated digital mobile networks and now all operators use this technology. the
analogue spectrum for the old phones has been retired. called global system for
mobiles (gsm) this is now the most widely used phone technology on the planet and
is used to help more than 1.2 billion people make calls. mr caudwell said the
advent of digital technology also helped to introduce all those things such as
text messaging and roaming that have made mobiles so popular.
tough schedule delays elliot show preview performances of the £3m musical billy
elliot have been delayed to give the child actors a less arduous rehearsal
schedule. director stephen daldry made the decision to re-schedule the previews to
protect the young stars. three boys will rotate the demanding role of ballet dancer
billy which requires them to sing dance and act. the show s opening night on 12
may at the victoria palace theatre in london remains unaffected by the changes.
preview performances will now be held on 14 20 and 27 april. this is one of the
most ambitious projects i have been involved with said daldry. the decision has
been made to push back our preview performances in order to give our company with
a cast including 45 children a little extra time so they are as fully prepared as
possible. he added: the young billy elliots in particular making their
professional stage debuts in the west end will benefit from a little extra time to
familiarise themselves with all aspects of the production. the three boys playing
billy are james lomas 15 george maguire 14 and liam mower 12. the other major
child parts will also be rotated between young actors. such are the demands of the
show that producers set up a stage school in newcastle to train potential stars for
the show. child labour laws also mean the young actors can only work for a limited
period each week. adult actors in the show include tim healy as billy s father and
haydn gwnne as his dance teacher mrs wilkinson. sir elton john has composed the
music. daldry directed the successful film version of billy elliot adapted from
lee hall s script. both were nominated for oscars alongside julie walters who
played billy s teacher.
uk helps raped rwandan women britain is to give a £4m grant to help women survivors
of the rwandan genocide who were raped and often deliberately infected with
hiv/aids. an estimated 25 000 girls and women were raped during the 1994 genocide.
about 800 000 tutsis and moderate hutus were killed by hutu militias after the
assassination of an ethnic hutu leader. the five-year department for international
development funding will enable more survivors to have access to anti-retroviral
treatment. the plight of the infected women was overshadowed for a long time. it
was overshadowed by rwanda s emergence from the 100 days of slaughter during which
time the mass killings took place and the women s fate was largely a taboo
subject. but many of the women were widowed and they now not only have their own
children to care for but in many cases orphans too. as the women die the number
of rwanda s orphans rises. until recently very few of the women have had access to
anti-retroviral treatment. that is now starting to change. this funding is intended
to make anti-retrovirals and other care available for some 2 500 women. mary
kayitesi blewitt founder of the survivors fund (surf) one of the organisations
through which the funds are being channelled said it was a recognition before it
was too late that the survivors should be a priority for help.
bush website blocked outside us surfers outside the us have been unable to visit
the official re-election site of president george w bush. the blocking of browsers
sited outside the us began in the early hours of monday morning. since then people
outside the us trying to browse the site get a message saying they are not
authorised to view it. the blocking does not appear to be due to an attack by
vandals or malicious hackers but as a result of a policy decision by the bush
camp. the international exclusion zone around georgewbush.com was spotted by net
monitoring firm netcraft which keeps an eye on traffic patterns across many
different sites. netcraft said that since the early hours of 25 october attempts to
view the site through its monitoring stations in london amsterdam and sydney
failed. by contrast netcraft s four monitoring stations in the us managed to view
the site with no problems. the site can still be seen using anonymous proxy
services that are based in the us. some web users in canada also report that they
can browse the site. the pattern of traffic to the website suggests that the
blocking was not due to an attack by vandals or politically motivated hackers.
geographic blocking works because the numerical addresses that the net uses to
organise itself are handed out on a regional basis. on 21 october the george w
bush website began using the services of a company called akamai to ensure that the
pages videos and other content on its site reaches visitors. mike prettejohn
president of netcraft speculated that the blocking decision might have been taken
to cut costs and traffic in the run-up to the election on 2 november. he said the
site may see no reason to distribute content to people who will not be voting next
week. managing traffic could also be a good way to ensure that the site stays
working in the closing days of the election campaign. however simply blocking non-
us visitors also means that americans overseas are barred too. akamai declined to
comment saying it could not talk about customer websites.
black sabbath top rock album poll black sabbath have topped a list of the best
british rock albums of all time. the band once fronted by ozzy osbourne led a poll
of kerrang! magazine readers with their 1970 self-titled debut. the band have three
more efforts on the list including fifth-placed paranoid. osbourne appears more
than any other act with two solo records featured. the top five includes led
zeppelin iron maiden and sex pistols. queen muse manic street preachers and the
clash complete the top 10. a mix of heavy metal punk glam rock and even dance
music makes up the list. motorhead judas priest and prodigy are included along
with newer acts like the darkness and lostprophets. kerrang! editor ashley bird
said: it s amazing to see so many incredible homegrown albums in one list and
without any of the abysmal fashion bands that currently clog up the music scene.
these are the real opinions of proper rock fans. formed by four teenage friends
in the west midlands in the late 1960s black sabbath are one of britain s most
successful heavy rock bands. their debut was a uk top 10 hit in 1970 and sold more
than a million copies in the us. osbourne said the band s success in the kerrang!
poll was a triumph for british rock. he said: back then you d hear: if you go to
san francisco be sure to wear a flower in your hair . we lived in aston
birmingham. the only flowers i ever saw were on a gravestone in our local cemetery.
despite being disliked by many critics black sabbath s subsequent albums included
multi-million sellers but internal rows led to osbourne leaving in 1979. the band
continued without osbourne who went on to solo success but also had to battle
alcoholism and legal action over his music allegedly inciting teenagers to commit
suicide. he was eventually cleared of the charges. osbourne who bit off the head
of a live bat on stage in 1982 rejoined the band to play the live aid charity
concert in 1985. after many changes in line-up the original four members reunited
to play live dates in 1997. black sabbath have reunited regularly in recent years
while osbourne has gone on to wider fame with his family through mtv documentary
series the osbournes.
vodafone appoints new japan boss vodafone has drafted in its uk chief executive
william morrow to take charge of its troubled japanese operation. mr morrow will
succeed shiro tsuda as president of vodafone kk japan s number three mobile
operator in april. mr tsuda who will become chairman was appointed president
only two months ago but the business has struggled since then losing customers in
january. vodafone had pinned its hopes on the launch of its 3g phones in november
but demand for them has been slow. while it has more than 15 million customers in
japan vodafone has found it difficult to satisfy japan s technologically demanding
mobile users. it suffered a net loss of more than 58 000 customers in january its
second monthly reverse in the last year. vodafone is going to need to put a lot of
money into japan if it wants to rebuild the business tetsuro tsusaka a telecoms
analyst with deutsche bank told reuters. i do not know if it will be worth it for
them to spend that kind of money just for japan.
hotspot users gain free net calls people using wireless net hotspots will soon be
able to make free phone calls as well as surf the net. wireless provider
broadreach and net telephony firm skype are rolling out a service at 350 hotspots
around the uk this week. users will need a skype account - downloadable for free -
and they will then be able to make net calls via wi-fi without paying for net
access. skype allows people to make free pc-based calls to other skype users.
users of the system can also make calls to landlines and mobiles for a fee. the
system is gaining in popularity and now has 28 million users around the world. its
paid service - dubbed skype out - has so far attracted 940 000 users. it plans to
add more paid services with forthcoming launches of video conferencing voice mail
and skype in a service which would allow users to receive phone calls from
landlines and mobiles. london-based software developer connectotel has unveiled
software that will expand the sms functions of skype allowing users to send text
messages to mobile phones from the service. broadreach networks has around two
million users and hotspots in places such as virgin megastores the travelodge
chain of hotels and all london s major rail terminals. the company is due to launch
wi-fi on virgin trains later in the year. skype s success at spreading the world
about internet telephony is well-known and we are delighted to be offering free
access to skype users in our hotspots commented broadreach chief executive magnus
mcewen-king.
wenger steps up row arsene wenger has stepped up his feud with sir alex ferguson by
claiming the manchester united manager is guilty of bringing football into
disrepute. the pair s long-running row was put back in the headlines on saturday
when ferguson said his arsenal counterpart was a disgrace . wenger initially
refused to bite back saying only: i will never answer any questions any more
about this man. but now he claims ferguson should be punished by the football
association. the latest twist in the ferguson-wenger saga came on saturday when the
united boss in an interview with the independent newspaper discussed the events
after the game between the two sides in october. united won 2-0 that day at old
trafford but the game was followed by a now notorious food fight which saw
ferguson s clothes covered in soup and pizza. the sides meet again at highbury on 1
february. in the tunnel wenger was criticising my players calling them cheats so
i told him to leave them alone and behave himself ferguson said on saturday. he
ran at me with hands raised saying what do you want to do about it to not
apologise for the behaviour of the players to another manager is unthinkable. it s
a disgrace but i don t expect wenger to ever apologise he s that type of person.
those allegations were put to wenger after saturday s game at bolton which arsenal
lost to slip 10 points behind chelsea in the title race. at first he said only: i
ve always been consistent with that story and told you nothing happened. if he has
to talk he talks. if he wants to make a newspaper article he makes a newspaper
article. he doesn t interest me and doesn t matter to me at all. i will never
answer to any provocation from him any more. he does what he likes in england
anyway. he can go abroad one day and see how it is. but later on saturday
according to the independent wenger spoke to a smaller group of reporters and
expanded on his reaction. i have no diplomatic relations with him the arsenal
boss is quoted as saying. what i don t understand is that he does what he wants
and you (the press) are all at his feet. the situation (concerning the food
fight) has been judged and there is a game going on in a month. the managers have
a responsibility to protect the game before the game. but in england you are only
punished for what you say after the game. now the whole story starts again. i don
t go into that game. we play football. i am a football manager and i love football
above all ... no matter what people say. reminded that ferguson called him a
disgrace wenger added: i don t respond to anything. in england you have a good
phrase. it is bringing the game into disrepute . but that is not only after a
game it is as well before a game. ferguson had also claimed that united chief
executive david gill and arsenal vice-chairman david dein had agreed at boardroom
level not to discuss the incident in public. but ferguson added: in the ensuing
weeks all you got was a diatribe from arsenal about being kicked off the pitch and
all that nonsense. gill phoned dein three times to complain but nothing was done.
the return is on 1 february and they will come out with another diatribe. david
gill and i feel we should set the record straight because arsenal have not written
to us to apologise and we would not let that happen here. meanwhile the league
managers association have offered to act as peacemakers in the hope of resolving
the on-going row. during that stormy game in october united striker ruud van
nistelrooy caught arsenal s ashley cole with one particularly strong tackle. wenger
later accused van nistelrooy of cheating and was fined £15 000 and severely
reprimanded by the football association. ferguson admitted on saturday that van
nistelrooy s tackle which earned the dutchman a ban could have given (cole) a
serious injury but he believes arsenal were the main aggressors. wenger is
always complaining the match was not played in the right spirit he added. they
are the worst losers of all time they don t know how to lose. maybe it is just
manchester united they don t lose many games to other teams. we tend to forget
the worst disciplinary record of all time was arsenal s up until last season. in
fairness it has improved and now they are seen as paragons of virtue. but to
wenger it never happens it is all some dream or nightmare.
yukos loses us bankruptcy battle a judge has dismissed an attempt by russian oil
giant yukos to gain bankruptcy protection in the us. yukos filed for chapter 11
protection in houston in an unsuccessful attempt to halt the auction of its yugansk
division by the russian authorities. the court ruling is a blow to efforts to get
damages for the sale of yugansk which yukos claims was illegally sold. separately
former yukos boss mikhail khodorkovsky began testimony on friday in his trial for
fraud and tax evasion. mr khodorkovsky - who has been in jail for more than a year
- pleaded not guilty to the charges brought against him and denied involvement in
any criminal activities. i pride myself on heading for 15 years a number of
successful companies and helping other enterprises rise from their knees he told
a russian court. yugansk was auctioned to help pay off $27.5bn (£14.5bn) in unpaid
taxes. it was bought for $9.4bn by a previously-unknown group which was in turn
bought up almost immediately by state-controlled oil company rosneft. texas judge
letitia clark said yukos did not have enough of a us presence to establish us
jurisdiction. the vast majority of the business and financial activities of yukos
continue to occur in russia judge clark said in her ruling. such activities
require the continued participation of the russian government. yukos had argued
that a us court was entitled to declare it bankrupt before its yugansk unit was
sold since it has local bank accounts and its chief finance officer bruce misamore
lives in houston. yukos claimed it sought help in the us because other forums -
russian courts and the european court of human rights - were either unfriendly or
offered less protection. russia had indicated it would in any case not abide by the
rulings of the us courts. in her ruling the judge acknowledged that it appears
likely that agencies of the russian government have acted in a manner that would be
considered confiscatory under united states law . but she said her role was simply
to decide on jurisdiction. the us court s jurisdiction had been challenged by
deutsche bank and gazpromneft a former unit of russian gas monopoly gazprom which
is due to merge with rosneft. analysts said the ability of gazprom and rosneft to
trade freely overseas had been stifled while the ownership of yugansk remained
unclear. yukos said it would consider its options in light of the ruling. however
it claimed that the court had backed its argument in four out of five key issues.
we believe the merits of our case are strong and simple said chief executive
steven theede. our assets were illegally seized. we want them back or damages
paid.
howl helps boost japan s cinemas japan s box office received a 3.8% boost last year
with ticket sales worth 211bn yen (£1.08bn). the surge was led by animated movie
howl s moving castle which took 20bn yen (£102m) to become the biggest film in
japan in 2004. it is expected to match the 30.7bn yen (£157m) record of hayao
miyazaki s previous film spirited away. japan motion picture producers figures
showed that 170 million cinema admissions were made in japan in 2004. the last
samurai starring tom cruise was the biggest foreign movie hit in japan last year
taking 13.8bn yen (£70.7m). it was followed by harry potter and the prisoner of
azkaban finding nemo and the lord of the rings: the return of the king. the second
highest-grossing japanese film was romantic drama crying out love in the centre of
the world followed by be with you and pocket monsters advanced generation.
japanese films accounted for 37.5% of japan s box office total last year with
foreign films taking the remaining 62.5%. this represented a 4.5% gain for the
proportion of japanese films in 2004 compared to 2003. the number of japanese films
released rose to 310 in 2004 from 287 the previous year. sales of movies on dvd and
video amounted to 497bn yen (£2.54bn) for the year.
mccririck out of big brother show racing pundit john mccririck has become the
latest contestant to be evicted from celebrity big brother. he was nominated to
leave the channel 4 show by fellow housemates alongside happy mondays dancer bez.
at one time bez was among the most popular contestants but he has since become
withdrawn and argumentative. mccririck was ordered to leave the house on monday
following jackie stallone the actor sylvester s mother who was first to be
evicted. bez reacted badly to the news that he had been nominated by five of his
fellow housemates whilst john received four votes against him. sylvester stallone
s ex-wife brigitte nielsen nominated both john and bez. she said: bez is a
difficult human being. there s something wrong with him. even though he s making an
effort he s not very happy in here. former holby city actor jeremy edwards said
he had nominated bez after he became agitated on friday night and talked about
escaping over the wall to go clubbing. he said bez was being loopy and
stressed . according to bookmaker ladbrokes john mccririck was 1/3 favourite to be
evicted on monday while bez was at 9/4 . mccririck faced the public vote on friday
and received 67% of the vote to keep him in the house whilst jackie stallone was
evicted.
apple ipod family expands market apple has expanded its ipod family with the
release of its next generation of the digital music players. its latest challenges
to the growing digital music gadget market include an ipod mini model which can
hold 6gb compared to a previous 4gb. the company which hopes to keep its dominant
place in the digital music market also said the gold coloured version of the mini
would be dropped. a 30gb version has also been added to the ipod photo family. the
latest models have a longer battery life and their prices have been cut by an
average of £40. the original ipod took an early lead in the digital music player
market thanks to its large storage capacity and simple design. during 2004 about
25 million portable players were sold 10 million of which were apple ipods. but
analysts agree that the success is also down to its integration with the itunes
online store which has given the company a 70% share of the legal download music
market. mike mcguire a research director at analyst gartner told the bbc news
website that apple had done a good job in sealing off the market from competition
so far. they have created a very seamless package which i think is the idea of the
product - the design function and the software are very impressive he said. he
added that the threat from others was always present however. creative other
microsoft-partnered devices real sony and so on are ratcheting up the marketing
message and advertising he said. creative was very upbeat about how many of its
creative zen players it had shipped by the end of last year he said. its second-
generation models like the creative zen micro photo is due out in the summer. it
will have 5gb of memory on board. digital music players are now the gadget of
choice among young americans according to recent research by the pew internet and
american life project. one in 10 us adults - 22 million people - now owns a digital
music player of some sort. sales of legally downloaded songs also rose more than
tenfold in 2004 according to the record industry with 200 million tracks bought
online in the us and europe in 12 months. the ifpi industry body said that the
popularity of portable music players was behind the growth. analysts say that the
ease of use and growth of music services available on the net will continue to
drive the trend towards portable music players. people are also starting to use
them in novel ways. some are combining automatic syncing functions many of them
have with other net functions to automatically distribute diy radio shows called
podcasts. but 2005 will also see more competition from mobile phone operators who
are keen to offer streaming services on much more powerful and sophisticated
handsets. according to mr mcguire research suggests that people like the idea of
building up huge libraries of music which they can do with high-capacity storage
devices like ipods and creative zens. mobiles do not yet have this capacity though
and there are issues about the ease of portability of mobile music. mr mcguire said
apple was ensuring it kept a foot in the mobile music door with its recent deal
with motorola to produce a version of itunes for motorola phones.
t in the park sells out in days tickets for scotland s biggest music festival have
sold out in record time five months before the event is held. the 12th annual t
in the park festival which takes place at balado near kinross in july sold out
just four days after the line-up was announced. green day the foo fighters and
keane are among the acts that had already been lined up to appear at the event.
however the organisers have revealed scots favourites travis as well as soulman
james brown will also appear. last year tickets sold out 10 weeks before the
festival but organisers confirmed that all 130 000 for the two-day event had been
sold. geoff ellis ceo of festival organisers big day out ltd said this year s
event promises to be the best yet. after last year s sell-out we did think this
year s event would sell slightly earlier however this is way beyond our
expectations mr ellis said. we are extremely proud that fans are so excited
about t in the park that they have made absolutely sure that their place at balado
is booked for 2005 and we will deliver one of the greatest events yet for them in
july. more than 120 acts will play on eight stages over the weekend of 9 and 10
july. brit award winners keane and the streets are among the main attractions
while the killers and dance act the prodigy are also on the bill. both green day
and the foo fighters last played at the festival in 2002 the same year oasis and
basement jaxx were among the headline acts.
a question of trust and technology a major government department is without e-mail
for a week and technology analyst bill thompson wants to know what happened. a
couple of weeks ago i wrote about how my girlfriend had suffered when her cable
modem blew up and she was offline for several days. it seems that thousands of
civil servants at the uk s department of work and pensions went through the same
thing last week. it has emerged that the internal network crashed in a particularly
horrible way depriving staff of e-mail and access to the application software they
use to calculate people s benefit and pension entitlement or note changes in
personal circumstances. senior consultants from eds the computer firm which manage
the system and microsoft which supplied the software were running around trying
to figure out what had to be done to fix it all while staff resorted to phone fax
and probably carrier pigeon to get work done. fortunately the back-office systems
which actually pay people their money were still working so only new claims and
updates were affected done properly. this is bad enough for those affected but it
does mean that the impact is not devastating for millions of pensioners. i am sure
regular readers will be expecting one of my usual diatribes against poor software
badly specified systems and inadequate disaster recovery plans. although the full
story has not yet been told it seems that the problem started when a plan to
upgrade some of the computers from windows 2000 to windows xp went wrong and xp
code was inadvertently copied to thousands of machines across the network. this is
certainly unfortunate but i have a lot of sympathy for the network managers and
technology staff involved. today s computer networks are large complex and
occasionally fragile. the interconnectedness that we all value also gives us a
degree of instability and unpredictability that we cannot design out of the
systems. it is the network equivalent of godel s theorem - any system sufficiently
complex to be useful is also able to collapse catastrophically. so i will reserve
judgment on the technology aspects until we all know what actually happened and
whether it was a consequence of software failure or just bad luck. what is really
disturbing and cannot be excused is the fact that it took four days for news of
this systems failure to leak out into the technical press. it is without a doubt
a major story and was the second or third lead item on bbc radio 4 s today
programme throughout friday morning. so why did not the prime minister s official
spokesman mention it at any lobby briefings before friday why was not the pensions
minister in parliament to make an emergency statement on tuesday when it was clear
that there was a serious problem if there had been an outbreak of legionnaire s
disease in the air conditioning system we would have been told but it seems that
major technology problems do not merit the same treatment. while eds and microsoft
will no doubt be looking for technical lessons to learn from their week of pain we
can learn some political lessons too. and the most important is that in this
digital world technology failures are matters of public interest not something
that can be ignored in the hope that nobody will notice care or understand. that
means we need a full report on what went wrong and what was done to fix it. it
would be unacceptable for any of the parties involved to hide behind commercial
confidentiality or even parliamentary privilege. a major system has evidently
collapsed and we need to know what went wrong and what is being done differently.
anything less is a betrayal of public trust. bill thompson is a regular
commentator on the bbc world service programme go digital.
house prices drop as sales slow house prices fell further in november and property
sale times lengthened as rate rises took their toll the royal institute of
chartered surveyors found. a total of 48% of chartered surveyor estate agents
reported lower prices in the three months to november - the highest level in 12
years. meanwhile the number of sales dropped 32% to an average of 22 per surveyor.
the amount of unsold properties on their books rose for the sixth month in a row to
an average of 67 properties. the slowdown occurring in the market has given buyers
more power to negotiate but this time of year is traditionally a quiet one rics
housing spokesman ian perry said. the decision by the bank of england not to
increase interest rates further and the healthy economy is allowing confidence to
consolidate. the figures support recent data from the government and other bodies
which all point to a slowdown in the housing market. on monday the council of
mortgage lenders british bankers association and building societies association
all said mortgage lending was slowing. the figures were published as another survey
by property website rightmove said the average asking price of a home fell by more
than £600 from £190 329 in november to £189 733 in december. around the uk the
midlands and south saw the biggest price falls while london prices fell but at
less than the national rate. in scotland where prices have remained on an upward
path increases were more moderate rics added. but the news failed to dent
confidence that sales will recover in future with surveyors at their most
optimistic in a year - as new purchase inquiries stabilised despite holding at
lower levels. sales usually pick up in the new year and i am confident this year
will be no exception mr perry added. looking ahead the group is anticipating a
quiet start to 2005 with the market picking up in the second half - prompting a 3%
rise in prices over the coming 12 months.
queen recruit singer for new tour the remaining members of rock band queen are to
go on tour next year with former free and bad company singer paul rodgers taking
freddie mercury s place. guitarist brian may has said he expects to be on the road
with rodgers and drummer roger taylor from april. may said: suddenly the queen
phoenix is rising again from the ashes and will take precedence over... our lives.
queen have played with many different singers since mercury s death in 1991 but
have reportedly not toured. may performed with rodgers at a concert to celebrate
the 50th anniversary of the fender stratocaster guitar in london in september. we
were both so amazed at the chemistry that was going on in [free hit] all right now
that suddenly it seems blindingly obvious that there was something happening here
may wrote on his website. they teamed up again for a concert to mark their
induction into the uk music hall of fame and were joined by taylor. the show went
so incredibly well from our point of view and we got so many rave reactions from
out there we decided almost then and there that we would look at a tour together
may wrote. queen went to number one in 2000 with a version of we will rock you
sung by boy band 5ive and they have also played with robbie williams will young
and bob geldof. queen bassist john deacon has currently retired from the stage.
rodgers was singer with early 1970s rockers free who had a global hit with all
right now before forming bad company a successful supergroup with members of
king crimson and mott the hoople. he has also been in the firm with led zeppelin s
jimmy page and the law with the small faces and the who drummer kenny jones.
bellamy under new fire newcastle boss graeme souness has reopened his dispute with
craig bellamy after claiming the welshman was not good enough for the magpies.
bellamy left newcastle to join celtic on loan after a major row with souness.
souness - who refused to refer to the 25-year-old by name - said bellamy did not
score enough goals the chap that s just gone has scored 9.3 goals a season in his
time in senior football - half of those weren t even in the top flight said
souness. that s not good enough for a striker at a club like this. we need to
have two strikers who are near 20 goals on a regular basis. bellamy turned down a
move to birmingham in favour of joining celtic after a disagreement about the welsh
international playing out of position quickly escalated. earlier in the week
souness had said that he risked losing the confidence of the players and damaging
his own reputation if he had not taken a hard line after bellamy accused him of
lying. there are certain things you can forgive and forget said souness. but
if i d been seen to be weak in this case there was no future for me with the
players in the dressing room or any job i have after newcastle. he could then
return to st james park - and he says that he wants to. however it would seem
unlikely he will play for newcastle again as long as souness remains in charge.
famed music director viotti dies conductor marcello viotti director of venice s
famous la fenice theatre has died in germany at 50. viotti director of la fenice
since 2002 conducted at renowned opera houses worldwide including milan s la scala
and the vienna state opera. his time at la fenice coincided with its reopening in
2003 after it was destroyed by fire in 1996. he fell into a coma after suffering a
stroke during rehearsals for jules massenet s manon last week. he conducted some
of the best orchestras in the world including the berlin philharmonic and the
english chamber orchestra. viotti was born in switzerland and studied the piano
cello and singing at the lausanne conservatory. his career breakthrough came in
1982 when he won first prize at the gino marinuzzi conducting competition in italy.
viotti established himself as chief conductor of the turin opera and went on to
become chief conductor of munich s radio orchestra. at la fenice viotti was widely
acclaimed for his production of the french composer massenet s thais and some of
his other productions included giuseppe verdi s la traviata and richard strauss s
ariadne auf naxos. the last opera he directed at la fenice was massenet s le roi
de lahore. viotti s debut at the new york s metropolitan opera came in 2000 with
giacomo puccini s madame butterfly followed by la boheme la traviata and
fromental halevy s la juive. giampaolo vianello superintendent of the fenice
theatre foundation said: i am filled with extreme sadness because other than a
great artist he is missed as a friend - a main character in the latest joyous
times during the rebirth of our theatre. viotti s last public performance was on
5 february when he conducted vincenzo bellini s norma at the vienna state opera.
ethiopia s crop production up 24% ethiopia produced 14.27 million tonnes of crops
in 2004 24% higher than in 2003 and 21% more than the average of the past five
years a report says. in 2003 crop production totalled 11.49 million tonnes the
joint report from the food and agriculture organisation and the world food
programme said. good rains increased use of fertilizers and improved seeds
contributed to the rise in production. nevertheless 2.2 million ethiopians will
still need emergency assistance. the report calculated emergency food requirements
for 2005 to be 387 500 tonnes. on top of that 89 000 tonnes of fortified blended
food and vegetable oil for targeted supplementary food distributions for a
survival programme for children under five and pregnant and lactating women will
be needed. in eastern and southern ethiopia a prolonged drought has killed crops
and drained wells. last year a total of 965 000 tonnes of food assistance was
needed to help seven million ethiopians. the food and agriculture organisation
(fao) recommend that the food assistance is bought locally. local purchase of
cereals for food assistance programmes is recommended as far as possible so as to
assist domestic markets and farmers said henri josserand chief of fao s global
information and early warning system. agriculture is the main economic activity in
ethiopia representing 45% of gross domestic product. about 80% of ethiopians
depend directly or indirectly on agriculture.
angry williams rejects criticism serena williams has angrily rejected claims that
she and sister venus are a declining force in tennis. the sisters ended last year
without a grand slam title for the first time since 1998. but serena denied their
challenge was fading saying: that s not fair - i m tired of not saying anything.
we ve been practising hard. we ve had serious injuries. i ve had surgery and after
i got to the wimbledon final. i don t know many who have done that. while serena
is through to the australian open semi-finals venus went out in the fourth round
meaning she has not gone further than the last eight in her last five grand slam
appearances. but serena added: venus had a severe strain in her stomach. i
actually had the same injury but i didn t tear it the way she did. if i would
have torn it i wouldn t have been here. she played a player (alicia molik) that
just played out of her mind and venus made some errors that she probably shouldn t
have made. serena also said people tended to forget the impact the 2003 murder of
sister yetunde price had had on the family. to top it off we have a very very
very very very close family serena continued. to be in some situation that we
ve been placed in in the past little over a year it s not easy to come out and
just perform at your best when you realize there are so many things that are so
important. so no we re not declining. we re here. i don t have to win this
tournament to prove anything. i know that i m out here and i know that i m one of
the best players out here.
dollar drops on reserves concerns the us dollar has dropped against major
currencies on concerns that central banks may cut the amount of dollars they hold
in their foreign reserves. comments by south korea s central bank at the end of
last week have sparked the recent round of dollar declines. south korea which has
about $200bn in foreign reserves said it plans instead to boost holdings of
currencies such as the australian and canadian dollar. analysts reckon that other
nations may follow suit and now ditch the dollar. at 1300 gmt the euro was up 0.9%
on the day at 1.3187 euros per us dollar. the british pound had added 0.5% to break
through the $1.90 level while the dollar had fallen by 1.3% against the japanese
yen to trade at 104.16 yen. at the start of the year the us currency which had
lost 7% against the euro in the final three months of 2004 and had fallen to record
lows staged something of a recovery. analysts however pointed to the dollar s
inability recently to extend that rally despite positive economic and corporate
data and highlighted the fact that many of the us s economic problems had not
disappeared. the focus once again has been on the country s massive trade and
budget deficits with predictions of more dollar weakness to come. the comments
from korea came at a time when sentiment towards the dollar was already softening
said ian gunner a trader at mellon financial. on tuesday traders in asia said
that both south korea and taiwan had withdrawn their bids to buy dollars at the
start of the session. mansoor mohi-uddin chief currency strategist at ubs said
that there was a sentiment in the market that central banks from asia and the
middle east are buying euros . a report last month already showed that the dollar
was losing its allure as a currency that offered rock-steady returns and stability.
compiled by central banking publications and sponsored by the uk s royal bank of
scotland the survey found 39 nations out of 65 questioned were increasing their
euro holdings with 29 cutting back on the us dollar.
holmes secures comeback victory britain s kelly holmes marked her first appearance
on home soil since winning double olympic gold with 1500m victory at the norwich
union international. holmes hit the front just before the bell in front of a sell-
out crowd in glasgow and cruised to victory in a time of four minutes 14.74
seconds. it was nice to get that out of the way. i was nervous about whether i
would actually be able to get round. i felt good. i just had to relax and use my
racing knowledge said holmes. it was all about winning in front of my home
crowd. the time is irrelevant. i got round in one piece and didn t disgrace
myself. now it s about going forward. the reception i ve had since the olympics
has been amazing and that s why i wanted to keep running this year because i get a
buzz from the crowd. holmes ran a tactically perfect race to finish clear of
france s hind dehiba and russia s svetlana cherkasova. the olympic 800m and 1500m
champion s time was inside the qualifying mark for the european indoor
championships in madrid in march. but the 34-year-old would not reveal whether she
intended to run or not having previously indicated she would leave a decision
until after the birmingham grand prix on 18 february.
tories plan migrant health checks non-european union citizens wanting to work in
the uk will have to undergo tests for tuberculosis and hiv under plans unveiled by
the conservatives. a positive test for tb would mean visa applications being
turned down while hiv would be dealt with case by case. leader michael howard said
the checks on new arrivals would help protect public health and the nhs. labour
said many tests were already done. the lib dems warned both parties against
pandering to prejudice . the proposals which would be brought in if the
conservatives won the general election would not apply to people coming to the uk
for less than six months unless they intended to work in health or childcare or
teaching. mr howard said the plans were based on policies already in action in
canada new zealand and australia. it s very important that we should safeguard
the good standards of public health that britain enjoys he told bbc radio 4 s
today programme. government figures suggest tb in england has increased by 25% over
the past 10 years. nearly two thirds of people with tb are born abroad said mr
howard. i don t think a responsible government can stand aside and do nothing in
the face of this problem. but mr howard said the plans would not affect asylum
applicants claims. the proposals include: - people coming to the uk from outside
the eu for between six and 12 months from a high incidence tb country will have
to undergo a chest x-ray. - people coming to settle in the uk permanently from
outside the eu will have to demonstrate they have an acceptable standard of health
. - they will also have to show they are unlikely to be a danger to public health
and are unlikely to impose significant costs or demands on the nhs. - the tests
will include a health check chest x-rays for tb (except for children and pregnant
women) and tests for hepatitis and hiv for over 16-year-olds. only the discovery of
tb will mean people will be automatically denied a visa other conditions will be
dealt with on a case by case basis . there is already some screening in place.
last year 185 000 people were tested for tb at heathrow and gatwick airports only
about 200 were found to be infected. and dr john moore-gillon of the british lung
foundation said: tb is not simply imported we are seeing a rise in many sections
of the uk-born population as well. the government says the tories are a bit late
to the issue. immigration minister des browne quoted its five-year plan for
immigration and asylum as saying: we are implementing our existing powers by
targeted health screening for tb in high-risk areas at the entry clearance stage.
those who are diagnosed would then need to seek treatment at home before being
allowed to enter the uk. meanwhile mark oaten liberal democrat home affairs
spokesman said: this is another worrying step in the war of words over asylum and
immigration between labour and the conservatives. michael howard knows perfectly
well what bigger game he is playing and history proves it is a very dangerous one.
lisa power head of policy at aids charity the terrence higgins trust said the
policy was prejudice-based rather than evidence-based. in fact it would be more
likely to drive people with health conditions to falsify tests while others gain
entry by simple dint of their eu status she said.
windows worm travels with tetris users are being warned about a windows virus that
poses as the hugely popular tetris game. the cellery worm installs a playable
version of the classic falling blocks game on pcs that it has infected. while users
play the game the worm spends its time using the machine to search for new victims
to infect on nearby networks. the risk of infection by cellery is thought to be
very low as few copies of the worm have been found in the wild. the cellery worm
does not spread via e-mail like many other viruses. instead it browses computer
networks for pcs that have not shut off all the insecure ways they connect to other
machines. when it infects a machine cellery installs a version of tetris that
users can play. as the game starts up the worm also starts a music file to
accompany it. at the same time the virus starts scouring networks for other
vulnerable machines. the virus does no damage to machines but heavily infected
networks could slow down as scanning traffic builds. productivity may suffer too if
users spend time playing tetris. pcs running windows 95 98 me nt 2000 and xp
could be vulnerable to the worm. if your company has a culture of allowing games
to be played in the office your staff may believe this is simply a new game that
has been installed - rather than something that should cause concern said graham
cluley spokesman for anti-virus firm sophos. so far the number of people infected
by cellery is thought to be very small and the risks of further infection is very
low. sophos urged users and companies to update their anti-virus software to keep
themselves protected.
sundance to honour foreign films international films will be given the same
prominence as us films at next year s sundance film festival with movies dominated
by the theme of war. the independent film festival will feature two new
international cinema competitions during its 20-30 january season in utah. forty-
two films will debut at sundance including the liberace of baghdad by british
director sean mcallister. the prestigious festival was founded by actor robert
redford in 1981. we have always had an international component but from next
year they will enter a jury competition festival director geoffrey gilmore said.
we wanted to give world cinema more emphasis and have now put it on par with the
american dramatic and documentary competitions. twelve films competing in the new
world cinema documentary category focus on countries and people under siege. the
liberace of baghdad features an iraqi pianist hiding in a hotel as he waits for a
visa while finnish film the three rooms of melancholia looks at the war in
chechnya. shake hands with the devil: the journey of romeo dallaire tells of a un
mission to rwanda during the 1994 genocide while french-israeli production wall
looks at israel s controversial security wall separating it from the palestinian
territories. the 16 films competing in the new world cinema dramatic category
include works from germany south korea angola china denmark and australia.
several hollywood stars feature in the festival s american independent drama
category including keanu reeves and benjamin bratt. vince vaughn stars in quirky
movie thumbsucker while 21 grams actress naomi watts plays a budding hollywood
actress in ellie parker. the top grand jury prize at this year s festival went to
low budget sci-fi thriller primer written and directed by shane carruth. morgan
spurlock earned the directing award for super size me which became an
international box office hit.
mayor will not retract nazi jibe london mayor ken livingstone has again refused to
retract a nazi insult made to a jewish reporter. labour s mr livingstone who says
he is standing by his remarks had accused an evening standard journalist of
being like a concentration camp guard . at his weekly press conference on tuesday
he said his comments were not racist and refused to apologise. he said to media
representatives: if you think they are racist i think you are wrong. the mayor
said his comments would not affect the 2012 olympic bid and added that his
determination to stand up for what he believed in may impress bid chiefs who
arrived in london on tuesday. i think it is important that the ioc (international
olympic committee) members realise that when we get the games...they have a mayor
who is not going to panic change course or get in a great flap but will deliver
the games on time and to budget he said. on tuesday the mayor said he would be
making a full written response to the chairman of the assembly. two motions were
passed by the london assembly which is made up of 25 members elected to examine
the mayor s activities on monday asking him to apologise and withdraw his
comments. the mayor said he had recounted to the assembly a number of examples of
intrusion by journalists into his and his family s private life. i don t suggest
for one minute that has anything to do with the holocaust which was uniquely the
most evil chapter in history. but when reporters say to me i m only doing this
because it s my job... that s the same abdication of moral responsibility at the
thin end of the wedge that in its most extreme and horrific version ends up with
others being prepared to stand as a concentration camp guard. we are responsible
for our own choices in this life i always have been and so have reporters. an
official complaint has been made to local government watchdogs by the board of
deputies of british jews demanding an investigation by the standards board of
england. it has the power to suspended or bar him from office but mr livingstone
said: there must have been 20 instances like this over the last 24 years. i have
never in response to any of that modified a policy i believed to be right or
modified a position i believed to be right and i don t intend to now. because if i
do that effectively you hand power over your policies and position to the editors
of papers. on tape mr livingstone who once worked as a freelance restaurant
critic on the paper is heard asking reporter oliver finegold if he is a german
war criminal . mr finegold replies: no i m jewish i wasn t a german war
criminal. i m quite offended by that. the mayor then says: ah right well you
might be but actually you are just like a concentration camp guard you are just
doing it because you are paid to aren t you
news corp eyes video games market news corp the media company controlled by
australian billionaire rupert murdoch is eyeing a move into the video games
market. according to the financial times chief operating officer peter chernin
said that news corp is kicking the tyres of pretty much all video games
companies . santa monica-based activison is said to be one firm on its takeover
list. video games are big business the paper quoted mr chernin as saying. we
would like to get into it . the success of products such as sony s playstation
microsoft s x-box and nintendo s game cube have boosted demand for video games. the
days of arcade classics such as space invaders pac-man and donkey kong are long
gone. today games often have budgets big enough for feature films and look to give
gamers as real an experience as possible. and with their price tags reflecting the
heavy investment by development companies video games are proving almost as
profitable as they are fun. mr chernin however told the ft that news corp was
finding it difficult to identify a suitable target. we are struggling with the gap
between companies like electronic arts (ea) which comes with a high price tag and
the next tier of companies he explained during a conference in phoenix arizona.
these may be too focused on one or two product lines. activision has a stock
market capitalisation of about $2.95bn (£1.57bn) compared to ea s $17.8bn. some of
the games industry s main players have recently been looking to consolidate their
position by making acquisitions. france s ubisoft one of europe s biggest video
game publishers has been trying to remain independent since electronic arts
announced plans to buy 19.9% of the firm. analysts have said that industry mergers
are likely in the future.
paraguay novel wins us book prize a novel set in 19th century paraguay has won the
$10 000 (£5 390) fiction prize at the us national book awards. lily tuck s the
news from paraguay is a fictionalised tale about paraguayan leader francisco solano
lopez and his irish mistress. but the annual awards which were presented in new
york on wednesday were not without controversy. children s author judy blume who
was given an honourary medal used the ceremony to speak out over censorship.
sales of blume s books have exceeded 75 million but her work - which features
frank narratives about families religion and sexuality - is closely watched by the
censors. blume said: the urge to ban is contagious. it spreads like wildfire from
community to community. please speak out. censors hate publicity. her medal marks
the second year in a row the honourary prize went to someone as notable for popular
success as literary greatness. last year s honorary winner stephen king accused
the industry during the 2003 ceremony of snobbery against popular writers. but his
argument that the award should help sell books instead of honouring excellence is
not shared by everyone. this year s fiction panel overlooked high-profile works
such as philip roth s the plot against america and instead chose five little-known
books all by new york-based women. one fiction judge stewart o nan carried
around a note written on a napkin that said: i would hope that our caring more for
the quality of a work than its sales figures make us a friend of books not an
enemy. the national book awards non-fiction prize was awarded to kevin boyle s for
arc of justice which focuses on a black family s fight to live in a white detroit
neighbourhood in the 1920s. the award had created a lot of interest this year after
the surprise inclusion of the of the 9-11 commission report looking into the events
of the 11 september terrorist attacks on the us. pete hautman won the young people
s literature prize for his novel godless. the winner in the poetry category was
jean valentine for door in the mountain: new and collected poems 1965-2003.
jugnot tops french actor league actor gerard jugnot - star of the oscar-nominated
film the chorus - has beaten gerard depardieu to become france s best-paid actor of
2004. jugnot made 5.45m euros (£3.77m) last year according to a table drawn up by
france s le figaro newspaper. in the chorus (les choristes) jugnot plays an
inspiring music teacher at a school for troubled boys in 1949. despite starring in
five films in 2004 depardieu made 3.35m euros (£2.31m) putting him third place in
the chart. his name [depardieu] is no longer sufficient to guarantee the success
of a film said le figaro newspaper. the chorus which jugnot also co-produced
has drawn an audience of nearly nine million people since its release last year.
godzilla star jean reno was france s second best-paid actor in 2004 earning 3.55m
euros (£2.45m) . his roles include a recent uncredited cameo in the oscar-nominated
hotel rwanda. the highest-ranking woman on le figaro s list was audrey tautou in
10th place earning 885 000 euros (£611 000). she starred in jean-pierre jeunet s a
very long engagement (un long dimanche de fiancailles) and is also lined up to co-
star with tom hanks in ron howard s the da vinci code. the chorus is nominated for
best foreign film at sunday s oscar ceremony. on saturday it will compete for the
title of best film against fellow nominee a very long engagement in france s cesar
film awards.
stalemate in pension strike talks talks aimed at averting national strikes over
pension reforms have ended without agreement after 90 minutes. five public sector
unions met deputy prime minister john prescott at the labour spring conference in
gateshead. they want the government to withdraw regulations - due to be introduced
in weeks - which would raise the pension age for council workers from 60 to 65. up
to 1.4 million workers could take part in strikes earmarked for 23 march.
discussions will resume next week. a spokesman for unison britain s biggest union
said after saturday s meeting: at least we are still talking. all sides are
anxious to avoid a major confrontation in the run up to the general election said
bbc labour affairs correspondent stephen cape. in four days unison will start
balloting 800 000 local government workers on strikes. other public sector unions
have pledged to follow. the five unions which met mr prescott want the government
to withdraw these regulations. this would allow months of tough negotiations to
follow said our correspondent. but a spokesman for mr prescott warned that the
changes to the local government pension scheme would have to go ahead in april.
privately ministers believe this will be the less painful option our
correspondent added. the public and commercial services union (pcs) will co-
ordinate any industrial action with up to six other public sector unions. pcs
leader mark serwotka warned last week that there could be further walkouts unless
there was a government rethink. for a government that lectures everyone on choice
- choice on public service choice on this and choice on that - isn t it ironic
that they re saying to public sector workers there is no choice he said. if you
want the pension you were promised when you started you must work for an extra five
years - that is working until people drop. in the 20th century it s completely
unacceptable. unison s 800 000 workers the transport and general workers union
s 70 000 and amicus 20 000 are among those being balloted about a 23 march
walkout. mr prescott held a private meeting with senior union figures last week. it
is understood no deal was offered in that meeting but there was room for further
negotiations.
ore costs hit global steel firms shares in steel firms have dropped worldwide amid
concerns that higher iron ore costs will hit profit growth. shares in germany s
thyssenkrupp the uk s corus and france s arcleor fell while japan s nippon steel
slid after it agreed to pay 72% more for iron ore. china s baoshan iron and steel
co. said it was delaying a share sale because of weak market conditions adding it
would raise steel prices to offset ore costs. the threat of higher raw material
costs also hit industries such as carmakers. france s peugeot warned that its
profits may decline this year as a result of the higher steel plastic and
commodity prices. steelmakers have been enjoying record profits as demand for
steel has risen driven by the booming economies of countries such as china and
india. steel prices rose by 8% globally in january alone and by 24% in china. the
boom times are far from over but analysts say that earnings growth may slow. the
share price fall was initially triggered by news that two of the world s biggest
iron ore suppliers had negotiated contracts at much-higher prices. miners rio tinto
and cia. vale do rio dolce (cvrd) this week managed to boost by 72% the price of
their iron ore a key component of steel. analysts had expected japan s nippon to
agree to a price rise of between 40% and 50%. steel analyst peter fish director of
sheffield-based consulting group meps said the extent of cvrd s price rise was
uncharted territory adding that the steel industry hasn t seen an increase of
this magnitude probably in 50 years . analysts now expect other iron ore producers
such as australia s bhp billiton to seek annual price rises of up to 70%. the
news triggered the share price weakness. it sparked worries that steel makers
might not be able to increase product prices further [ to cover rising ore costs]
explained kazuhiro takahashi of daiwa securities smbc. in europe arcelor shed 2.1%
to 17.58 euros in paris with thyssenkrupp dropping 1.7% to 16.87 euros. in london
corus fell 2.2% to 55.57 pence. japan s biggest steel company nippon steel lost
2.5% to 270 yen with closest rival jfe holdings down 3.4%. china s baoshan the
country s largest steel producer said that the uncertainty surrounding the
industry has prompted it to pull its planned share sale. the firm had been expected
to offer 22.5bn yuan ($2.7bn) worth of shares to investors. no date has been given
for when the 5 billion shares will come to the market. baoshan stock climbed on
news of the delay and its decision to increase the price of its steel by 10%.
outkast win at mtv europe awards us hip-hop duo outkast have capped a year of award
glory with three prizes at the mtv europe music awards in rome. they won best
group best video and best song for hit hey ya! after getting five nominations. r&b
singer usher won best male and best album for confessions while uk rock band muse
were named best alternative act and best british artists. outkast will add their
awards to the four they won at the us mtv awards in august and three grammys in
february. not only was hey ya! one of the biggest global hits of last year but
outkast have been widely acclaimed as one of the most exciting and innovative acts
in music. their double cd album speakerboxxx/the love below which saw andre 3000
and big boi each produce one disc was hailed as the album of 2003 by many critics.
andre 3000 thanked fans for supporting outkast throughout the years . we really
appreciate it he said. i hope you don t get tired of us but we only do what we
do. also competing for best group had been the beastie boys the black eyed peas
d12 and maroon 5. and anastacia britney spears maroon 5 and ludacris had been on
the shortlist for best song. outkast did lose out in the contest for best album -
which was won by usher another award favourite. usher who performed a duet with
alicia keys also beat off competition from justin timberlake jay-z nelly and
robbie williams to take the best male crown. he had four nominations going into the
ceremony with seven artists nominated in three categories. eminem s group d12
were surprise winners in the best hip-hop category beating the beastie boys jay-z
kanye west and nelly. eminem told the crowd: d12 finally won an award thank you
very much. the rapper opened the show with a performance of his songs like toy
soldiers and just lose it for which he was joined on stage by a crowd of children.
the black eyed peas - who had a global hit with where is the love - picked up the
prize for best pop act beating anastacia avril lavigne robbie williams and
britney spears. spears was named best female sending a message of thanks on video
saying the award means so much to me . alicia keys anastasia avril lavigne and
beyonce knowles had featured alongside her in that contest. linkin park singer
chester bennington described their prize for best rock band as quite an honour
while muse said their win for best alternative act was a real surprise for us .
muse were also named best uk and ireland act ahead of franz ferdinand natasha
bedingfield jamelia and the streets. referring to the fact that winners of 11 of
the 12 main awards were from the us muse singer matt bellamy said: there needs to
be more european bands. the 11th annual awards were hosted by hip-hop artist
xzibit and watched by 6 000 people at the tor di valle arena plus millions more on
tv around the world. the ceremony featured performances from the beastie boys who
entered the stage on bicycles and skateboards no doubt singer gwen stefani being
lowered from a giant clock and nelly doing a duet with pharrell williams. mtv also
organised a huge open-air concert featuring anastacia and the cure outside the
italian capital s ancient colosseum with some estimates putting the attendance
there at 200 000. last year s big winner at the mtv europe awards held in
edinburgh scotland was justin timberlake who walked away with three trophies.
finnan says irish can win group steve finnan believes the republic of ireland can
qualify directly for the world cup finals. after saturday s superb display in the
draw in paris ireland face minnows the faroe islands in dublin on wednesday. the
versatile finnan who starred against the french is confident the group is ireland
s for the taking. there is a chance for us now to go on win our home games and
why not win the group even though it s a tough one said the liverpool player.
switzerland ireland france and israel are all now tied on five points from three
matches - although the republic look to have a slight edge after claiming away
draws in basel and paris. in basel we did not play great football but when you to
go to these places the other teams are going to have the majority of the game. in
paris we looked good throughout the team and a point was the least we deserved
because we had a number of chances. looking back we had an opportunity to get
the three points but we are happy with a point and that will give us confidence
going into wednesday s game. on paper we have got the toughest matches out of the
way and we have set standards for ourselves. automatic qualification is there. it
would certainly be good to avoid a play-off but on the back of a couple of good
results i don t see why we can t win the group. manager brian kerr was keen to
mention the contribution of stephen carr and finnan on ireland s right flank at the
stade de france. finnan s normal position is right-back but he looked assured in a
more advanced position against the french. as i play on the right for my club and
being a natural right-back it was something he (kerr) looked at because france
play strongly down the left-hand side. so i was happy to play and stephen carr and
i enjoyed the game particularly as the defence and midfield held together well and
nullified their attacks.
labour battle plan hides blair the tories have accused tony blair of being
terrified of scrutiny after labour unveiled details of how it will fight the next
general election. in a break with tradition the party will ditch the leader s
battle bus and daily press briefings in westminster. instead mr blair will travel
to key cities and marginal seats to deliver the party s message. labour election
chief alan milburn denied the party was trying to hide the prime minister. he
promised the most positive and upbeat election campaign labour has ever run . but
tory co-chairman liam fox said labour s plans showed mr blair was terrified of
facing proper scrutiny . at a time when the british people are looking for more
accountability and openness this government turns its back on them; abandoning
plans to tour the country and scared to face journalists in a press conference - it
does rather beg the question what have they got to hide the general election
is widely expected next may and all the parties are stepping up their campaign
preparations. mr milburn said the economy would take centre stage in labour s
campaign in what would be a watershed election and the last stand of the
thatcherites . mr milburn said labour s slogan would be britain is working - don t
let the tories wreck it. the tone of the campaign said mr milburn would be more
conversational than rhetorical; more spontaneous less scripted; less national more
local and less based on issues and more concentrated on people. the approach is
particularly designed to appeal to women voters he said. mr milburn brushed aside
questions over why the chancellor was not present at the cabinet meeting to discuss
election strategy particularly since such importance was being given to the
economy. i m not privy to everybody s diary he said. mr brown has headed labour
s preparations for previous polls but mr milburn is taking that role this time. in
a break with the past labour will not hold a daily news conference in london. it
will not be a battle bus style campaign either he said. in previous elections
each party leader has had their own battle bus transporting national newspaper
television and radio reporters to staged campaign events around the country. mr
milburn said labour s media effort this time would focus more on local newspapers
and broadcasters with every local radio station given the chance to interview the
prime minister. mr milburn said there would also be a greater effort to set up
face-to-face meetings between ministers and the electorate. former downing street
media chief alastair campbell is also returning to advise labour on media strategy
and campaigning. mr milburn said no decision had been taken yet over whether david
blunkett would have a prominent role in the election. liberal democrat chief
executive lord rennard suggested labour was avoiding news conferences in london
because it wanted less scrutiny of its record and proposals. tony blair seems to
have disappeared from labour leaflets and broadcasts he said. in contrast
charles kennedy will feature prominently in the liberal democrat campaign right
across the country.
off-colour gardener storms to win britain s jason gardener shook off an upset
stomach to win the 60m at sunday s leipzig international meeting. gardener clocked
6.56 seconds to equal the meeting record and finished well ahead of germany s marc
blume who crossed the line in 6.67 secs. the world indoor champion said: i got to
the airport and my stomach was upset and i was vomiting. i almost went home. i
felt a little better sunday morning but decided i d only run in the main race. then
everything went perfectly. gardener part of the great britain 4x100m quartet that
won gold at the athens olympics will now turn his attention to next weekend s
norwich union european indoor trials in sheffield. given i am still off-colour i
know there is plenty more in the tank and i expect to get faster in the next few
weeks he said. it s just a case of chipping away as i have done in previous
years and the results will come. scotland s ian mackie was also in action in
leipzig. he stepped down from his favoured 400m to 200m to finish third in 21.72
secs. germany s alexander kosenkow won the race in 21.07 secs with dutchman patrick
van balkom second in 21.58 secs. there were plenty of other senior british athletes
showing their indoor form over the weekend. promising 60m hurdler clocked a new uk
record of 7.98 seconds at a meeting in norway. the 24-year-old reached the mark in
her heat but had to settle for joint first place with former aaa champion diane
allahgreen in the final. who broke onto the international scene at the olympic
games last season set an indoor personal best of 16.50m in the triple jump at a
meeting in ghent. that leap - 37cm short of brazilian winner jadel gregorio s
effort - was good enough to qualify for the european indoor championships. at the
same meeting finished third in 7.27 seconds in a high-class women s 60m. the
event was won by european medal favourite christine arron of france while belgium
rival kim gevaert was second. britain s joice maduaka finished fifth in 7.35.
olympic bronze heptathlon medallist made a low-key return to action at an indoor
meeting in birmingham. the 28-year-old cleared 1.76m to win the high jump and threw
13.86m in the women s shot put.
gsk aims to stop aids profiteers one of the world s largest manufacturers of
hiv/aids drugs has launched an initiative to combat the smuggling of cheaper pills
- supplied to poorer african countries - back into europe for resale at far higher
price. the company glaxosmithkline is to alter the packaging and change the
colour of the pills currently provided to developing nations under a humanitarian
agreement. it is estimated that drugs companies are losing hundreds of millions of
dollars each year as a result of the diversion of their products in this way. this
is a very sensitive area for the big drugs companies. they want to maintain their
profits but have been put under tremendous pressure to provide cheap anti-aids
drugs to the world s poorest nations. the result is that drugs supplied to africa
are now more than thirty times cheaper than those sold in europe; bringing these
medicines within the reach of millions of hiv-positive africans through their
government s health care systems. but the wide difference in price also means that
there are big gains to be made from illegally diverting these cheaper drugs back
into wealthier countries and re-selling them at a higher price. glaxosmithkline
believes that by coating the pills destined for africa in a red dye and adding new
identification codes both onto the pills and on the packaging then this trade can
be substantially reduced. the company says that it will then be possible to
identify specific distributors in africa who have re-sold humanitarian drugs for
profit as well as those suppliers in europe that have also been involved in the
trade. glaxo says distribution of the new-look drugs has already begun and that
their chemical content is identical to those currently being sold in europe.
sluggish economy hits german jobs the number of people out of work in europe s
largest economy has risen for the tenth straight month as growth remains stubbornly
slow. german unemployment rose 7 000 in november to 4.464 million people or 10.8%
of the workforce. the seasonally adjusted rise showed a smaller rise than expected
as government measures to encourage job creation began to take effect. but
officials said stagnant growth was still stifling the job market. there are clear
signs of a revival in domestic demand said frank-juergen weise head of the
federal labour agency in a statement. but growth of 0.1%... in the third quarter
is still insufficient to deliver positive momentum to the labour market. high oil
prices and the soaring euro - which damages the competitiveness of exporters - were
also having a negative effect he said. the brunt of the unemployment is still
being felt in the eastern part of germany where the rate is 18.8%. with
unemployment stuck above 4 million for years the government of chancellor gerhard
schroeder has put job creation at the top of the agenda. a controversial package of
measures to shake up incentives to get back to work paid for by cutting some
cherished benefits has sparked anger among some german workers. strikes in a
number of industries notably among the country s iconic carmakers have
demonstrated the displeasure - as well as fears about further job losses as
outsourcing takes hold. among the new initiatives are the so-called one-euro jobs
which top up unemployment benefit. the scheme s formal launch is january but
hirings for these positions are already taking place and affecting the unemployment
statistics economists said. the deterioration of the labour market does not come
as a surprise said isabelle kronawitter at hypovereinsbank. job creation
measures probably prevented a stronger increase in the seasonally adjusted numbers.
shares hit by ms drug suspension shares in elan and biogen idec plunged on monday
as the firms suspended sales of new multiple sclerosis drug tysabri after a patient
s death in the us. on the new york stock exchange shares in ireland-based elan
lost 70% while us partner biogen idec shed 43%. the firms took action after the
death from a central nervous system disease and a suspected case of the condition.
the cases cited involved the use of both tysabri and avonex biogen idec s existing
multiple sclerosis drug. the companies said they have no reports of the rare
condition - progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (pml) - in patients taking
either tysabri or avonex alone. tysabri was approved for use in the us last
november and was widely tipped to become the world s leading multiple sclerosis
treatment. the companies will work with clinical investigators to evaluate
tysabri-treated patients and will consult with leading experts to better understand
the possible risk of pml the two firms said in a statement. the outcome of these
evaluations will be used to determine possible re-initiation of dosing in clinical
trials and future commercial availability. analysts had believed the product
would provide a new growth opportunity for biogen idec which had faced increased
competition from rivals to avonex. elan once the biggest firm on the irish stock
exchange was also expected to receive a boost from the new product. an inquiry
into elan s accounts in 2002 brought the group close to bankruptcy but the firm has
been rebuilding itself since with its share price increasing by almost four-fold
last year. most of the value in the company was in tysabri said ian hunter at
goodbody stockbrokers in dublin. now there s a question mark over it. elan
finished down $18.90 at $8 while biogen fell $28.63 to $38.65. - shares in uk
pharmaceutical firm phytopharm closed down 19.84% at 151.5 pence on the london
stock exchange on monday after it said a partner was set to pull out of a deal on
an experimental alzheimer s disease treatment. phytopharm said japan s yamanouchi
pharmaceutical was likely to end a licensing agreement prompting analysts to raise
questions over the level of its future cash reserves.
us interest rates increased to 2% us interest rates are to rise for the fourth time
in five months in a widely anticipated move. the federal reserve has raised its
key federal funds rate by a quarter percentage point to 2% in light of mounting
evidence that the us economy is regaining steam. us companies created twice as many
jobs as expected in october while exports hit record levels in september. analysts
said a clear-cut victory for president bush in last week s election paved the way
for a rise. another rise could be in store for december some economists warned.
the fed s open market committee - which sets interest rate policy in the us - voted
unanimously in favour of a quarter point rise. the fed has been gradually easing
rates up since the summer with quarter percentage point rises in june august and
september. the central bank has been acting to restrain inflationary pressures
while being careful not to obstruct economic growth. the fed did not rule out
raising rates once again in december but noted that any future increases would take
place at a measured pace. in a statement the fed said that long-term inflation
pressures remained well contained while the us economy appeared to be growing at
a moderate pace despite the rise in energy prices . financial analysts broadly
welcomed the fed s move and shares traded largely flat. the dow jones industrial
average closed down 0.89 points or 0.01% at 10 385.48. recent evidence has
pointed to an upturn in the us economy. us firms created 337 000 jobs last month
twice the amount expected while exports reached record levels in september. the
economy grew 3.7% in the third quarter slower than forecast but an improvement on
the 3.3% growth seen in the second quarter. analysts claimed the fed s assessment
of future economic growth was a positive one but stressed that the jury was still
out on the prospect of a further rise in december. let s wait until we see how
growth and employment bear up under the fourth quarter s energy price drag before
concluding that the fed has more work to do in 2005 said avery shenfeld senior
economist at cibc world markets. i think the federal reserve does not want to
rock the boat and is using a gradual approach in raising the interest rate said
sung won sohn chief us economist for wells fargo bank. the economy is doing a bit
better right now but there are still some concerns about geopolitics employment
and the price of oil he added. the further rise in us rates is unlikely to have a
direct bearing on uk monetary policy. the bank of england (boe) has kept interest
rates on hold at 4.75% for the past three months leading some commentators to
argue that rates may have peaked. in a report published on wednesday the bank said
that with rates at their current level inflation would rise to its 2% target
within two years. however boe governor mervyn king warned only last month that the
era of consistently low inflation and low unemployment may be coming to an end.
germany calls for eu reform german chancellor gerhard schroeder has called for
radical reform of the eu s stability pact to grant countries more flexibility over
their budget deficits. mr schroeder said existing fiscal rules should be loosened
to allow countries to run deficits above the current 3% limit if they met certain
criteria. writing in the financial times mr schroeder also said heads of
government should have a greater say in reforms. changes to the pact are due to be
agreed at an economic summit in march. the current eu rules limit the size of a
eurozone country s deficit to 3% of gdp. countries which exceed the threshold are
liable to heavy fines by the european commission although several countries
including germany have breached the rules consistently since 2002 without facing
punishment. the european commission acknowledged last month that it would not
impose sanctions on countries who break the rules. mr schroeder - a staunch
supporter of the pact when it was set up in the 1990s - said exemptions were now
needed to take into account the cost of domestic reform programmes and changing
economic conditions. the stability pact will work better if intervention by
european institutions in the budgetary sovereignty of national parliaments is only
permitted under very limited conditions he wrote. only if their competences are
respected will the member states be willing to align their policies more
consistently with the economic goals of the eu. deficits should be allowed to
rise above 3% mr schroeder argued if countries meet several mandatory criteria .
these include governments which are adopting costly structural reforms countries
which are suffering economic stagnation and nations which are shouldering special
economic burdens . the proposed changes would make it harder for the european
commission to launch infringement action against any state which breaches the pact
s rules. mr schroeder s intervention comes ahead of a meeting of the 12 eurozone
finance ministers on monday to discuss the pact. the issue will also be discussed
at tuesday s ecofin meeting of the finance ministers of all 25 eu members. mr
schroeder also called for heads of government to play a larger role in shaping
reforms to the pact. a number of eu finance ministers are believed to favour only
limited changes to the eurozone s rules.
spike lee backs student directors film-maker spike lee says black representation is
stronger than ever in cinema and tv but the true power in entertainment lies behind
the camera. the she hate me director urged students at his old atlanta university
morehouse college to seek gatekeeper positions behind the scenes. lee told them
to work up the corporate ladder because everybody can t be an actor everybody can
t make a record . he spoke as part of a discussion panel then led a retrospective
of his films. returning to his old university which educates only african
american students lee discussed the challenges facing black people in the
entertainment industry. even denzel (washington) he s getting $20m a movie. but
when it comes time to do a movie he has to go to one of those gatekeepers lee
said. he told aspiring young film-makers in the audience not to ignore non-
traditional routes to getting a movie made including raising funds independently
and releasing films straight to dvd. it s a huge market the 47-year-old director
said. it s not something that should be looked upon as a stepchild. lee has made
more than 25 films including jungle fever do the right thing summer of sam and
1986 hit she s gotta have it.
smart search lets art fans browse if you don t know art but know what you like new
search technology could prove a useful gateway to painting. artgarden developed
by bt s research unit is being tested by the tate as a new way of browsing its
online collection of paintings. rather than search by the name of an artist or
painting users are shown a selection of pictures. clicking on their favourite will
change the gallery in front of them to a selection of similar works. the
technology uses a system dubbed smart serendipity which is a combination of
artificial intelligence and random selection. it chooses a selection of pictures
by scoring paintings based on a selection of keywords associated with them. so for
instance a whistler painting of a bridge may have the obvious keywords such as
bridge and whistler associated to it but will also widen the search net with terms
such as aesthetic movement 19th century and water. a variety of paintings will
then be shown to the user based partly on the keywords and partly on luck. it is
much more akin to wandering through the gallery said jemima rellie head of the
tate s digital programme. for richard tateson who worked on the artgarden project
the need for a new way to search grew out of personal frustration. i went to an
online clothes store to find something to buy my wife for christmas but i didn t
have a clue what i wanted he said. the text-based search was restricted to
looking either by type of garment or designer neither of which he found helpful.
he ended up doing his present shopping on the high street instead. he thinks the
dominance of text-based searching is not necessarily appealing to the majority of
online shoppers. similarly with art browsing is often more important than finding
a particular object. you don t arrive at tate britain and tell people what you
want to see. one of the skills of showing off the collection is to introduce people
to things they wouldn t have asked for he said. the tate is committed to making
its art more accessible and technology such as artgarden can help with that said
ms rellie. she hopes the technology can be incorporated on to the website in the
near future. bt research is looking at extending the technology to other searching
such as for music and films.
laporte tinkers with team france coach bernard laporte has made four changes to the
starting line-up that beat england for saturday s six nations clash with wales. he
opted for yannick nyanga in the back row instead of grand slam winner imanol
harinordoquy who is back in the squad. other changes see julien laharrague win his
first cap at full-back aurelien rougerie return after injury on the wing and
yannick jauzion in at centre. but laporte has resisted fan pressure to start
frederic michalak at fly-half. the dependable yann delaigue keeps the number 10
jersey despite clamours for the flair of michalak. the 26-year-old laharrague gets
his chance despite playing on the wing for his club brive. we are launching him
into the great international level said team manager jo maso. he is young and
this is a great opportunity for us and above all for him. there are 25 matches
left before the world cup so we must see as many players as possible. the
competition is very high and open. jauzion france s player of the year in 2004
would probably have played in the first two matches instead of the south african-
born liebeneberg had he been fit. the stade toulousain star wins his 23rd cap and
is reunited with damien traille with whom he forged an effective midfield in 2004.
the return of jauzion is going to be a plus for us said laporte. we are going to
test him at an international level. julien laharrague (brive) aurelien rougerie
(clermont) yannick jauzion (stade toulousain) damien traille (biarritz)
christophe dominici (stade francais) yann delaigue (castres) dimitri yachvili
(biarritz) julien bonnaire (bourgoin) yannick nyanga (beziers) serge betsen
(biarritz) jerome thion (biarritz) fabien pelous (stade toulousain capt)
nicolas mas (perpignan) sebastien bruno (sale) sylvain marconnet (stade francais)
replacements: william servat (stade toulousain) olivier milloud (bourgoin)
gregory lamboley (stade toulousain) imanol harinordoquy (biarritz) pierre mignoni
(clermont) frederic michalak (stade toulousain) jean-philippe grandclaude
(perpignan)
rocker doherty in on-stage fight rock singer pete doherty has been involved in a
fight with his band s guitarist at their biggest gig to date. babyshambles played
for 5 000 fans at london s brixton academy on tuesday. the former libertines singer
traded blows with guitarist patrick walden. they were separated and bundled off
stage before returning to end the set. the show was earlier held up due to audience
overcrowding. on monday doherty faced blackmail and robbery charges in court which
he denies. he is out on £50 000 bail and the judge agreed to extend his 2200 gmt
curfew deadline by two hours so he could play the brixton gig. babyshambles which
he formed after his acrimonious departure from the libertines played a warm-up
show at the garage north london on monday. on tuesday doherty and his three
bandmates were introduced to the crowd by mick jones the former clash guitarist
who produced the libertines second album. babyshambles took the stage to a
frenzied reception at 2200 gmt launching into their last single killamangiro
which reached number eight in december. but the group had to stop during the next
song to persuade fans not to push forward and allow security guards to pull people
out of the crush. doherty appealed to fans to calm down saying: there s a few
people getting hurt down the front you ve got to move back. the music resumed
minutes later but after several more songs the singer appeared to accidentally
disconnect walden s guitar leading the pair to trade kicks and punches. bouncers
stepped in and the band left the stage but returned after five minutes and
finished their 50-minute performance with no further trouble. doherty 25 had to
be home by midnight to observe the curfew which is one of the conditions of his
bail. on monday the judge agreed to allow him to perform on condition that
requests for changes to his bail terms were not too regular an occurrence . the
singer was arrested with fellow musician alan wass on 2 february after an alleged
dispute with documentary-maker max carlish at a london hotel. they are next due in
court on 18 april.
arnold congratulated on oscar win oscar-winner andrea arnold has been congratulated
by the uk film council the organisation which partly funded her project. arnold s
film wasp won the best live action short film award on sunday. the uk film council
spends millions of pounds of lottery investment on short filmmaking in britain
every year said chief executive officer john woodward. it certainly pays off
when you see new film-makers winning such prestigious awards he added. wasp
which was commissioned by the film council and channel 4 beat films by fellow uk
nominees gary mckendry and ashvin kumar to the prize. it stars actress nathalie
press who appeared in the bafta-winning drama my summer of love as a single
mother who is forced to take drastic action when she is invited on a date and is
unable to find a babysitter to look after her four daughters. the film has already
won over 30 other international awards including the sundance short film prize.
arnold from dartford in kent described her victory as truly overwhelming. i m
really not used to this kind of thing she said after receiving her oscar from
actor jeremy irons. thanks to everyone who worked on this - the beers are on me
when we get home. the director was one of only two british winners on the night
the other being sandy powell who won the costume design oscar for her work on the
aviator.
gold falls on imf sale concerns the price of gold has fallen after the
international monetary fund (imf) said it will look at ways of using its gold
reserves to provide debt relief. by revaluing its holdings the imf may be able to
sell billions of dollars of gold and use the cash to cancel debts owed by the world
s poorest nations. the plan was put forward by g7 finance ministers over the
weekend. the price of gold fell to $413.50 an ounce in asia before rebounding
slightly in early european trading. imf boss rodrigo rato was asked by g7
ministers to carry out a study into the feasibility of revaluing and selling gold
reserves. he is expected to present his conclusions at an imf meeting in
washington during april. whatever happens the market is going to be disconcerted
and on the back foot until the april imf meetings said john reade an analyst at
ubs. the imf values its gold reserves at between $40 and $50 an ounce a price that
was fixed in the 1970s and is about a tenth of the metal s current market value.
the imf has 3 217 tonnes of gold or about 113.5m ounces. bringing the book price
of the gold in line with market value would boost the imf s balance sheet giving
it more money to distribute. this idea has been put forward before but there now
seems to be a more committed political drive to address the issue of global
poverty. this is the first time there has been a mention of the use of gold in a
g7 communiqué for achieving debt relief said uk chancellor of the exchequer
gordon brown. at their meeting in london g7 finance ministers backed plans to
write off up to 100% of the debts owed by some of the world s poorest countries. mr
brown said the meeting would be remembered as the 100% debt relief summit . while
debt relief seems to have jumped to the top of the global agenda not everyone is
convinced that selling imf gold is the best way forward. the us which can veto any
plan to sell imf gold should it so choose said it is looking at other ways of
solving the problem. the us is not convinced that s the necessary way to do it
said treasury under secretary john taylor. canada a key gold producer also
expressed reservations.
african double in edinburgh world 5000m champion eliud kipchoge won the 9.2km race
at the view from great edinburgh cross country. the kenyan who was second when
newcastle hosted the race last year was in front from the outset. ethiopian duo
gebre gebremariam and dejene berhanu made last-gasp efforts to overtake him but
kipchoge responded and a burst of speed clinched victory. gavin thompson was the
first briton in 12th place while nick mccormick held of his british rivals to win
the 4km race. the morpeth harrier led from the end of the first lap and ended mike
skinner and andrew baddeley s hopes with a surge in the lasp lap. my training has
gone so well i wasn t really worried about the opposition asi knew i was in great
shape said mccormick who now hopes to earn a 1 500m place in the british team
for the world championships in helsinki. in the women s race ethiopia s tirunesh
dibaba won a battle with world cross country champion benita johnson to retain her
title. australian johnson who shocked her african rivals in brussels last march
looked to be on course for another win in the 6.2km race. but world 5000m champion
dibaba make a telling strike for the finishing line in the final 20 metres. britons
kathy butler and hayley yelling were out of contention early on.
internet boom for gift shopping cyberspace is becoming a very popular destination
for christmas shoppers. forecasts predict that british people will spend £4bn
buying gifts online during the festive season an increase of 64% on 2003. surveys
also show that the average amount that people are spending is rising as is the
range of goods that they are happy to buy online. savvy shoppers are also using the
net to find the hot presents that are all but sold out in high street stores.
almost half of the uk population now shop online according to figures collected by
the interactive media in retail group which represents web retailers. about 85% of
this group 18m people expect to do a lot of their christmas gift buying online
this year reports the industry group. on average each shopper will spend £220 and
britons lead europe in their affection for online shopping. almost a third of all
the money spent online this christmas will come out of british wallets and purses
compared to 29% from german shoppers and only 4% from italian gift buyers. james
roper director of the imrg said shoppers were now much happier to buy so-called
big ticket items such as lcd television sets and digital cameras. mr roper added
that many retailers were working hard to reassure consumers that online shopping
was safe and that goods ordered as presents would arrive in time for christmas. he
advised consumers to give shops a little more time than usual to fulfil orders
given that online buying is proving so popular. a survey by hostway suggests that
many men prefer to shop online to avoid the embarrassment of buying some types of
presents such as lingerie for wives and girlfriends. much of this online shopping
is likely to be done during work time according to research carried out by
security firm saint bernard software. the research reveals that up to two working
days will be lost by staff who do their shopping via their work computer. worst
offenders will be those in the 18-35 age bracket suggests the research who will
spend up to five hours per week in december browsing and buying at online shops.
iggy fanlo chief revenue officer at shopping.com said that the growing numbers of
people using broadband was driving interest in online shopping. when you consider
narrowband and broadband the conversion to sale is two times higher he said.
higher speeds meant that everything happened much faster he said which let people
spend time browsing and finding out about products before they buy. the behaviour
of online shoppers was also changing he said. the single biggest reason people
went online before this year was price he said. the number one reason now is
convenience. very few consumers click on the lowest price he said. they are
looking for good prices and merchant reliability. consumer comments and reviews
were also proving popular with shoppers keen to find out who had the most reliable
customer service. data collected by ebay suggests that some smart shoppers are
getting round the shortages of hot presents by buying them direct through the
auction site. according to ebay uk there are now more than 150 robosapiens remote
control robots for sale via the site. the robosapiens toy is almost impossible to
find in online and offline stores. similarly many shoppers are turning to ebay to
help them get hold of the hard-to-find slimline playstation 2 which many retailers
are only selling as part of an expensive bundle. the high demand for the
playstation 2 has meant that prices for it are being driven up. in shops the ps2 is
supposed to sell for £104.99. in some ebay uk auctions the price has risen to more
than double this figure. many people are also using ebay to get hold of gadgets not
even released in this country. the portable version of the playstation has only
just gone on sale in japan yet some enterprising ebay users are selling the device
to uk gadget fans.
ask jeeves joins web log market ask jeeves has bought the bloglines website to
improve the way it handles content from web journals or blogs. the bloglines site
has become hugely popular as it gives users one place in which to read search and
share all the blogs they are interested in. ask jeeves said it was not planning to
change bloglines but would use the 300 million articles it has archived to round
out its index of the web. how much ask jeeves paid for bloglines was not revealed.
bloglines has become popular because it lets users build a list of the blogs they
want to follow without having to visit each journal site individually. to do this
it makes use of a technology known as really simple syndication (rss) that many
blogs have adopted to let other sites know when new entries are made on their
journals. the acquisition follows similar moves by other search sites. google
acquired pyra labs makers of the blogger software in 2003. in 2004 msn introduced
its own blog system and yahoo has tweaked its technology to do a better job of
handling blog entries. jim lanzone vice president of search properties at ask
jeeves in the us said it did not acquire bloglines just to get a foothold in the
blog publishing world. he said ask jeeves was much more interested in helping
people find information they were looking for rather than helping them write it.
the universe of readers is vastly larger than the universe of writers he said. mr
lanzone said the acquisition would sit well with ask s my jeeves service which lets
people customise their own web experience and build up a personal collection of
useful links. search engines are about discovering information for the first time
and rss is the ideal way to keep track of and monitor those sites he said. it
would also help drive information and entries from blogs to the portals that ask
jeeves operates. there would be no instant sweeping changes to bloglines said mr
lanzone. our intent is to take our time to figure out the right business model not
to try to monetise it right away he said. though mr lanzone added that ask jeeves
would be helping organise the database of 300m blog entries bloglines holds with
its own net indexing technology. being able to search the blogosphere as one
corpus of information will be very useful in its own right said mr lanzone.
rumours about the acquisition were broken by the napsterization weblog which said
it got the hint from ask jeeves insiders.
bbc denies blackadder tv comeback the bbc has said there are no plans in the
pipeline for a new series of hit comedy blackadder which ended in 1989. tony
robinson who played the servant baldrick told itv1 s this morning the show s star
rowan atkinson was more keen than he has been in the past . robinson added he
would love to do another series each of which was set in a different era
ranging from the 15th century to world war i. but the bbc said on thursday there
were no plans for a comeback. in the final series all the main characters were
killed off charging towards german lines after being ordered out of their trench.
the poignant finale was later voted the best farewell episode of a tv series. a
host of other uk actors including hugh laurie stephen fry and miranda richardson
also appeared in the show. blackadder returned for a one-off special filmed to
celebrate the arrival of the millennium in 1999. it was shown at the millennium
dome in greenwich before being screened on bskyb.
everton s weir cools euro hopes everton defender david weir has played down talk of
european football despite his team lying in second place in the premiership after
beating liverpool. weir told bbc radio five live: we don t want to rest on our
laurels and say we have achieved anything yet. i think you start taking your eye
off the ball if you make statements and look too far into the future. if you start
making predictions you soon fall back into trouble. the only thing that matters is
the next game. he said: we are looking after each other and hard work goes a long
way in this league. we have definitely shown that. also injuries and suspensions
haven t cost us too badly and we have a lot of self-belief around the place.
bbc poll indicates economic gloom citizens in a majority of nations surveyed in a
bbc world service poll believe the world economy is worsening. most respondents
also said their national economy was getting worse. but when asked about their own
family s financial outlook a majority in 14 countries said they were positive
about the future. almost 23 000 people in 22 countries were questioned for the poll
which was mostly conducted before the asian tsunami disaster. the poll found that a
majority or plurality of people in 13 countries believed the economy was going
downhill compared with respondents in nine countries who believed it was
improving. those surveyed in three countries were split. in percentage terms an
average of 44% of respondents in each country said the world economy was getting
worse compared to 34% who said it was improving. similarly 48% were pessimistic
about their national economy while 41% were optimistic. and 47% saw their family s
economic conditions improving as against 36% who said they were getting worse.
the poll of 22 953 people was conducted by the international polling firm globescan
together with the program on international policy attitudes (pipa) at the
university of maryland. while the world economy has picked up from difficult times
just a few years ago people seem to not have fully absorbed this development
though they are personally experiencing its effects said pipa director steven
kull. people around the world are saying: i m ok but the world isn t . there
may be a perception that war terrorism and religious and political divisions are
making the world a worse place even though that has not so far been reflected in
global economic performance says the bbc s elizabeth blunt. the countries where
people were most optimistic both for the world and for their own families were
two fast-growing developing economies china and india followed by indonesia.
china has seen two decades of blistering economic growth which has led to wealth
creation on a huge scale says the bbc s louisa lim in beijing. but the results
also may reflect the untrammelled confidence of people who are subject to endless
government propaganda about their country s rosy economic future our correspondent
says. south korea was the most pessimistic while respondents in italy and mexico
were also quite gloomy. the bbc s david willey in rome says one reason for that
result is the changeover from the lira to the euro in 2001 which is widely viewed
as the biggest reason why their wages and salaries are worth less than they used to
be. the philippines was among the most upbeat countries on prospects for
respondents families but one of the most pessimistic about the world economy.
pipa conducted the poll from 15 november 2004 to 3 january 2005 across 22 countries
in face-to-face or telephone interviews. the interviews took place between 15
november 2004 and 5 january 2005. the margin of error is between 2.5 and 4 points
depending on the country. in eight of the countries the sample was limited to
major metropolitan areas.
talks aim to avert pension strike talks aimed at averting a series of national
strikes over pensions reforms will take place this weekend. five public sector
unions will hold private talks with deputy prime minister john prescott at labour s
spring conference in gateshead. they want the government to withdraw regulations -
due to be introduced in weeks - which would raise the pension age for council
workers from 60 to 65. up to 1.4m workers could take part in a strike already
earmarked for 23 march. however all sides are anxious to avoid a major
confrontation in the run up to the general election said bbc labour affairs
correspondent stephen cape. in four days britain s biggest union unison will start
balloting 800 000 local government workers on strikes. other public sector unions
have pledged to follow. it is just weeks before new regulations are introduced to
raise the pension age of local government workers. the five unions meeting mr
prescott want the government to withdraw these regulations. this would allow months
of tough negotiations to follow said our correspondent. but a spokesman for mr
prescott warned that the changes to the local government pension scheme would have
to go ahead in april. privately ministers believe this will be the less painful
option our correspondent added. the public and commercial services union (pcs)
will co-ordinate any industrial action with up to six other public sector unions.
pcs leader mark serwotka warned last week that there could be further walkouts
unless there was a government rethink. for a government that lectures everyone on
choice - choice on public service choice on this and choice on that - isn t it
ironic that they re saying to public sector workers there is no choice he said.
if you want the pension you were promised when you started you must work for an
extra five years - that is working until people drop. in the 20th century it s
completely unacceptable. unison s 800 000 workers the transport and general
workers union s 70 000 and amicus 20 000 are among those being balloted about a
23 march walkout. mr prescott held a private meeting with senior union figures last
week. it is understood no deal was offered in that meeting but there was room for
further negotiations.
mixed signals from french economy the french economy picked up speed at the end of
2004 official figures show - but still looks set to have fallen short of the
government s hopes. according to state statistics body insee growth for the three
months to december was a seasonally-adjusted 0.7-0.8% ahead of the 0.6% forecast.
if confirmed that would be the best quarterly showing since early 2002. it leaves
gdp up 2.3% for the full year but short of the 2.5% which the french government
had predicted. despite the apparent shortfall in annual economic growth the good
quarterly figures - a so-called flash estimate - mark a continuing trend of
improving indicators for the health of the french economy. the government is
reiterating a 2.5% target for 2005 while the european central bank is making
positive noises for the 12-nation eurozone as a whole. also on friday france s
industrial output for december was released showing 0.7% growth. the numbers are
good said david naude economist at deutsche bank. they send a positive signal
of a rebound in output... and open the way for a continuation in that trend into
the new year. service sector activity improved in january hitting a seven-month
high. but unemployment remains high at about 10%.
poll idols face first hurdles vote for me - itv1 s pop idol style talent contest
for would-be politicians - finally hits our screens this week. over the next four
days hundreds of potential candidates will be whittled down by a panel of experts
and public vote. the winner will then be encouraged to stand as an independent at
the next general election which is expected in the spring. but opinion is divided
on whether any of the potential candidates unearthed so far have got what it takes
to make it in politics. any of them would make competent mps former independent
mp martin bell insisted on bbc radio 4 s today programme. mr bell who will be
offering his advice to the contestants on wednesday argues that westminster has
its share of odd balls and the show will engage ordinary voters. if it gets more
people voting and more people interested in politics there is no harm in that he
said. but sir bernard ingham margaret thatcher s former press secretary took a
less charitable view accusing the programme of corrupting politics . he said the
producers would not achieve their aim of re-engaging voters with that bunch of
nutters . to give sir bernard his dues monday evening s opening episode did
attract more than a smattering of eccentrics and self-publicists. among those
chancing their arm were a druid priest and a former porn star who insisted on
removing her top to make her point about the legalisation of brothels. among the
more eccentric policy proposals was a public holiday on bruce forsyth s birthday
and bill oddie for prime minister. the show follows the time-honoured pop idol
format with queues of nervous hopefuls and a panel of three experts judging their
performance. the contestants were given 60 seconds to present their manifestos.
then the final 25 were tested on their lobbying ability. they were then cross-
examined by the panel which was chaired by ex-itn political editor john sergeant
with television host lorraine kelly taking the nicki chapman role. but the real
star of the show is kelvin mackenzie in the simon cowell mr nasty seat. the
former sun editor dispensed a stream of well-crafted insults and one-liners. his
advice for one young contestant was to get a haircut and a brain transplant .
wheelchair user kevin donnellon was asked: why on earth do you want our elected
representatives to be disabled don t you care about the inuit implored
guitar-toting environmental campaigner barry lim. i don t care about them. i care
about myself and when the sun s shining i think - fantastic replied mr mackenzie.
mr lim later reduced the panel to fits of giggles as he outlined his plan to make
people do community service instead of paying taxes. when the prime minister turns
to the chancellor and says how much have we got in the coffers mr brown he says
well prime minister bad news all the houses in britain have been painted but
actually nobody has paid any tax observed mr mackenzie. that was an total
disaster. i just couldn t seem to think of things to say a crestfallen mr lim
confided in the show s presenter jonathan maitland. irfan hanif a 25-year-old
doctor from bolton made a good impression even if he was a little thrown by mr
mackenzie s suggestion that instead of being treated by the nhs young drunks
should given a good beating and left to die. dominic carman - son of late libel
lawyer george carman - was voted through to the final 25 on a platform of cutting
defence spending to boost education. opinion was more divided over rodney hylton-
potts a 59-year-old convicted fraudster. mr mackenzie thought the smooth-talking
former solicitor - with a hardline on crime and immigration - deserved a chance to
progress. he could join the rest of the crooks in the houses of parliament. but
ms kelly said she would not trust him as far as she could throw him . the series
continues throughout the week with the public given the chance to evict one
prospective mp every night. itv will not fund the election campaign for the
eventual winner but the publicity could give the winner a flying start over other
candidates.
unilever shake up as profit slips anglo-dutch consumer goods giant unilever is to
merge its two management boards after reporting unsatisfactory earnings for 2004.
it blamed the poor results on sluggish decision making a rise in discounted
retailers and a wet european summer. the company also cited difficult trading
conditions and a lack of demand for goods such as its slimfast range. unilever
which owns brands including dove soap said annual pre-tax profit fell 36% to 2.9bn
euros (£1.99bn). shares fell 1% to 510.75 pence in london and dropped by 1.2% to
50.50 euros in amsterdam. under the restructuring plans patrick cescau the uk-
based co-chairman will become group chief executive. dutch co-chairman antony
burgmans will take on the role of non-executive chairman. we have recognised the
need for greater clarity of leadership and we are moving to a simpler leadership
structure that will provide a sharper operational focus mr burgmans said. we are
leaving behind one of the key features of unilever s governance but this is a
natural development following the changes introduced last year. the company which
has had dual headquarters in rotterdam and london since 1930 will announce the
location of its head office at a later date. unilever is not alone in trying to
simplify its business. oil giant shell last year dismantled its dual-ownership
structure after a series of problems relating to the size of its oil reserves that
hammered its share price and led to the resignation of key board members. the best
part of the news this morning was that the company announced a structure
simplification said arjan sweere an analyst at petercam. the company said the
organizational changes would speed decision making and it also may make further
changes. the company said its main focus will be on improving profits and it is
planning to accelerate and increase investment in its 400 main brands. while it is
certainly the case that markets have been tougher in the past eighteen months than
we had expected we have also lost some market share said mr cescau. we let a
range of targets limit our ability flexibility and did not adjust our plans quickly
enough to a more difficult business environment. our objective is to reverse the
share loss that we experienced in some markets in 2004 and return to growth.
unilever said european sales fell 2.8% last year dragged down by below part sales
at its beverage division where revenues dipped by almost 4%. sales of ice cream
and frozen food dipped by 3.4% in the us last year revenue grew by 1.5% despite
disappointing sales in slimfast the company said. in asia leading products came
under attack from rivals such as procter & gamble. unilever took a 1.5bn euro
one-time charge in the fourth quarter including a 650m euro write-down on slimfast
diet foods. sales of slimfast products have been hit in recent years by the
popularity of the atkins diet. but looking ahead unilever said it was optimistic
about prospects for its slimming products saying that demand is on the wane for
rival low-carbohydrate diets. the company also said it planned to spend 500m euros
this year buying back shares.
gazprom in $36m back-tax claim the nuclear unit of russian energy giant gazprom
is reportedly facing a 1bn rouble ($35.7m; £19.1m) back-tax claim for the 2001-2003
period. vedomosti newspaper reported that russian authorities made the demand at
the end of last year. the paper added that most of the taxes claimed are linked to
the company s export activity. gazprom the biggest gas company in the world took
over nuclear fuel giant atomstroieksport in october 2004. the main project of
atomstroieksport is the building of a nuclear plant in iran which has been a
source of tension between russia and the us. gazprom is one of the key players in
the complex russian energy market where the government of vladimir putin has made
moves to regain state influence over the sector. gazprom is set to merge with state
oil firm rosneft the company that eventually acquired yuganskneftegas the main
unit of embattled oil giant yukos. claims for back-taxes was a tool used against
yukos and led to the enforced sale yuganskneftegas. some analysts fear the kremlin
will continue to use these sort of moves to boost the efforts of the state to
regain control over strategically important sectors such as oil.
tarantino to make friday sequel director quentin tarantino is in talks to write
and direct a new instalment in the friday the 13th horror franchise according to
the hollywood reporter. the film-maker will reportedly meet executives from new
line cinema this week to discuss the 12th film in the long-running stalk and slash
series. the original film released in 1980 has spawned ten sequels based around
mask-wearing murderer jason voorhees. the most recent freddy vs jason was
released in summer 2003. that film saw jason battle freddy krueger star of the
nightmare on elm street franchise. according to the industry newspaper new line
had been trying to make another sequel involving ash the hero of the evil dead
movies but was unable to agree terms with director sam raimi. tarantino is said to
be intrigued by the prospect of building a new film around one of the horror genre
s most recognised figures. first however he is scheduled to direct the season
finale of us television series csi: crime scene investigation. filming is due to
start in early april. tarantino s episode for which he also wrote the original
story will be broadcast in the us on 19 may.
blair stresses prosperity goals tony blair says his party s next manifesto will be
unremittingly new labour and aimed at producing personal prosperity for all .
the prime minister is trying to draw a line under speculation over the state of his
relationship with gordon brown with the speech in chatham kent. he is saying that
prosperity means both individual wealth and ensuring radically improved public
services. he is also claiming labour is more ideologically united than ever. mr
brown is currently touring africa after a week of facing questions about reports of
his splits with downing street. with the election widely predicted for may angry
labour mps this week warned mr blair and mr brown about the dangers of disunity.
now mr blair is trying to put the focus on the substance of labour s platform for a
third term in government. labour made low inflation unemployment and mortgage
rates the centrepiece of a new poster campaign this week. and on thursday mr blair
is saying: i want to talk about the central purpose ofnew labour - which is to
increase personal prosperity and well-being not justfor a few but for all. by
prosperity i mean both the income and wealth of individuals and theirfamilies and
the opportunity and security available to them through radicallyimproved public
services and a reformed welfare state. the tories are trying to capitalise on the
apparent feud at the top of government. on wednesday they unveiled a poster which
pictured the prime minister and mr brown under the words how can they fight crime
when they are fighting each other michael howard and frontbencher john redwood on
thursday launched new plans to abolish hundreds of quangos. they say government is
spending too much and lower taxes are needed to make britain more competitive. the
liberal democrats have also claimed infighting its obstructing good government. the
latest speculation about relations between new labour s two most powerful figures
came after the publication of a new book brown s britain by robert preston. in it
he alleges that mr blair told mr brown in 2003 he would step down as prime minister
before the coming general election. the book claims the premier went back on his
pledge after support from cabinet allies and suspicion that mr brown was
manoeuvring against him. mr peston s book claimed that mr brown told mr blair:
there is nothing you could ever say to me now that i could ever believe. on
wednesday mr blair directly denied mr brown made that quote and before he left for
africa on tuesday the chancellor told reporters: of course i trust the prime
minister.
cairn shares up on new oil find shares in cairn energy have jumped 6% after the
firm said an indian oilfield was larger than previously thought. cairn said
drilling to the north-west of its development site in rajasthan had produced very
strong results . the company also said it now believed the development area would
be able to produce oil for more than 25 years. cairn s share price rose 300% last
year after a number of oil finds but its shares were hit in december following a
disappointing drilling update. december s share fall means that cairn is still in
danger of being relegated from the ftse 100 when the index is reshuffled next
month. cairn s shares closed up 64 pence or 6% at 1130p on thursday. before
christmas cairn revealed that drilling to the north of the field in rajasthan had
been disappointing which caused its shares to lose 18% in one day. however on
thursday the group said its belief that the path of oil in the area actually moved
further to the west had proved correct. this area does need more appraisal
drilling but it looks very strong dr mike watts head of exploration said. chief
executive bill gammell added: the more we progress in rajasthan the better we feel
about it. cairn made the discovery after having been granted an extension to their
drilling licence in january by indian authorities. the firm has applied for a 30-
month extension to scout for oil outside its main development area which includes
the mangala and aishwariya fields where cairn has previously announced major
discoveries. it also said production at its other fields across the globe was
likely to surpass levels seen in 2004.
quake s economic costs emerging asian governments and international agencies are
reeling at the potential economic devastation left by the asian tsunami and floods.
world bank president james wolfensohn has said his agency is only beginning to
grasp the magnitude of the disaster and its economic impact. the tragedy has left
at least 25 000 people dead with sri lanka thailand india and indonesia worst
hit. some early estimates of reconstruction costs are starting to emerge. millions
have been left homeless while businesses and infrastructure have been washed away.
economists believe several of the 10 countries hit by the giant waves could see a
slowdown in growth. in sri lanka some observers have said that as much as 1% of
annual growth may be lost. for thailand that figure is much lower at 0.1%.
governments are expected to take steps such as cutting taxes and increasing
spending to facilitate a recovery. with the enormous displacement of
people...there will be a serious relaxation of fiscal policy glenn maguire chief
economist for the region at societe generale told agence france presse. the
economic impact of it will certainly be large but it should not be enough to
derail the momentum of the region in 2005 he said. first and foremost this is a
human tragedy. india s economy however is less likely to slow because the areas
hit are some of the least developed. the regional giant has enjoyed strong growth
in 2004. but india now faces other problems with aid workers under pressure to
ensure a clean supply of water and sanitation to prevent an outbreak of disease.
thailand s prime minister thaksin shinawatra has estimated the destruction at 20bn
baht ($510m). analysts said that figure is likely to rise and the country s tourist
industry is likely to be hardest hit. thailand s fishing and real estate sectors
also will be affected by sunday s 9.0 magnitude earthquake which sent huge waves
from malaysia to africa. malaysia said as many as 1 000 fishermen will be affected
and that damage to the industry will be significant agence france presse
reported. rapid rebuilding will be key to limiting the impact of the tragedy. in
three months we should rebuild 70% of the damage in the three worst hit provinces
said juthamas siriwan governor of the tourism authority of thailand. the outlook
for sri lanka is less optimistic with analysts predicting that the country s
tourist industry will struggle to recovery quickly. tourism is a vital to many
developing countries providing jobs for 19 million people in the south east asian
region according to the world travel and tourism council (wttc).
what high-definition will do to dvds first it was the humble home video then it
was the dvd and now hollywood is preparing for the next revolution in home
entertainment - high-definition. high-definition gives incredible 3d-like
pictures and surround sound. the dvd disks and the gear to play them will not be
out for another year or so and there at are still a number of issues to be sorted
out. but when high-definition films do come out on the new format dvds it will
profoundly change home entertainment. for rick dean director of business
development for digital content company thx a high-definition future is an
exciting prospect. he has worked on the star wars dvd trilogy finding nemo the
incredibles and indiana jones. there was a time not so long ago when the film
world and the video world were two completely separate worlds he told the bbc
news website. the technology we are dealing with now means they are very much
conjoined. the film that we see in theatres is coming from the same digital file
that we take the home video master he says. but currently putting a master
feature film onto dvd requires severe compression because current dvd technology
cannot hold as much as high-definition films demand. as much as you compress the
picture data rate wise you also take qualities away from the picture that we fight
so hard to keep in the master he explains. i would love to be able to show
people what projects that we worked on really look like in the high-def world and i
find it very exciting. high-definition dvds can hold up to six times more data
than the dvds we are used to. it will take time though to persuade people who spent
money on dvd players to buy the different players and displays required to watch
high-definition dvds in 18 months time. mr dean is confident though: i think if
they see real hd [high-definition] not some heavily compressed version of it
there is such a remarkable difference. i have heard comments from people who say
the images pop off the screen. high-definition will mean some changes for those
working behind the scenes too. on the whole producing films for high-definition
dvds will be easier in some ways because less compression is needed. equally it
may mean hollywood studios ask for more to be put onto the average dvd. when we
master movies right now our data rates are running at about 1.2 gigabits per
second says mr dean. our dvds that we put out today have to be squashed down to
about five or six megabits per second. that s a huge amount of compression that
has to be applied - about 98%. so if you have anything that allows more space you
don t have to compress so hard. studios could fit a lot more marketing material
games and features onto high-capacity dvds. currently an entire dvd project can
take up to three months says mr dean. although the step of down-converting will be
bypassed this will realistically only save a day s work says mr dean. one of the
most time consuming elements is building dvd navigation and menu systems. on the
fairly complex star wars disks making sure the menu buttons worked took 45 human
hours alone. if studios want to cash in on the extra space it could mean extra
human hours for which someone has to pay. if the decision on the studio side is
that they are going to put a lot more on these disks it could be more expensive
because of all the extra navigation that is required. and if studios do focus on
delivering more added value content thinks mr dean ultimately it could mean
that they will want more money for it. those costs could filter down to the price
ticket on a high-definition dvd. but if the consumer is not willing to pay a
premium price studios will listen thinks mr dean. high-definition throws up
other challenge to film makers and dvd production alike. more clarity on screen
means film makers have to make doubly sure that attention to detail is meticulous.
when we did the first hd version of star wars episode i everybody was very sun-
tanned but that was make-up. in the hd version of episode i all these make-up
lines showed up explains mr dean. the restoration of the older star wars episodes
revealed some interesting items too. there are scans of a corridor [on the death
star] and fairly plainly in one of those shots there is a file cabinet stuck
behind one of the doorways. you never used to be able to see it because things are
just blurred enough during the pan that you just didn t see it. what high-
definition revolution ultimately means is that the line between home entertainment
and cinema worlds will blur. with home theatre systems turning living rooms into
cinemas this line blurs even further. it could also mean that how we get films
and in what format will widen. in the future we are going to look towards file
delivery over ip [internet protocol - broadband] giving a dvd-like experience from
the set-top box to the hard drive says mr dean. but that is some time off for
most and for now people still like to show off something physical in their
bookshelves.
eu referendum question unveiled the question to be asked in the referendum on the
eu constitution has been unveiled by the government. it will be: should the
united kingdom approve the treaty establishing a constitution for the european
union the constitution will be incorporated into uk law if there is a yes vote in
the referendum expected in 2006. critics say the constitution is a further step
towards a federal europe but advocates say it ensures effective operation of the
enlarged 25-state eu. if we reject this treaty britain will be isolated and weak
in europe said foreign secretary jack straw who along with the rest of the
cabinet will back a yes vote. patriots by definition wanted the uk to be
prosperous at home and strong and influential abroad mr straw said. our role as a
leading member of the eu is a crucial part of securing that. conservative shadow
foreign secretary michael ancram said the referendum question seems
straightforward . but he accused the government of trying to confuse the issue by
putting the eu referendum question in the same bill as the ratification of the
constitution when they should be treated as two separate issues . despite this
underhand trick the referendum bill stood no chance of becoming law before the
election he added. this is tony blair s cheap gesture to the pro-constitution
lobby while he runs scared of a debate on europe he knows he cannot win. neil o
brien director of anti-constitution group vote no said: the reality is that the
government doesn t want to discuss the eu constitution ahead of the election
because they know it is extremely unpopular with voters and with business. the uk
independence party said: if the government believes that a no vote would mean that
we should leave the european union they should just ask us if we want to leave the
eu. then we can be out of it and better off much sooner. liberal democrat leader
charles kennedy who backs the constitution said he expected the referendum would
come in the first half of next year. he told bbc radio 4 s today programme: the
sooner we get on with this the better. he said the question sounded very neutral
and balanced adding it would enable the argument to be enjoined fairly and
squarely on both sides . green mep caroline lucas welcomed tony blair s courage in
keeping his word on holding a referendum. but she added: this treaty is a flawed
document that will make the eu less accountable less sustainable and less just.
mr blair signed the constitution at a ceremony in rome in november but had already
made it clear the issue would be put to voters in a referendum. that promise came
after sustained pressure from opposition parties. jack straw who argues the
constitution reflected a british vision for europe and gives national
governments a stronger grip has said the referendum could be held in spring 2006.
but in an interview with the financial times mr blair refused to be pinned down to
that date saying britain would hold a poll some time in 2006 but when i don t
know . the paper said the prime minister claimed ignorance of when other
countries were planning to hold their referendums.
moya clinches cup for spain spain won the davis cup for the second time in their
history when carlos moya beat the usa s andy roddick in the fourth rubber in
seville. moya won 6-2 7-6 (7-1) 7-6 (7-5) to give the hosts an unassailable 3-1
lead with only one singles rubber remaining. roddick battled hard and had chances
in the second set but moya s clay-court expertise proved the difference. mardy
fish beat tommy robredo 7-6 (8-6) 6-2 in the final dead rubber to cut spain s
winning margin to 3-2. spain s only other davis cup title came in 2000 when they
beat australia in barcelona. this time they chose to play the final in seville and
the city s olympic stadium was revamped to allow for a record crowd for a
competitve tennis event of 27 000 spectators. and the home fans gave vociferous
support to their players with 18-year-old nadal and moya winning both friday s
singles rubbers. american twins mike and bob bryan gave the visitors hope with
victory over juan carlos ferrero and tommy robredo in saturday s doubles. but it
remained an uphill task for a us team far happier on hard courts than clay and
1998 french open champion moya had too much for world number two roddick. this has
been incredible - the moment i ve been waiting for for years said moya who
missed out in 2000 through injury. i ve prepared myself for this day. i knew that
playing on clay i would have my chances to win. the davis cup is my dream. i can
t ask for more. there is nothing bigger than what i ve lived today. moya stormed
into a 4-0 lead on his way to taking the first set against roddick and recovered
immediately from dropping serve in the second. the match came down to two tie-
breaks and moya dominated both clinching victory on his third match point. wild
celebrations followed with an emotional moya congratulated by his team-mates
including nadal who at 18 years and 187 days becomes the youngest ever victor in
davis cup history. i think we put up a better fight here than in paris two years
ago said roddick who was on the us team which lost to france in the 2002 semi-
finals at roland garros. they were just better than us this weekend. i have
nothing to be ashamed of i gave it my all. i am not going to walk out of here
with my head down that s for sure. there s no miracle answer. we have to improve.
satellite mapping aids darfur relief aid workers trying to house feed and clothe
millions of homeless refugees in the sudanese region of darfur are getting a
helping hand from advanced mapping technology. a european consortium of companies
and university groups known as respond is working to provide accurate and up to
date maps. the aim is to overcome some of the huge logistical challenges in getting
supplies to where they are needed. respond is using satellite imagery to produce
accurate maps that can be used in the field rapidly. respond has produced very
detailed maps for example for the road networks for the rivers and for the
villages to more large-scale maps useful for very general planning purposes said
einar bjorgo from unosat the un satellite mapping organisation that is part of the
respond consortium. the group uses satellites from nasa the european space agency
and the disaster monitoring constellation. the satellite data is transmitted to
ground stations. from there the information makes its way to respond organisations
that specialise in interpreting such data. you have to convert the data into
images then the interpreter has to convert all this into crisis damage or
situation maps said stefan voigt who works in the remote sensing department of
one of those organisations the german aerospace centre. this kind of detailed
analysis usually takes a couple of months but respond gets it done in about 12
hours. our users are usually not so much familiar with reading satellite imagery
reading satellite maps so it s our task to transfer the data into information that
non-technical people can read and understand easily and very very efficiently
said mr voigt. respond supplies maps to aid groups via the web and on compact
disc. but the best map is one you can hold in your hands especially in remote
areas where internet connections and laptops are scarce. a map is a working
document explains herbert hansen of respond s belgian partner keyobs. you need
to use it you need to write on it correct give feedback and so on so you need
paper to write on. we print maps we laminate the maps we encapsulate the maps if
needed so you can take a shower with the map it s completely protected.
humanitarian groups in darfur have been making good use of respond s maps. they
have come in especially handy during sudan s rainy season when normally dry
riverbeds or wadis became flooded. these wadis had a very small amount of
flooding generally in terms of depth but greatly impeded the transport
capabilities and capacities of the humanitarian groups on the ground says stephen
candillon of respond imaging partner sertit. respond s rapid imaging has allowed
aid groups to find ways around the wadis allowing then to mark on their maps which
roads were washed out at which times. aid groups say that combination of satellite
technology and on-the-ground observation helped keep relief flowing to those who
needed it. clark boyd is technology correspondent for the world a bbc world
service and wgbh-boston co-production
pop band busted to take a break chart-topping pop band busted have confirmed that
they plan to take a break following rumours that they were on the verge of
splitting. a statement from the band s record company universal said frontman
charlie simpson planned to spend some time working with his other band fightstar.
however they said that busted would reconvene in due course . the band have had
eight top three hits including four number ones since they first hit the charts
in 2002. their singles include what i go to school for year 3000 crashed the
wedding you said no and who s david the band which also includes members matt
jay and james bourne made the top ten with their self-titled debut album as well
as the follow-up a present for everyone in 2003. they won best pop act and best
breakthrough act at the 2004 brit awards and were nominated for best british group.
most recently they topped the charts with the theme from the live-action film
version of thunderbirds which was voted record of the year on the itv1 show. the
band have capitalised on a craze for artists playing catchy pop music with rock
overtones. the trio are seen as an alternative to more manufactured artists who are
not considered credible musicians because they do not write their own songs or play
their own instruments. however recent rumours have suggested that simpson has been
wanting to quit the band to focus on fightstar. he now plans to take fightstar on
tour.
blunkett sorry over murder plan david blunkett has apologised to mps after the home
office announced prematurely via press release a review of murder laws. the home
secretary confirmed the review was to get under way in the wake of a law commission
report which branded the current murder law as a mess . he said the review would
look at partial defences to murder including provocation and at mandatory
sentences. the home office has already said the review will begin next year. on
wednesday a home office spokeswoman said the terms of reference for the review had
not been established but it was likely to include only england and wales. news of
the review was released because it was thought mr blunkett would make the official
announcement in a commons debate on wednesday. but the announcement never came
with the home secretary saying the debate had never reached that stage. amid
opposition anger mr blunkett had to answer an emergency question in parliament on
thursday. he said he had taken steps to ensure the incident was not repeated.
shadow home secretary david davis welcomed his gracious apology and the review
itself. but he argued the minister should have volunteered a formal statement
instead of having to be dragged to face mps. in its report the law commission
said it had found wide support among criminal justice professionals for an end to
the mandatory life sentence for murder. the panel suggested different kinds of
murders could be graded to recognise the seriousness of the offence. but the
home office said mandatory life sentences would not be abolished and argued courts
already had flexibility. the commission an independent body including two judges
a senior barrister and sentencing experts had been asked to consider reforms to
the defence of provocation in murder cases. but it said its proposals were unlikely
to work without a far wider review of the law. results of a consultation exercise
showed 64 respondents out of 146 - among them 21 judges - believed a mandatory life
sentence for every murder was indefensible and should cease . a key question was
whether one category should continue to cover all types of murder from mercy
killings to serial or contract killings. the commission found support for the idea
of grading murders so that the sentence reflected the seriousness of the offence.
but speaking after the report was published home office minister baroness scotland
said: murder is the most serious of crimes and we have no intention of abolishing
the mandatory life sentence. where an offender is convicted of murder the court
must pass a life sentence. the commission also recommended tightening the law so
that the provocation defence cannot be used in cases where someone has killed for
revenge such as a jealous husband who murders an unfaithful wife.
stormy year for property insurers a string of storms typhoons and earthquakes has
made 2004 the most expensive year on record for property insurers according to
swiss re. the world s second biggest insurer said disasters around the globe have
seen property claims reach $42bn (£21.5bn). 2004 reinforces the trend towards
higher losses said swiss re. tightly packed populations in the areas involved in
natural and man-made disasters were to partly to blame for the rise in claims it
said. some 95% of insurance claims were for natural catastrophes with the rest
attributed to made-made events. the largest claims came from the us which was
struck by four hurricanes and japan which suffered the highest concentration of
typhoons for decades plus a major earthquake. europe suffered fewer natural
disasters but 191 people were killed and more than 2 000 injured in march after
the terrorist attack on train stations in madrid. the damages claimed in 2004
eclipsed previous years including 2001 when the 11 september attacks pushed claims
up to $37bn. swiss re said it had registered about 300 natural and man-made
disasters around the world in 2004. twenty-one thousand people lost their lives in
the catastrophes with a cost to the global economy of around $105bn (£54bn).
tsunami slows sri lanka s growth sri lanka s president has launched a
reconstruction drive worth $3.5bn (£1.8bn) by appealing for peace and national
unity. president kumaratunga said it was now important to find a peaceful solution
to years of internal conflict. meanwhile the international monetary fund (imf)
said damage from the tsunami would cut one percentage point from sri lanka s
economic growth this year. it estimated the wave left physical damage equal to 6.5%
of the economy. separately the international labour organisation (ilo) said that
at least one million people have lost their livelihoods in sri lanka and indonesia
alone. it called for action to create jobs. president kumaratunga attended a
ceremony in the southern town of hambantota. she was joined by government and
opposition politicians together with buddhist hindu muslim and christian clergy.
prime minister mahinda rajapakse laid the foundation stone on a new housing project
intended to provide 6 000 homes for survivors of the tsunami. mrs kumaratunga
called for the tragedy to be the start of a new beginning to rebuild our nation .
we are a country blessed with so many natural resources and we have not made use of
them fully. instead we have been squabbling fighting she added. norway s peace
negotiator erik solheim is due to arrive on wednesday to try to revive peace talks
in the decades-long conflict between government forces and the tamil tigers who
want a separate state in the north east of the country. reconstruction efforts in
eastern sri lanka have been hampered by tensions between the two sides. the imf
said that the sri lankan authorities initial estimates have put the physical
damage at $1.3 to $1.5bn but added that the implications for the economy were much
wider than this. the broader macroeconomic impact will clearly be substantial but
the details are difficult to assess at this early stage the imf said. growth
inflation the balance of payments and foreign exchange reserves are all expected
to show the effects of lost businesses and reconstruction costs. the fishing
industry has been devastated agricultural production may be affected and tourism
will suffer especially in the short term the report said. the ilo estimated that
400 000 sri lankans have lost their jobs mostly in these three industries.
earnings from tourism this year are expected to be 15% lower than last year.
economic growth this year is expected to be 4% which is about 1% less than
previously forecast. inflation could climb to 14% compared to a previous estimate
of 12%. although major exports have not suffered the imf expects the
reconstruction effort will require higher imports which could damage the balance of
payments. foreign exchange reserves may become strained as sri lanka will be hard
pressed to keep international reserves at the pre-tsunami level which totalled
more than two months worth of imports. last week the imf approved sri lanka s
request for a freeze on loan repayments.
ireland call up uncapped campbell ulster scrum-half kieran campbell is one of five
uncapped players included in ireland s rbs six nations squad. campbell is joined
by ulster colleagues roger wilson and ronan mccormack along with connacht s bernard
jackman and munster s shaun payne. gordon d arcy is back after injury while munster
flanker alan quinlan also returns to international consideration. the squad is
selected purely on form. a lot of players put their hands up coach eddie o
sullivan told bbc sport. kieran campbell was just one of those players. he has
been playing very well in the heineken cup and deserves his call-up. there is big
competition in some departments and not so much in others. there were one or two
players who were unfortunate just to miss out. back-row forwards david wallace and
victor costello are omitted with o sullivan having quinlan wilson simon easterby
anthony foley denis leamy and johnny o connor vying for the three positions. with
david humphreys kevin maggs simon best and tommy bowe again included it is
ulster s biggest representation in a training panel for quite some time. munster
and leinster have 12 and 11 players in the squad respectively while jackman is the
sole connacht representative. four british-based players are also included. ulster
forward ronan mccormack said he was totally shocked to be included. i m really
looking forward to it said mccormack. i played with guys like brian o driscoll
and denis hickie back in my school days in leinster so i do know a few of them
although not that well. it will be great to work with them. s best (ulster) s
byrne (leinster) r corrigan (leinster) l cullen (leinster) s easterby (llanelli)
a foley (munster) j hayes (munster) m horan (munster) b jackman (connacht) d
leamy (munster) e miller (leinster) r mccormack (ulster) d o callaghan (munster)
p o connell (munster) j o connor (wasps) m o kelly (leinster) f sheahan
(munster) r wilson (ulster) a quinlan (munster). t bowe (ulster) k campbell
(ulster) g d arcy (ulster) g dempsey (leinster) g duffy (harlequins) g easterby
(leinster) d hickie (leinster) a horgan (munster) s horgan (leinster) d
humphreys (ulster) k maggs (ulster) g murphy (leicester) b o driscoll
(leinster) r o gara (munster) s payne (munster) p stringer (munster). k gleeson
(leinster) t howe (ulster) j kelly (munster) n mcmillan (ulster).
tarantino to direct csi episode film director quentin tarantino is to direct an
episode of us television series csi: crime scene investigation. the oscar-winning
pulp fiction director has also written an original story for the season finale
episode. csi s co-producer carol mendelsohn said the episode would have more
bugs and blood than usual. it is not tarantino s first venture into tv. in 1995 he
directed an episode of the medical drama er and has also appeared in alias. ms
mendelsohn said the production team had been trying for a while to get tarantino to
direct an episode of csi and added that he was a fan of the forensic drama. she
said he finally agreed a few weeks ago while csi was doing some location shooting
in las vegas and the show s stars persuaded him. he knows everything there is to
know about csi and he is into the whole mythology of csi mendelsohn said.
quentin came in a couple of weeks ago. we had a story meeting with the writers. he
had a great idea and it was so much fun to have him in the room... we are
positively giddy. filming is due to start in early april and the tarantino-
directed episode will be broadcast in the us on 19 may.
blair congratulates bush on win tony blair has said he looks forward to continuing
his strong relationship with george bush and working with him during his second
term as president. mr bush s re-election came at a crucial time for a world that
was fractured divided and uncertain mr blair said. it had to be brought
together he added saying action was needed on poverty the middle east and the
conditions on which terrorists prey. mr blair said states had to work with the us
to fight global terrorism. but there was a need to recognise it would not be
defeated by military might alone but also by demonstrating the strength of our
common values he added. solving the conflict in the middle east was the world s
single most pressing political challenge of the present day mr blair warned. the
prime minister also urged europe and the us to build anew their alliance . all
of us in positions of leadership not just president bush have a responsibility to
rise to this challenge. it is urgent that we do so. mr blair also paid tribute to
democrat john kerry s campaign saying he had helped make the presidential election
a true celebration of american democracy . the election of the us president was
significant for the world but particularly so for britain because of its special
relationship he added. earlier tory leader michael howard sent mr bush his
warmest congratulations saying: we look to the president to be a unifying force
for those all over the world who share our determination to defend freedom.
liberal democrat leader charles kennedy welcomed the fact there had been a quick
conclusion to the election unlike in 2000. mr bush s first task was to rebuild a
sense of domestic purpose within the us he said. mr kennedy said:
internationally it is to be hoped that a second term will see a more sensitive
approach to relations with long-standing allies not least for the global efforts
to combat terrorism. lib dem foreign affairs spokesman menzies campbell said a win
by mr kerry would have given mr blair the chance of a fresh start adding it was
almost as if there was an umbilical cord between mr bush and the uk premier.
europeans must hope that his administration will be much more multilateral in
character and that he will act swiftly to rebuild the atlantic partnership which
is so vital to security. iraq will remain an issue of potential division for some
time to come. even before the result became clear mr blair was being urged to
push for action on climate change at his first meeting with whichever candidate
won. liberal democrat environment spokesman norman baker underlined the issue of
global warming during a commons debate on anglo-american relations on wednesday.
environment secretary margaret beckett has said the us will act on global warming
despite george bush s refusal to sign up to the kyoto protocol on carbon emissions.
public opinion would force change she told bbc news. but myron ebell an adviser
on climate change to president bush has said there would be no change in the us
stance and rejected the threat of climate change. he claimed the us was the only
country with independent scientists.
playstation 3 processor unveiled the cell processor which will drive sony s
playstation 3 will run 10-times faster than current pc chips its designers have
said. sony ibm and toshiba who have been working on the cell processor for three
years unveiled the chip on monday. it is being designed for use in graphics
workstations the new playstation console and has been described as a
supercomputer on a chip. the chip will run at speeds of greater than 4 ghz the
firms said. by comparison rival chip maker intel s fastest processor runs at 3.8
ghz. details of the chip were released at the international solid state circuits
conference in san francisco. the new processor is set to ignite a fresh battle
between intel and the cell consortium over which processor sits at the centre of
digital products. the playstation 3 is expected in 2006 while toshiba plans to
incorporate it into high-end televisions next year. ibm has said it will sell a
workstation with the chip starting later this year. cell is comprised of several
computing engines or cores. a core based on ibm s power architecture controls
eight synergistic processing centres. in all they can simultaneously carry out
10 instruction sequences compared with two for current intel chips. later this
year intel and advanced micro devices plan to release their own multicore chips
which also increase the number of instructions that can be executed at once. the
cell s specifications suggest the playstation 3 will offer a significant boost in
graphics capabilities but analysts cautioned that not all the features in a product
announcement will find their way into systems. any new technology like this has
two components said steve kleynhans an analyst with meta group. he said: it has
the vision of what it could be because you need the big vision to sell it. then
there s the reality of how it s really going to be used which generally is several
levels down the chain from there. while the playstation 3 is likely to be the
first mass-market product to use cell the chip s designers have said the flexible
architecture means that it would be useful for a wide range of applications from
servers to mobile phones. initial devices are unlikely to be any smaller than a
games console however because the first version of the cell will run hot enough
to need a cooling fan. and while marketing speak describes the chip as a
supercomputer - it remains significantly slower than the slowest computer on the
list of the world s top 500 supercomputers. ibm said cell was os neutral and
would support multiple operating systems simultaneously but designers would not
confirm if microsoft s windows was among those tested with the chip. if cell is to
challenge intel s range of chips in the marketplace it will need to find itself
inside pcs which predominantly run using windows.
turkey knocks six zeros off lira turkey is to relaunch its currency on saturday
knocking six zeros off the lira in the hope of boosting trade and powering its
growing economy. the change will see the end of such dizzyingly-high denominations
as five million lira - enough for a short taxi ride - and the 20m note worth $15.
these valuations were the product of decades of inflation which as recently as
2001 was as high as 70%. inflation has since been tamed and economic prospects are
improving. the currency - officially to be known as the new lira - will be
launched at midnight on 1 january. from that point the one-million lira note will
become the new one-lira coin. the government hopes the change will be seen as a
promise of growing economic stability as turkey embarks on the long process of
trying to join the european union. on an everyday level it is hoped the change
will stimulate more international trade and end confusion among foreign investors
and turks alike. the transition to the new turkish lira shows clearly that our
economy has broken the vicious circle that it was imprisoned in for long years
said sureyya serdengecti head of the turkish central bank. the new lira is also
the symbol of the stable economy that we dreamed of for long years. the turkish
economy teetered on the brink of collapse in 2001 when the lira plunged in value
and two million people lost their jobs. turkey had to turn to the international
monetary fund for financial assistance accepting a $18bn loan in return for
pushing through a wide-ranging austerity programme. these tough measures have borne
fruit. inflation fell below 10% earlier this year for the first time in decades
while exports are up 30% this year. meanwhile the economy is expanding at a
healthy rate with 7.9% growth expected in 2004. the government hopes that the new
currency will cement the country s economic progress two weeks after eu leaders
set a date for the start of turkey s accession talks. the slimmed-down lira is
likely to be widely welcomed by the business community. the turkish lira has been
like funny money tevfik aksoy chief turkish economist for deutsche bank told
associated press. now at least in cosmetic terms it will look like real currency.
however some do not feel quite so happy about seeing the nominal value of their
investments reduced. if a person has 10 billion lira in investments this will
suddenly decrease shop owner hayriye evren told associated press. this will
definitely affect people psychologically.
qantas sees profits fly to record australian airline qantas has posted a record
fiscal first-half profit thanks to cost-cutting measures. net profit in the six
months ending 31 december rose 28% to a$458.4m ($357.6m; £191m) from a year
earlier. analysts expected a figure closer to a$431m. qantas shares fell almost 3%
however after it warned that earnings growth would slow in the second half. sales
will dip by at least a$30m after the indian ocean tsunami devastated many holiday
destinations qantas said. the tsunami affected travel patterns in ways that we
were a bit surprised about chief executive geoff dixon explained. it certainly
affected japanese travel into australia. as soon as the tsunami hit we saw ... a
lessening with bookings for australia. higher fuel costs also are expected to eat
into earnings in coming months. we don t have as much hedging benefit in the
second half as we had in the first said chief financial officer peter gregg.
qantas is facing increased pressure from rivals such as low-cost carrier virgin
blue and the australian government is in talks about whether to allow singapore
airlines to fly between the australia and the us - one of qantas key routes. even
so the firm is predicting that full-year earnings will increase from the previous
12 months. analysts have forecast full-year profit will rise about 11% to around
a$720 million ($563 million). qantas boss mr dixon also said he would be reviewing
the group s cost-cutting measures. during the first six months of the fiscal year
qantas made savings of a$245m and is on track to top its target of a$500m for the
full year. last month the company warned it may transfer as many as 7 000 jobs out
australia with mr dixon quoted as saying that the carrier could no longer afford
to remain all-australian .
uk s useless quangos under fire the uk has 529 quangos financed with billions of
pounds of taxpayers cash - many of which are useless or duplicate each other s
efforts a report claims. essential guide to british quangos 2005 author dan lewis
said at least 111 of the appointed bodies had been set up since labour won power in
1997. he urged a limit on the number of quangos that could be set up by any
individual government department. tories and lib dems welcomed the report and
called for a slimming down . conservative deregulation spokesman john redwood
said: the research endorses our policy of destroying unwanted and unnecessary
quangos and slimming down the rest. a conservative government will axe 162
quangos as part of its drive for more efficient and more accountable government.
lib dem spokesman ed davey meanwhile said instead of the bonfire of quangos new
labour had promised there had been an explosion of them. for over two decades
under both tory and labour governments these unaccountable agencies have
mushroomed. liberal democrats would abolish many merge others and make any that
remain properly accountable. labour representatives were unavailable for comment.
the quango guide follows last year s government-commissioned gershon report which
recommended significant cuts in bureaucracy across the public sector. mr lewis
wants a public inquiry into regional development agencies which cost £1.8bn a year
- cash he says which appears to be almost entirely wasted . as well as a
departmental limit on quangos he also wants a statutory five-year limit on any such
body with executive powers. he also listed what he dubbed the nine most useless
quangos . they were the british potato council the milk development council the
energy savings trust agricultural wages committees the wine standards board the
westminster foundation for democracy the football licensing authority investors
in people uk and the economic and social research council. mr lewis branded the
existence of the 60-employee potato council set up in 1997 to research and promote
overseas potato markets surprising . he said the £80m spent annually on the
energy savings trust which promotes renewable energy would be better spent on
eight million boiler jackets for british homes. and he argued it was absurd to
charge farmers for agricultural wages committees which set working and wage
standards in the industry when many were prepared to take advantage of immigrant
labour prepared to work for £1 an hour. if a football team can afford to pay £27m
for wayne rooney why should the taxpayer - not all of whom like football - be
forced to fund the football licensing authority to the tune of over £1.1m a year
mr lewis asked. the report is published by the efficiency in government unit - a
joint effort by right of centre think tanks the economic research council and the
centre for policy studies. it says before a new public body is set up an
assessment should be made whether its proposed role is already carried out by an
existing charity or other private organisation.
parmalat founder offers apology the founder and former boss of parmalat has
apologised to investors who lost money as a result of the italian dairy firm s
collapse. calisto tanzi said he would co-operate fully with prosecutors
investigating the background to one of europe s largest financial scandals.
parmalat was placed into bankruptcy protection in 2003 after a 14bn euro black hole
was found in its accounts. more than 130 000 people lost money following the firm s
collapse. mr tanzi 66 issued a statement through his lawyer after five hours of
questioning by prosecutors in parma on 15 january. prosecutors are seeking
indictments against mr tanzi and 28 others - including several members of his
family and former parmalat chief financial officer fausto tonna - for alleged
manipulation of stock market prices and making misleading statements to accountants
and italy s financial watchdog. two former parmalat auditors will stand trial later
this month for their role in the firm s collapse. i apologise to all who have
suffered so much damage as a result of my schemes to make my dream of an industrial
project come true mr tanzi s statement said. it is my duty to collaborate fully
with prosecutors to reconstruct the causes of parmalat s sudden default and who is
responsible. mr tanzi spent several months in jail in the wake of parmalat s
collapse and was kept under house arrest until last september. parmalat is now
being run by a state appointed administrator enrico bondi who has launched
lawsuits against 80 banks in an effort to recover money for the bankrupt company
and its shareholders. he has alleged that these companies were aware of the true
state of parmalat s finances but continued to lend money to the company. the
companies insist they were the victims of fraudulent book-keeping. parmalat was
declared insolvent after it emerged that 4 billion euros (£2.8bn; $4.8bn) it
supposedly held in an offshore account did not in fact exist. the firm s demise
sent shock waves through italy where its portfolio of top-selling food brands and
its position as the owner of leading football club parma had turned it into a
household name.
stuart joins norwich from addicks norwich have signed charlton midfielder graham
stuart until the end of the season for an undisclosed fee. it was a very easy
decision to make the 34-year-old told norwich s website. the attraction for me
was to continue to play in the premiership. canaries boss nigel worthington added:
i m delighted that graham will be joining us until the end of the season. he s
gives us a wealth of experience. hopefully he can be part of keeping us in the
premier league. stuart has extensive top-flight experience with everton chelsea
and charlton and can play across the midfield positions. he joins norwich with the
norfolk club second-from-bottom in the premiership but stuart is confident that
the carrow road outfit have a bright future. i ve been very impressed with the
facilities here. it s obviously a very well run football club with excellent
facilities and i ve always enjoyed playing at carrow road he added. it s a nice
compact ground with a good atmosphere and hopefully i can help give the fans
something else to cheer. stuart a former england under-21 international made
110 appearances for chelsea scoring 18 goals before joining everton. he won the
fa cup with the toffees in 1995 and remains a hero at goodison park after his 81st-
minute winner against wimbledon saved everton from relegation in 1994. stuart spent
just over four years at goodison park making 125 senior appearances and scoring 25
goals before signing for sheffield united - where he scored 12 goals in 68
appearances. after signing for charlton he made 164 appearances scoring 23 times
but recently he has been battling a back problem and had not played for the
londoners for three months before heading to norwich.
my memories of marley... to mark the 60th anniversary of the birth of reggae star
bob marley rob partridge - marley s former head of press at island records -
remembers the man behind the legend. partridge worked with marley from 1977 until
the jamaican musician s death in 1981. : i joined island records in 1977 and the
first week i was there i worked on his show at the rainbow theatre. it was one of
the last dates he did in london. : the album exodus came out in 1977 and that
provided five hits and confirmed his global superstar status. by 1979 he was the
biggest touring attraction in the world. i remember going to see dates in milan and
turin and they were enormous concerts. : bob was one of the most mesmeric people
i ve ever had the privilege to work with. he must have had an iron will to
succeed. bob was a very driven individual. you realised from the start there was a
manifest destiny within him that he believed in. he didn t suffer fools gladly. at
the risk of stating the obvious he was an extraordinary song writer and his stage
act was perhaps the greatest i ve ever seen. i saw him many times. : i recall in
1978 he came to the uk for top of the pops and a daily mirror journalist did a
half-hour interview. it was interrupted to do a rehearsal. he came back into the
dressing room to resume the interview but saw a world cup match on tv. he sat
down in front of the tv and after 10 minutes it was obvious he wasn t going to
move. that was the end of it. the mirror had a very truncated interview. the last
time i saw him was in london in 1980. i arranged for him to play four days of
football indoors in fulham. bob was a good player. we are talking about jamaican-
style football. he was an attacking midfield player. his team assembled wherever
his gigs were. we played in brazil against some world cup-winning players. : it
was always a struggle for him to connect with black america. reggae did not
correspond with disco in the 70s. but bob in the 1990s became one of the great
icons in america and the third world. in 1991 ten years after his death he sold
more records than at any time during his life. we saw black america taking bob
into their hearts for the first time. : bob in worldwide terms is the greatest
music star there has ever been. if you went to africa he would be recognised
everywhere in places john lennon or elvis wouldn t be. no disrespect to the other
artists but a case can be made for him as the greatest the best and the most
influential artist in popular music. : well 1981 was to be the year he toured
africa with stevie wonder. he had only performed in zimbabwe and guinea before. of
course the 1981 tour never happened but the whole of africa would have embraced
him. we can t speculate but he was at the height of his powers and just 36 years
old. i had no sense his career was going to go downhill. : bob was endlessly
optimistic about the way africa would turn out. he realised that nothing was
perfect but he had total belief in the power of mankind. i m sure if he were alive
today he would believe africa would firstly become politically free and secondly be
able to defeat the aids epidemic. : the final tune of his final album was
redemption song - one of the most incredible classics of all time.
capriati to miss melbourne jennifer capriati has become the third leading lady to
withdraw from the australian open because of injury. the organisers of the first
grand slam of 2005 which begins on 17 january said the american has a problem
with her right shoulder. it comes as a blow to the women s draw as last year s
champion justin henin-hardenne and runner-up kim clijsters will also be absent.
capriati is a two-time champion in melbourne with wins in 2001 and 2002. she is
believed to have picked up the injury at the advanta championships at philadelphia
in november and had to pull out of an exhibition match with wimbledon champion
maria sharapova on 17 december. capriati also decided against competing in the
australian open warm-up event the sydney international.
fightstar take to the stage charlie simpson took his new band fightstar to the
stage on friday night just hours after officially announcing his departure from
pop band busted. he was greeted by a sell-out crowd at the university of warwick.
confirmation of busted s long-rumoured split had come earlier in the day when
simpson held a press conference in london with bandmates matt willis and james
bourne. all three band members stressed that the break up was amicable although
bourne admitted he was devastated to hear of simpson s departure. this has been
a really difficult decision 19-year-old simpson revealed i hope the fans will
understand. while simpson declared he would look back with pride on busted s
enormous success his focus turned immediately to fightstar with friday s press
conference coinciding with the start of the band s 13-date tour of the uk. fuelled
by this news all 1 400 tickets to see charlie s first post-busted live appearance
- at the university of warwick s student union - sold out rapidly. mike eccleshall
the venue s promotions coordinator said: tickets had been selling strongly over
the past few days but sales went mad after the news broke. we had completely sold
out by 4pm. with queues outside the venue long and expectations high the
pressure was on fightstar to impress. although many dedicated fans travelled to the
gig from around the country they faced a tough crowd made up chiefly of students
the average age of the audience far exceeding that of any busted concert. gone were
the screaming girls to which simpson had become accustomed. support act brigade
fronted by simpson s brother played a short set first and were met with general
approval. when fightstar eventually took to the stage around 11pm however a
riotous cheer easily drowned out any hecklers lurking in the crowd. unfortunately
the band were initially hindered by technical teething problems as simpson s guitar
amplifier failed to work. as sound technicians rushed to fix it other band members
did their best to improvise. when they eventually got under way fightstar s blend
of emotionally charged rock was warmly received. far heavier and less commercial
than busted s chart-topping pop-punk the band will undoubtedly appeal to a more
mature fan-base. warwick student helen clutterbuck admitted: i came to check out
fightstar because of all the controversy. i ve never heard them before but i m
pretty impressed. less impressed were fellow students ryan crabbe and gordon
rennie who observed with fightstar charlie has clearly progressed from busted s
sound but they re still not very inspiring. fightstar played for around 45
minutes showcasing material from their forthcoming ep called they liked you better
when you were dead due for release in february.
what price for trusted pc security you can now buy trusted computers but can
we really trust the pc vendors asks technology analyst bill thompson. if you have
recently bought an ibm thinkvantage computer a dell optiplex or one of a whole
range of laptops from toshiba hp/compaq or samsung then you may have got more for
your money than you realised. inside your shiny new pc is an extra chip called the
trusted platform module (tpm) that can be used for a range of hardware-based
security features. eventually the tpm will be built into the main processor itself
and if the trusted computing group has its way then you will find one in every
piece of hardware you own from mobile phones to tv set top boxes to children s
toys. but for the moment it is a separate piece of hardware providing enhanced
security features to programs that know how to use them. and as part of a well-
designed network system it can provide a lot more security than we enjoy today. a
big advantage of the tpm is that it is hardware-based. at the moment most of us
rely on software to keep our information safe and secure. it might be password-
protected user accounts data encryption programs or a firewall but it all relies
on program code running on an inherently insecure processor. hardware security is
less common even if it is a lot safer. this is partly because it is more expensive
to give someone a smartcard than a password but also because its more work for
users systems administrators and managers. as a result we settle for second best.
so when it comes to computer security trusted systems could be a major step
forward. after all if you have a laptop that will only run programs that have been
digitally signed then it will be a lot harder for virus writers to get their
malicious code to run. and if all your files are locked automatically then even if
you get your computer stolen your personal data will be safeguarded. at the moment
support for trusted hardware is not built into major operating systems. instead you
have to use special software like hp s protecttools or wave systems embassy. this
provides file encryption password management and identity protection usually for
business users who connect to company networks. full support for the trusted
computing specification will not be available from microsoft until the next release
of windows longhorn . this will include what microsoft in a typical act of
obscurantism calls the next generation secure computing base and it will give
user-level programs access to the trusted computing hardware. when that happens we
can expect to see a lot of publicity around the new capabilities and no doubt the
windows security centre will encourage users to turn on their trusted computing
capability just as they turn on their firewall. however there is a downside to the
increased security from viruses spyware and data theft that this will provide.
because the trusted computing base is also used to make digital rights management
(drm) systems more secure this will give content providers a lot more control over
what we can do with music movies and books that we have bought from them. we have
seen recently how allowing digital rights management services into our lives can
lead to unwelcome consequences. users of apple s itunes used to be able to stream
the music they had brought to up to five other itunes users a great way of letting
your mates discover your music collection. but the latest version of itunes limits
this capability just as an earlier upgrade reduced the number of times you could
burn a selected playlist of purchased songs to a cd. another took away the ability
to play songs downloaded from real s harmony service on your ipod. apple can do
this because they wrote the software and they control the rights management. once
it is embedded in trusted hardware it will be even harder for dedicated programmers
to find their way around these restrictions and give us back the fair use rights
that should be guaranteed under copyright law. similarly users of tivo digital
video recorders have found that they cannot record some shows and other programmes
that they have recorded are automatically deleted after a day. this happens because
of changes that tivo have made to their software and the users cannot control it.
one wonders whether hardware-based drm will work for those who believe that
locking-down digital content is a bad idea and that the flexibility of copyright
law is something that should be embraced and not taken away. it will not work
because of the fundamental flaw at the heart of the system: in order for the
purchaser to view the content it has to be unlocked. once it is unlocked then
someone somewhere will figure out a way to make a copy of the unlocked version.
and once an unlocked version leaks onto the network it will be uncontrollable. the
efforts going into drm would be much better spent building efficient distribution
services finding business models that are based on trusting your customers and
offering high quality downloads at fair prices. what we want is not so much a
trusted computing platform as a trusted customer platform. the record companies and
the film industry need to recognise that most of us most of the time will pay a
reasonable amount for good quality material. they will benefit more by building a
market in which i can share songs with my friends record shows i want to watch
later and burn cds for my kids; a market which respects the spirit of copyright
law and does not seek to replace it by restrictive contracts or end user
agreements. we need to ensure that trusted computing remains under the control of
the users and is not used to take away the freedoms we enjoy today. bill thompson
is a regular commentator on the bbc world service programme go digital.
ministers lose slopping out case the scottish executive has lost an appeal against
an inmate s compensation for being forced to slop out in prison. armed robber
robert napier 25 won £2 450 after he claimed he suffered an outbreak of the skin
complaint eczema when slopping out at barlinnie prison. napier said that the
practice where prisoners use buckets in their cells as toilets breached his human
rights. on thursday the court of session threw out a move by the executive to
apply a more rigorous standard of proof. the executive faces more than 1 000
similar claims for damages from prisoners and former inmates. more than 310 actions
have already been raised in the court of session and sheriff courts in scotland. an
executive spokesman said: we will study this judgement in detail. much has changed
to address the issues raised in the napier case for example slopping out has
ended at barlinnie and work in other prisons is being accelerated. today s
judgement does not affect the outcome of other cases. napier a remand prisoner at
the time raised a legal challenge in 2001 under the european convention on human
rights in which he sought £5 000. he was awarded compensation last april after
winning his case. executive ministers raised an appeal arguing that the standard
of proof to be applied in cases alleging a breach of the european convention on
human rights through degrading and inhumane treatment should be beyond reasonable
doubt . this is the standard normally applied in criminal trials in scotland.
however civil litigation is settled on the test of a balance of probabilities .
judge lord cullen sitting with lord osborne and lord hamilton ruled that alleged
human rights breaches involving degrading treatment should be dealt with on the
normal civil standard. napier s lawyer tony kelly believes the action will soon be
followed by others. mr kelly said: there are hundreds of people still undergoing
slopping out overcrowding and poor regime and those people will certainly be
heartened by today s judgement. scottish national party justice minister kenny
macaskill said that the slopping out case had been a fiasco from start to finish .
he said: ministers were fully aware of the state of scotland s jails. funds were
available but they chose to ignore the problem and after this ruling i suspect we
will be faced with even more claims and no doubt more payouts. a short term
executive saving has resulted in a long term public cost.
profits jump at china s top bank industrial and commercial bank (icbc) china s
biggest lender has seen an 18% jump in profits during 2004. the increase in
earnings has allowed the firm to write off bad loans and pave the way for a state
bailout and eventual stock-market listing. china is trying to clean up its banking
system which is weighed down by billions of dollars of unpaid loans. it has
already pumped $45bn (£24bn) into two of its largest banks and has identified icbc
as a recipient of aid. icbc s profits were 74.7bn yuan ($9bn; £4.8bn) in 2004 the
bank said in a statement. the percentage of non-performing loans dropped to 19.1%
down about 2 percentage points. icbc was founded in 1984 and had total assets of
5.3 trillion yuan at the end of 2003. china committed to gradually opening up its
banking sector when it joined the world trade organisation in 2002.
economy stronger than forecast the uk economy probably grew at a faster rate in
the third quarter than the 0.4% reported according to bank of england deputy
governor rachel lomax. private sector business surveys suggest a stronger economy
than official estimates ms lomax said. other surveys collectively show a rapid
slowdown in uk house price growth she pointed out. this means that despite a
strong economic growth base rates will probably stay on hold at 4.75%. official
data comes from the office for national statistics (ons). though reliable ons data
takes longer to publish so now the boe is calling for faster delivery of data so
it can make more effective policy decisions. recent work by the bank has shown
that private sector surveys add value even when preliminary ons estimates are
available ms lomax said in a speech to the north wales business club. the ons is
due to publish its second estimate of third quarter growth on friday. the mpc
judges that overall growth was a little higher in the third quarter than the
official data currently indicate ms lomax said. the bank said successful monetary
policy depends on having good information. rachel lomax cited the late 1980s as an
example of a time when weak economic figures were published but substantially
revised upwards years later. the statistical fog surrounding the true state of
the economy has proved a particularly potent breeding ground for policy errors in
the past she said. improving the quality of national statistics is the single the
best way of making sure the monetary policy committee (mpc) makes the right
decisions she said. the bank of england is working in tandem with the ons to
improve the quality and speed of delivery of data. her remarks follow criticism
from the house of lords economic affairs committee which said the mpc had held
interest rates too high given that inflation was way below the 2% target. a
slowdown in the housing market and this year s surge in oil prices has made
economic forecasting all the more tricky leading to a more uncertain outlook.
this year rising oil prices and a significant slowdown in the housing market have
awoken bad memories of the 1970s and 1980s ms lomax said. the mpc will be doing
well if it can achieve the same stability over the next decade as we have enjoyed
over the past 10 years. decisions on interest rates are made after the mpc gathers
together the range of indicators available every month. the clearest signals come
when all indicators are pointing the same direction ms lomax intimated. in
economic assessment there is safety in numbers.
rolling out next generation s net the body that oversees how the net works grows
and evolves says it has coped well with its growth in the last 10 years but it is
just the start. in a sense we have hardly started in reaching the whole
population the new chair of the internet engineering task force (ietf) brian
carpenter says. the ietf ensures the smooth running and organisation of the net s
architecture. with broadband take-up growing services like voice and tv will open
up interesting challenges for the net. i think voip (voice-over internet protocol
allowing phone calls to be made over the net) is very important - it challenges all
the old cost models of telecoms says dr carpenter. second it challenges more
deeply the business model that you have to be a service provider with a lot of
infrastructure. with voip you need very little infrastructure. a distinguished
ibm engineer dr carpenter spent 20 years at cern the european laboratory for
particle physics. as the new chair of the ietf his next big challenge is
overseeing ipv6 the next generation standard for information transfer and routing
across the web. at cern dr carpenter helped pioneer advanced net applications
during the development of the world wide web so he is well-placed to take on such
a task. the net s growth and evolution depend on standards and protocols and
ensuring the architecture works and talks to other standards is a crucial job of
the ietf. the top priority is to ensure that the standards that make the net work
are open and free for anyone to use and work with. the net is built on a protocol
called tcp/ip which means transmission control protocol and internet protocol.
when computers communicate with the net a unique ip address is used to send and
receive information. the ietf is a large international community of network
designers operators vendors and researchers working on the evolution of the net
s architecture and the way this information is sent and received. they make sure it
all knits together leaving no gaps. we ve seen some interesting effects over last
few years explains dr carpenter. the net was growing at a fantastic rate at the
end of the 90s. then there was a bit of a glitch in 2000. we are now seeing a very
clear phase of consolidation and renewed growth. that renewed growth is also
being buoyed by emerging economies like china which are showing fast uptake of
broadband net and other technologies. the number of broadband subscribers via dsl
(digital subscriber line) doubled in a year to 13 million according to figures
released at the end of 2004. the challenges we face are about continuing to
produce standards to allow for that growth rate explained dr carpenter. given it
[the net] was designed for the whole community it has done well to reach millions.
if you want to reach the whole population you have to make sure it can scale up.
ipv6 the standard that will replace the existing ipv4 will allow for billions
more addresses on the net and it is gradually being worked into network
infrastructure across the world. the actual number of addresses with ipv4 is
limited to four billion ip addresses. that clearly is not enough when you have 10
billion people to serve so there is technical solution the new version of ip -
ipv6. it has much larger address space possibilities with no practical limits
said dr carpenter. standards are vital to something as complex as the net and
making sure standards are open and can work with across networks is a big task. the
difference this next generation standard ipv6 will make to the average net user
is almost invisible. our first goal is that it [ipv6] should make no difference -
people should not notice a difference. it is like when the london telephone
numbers got longer. a lot of the process will be invisible. people are usually
given an ip address without knowing it. technically deployment has started and the
standards for are just about settled said dr carpenter. the one problem with the
net that may never disappear completely is security. to dr carpenter the solution
comes out of technological and human behaviour. people have to be educated about
sensible behaviour he says such as ignoring e-mails that claim you have won
something. i don t think it is going to get worse. people will remain concerned
about security and they probably should do - just as you would be concerned walking
along a dark street. we have to do work to make sure there are better security
internet standards. it is a never-ending battle in a sense. but he adds: even if
security has improved you still worry a bit. unfortunately it is just part of
life. we have a duty to do what we can.
mixed christmas for us retailers us retailers posted mixed results for december -
with luxury retailers faring well while many others were forced to slash prices to
lift sales. upscale department store nordstrom said same store sales were 9.3%
higher than during the same period last year. trendy youth labels also sold well
with sales jumping 28% at young women s clothing retailer bebe stores and 32.2% at
american eagle outfitters. but wal-mart only saw its sales rise after it cut
prices. the company saw a 3% rise in december sales less than the 4.3% rise seen a
year earlier. customers at the world s biggest retailer are generally seen to be
the most vulnerable to america s economic woes. commentators claim many have cut
back on spending amid uncertainty over job security while low and middle-income
americans have reined in spending in the face of higher gasoline prices. analysts
said wal-mart faced a stand-off with shoppers stepping up its discounts as the
festive season wore on as consumers waited longer to get the best bargains.
however experts added that if prices had not been cut across the sector christmas
sales - which account for nearly 23% of annual retail sales - would have been far
worse. so far we are faring better than expected but the results are still split
ken perkins an analyst at research firm retailmetrics llc told associated press.
stores that have been struggling over the last couple of months appear to be
continuing that trend. and for stores that have been doing well over the last
several months december was a good month. overall december sales are forecast to
rise by 4.5% to $220bn - less than the 5.1% increase seen a year earlier. one
discount retailer to fare well in december was costco wholesale which continued a
recent run of upbeat results with a better-than-expected 8% jump in same store
sales. however the losers were many and varied. home furnishings store pier 1
imports saw its same store sales sink by a larger-than-forecast 8.8% as it battled
fierce competition. leading electronics chain best buy meanwhile missed its sales
target of a 3-5% rise in sales turning in a 2.5% increase over the christmas
period. accessory vendor claire s stores also suffered as an expected last minute
shopping rush never materialised leaving its same store sales 5% higher compared
to a 6% rise last year. jeweller zale also felt little christmas cheer with
december sales down 0.7% on the same month last year. this was not a good period
for retailers or shoppers. we saw a dearth of exciting new items kurt barnard
president of industry forecaster retail consulting group said. however one
beneficiary of the desertion of the high street is expected to be online stores.
according to a survey by goldman sachs & co harris interactive and neilsen/net
ratings sales surged 25% over the holiday season to $23.2bn.
imf cuts german growth estimate the international monetary fund is to cut its
2005 growth forecast for the german economy from 1.8% to 0.8% the financial times
deutschland reported. the imf will also reduce its growth estimate for the 12-
member eurozone economy from 2.2% to 1.6% the newspaper reported. the german
economy has been faltering with unemployment levels rising to a seventy-year high
of 5.2 million. its sluggish performance continues to hamper the entire eurozone.
the imf s draft world economic outlook - due to be published in april - would point
to a marked deterioration in germany s economy the ft report said. in september
the imf had said that german growth for the current year would be 1.8%. the imf has
also revised eurozone forecasts the paper said taking into account high oil
prices the strength of the euro and weak demand in many of the world s leading
economies. europe s economic difficulties have been highlighted by the organisation
for economic co-operation and development which argued in a report published on
tuesday that the continent could only achieve us living standards by freeing up its
labour markets. the eurozone does not look like it has a self-sustaining recovery
james carrick an economist with abn amro told the newspaper. it is too dependant
on the rest of the world.
d arcy injury adds to ireland woe gordon d arcy has been ruled out of the ireland
team for saturday s six nations clash against scotland in murrayfield. like
skipper brian o driscoll d arcy failed to recover from a hamstring injury. the
side will now be led by munster lock paul o connell. shane horgan switches from
wing to centre where he will be joined by ulster s kevin maggs. girvan dempsey
comes into the team to take the right wing spot while gavin duffy is called up to
the replacements. we gave gordon a chance but it didn t work out said ireland
coach eddie o sullivan. in terms of the risk element it was a sensible
precaution. he should be fine for the next game but we do not want to tempt fate.
maggs who will win his 67th cap was the obvious replacement at centre while shane
horgan was always likely to be moved from the wing. the only other change to the
ireland side from last weekend s win in rome sees wasps flanker johnny o connor
replacing denis leamy. o connor will be winning his third cap after making his
debut in the victory over south africa last november. : murphy dempsey horgan
maggs hickie o gara stringer corrigan byrne hayes o kelly o connell capt
s easterby o connor foley. : sheahan horan o callaghan miller g easterby
humphreys duffy.
euro firms miss out on optimism more than 90% of large companies around the world
are highly optimistic about their economic prospects a survey of 1 300 bosses
suggests. their biggest worries are not terror threats but over-regulation low-
cost competition and the wild ups and downs of oil prices. there is one exception:
firms in western europe - but not the uk - are lacking confidence after years of
slow growth. when business advisers pricewaterhousecoopers (pwc) conducted the same
survey two years ago nearly 30% of bosses were gloomy about their prospects.
global business leaders say that they are facing a two-pronged regulatory assault.
after a string of corporate scandals in the united states - from enron to worldcom
- the sarbanes-oxley act forces companies to be much more transparent but doing
all the paperwork costs a lot of time and money. across europe meanwhile all
stock exchange-listed companies are currently in the process of moving to new and
complex accounting standards called ifrs. hacking through the red tape can hardly
be avoided but many chief executives around the world appear to have decided on
how to deal with low-cost competitors. already about 28% of the bosses polled for
the survey say that they have moved parts of their business into low-wage countries
and another 11% plan to do so in the future. possibly as a result the worry about
low-cost competition has slightly fallen from last year with just 54% of companies
calling it a significant threat or one of the biggest threats . but pwc s global
chief executive samuel dipiazza said a growing number of companies were also
concerned that moves to outsource work to cheaper countries could both hurt their
reputation in their home markets and harm the quality of service they provide to
their customers. according to frank brown global advisory leader at pwc the
trend of large companies to have global operations has one clear upside: one risk
in one region - for example the middle east - won t kill your business anymore.
surprisingly the survey suggests that the rapid decline of the us dollar is not
seen as a huge threat anymore unlike even a year ago when it was cited as the
third-largest problem. mr dipiazza said the interviews with chief executives
suggested that companies had adjusted to the new reality of a euro that buys
$1.30 and more while others had successfully hedged their positions and locked in
more favourable exchange rates. - for the survey pricewaterhousecoopers
interviewed 1 324 chief executives throughout the world during the last three
months of 2004.
britons growing digitally obese gadget lovers are so hungry for digital data many
are carrying the equivalent of 10 trucks full of paper in weight . music images
e-mails and texts are being hoarded on mobiles cameras laptops and pdas (personal
digital assistants) a toshiba study found. it found that more than 60% kept 1 000
to 2 000 music files on their devices making the uk digitally fat . virtual
weight measurements are based on research by california institute of technology
professor roy williams. he calculated physical comparisons for digital data in the
mid-1990s. he worked out that one gigabyte (1 000 000 000 bytes) was the equivalent
of a pick-up truck filled with paper. the amount of data people are squirreling
away on their gadgets is clearly a sign that people are finding more things to do
with their shiny things. if digital hoarding habits continue on this scale people
could be carrying around a digitally obese 20 gigabytes by next year. britain
has become a nation of information hoarders with a ferocious appetite for data
said martin larsson general manager of toshiba s european storage device division.
as storage capabilities increase and the features and functionalities of mobile
devices expand to support movie files and entire libraries of multi-media content
we will all become virtually obese he told the bbc news website. the survey
reflects the increasing trend for portable devices with built-in hard drives like
music and media players from apple creative labs archos iriver and others. this
trend is set to grow according to analysts. they suggest the number of hard drives
in consumer electronics gadgets could grow from 17 million last year to 55 million
in 2006. consumers are driving the move towards smaller devices that have greater
functionality and industry is trying to keep up said mr larsson. people are
looking for more than just phone calls and text messages on the move they want
things like web browsing e-mailing music photos and more. many are finding
memory keys and memory sticks are simply not big enough to hold everything.
floppies and memory keys have their place but they don t have anything like the
capacity or flexibility of a hard drive so are unable to meet the demand for more
and more storage capacity in consumer devices said mr larsson. the cost of making
hard drives has dropped and is continuing to do so because of improved technologies
so they are proving to be more cost-effective than other forms of memory he added.
the amount of data that can be stored has grown by 400% in the last three years
while the cost for every gigabyte has fallen by 80%. it is also getting easier to
transfer files from one device to another which has traditionally been a slow and
problematic area. transfer of data between different memory types has improved
significantly in recent times and will be further helped by the standards for hard
drives which are currently being developed by the major manufacturers said mr
larsson. according to technology analysts idc a fifth of all hard drives produced
will be used in consumer electronics by 2007.
film star fox behind theatre bid leading actor edward fox is one of the men behind
plans to reopen a swansea theatre thought to be wales oldest. the star of film
and tv hits day of the jackal and edward and mrs simpson has joined forces with
swansea-born actor-director terry palmer. they will set up a charity to raise money
to buy the palace theatre and hope to reopen it to audiences in summer 2006. it is
estimated that £500 000 is needed to buy the grade ii listed building. the palace
theatre which will be known as the pavilion repertory theatre was sold to an
undisclosed bidder at auction 13 months ago for £340 000. before that it had been
used as a nightclub for 10 years. oscar-winner sir anthony hopkins who was born
in nearby port talbot made his professional debut there and charlie chaplin and
lily langtry have also trodden its boards. fox told the south wales evening post
that after visiting the theatre he was surprised by its beauty. a lot of money
needs to be spent on it but all the bones are there - it just needs a beautiful
skin he said. to call it a jewel is not an over-estimation. there are not many
theatres left like this. the hope for the immediate future is that we can attract
enough people to come forward to allow it to prosper he told the newspaper. fox
first found fame in the 1960s. one of his most memorable roles was as an assassin
in the day of the jackal in 1973 and he won a tv bafta as the prince of wales in
1980 for edward and mrs simpson. he was brought on board to save the theatre by mr
palmer a long-standing friend of 40 years. two years ago i decided to return to
swansea and do something for the city said mr palmer. he said he was excited by
the idea of running the palace as a charity where young actors could develop and
with an annual shakespeare festival in the summer. if in five years time the
theatre can function in all areas without me i shall be well satisfied having
helped to create a vital living theatre for the city he added. keith poulton a
business adviser from swansea has already committed an undisclosed amount of money
to the project. we need at least £75 000 to secure a deposit on the building and
we ve only got two months to do that said mr poulton. a few benefactors have
expressed their interest and mr fox is going to give it an awful lot of time he
added. last year roads around the theatre were cordoned off when masonry from its
roof fell onto a car but engineers said they were happy that it was safe.
mandelson warns bbc on campbell the bbc should steer away from demonising ex-
downing street media chief alastair campbell peter mandelson has said. the
european commissioner and former labour minister was speaking amid claims that mr
campbell is part of a labour dirty tricks campaign. that charge was denied by mr
mandelson who said the tories were afraid of mr campbell s campaigning skills. he
warned the bbc that attacking mr campbell had brought it trouble before. that was a
reference to the hutton inquiry following a bbc story claiming downing street
sexed up iraq s weapons of mass destruction dossier. the affair prompted the
resignation of bbc chairman gavyn davies director-general greg dyke and reporter
andrew gilligan. labour has attracted media criticism for using new freedom of
information laws to dig up information about tory leader michael howard s past. mr
mandelson a former labour communications director told bbc radio 4 s today
programme: i understand why the tories will be gunning for alastair campbell
because they fear his campaigning skills. what i understand less is why the bbc
should be joining with the tories in driving that agenda. in my experience of
these things parties which shout about dirty tricks and the like tend to do so
because they fear a direct hit in some vulnerable part of their political anatomy.
i suggest the bbc concentrates on the issues and helps the public to understand the
policies and the choices that are at stake in the election rather than engages in
the process politics the trivialisation of the campaign. i think the bbc would be
much better advised to leave all this stuff well alone concentrate on the issues
as i say not resume their demonisation of alastair campbell - we all know where
that led before. mr campbell is acting as an adviser for labour which denies
engaging in personal campaigning. conservative co-chairman liam fox said mr
campbell s return and labour poster plans attacking mr howard - recently withdrawn
from the party s website - were a sign of abusive politics . the government
despite the fact that they would say want to go forward not back seem intent on
talking about history rather than their own record or even more importantly about
the future he said on sunday. labour peer baroness kennedy who is chairing the
power inquiry into political disengagement said people already thought politicians
engaged in dirty tricks. this feeling of distrust is going to be enlarged if this
campaigning on all sides is conducted in the way that it looks as if it just might
she said.
ebbers denies worldcom fraud former worldcom chief bernie ebbers has denied claims
that he knew accountants were doctoring the books at the firm. speaking in court
mr ebbers rejected allegations he pressured ex-chief financial officer scott
sullivan to falsify company financial statements. mr sullivan made accounting
decisions he told the federal court saying his finance chief had a keen command
of the numbers . mr ebbers has denied charges of fraud and conspiracy. during his
second day of questioning in the new york trial mr ebbers played down his working
relationship with mr sullivan and denied he frequently met him to discuss company
business when questioned by the prosecution. in a lot of weeks we would
speak ... three or four times mr ebbers said adding that conversations about
finances were rarely one-on-one and were usually discussed by a group of people
instead. mr ebbers relationship to mr sullivan is key to the case surrounding
financial corruption that led to the collapse of the firm in 2002 following the
discovery of an $11bn accounting fraud. the prosecution s star witness is mr
sullivan one of six worldcom executives indicted in the case he has pleaded
guilty to fraud and appeared as a prosecution witness as part of an agreement with
prosecutors. during his time on the witness stand mr sullivan repeatedly told
jurors he met frequently with mr ebbers told him about changes made to worldcom s
accounts to hide costs and had warned him such practises were improper. however
during the case on tuesday mr ebbers denied the allegations. i wasn t advised by
scott sullivan of anything ever being wrong he told the court. he s never told
me he made an entry that wasn t right. if he had we wouldn t be here today. mr
ebbers could face a jail sentence of up to 85 years if convicted of all the charges
he is facing. shareholders lost about $180bn in worldcom s collapse 20 000 workers
lost their jobs and the company went bankrupt. the company emerged from bankruptcy
last year and is now known as mci.
visa row mandarin made sir john the top civil servant at the centre of the david
blunkett visa affair has been knighted in the new year honours. sir john gieve was
home office permanent secretary during the saga which ended with mr blunkett
quitting. he and other civil servants were criticised for failing to recall how the
visa for mr blunkett s ex-lover s nanny came to be fast-tracked. the outgoing head
of the troubled child support agency doug smith also earns an honour in the new
year s list. mr smith 57 whose retirement was announced by work and pensions
secretary alan smith in november is made a commander of the order of bath. both
men were giving evidence to a commons committee on the computer difficulties facing
the agency which left thousands of single parents without any maintenance payments
when the announcement was made. the knighting of sir john 54 will be received
with astonishment by opposition politicians. the liberal democrats said it
beggared belief he and fellow officials could not remember how leoncia casalme s
application for indefinite leave to remain went from mr blunkett s office to the
head of the immigration and nationality department. meanwhile the conservatives
accused officials of a collective failure of memory. but sir alan budd who led
an inquiry into the affair said he had no reason to believe anyone involved had
deliberately withheld information. downing street defended the decision to honour
both men with a spokesperson saying: you have to look at their whole career. sir
john was made permanent secretary in april 2001 following a civil service career
which dates back to 1974. he has also worked in the treasury and the department of
employment. a department for work and pensions spokeswoman said of mr smith s
honour: the award reflects all that he has achieved in a civil service career
principally in the inland revenue spanning over 40 years - not just his role as
chief executive of the child support agency. in his career he has personally led
a number of successful major change programmes. mr smith is set to stay on at the
csa until march. less controversial will be the knighthoods for derek wanless and
mike tomlinson who undertook major government reviews on health and education
respectively. former natwest chief executive mr wanless 57 has delivered not one
but two major reports on the nhs. ex-chief inspector of schools mr tomlinson 62
has recommended replacing a-levels and gcses with a new diploma system in a shake-
up of the exams system.
mcdonald s to sponsor mtv show mcdonald s the world s largest restaurant chain is
to sponsor a programme on music channel mtv as part of its latest youth market
promotion. the show advance warning highlights new talent and mtv reckons it will
give mcdonald s access to nearly 400 million homes in 162 countries. mcdonald s
golden arches name and i m loving it catchphrase will be used throughout the
half-hour programme. the move comes amid growing concerns about obesity in europe
and the us. the european union has called on the food industry to reduce the
number of adverts aimed at young children warning that legislation would be
introduced. unless voluntary steps were taken. in the us food group kraft is among
firms that already have cut back on promoting sugar and fattening products to the
young. mcdonalds has also been taking steps to improve its junk food reputation
revamping its menu and providing clients with health-related products such as
pedometers. as well as burgers like the big mac and quarter pounder with cheese
the company now sells healthier options such as salads and fresh fruit. chief
executive jim skinner attributed an 8.3% increase in january worldwide sales to the
vitality of our menu among other things. hooking up with mtv is expected to add
extra momentum to mcdonald s recent revival. mtv which played a key role in the
emergence of the music video is to show advance warning on all 25 of its channels
across the world. the programme can at present only been seen in the us where it
has featured artists like british stars joss stone and franz ferdinand. mcdonald s
has targeted the youth market in the past with its advertisements signing up stars
like jelly-legged dancer justin timberlake and all-woman singing group destiny s
child.
harinordoquy suffers france axe number eight imanol harinordoquy has been dropped
from france s squad for the six nations match with ireland in dublin on 12 march.
harinordoquy was a second-half replacement in last saturday s 24-18 defeat to
wales. bourgoin lock pascal pape who has recovered from a sprained ankle returns
to the 22-man squad. wing cedric heymans and ludovic valbon come in for aurelien
rougerie and jean-philippe grandclaude. rougerie hurt his chest against wales
while grandclaude was a second-half replacement against both england and wales.
valbon capped in last june s tests against the united states and canada was a
second half replacement in the win over scotland. france coach bernard laporte
said harinordoquy had been axed after a poor display last weekend. imanol has been
dropped from the squad because the least i can say is that he didn t make a
thundering comeback against wales said laporte. we know the ireland game will be
fast and rough and we also want to be able to replace both locks during the game if
needed and gregory lamboley can also come on at number seven or eight. the grand
slam is gone but we ll go to ireland to win. it will be a very exciting game
because ireland have three wins under their belt have just defeated england and
have their eyes set on a grand slam. france who lost to wales last week must
defeat the irish to keep alive their hopes of retaining the six nations trophy.
ireland are unbeaten in this year s tournament and have their sights set on a first
grand slam since 1948. dimitri yachvili (biarritz) pierre mignoni (clermont)
yann delaigue (castres) frederic michalak (stade toulousain) damien traille
(biarritz) yannick jauzion (stade toulousain) ludovic valbon (biarritz)
christophe dominici (stade francais) cedric heymans (stade toulousain) julien
laharrague (brive) sylvain marconnet (stade francais) nicolas mas (perpignan)
olivier milloud (bourgoin) sebastien bruno (sale/eng) william servat (stade
toulousain) fabien pelous (stade toulousain capt) jerome thion (biarritz)
pascal papé (bourgoin) gregory lamboley (stade toulousain) serge betsen
(biarritz) julien bonnaire (bourgoin) yannick nyanga (béziers)
bbc leads interactive bafta wins the bbc and the national theatre have led the
field at this year s interactive bafta awards. the national theatre s stagework
website picked up the prize for best learning as well as top factual site. the bbc
collected three awards including best online entertainment for the hitchhiker s
guide to the galaxy adventure game. spooks interactive took the best interactive tv
prize. the annual awards recognise the best in digital media. bbc sport interactive
fought off competition from cbbc newsround and the guardian to take home the best
news and sport trophy for its coverage of england s exit from euro 2004. it was
recognised for its groundbreaking use of animation. bafta s grant dean chair of
bafta s interactive entertainment committee said all the entrants had been of
outstanding quality and that judging had been enormously difficult . without a
doubt 2005 has been a landmark year for the bafta interactive awards he added.
many of the top awards this year have gone to the companies we most commonly
associate with traditional entertainment showing how the gap between new media
film and television is closing. awards were given out in 12 different categories
including interactive tv film music design as well as technical and social
innovation at a london ceremony. the top music award was given to sseyo minimixa
a mobile music sequencer designed to let people write edit and share compositions.
warner bros was given two prizes for its inspiring efforts in film and dvd
interactivity. the chaplin collection beat oasis really bend it like beckham
shaun of the dead and the day today in the dvd category and trauma won best film.
elsewhere fashionista and clothes designer alexander mcqueen took the accolade for
the best-designed website. the awards have been running since 1997 but in 2002 the
british academy of film and television decided to split them into separate games
and interactive ceremonies. on tuesday half-life 2 dominated the games prizes. it
collected six baftas including best game and best online game.
ad firm wpp s profits surge 15% uk advertising giant wpp has posted larger-than-
expected annual profits and predicted that it will outperform the market in 2005.
pre-tax profits rose 15% from a year ago to reach £546m ($1.04bn) ahead of average
analysts forecasts of £532m. revenues were £4.3bn while the firm s operating
margins were 14.1% which it said could reach 14.8% by 2006. during the year wpp
bought us rival grey global creating a giant big enough to rival sector leader
omnicom. chief executive martin sorrell on friday told reuters news agency that
wpp had submitted a proposal for united business media s nop world market research
unit. analysts say the unit sell could sell for up to £350m. wpp in recent years
has also bought firms such as ogilvy & mather and cordiant communications. it also
includes the firms young & rubicam and j walter thompson. events such as the
olympics helped boost wpp s profits in 2004. the company said the us congressional
elections and the fifa world cup are likely to present advertising opportunities in
the near future. the long-term outlook looks very favourable because of media and
technology developments and the strength of the us economy wpp said.
council tax rise reasonable welsh councils should set their taxes at reasonable
levels after being given an average funding increase of 6% says the assembly
government. finance minister sue essex said it was a good deal for local
government. the £3.2bn settlement includes the full £7.4m from the uk treasury
announced by chancellor gordon brown. but opposition parties said rebanding of
council taxes would mean steep rises. in addition £13.4m will come from the
business support grant - a scheme which enables local authorities to keep part of
business rates. she said where spending rises were kept to around 5% she was
confident that councils will be able to set council taxes at reasonable levels.
the welsh local government association (wlga) had said on the eve of the
announcement said that significant cuts to services may still be unavoidable.
after the announcement wlga finance spokesman bob wellington of torfaen said it
was vital that rises were minimsed. a limited amount of money has come available
but this is not the answer to our problems said mr wellington. it is vital that
we start now to plan for future years and accept that resources will continue to
reduce while pressures on services increase. on monday a delegation of north
wales councils visited ms essex to lobby for increased funds. ms essex said: i
have listened to the views of local government and council tax payers and recognise
the funding pressures and the concerns they have about council tax rises. i have
met a large number of local authorities in recent weeks and i am aware of the
pressures on them to provide local services and keep down the level of council tax
particularly for those people to are moving up a band due to the revaluation of
domestic properties. she said council taxes could be kept at reasonable levels
even for those people who have moved up a band . the settlement includes a rise in
the grant to help councils with the most deprived communities and a 16.4% rise in
capital expenditure support. ms essex said: this is a good deal for local
government which will allow the well-managed councils of wales to develop their
services and charge reasonable levels of council tax. it is now a matter for
council leaders to manage their budgets at a local level. plaid cymru s local
government spokesman dai lloyd called the announcement hugely disappointing . he
said: wales and its local authorities have been short changed yet again. this is
not whinging as the labour assembly government so often claims - it is anger.
this will mean either a massive hike in council tax massive cuts in services
provided by councils or both. mike german leader of the liberal democrats in the
assembly claimed that one in three homes were still likely to face council tax
rises due to rebanding. mr german said: i know from my discussions with welsh
liberal democrat council leaders that they are doing their utmost to keep council
tax to a minimum. but the random redistribution effect of rebanding...will create a
great deal of difficulty. conservative local government spokesman glyn davies said
that for the minister to claim that the majority of council tax payers in wales
should see very little change is taking spin to the very verge of deception . he
added: around a third of welsh households have been re-valued upwards by at least
one band and inevitably face increases into double figures.
berlin applauds hotel rwanda political thriller hotel rwanda was given a rousing
reception by spectators at the berlin film festival on saturday. the movie s star
don cheadle also received a standing ovation when he stepped onto the stage after
the show. the film is the true story of the hotel manager who saved 1 200 tutsis
from death during the rwandan genocide. the film showing out of competition in
berlin is nominated for three oscars including best actor for cheadle. sophie
okonedo who plays cheadle s wife tatiana is nominated for best supporting
actress. the film is also in the running for best original screenplay. cheadle was
joined on stage at berlin by paul rusesabagina the hotel manager he plays in the
film mr rusesabagina s wife and his extended family who fled rwanda and now live
in belgium. mr rusesabagina used his influence as a prominent hutu businessman to
shelter potential victims of the rwandan genocide contacting dignitaries including
bill clinton the king of belgium as well as the french foreign ministry. hotel
rwanda is one of two films addressing the genocide at the 55th berlin film festival
which runs until 20 february. sometimes in april is a feature by raoul peck
competing for the festival s coveted golden and silver bear awards. the film was
made exclusively in rwanda whereas hotel rwanda was shot mostly in south africa
with some scenes made in kigali.
intel unveils laser breakthrough intel has said it has found a way to put a
silicon-based laser on a chip raising hopes of much faster networks. scientists
at intel have overcome a fundamental problem that before now has prevented silicon
being used to generate and amplify laser light. the breakthrough should make it
easier to interconnect data networks with the chips that process the information.
the intel researchers said products exploiting the breakthrough should appear by
the end of the decade. we ve overcome a fundamental limit said dr mario
paniccia director of intel s photonics technology lab. writing in the journal
nature dr paniccia - and colleagues haisheng rong richard jones ansheng liu
oded cohen dani hak and alexander fang - show how they have made a continuous
laser from the same material used to make computer processors. currently says dr
paniccia telecommunications equipment that amplifies the laser light that travels
down fibre optic cables is very expensive because of the exotic materials such as
gallium arsenide used to make it. telecommunications firms and chip makers would
prefer to use silicon for these light-moving elements because it is cheap and many
of the problems of using it in high-volume manufacturing have been solved. we re
trying to take our silicon competency in manufacturing and apply it to new areas
said dr paniccia. while work has been done to make some of the components that can
move light around before now silicon has not successfully been used to generate or
amplify the laser light pulses used to send data over long distances. this is
despite the fact that silicon is a much better amplifier of light pulses than the
form of the material used in fibre optic cables. this improved amplification is due
to the crystalline structure of the silicon used to make computer chips. dr
paniccia said that the structure of silicon meant that when laser light passed
through it some colliding photons rip electrons off the atoms within the material.
it creates a cloud of electrons sitting in the silicon and that absorbs all the
light he said. but the intel researchers have found a way to suck away these
errant electrons and turn silicon into a material that can both generate and
amplify laser light. even better the laser light produced in this way can with
the help of easy-to-make filters be tuned across a very wide range of frequencies.
semi-conductor lasers made before now have only produced light in a narrow
frequency ranges. the result could be the close integration of the fibre optic
cables that carry data as light with the computer chips that process it. dr
paniccia said the work was the one of several steps needed if silicon was to be
used to make components that could carry and process light in the form of data
pulses. it s a technical validation that it can work he said.
khodorkovsky quits yukos shares jailed tycoon mikhail khodorkovsky has transferred
his controlling stake in oil giant yukos to a business partner. mr khodorkovsky
handed over his entire 59.5% stake in holding company group menatep - which
controls yukos - to leonid nevzlin. a close ally of the ex-yukos boss mr nevzlin
is currently based in israel. mr khodorkovsky handed over his stake after the
forced sale of yukos core oil production unit yuganskneftegaz to pay a giant tax
bill. yuganskneftegaz was sold off at auction in december last year eventually
falling into the hands of state oil firm rosneft in a deal worth $9.4bn (£5bn).
since the sale of yuganskneftegaz i have been delivered of (all) responsibility
for the business that remains and the group s money as a whole mr khodorkovsky
said. it is all over. as before i see my future in public activity to build a
civil society in russia. mr nevzlin is yukos largest shareholder but is living in
self-imposed exile in israel. yuganskneftegaz pumps around 1 million barrels of oil
a day. it was sold by the russian authorities to recover government tax claims
against yukos totalling over $27bn. previously considered to be russia s richest
man with an estimated fortune of $15bn mr khodorkovsky is currently on trial for
fraud and tax evasion following his arrest in october 2003. however the charges
are widely seen as politically motivated and part of a drive by russian president
vladimir putin to rein in the country s super-rich business leaders the so-called
oligarchs. it is also believed that mr khodorkovsky was particularly targeted
because he had started to bankroll political opponents of mr putin.
housewives lift channel 4 ratings the debut of us television hit desperate
housewives has helped lift channel 4 s january audience share by 12% compared to
last year. other successes such as celebrity big brother and the simpsons have
enabled the broadcaster to surpass bbc2 for the first month since last july.
however the channel s share of the audience fell from 11.2% to 9.6% last month in
comparison with january 2004. celebrity big brother attracted less viewers than its
2002 series. comedy drama desperate housewives managed to pull in five million
viewers at one point during its run to date attracting a quarter of the television
audience. the two main television channels bbc1 and itv1 have both seen their
monthly audience share decline in a year on year comparison for january while five
s proportion remained the same at a slender 6.3%. digital multi-channel tv is
continuing to be the strongest area of growth with the bbc reporting freeview box
ownership of five million including one million sales in the last portion of 2004.
its share of the audience soared by 20% in january 2005 compared with last year
and currently stands at an average of 28.6%.
beattie return calms attack fears everton striker james beattie has been declared
fit for training on tuesday despite suffering an alleged assault last saturday.
beattie 27 is not believed to be as seriously hurt as some reports have suggested
after being the victim of an unprovoked assault in birmingham. he was on a night
out with his girlfriend and two friends following everton s 3-1 win over aston
villa. he was shaken but not badly injured said everton spokesman ian ross. he
added: he did speak to the police but will not be pressing charges. he has spoken
to manager david moyes about what happened. beattie was suspended for the win at
aston villa after his red card against chelsea and he will be available again for
the merseyside derby at liverpool on 20 march.
chancellor rallies labour voters gordon brown has issued a rallying cry to
supporters warning the stakes are too high to stay at home or protest vote in
the next general election. the chancellor said the poll - expected to fall on 5
may - would give a clear and fundamental choice between labour investment and
tory cuts. he told his party s spring conference the tories must not be allowed to
win. the conservatives and lib dems insisted that voters faced higher taxes and
means-testing under labour. to a packed audience at gateshead s sage centre mr
brown accused shadow chancellor oliver letwin of plotting cuts that were the
equivalent of sacking every teacher gp and nurse in the country. laying into the
conservative s record in government he said: i give you this promise - with labour
britain will never return to the mistakes of erm and 10% inflation 15% interest
rates £3bn in lost reserves 250 000 repossessed one million in negative equity
and three million unemployed. never again tory boom and bust. this will be the
central dividing line at the election between a conservative party taking britain
back and planning deep cuts of £35bn in our services and a labour government
taking britain forward which on a platform of stability will reform and renew our
hospitals schools and public services and i am proud to say spend by 2008 £60bn
more. turning to the economy the chancellor promised to continue economic
stability and growth in a third term in power. he also pledged to continue the
fight against child and pensioner poverty. and he promised help to get young people
on the property ladder. my message to the thousands of young couples waiting to
obtain their first home is that housing is rightly now at the centre of our coming
manifesto he said. and the next labour government will match our low mortgage
rates with a new first-time buyers initiative. in the speech which prompted a
standing ovation he also promised to end teenage unemployment within the next five
years. he also highlighted plans for 100% debt relief for the world s poorest
countries a national minimum wage for 16 and 17-year-olds the creation of a
network of children s centres and flexibility in maternity leave. responding to the
speech shadow chief secretary to the treasury george osborne said: this was
more talk from gordon brown. we ve heard it all before. instead of talking about
the future he kept on talking about the past. he completely failed to say which
taxes he would put up to fill the black hole in his spending plans. there will be
a simple choice at the election - value for money and lower taxes with the
conservatives or more waste and higher taxes under tony blair and gordon brown.
liberal democrat shadow chancellor vince cable warned the picture was not as rosy
as mr brown would like to portray it. for all his trumpeting of labour s
management of the economy gordon brown s record is very mixed he said. gordon
brown has created a system of massive centralisation and bureaucracy a system
which subjects millions of people to means testing and a system of taxation which
is extremely complex. for all his positive words gordon brown is faced with
economic problems looming on the horizon not least the unprecedented levels of
personal debt facing the nation. also in gateshead the prime minister took
questions sent in by e-mail text message and telephone as part of labour s attempt
to engage the public in their campaign. mr blair told the audience he believed the
iraq war would have made britain a safer place if its emerging democracy succeeded
and that he wanted to bring troops home as soon as possible but not before the job
was done. he also said he wanted to carry on as pm because i still think that
there are big changes our country needs .
bid to cut court witness stress new targets to reduce the stress to victims and
witnesses giving evidence in courts in england and wales have been announced by the
lord chancellor. lord falconer wants all crown courts and 90% of magistrates
courts to have facilities to keep witnesses separate from defendants within four
years. more video links will also be made available so that witnesses do not have
to enter courtrooms. it is part of a five-year plan to help build confidence in the
justice system. ministers say the strategy is aimed at re-balancing the court
system towards victims and increasing the number of offenders brought to justice.
launching the department for constitutional affairs plan lord falconer said: one
of the top priorities will be a better deal for victims. the needs and safety of
victims will be at the heart of the way trials are managed. courts judges
magistrates prosecutors police and victim support - all working together to
ensure the rights of victims are put first without compromising the rights of the
defendant. he went on: giving evidence is a nerve-wracking experience especially
when you re a victim. yet with a will and with support it can be done. lord
falconer told bbc radio 4 s today programme it was impossible for some elderly
people to go to court to give evidence. other witnesses could be intimidated by
sitting alongside defendants outside courts. you are never going to get rid of
some element of the trauma of giving evidence he said. but you can make people
believe that the courts understand the problem it s not some kind of alien place
where they go where they are not thinking about them. the plan comes as the lord
chancellor also considers allowing cameras into courts for the first time since
1925 as long as they were used for cases that did not involve witnesses. another
feature of the strategy is constitutional reform with a government bill to set up
a supreme court and a judicial appointments commission returning to the house of
lords on tuesday. ministers had proposed getting rid of the title of lord
chancellor but the lords have over-ruled this. lord falconer said it was right for
the highest court to be completely distinct from parliament. the person in charge
of the court system should not also be speaker of the house of lords he said and
should be the best person chosen from either house of parliament. what they did
not what they were called was the critical issue he added.
greek pair set for hearing kostas kenteris and katerina thanou will fight the
provisional two-year bans imposed on them by the iaaf at an independent tribunal
this weekend. athletics ruling body took action against the pair for failing to
take drugs tests before the athens olympics. an independent tribunal of the greek
track and field federation will meet to decide whether to ratify the sanction. the
sprint duo face charges of failing to give information on their location and
refusing to submit to a drugs test. kenteris lawyer gregory ioannidis told bbc
sport: we refute both charges as unsubstantiated and illogical. there have been
certain breaches in the correct application of the rules on behalf of the sporting
authorities and their officials and these procedural breaches have also violated
my client s rights. there is also evidence that proves the fact that my client has
been persecuted. ioannidis who is a law lecturer at the university of buckingham
added: one of the important rights and foundations of law and justice - that the
accused should be presumed innocent unless proved otherwise - has been tarnished.
the panel will also decide on the two-year ban imposed on the athletes
controversial coach christos tzekos by the iaaf. kenteris the 2000 olympic 200m
champion and thanou the women s 100m silver medallist from the same games in
sydney quit the olympics on 18 august after failing to give samples on the eve of
the opening ceremony. testers could not find them at the olympic village and the
duo were later admitted to hospital after claiming to have been involved in a
motorcycle accident. they also missed tests in tel aviv chicago and athens before
the games. in imposing two-year suspensions on the duo on 22 december the iaaf
described their explanations for missing the tests as unacceptable . whatever the
findings of the independent tribunal all parties will have the right to appeal to
the court of arbitration for sport. the tribunal hearing will take place at the
hellenic olympic committee building. it will start at 1200 gmt on saturday and is
expected to finish early next week. the tribunal panel will consist of five members
- president konstantinos panagopoulos and panagiotis dimakos haralabos
hrisanthakis stilianos perakis and ioannis karmis. kenteris and thanou also face
criminal charges in greece for allegedly faking the motorcycle accident. eight
criminal charges have been laid against the sprinters as well as tzekos an
eyewitness to the accident and hospital officials. but there has been speculation
that the charges could be dropped.
brown ally rejects budget spree chancellor gordon brown s closest ally has denied
suggestions there will be a budget giveaway on 16 march. ed balls ex-chief
economic adviser to the treasury said there would be no spending spree before
polling day. but mr balls a prospective labour mp said he was confident the
chancellor would meet his fiscal rules. he was speaking as sir digby jones cbi
director general warned mr brown not to be tempted to use any extra cash on pre-
election bribes. mr balls who stepped down from his treasury post to stand as a
labour candidate in the election had suggested that mr brown would meet his golden
economic rule - with a margin to spare . he said he hoped more would be done to
build on current tax credit rules. he also stressed rise in interest rates ahead
of an expected may election would not affect the labour party s chances of winning.
expectations of a rate rise have gathered pace after figures showed house prices
are still rising. consumer borrowing rose at a near-record pace in january. if the
mpc (the bank of england s monetary policy committee) were to judge that a rate
rise was justified before the election because of the strength of the economy - and
i m not predicting that they will - i do not believe that this will be a big
election issue in britain for labour he told a parliamentary lunch. this is a
big change in our political culture. during an interview with bbc radio 4 s today
programme mr balls said he was sure mr brown s budget would not put at risk the
stability of the economy. i don t think we ll see a pre-election spending spree -
we certainly did not see that before 2001 he said. his assurances came after sir
digby jones said stability was all important and any extra cash should be spent on
improving workers skills. his message to the chancellor was: please don t give it
away in any form of electioneering. sir digby added: i don t think he will. i
have to say he has been a prudent chancellor right the way through. stability is
the key word - british business needs boring stability more than anything. we
would say to him don t increase your public spending don t give it away. but if
you are going to anywhere just add something to the competitiveness of britain
put it into skilling our people . that would be a good way to spend any excess.
mr balls refused to say whether mr brown would remain as chancellor after the
election amid speculation he will be offered the job of foreign secretary. i
think that gordon brown wants to be part of the successful labour government which
delivers in the third term for the priorities of the people and sees off a
conservative party that will take britain backwards mr balls told today. prime
minister tony blair has yet to name the date of the election but most pundits are
betting on 5 may.
disney settles disclosure charges walt disney has settled charges from us federal
regulators that it failed to disclose how family members of directors were employed
by the company. the media giant was not fined by the securities and exchange
commission but has agreed to refrain from any future violations of securities law.
disney failed to tell investors that between 1999 and 2001 it employed three adult
children of three then directors. the firm has neither admitted nor denied
wrongdoing in the settlement. the three disney directors in question in the
central matter of the sec s investigation - reveta bowers stanley gold and raymond
watson - have all since left the company with ms bowers and mr watson both
retiring and mr gold quitting in 2003. their children were paid between $60 000
(£30 800) and $150 000 a year with shareholders not being informed. the sec also
found that disney did not disclose that a 50% disney-owned subsidiary company -
lifetime - employed the wife of current disney director john bryson and that she
earned more than $1m a year. louise bryson remains with lifetime. disney also
failed to disclose payments to air shamrock an airline owned by mr gold and fellow
former disney directors roy disney. finally disney also did not reveal that it
provided more than $200 000 annually for office space secretarial services and a
leased car and driver to former director thomas murphy. shareholders have a
significant interest in information regarding relationships between the company and
its directors said sec deputy enforcement director linda thomsen. failure to
comply with the sec s disclosure rules in this area impedes shareholders ability
to evaluate the objectivity and independence of directors.
microsoft seeking spyware trojan microsoft is investigating a trojan program that
attempts to switch off the firm s anti-spyware software. the spyware tool was only
released by microsoft in the last few weeks and has been downloaded by six million
people. stephen toulouse a security manager at microsoft said the malicious
program was called bankash-a trojan and was being sent as an e-mail attachment.
microsoft said it did not believe the program was widespread and recommended users
to use an anti-virus program. the program attempts to disable or delete microsoft s
anti-spyware tool and suppress warning messages given to users. it may also try to
steal online banking passwords or other personal information by tracking users
keystrokes. microsoft said in a statement it is investigating what it called a
criminal attack on its software. earlier this week microsoft said it would buy
anti-virus software maker sybari software to improve its security in its windows
and e-mail software. microsoft has said it plans to offer its own paid-for anti-
virus software but it has not yet set a date for its release. the anti-spyware
program being targeted is currently only in beta form and aims to help users find
and remove spyware - programs which monitor internet use causes advert pop-ups and
slow a pc s performance.
csi shows give unrealistic view people have unrealistic expectations of forensic
science thanks to the success of the csi tv shows real experts say. evidence
submitted to forensic labs has shot up as a result of the programmes at a time
when many have large backlogs science investigators claim. lawyers also fear the
effect because jurors have a distorted view of how forensic evidence is used. the
issue was discussed at a major science conference in washington dc. crime scene
investigation (csi) and its spin-offs csi: miami and csi: new york have proven
exceptionally popular with audiences on both sides of the atlantic. each episode
a team of forensic investigators goes about solving a crime through the ingenious
appliance of science - and the extensive resources at their disposal. the csi
effect is basically the perception of the near-infallibility of forensic science in
response to the tv show said max houck who runs a forensic science graduate
course at west virginia university us. this tv show comes on and everyone starts
watching it - including the cops and prosecutors - and submissions to forensic
laboratories go through the roof he told the annual meeting of the american
association for the advancement of science (aaas). the american forensics expert
said there were roughly 200 000-300 000 backlogged dna samples in us labs. yet
these constituted just 10% of the total test backlog said dr houck. forensic
pathologist dr patricia mcfeeley said she had started to see the show s influence
in dealing with the families of victims. what i find is that families now are more
dissatisfied with the investigation than was previously the case she explained.
for example on television the toxicology results are available almost
instantaneously. but when people find out that it can take several months they can
find that very difficult. dr mcfeeley added that the accuracy with which forensic
investigators can determine time of death was far lower than most people s
perceptions. the show s influence can follow forensic investigators all the way
into the courtroom making lawyers jittery. prosecutors fear the csi effect with
juries because for example they wonder: why wasn t everything tested well in
fact not everything needs to be tested dr houck explained. defence attorneys
also worry about the csi effect because they think that jurors come in and have
this view of science as a juggernaut; this objective method that s always accurate.
however he admitted the show had had positive as well as negative effects on the
field. my university course started with four graduates in 1999; we re now the
largest major on campus - with 400 students he said. dr houck added that there
was an urgent need for better funding of forensic science at the university level:
there s more money spent in this country on holistic medicine than there is on
forensic science research.
israeli club look to africa four african players including zimbabwe goalkeeper
energy murambadoro are all ready to play for israeli club hapoel bnei sakhnin in
the uefa cup. bnei sakhnin are the first arab side ever to play in european
competition and will play english premiership side newcastle united in the first
round. warriors goalkeeper murambadoro who made a name for himself at the african
nations cup finals in tunisia helped bnei sakhnin overcome albania s partizani
tirana 6-1 in the previous round. murambadoro moved to israel recently after a
brief stint with south african club hellenic. the club won the israeli cup final
last season and are based in sakhnin which is near haifa. the club have a strong
ethic and are high profile promoters of peace and co-operation within israel. the
three other africans at the club are former cameroon defender ernest etchi dr
congo s alain masudi and nigerian midfielder edith agoye who had a stint with
tunisian side esperance.
moyes u-turn on beattie dismissal everton manager david moyes will discipline
striker james beattie after all for his headbutt on chelsea defender william
gallas. the scot initially defended beattie whose dismissal put everton on the
back foot in a game they ultimately lost 1-0 saying gallas overreacted. but he has
had a rethink after looking over the video evidence again. he said: i believe that
i should set the record straight by conceding that the dismissal was right and
correct. moyes added: my comments on saturday came immediately after the final
whistle and at a point when i had only had the opportunity to see one very quick
re-run of the incident. the club website also reported that beattie who seemed
unrepentant after saturday s match insisting gallas would have stayed down a lot
longer if he had headbutted him has now apologised. moyes continued: although
the incident was totally out of character - james has never even been suspended
before in his career - his actions were unacceptable and had a detrimental effect
on his team-mates. james did issue a formal apology to myself his team-mates and
to the everton supporters immediately after the game and that was the right thing
to have done. he will now be subjected to the normal club discipline. he is a
competitive player but a fair player and i know how upset he is by what has
happened. however i must say that i do still believe the chelsea player in
question did go down too easily. speaking immediately after the game moyes said:
i don t think it was a sending-off i have been a centre-half in my time and i
would have been ashamed to have gone down as easily as that. not in a million
years would john terry have gone down in the same way. i have never heard of
anybody butting somebody from behind while you are running after them. what has
happened to big strong centre-halves i thought it was a push initially and i
still don t think it was a sending-off. an angry beattie initially said: he
(gallas) would have stayed down a lot longer if i had headbutted him. i can tell
you it wasn t an intentional headbutt. we were chasing a ball into the corner and
william gallas was looking over his shoulder and blocking me off. he was stopping
as we were running and i said to myself if you re going to stay in my way i ll go
straight over you . our heads barely touched and it wasn t an intentional headbutt.
bt program to beat dialler scams bt is introducing two initiatives to help beat
rogue dialler scams which can cost dial-up net users thousands. from may dial-up
net users will be able to download free software to stop computers using numbers
not on a user s pre-approved list . inadvertently downloaded by surfers rogue
diallers are programs which hijack modems and dial up a premium rate number when
users log on. thousands of uk dial-up users are believed to have been hit by the
scam. some people have faced phone bills of up to £2 000. bt s modem protection
program will check numbers that are dialled by a computer and will block them if
they have not been pre-approved such as national and net service provider numbers.
icstis the uk s premium rate services watchdog said it had been looking for
companies to take the lead in initiatives. the initiatives are very welcome a
spokesperson from icstis told the bbc news website. we are very pleased to see
they are putting into place new measures to protect consumers. the second
initiative bt announced is an early warning system which will alert bt customers if
there is unusual activity on their phone bills. if a bill rises substantially above
its usual daily average or if a call is made to a suspect number a text or voice
alert will be sent to the user s landline phone. as part of the clamp-down on rogue
diallers companies must now satisfy stringent conditions including clear terms
and conditions information about how to delete diallers and responsibility for
customer refunds. any firm running a dialler without permission can now be closed
down by icstis. the watchdog brought in the action last october following a
decision to license all companies which wanted to operate legitimate premium rate
dialler services. there are legitimate companies who offer services such as adult
content sports results and music downloads by charging a premium rate rather than
by credit card bt said it had ploughed an enormous amount of effort into protecting
people from the problem. it has already barred more than 1 000 premium rate numbers
and has tried to raise public awareness about the scams. we now want to ensure
there are even stronger safeguards for our customers who we would urge to make use
of these new options to protect themselves said gavin patterson group managing
director for consumer the arm of bt. both schemes have been undergoing trials in
ireland and will be made available to 20 million bt customers from may.
cactus diet deal for phytopharm a slimming aid made from a southern african cactus
is set to be developed by uk firm phytopharm and unilever. anglo-dutch food giant
unilever will help the pharmaceutical firm develop the snacks containing hoodia
extract. phytopharm shares jumped 10.7% on the news with analysts saying sales of
$600m (£309m) a year were possible. the plant licensed to phytopharm in 1997 has
been used for thousands of years by the sans bushmen of the kalahari desert to
stave off hunger. studies have reportedly shown the plant curbs appetite instead of
reducing calorific intake like many existing products. phytopharm will receive an
initial fee of £6.5m from unilever - out of a potential total of £21m - as well as
future royalties on product sales. under the deal production of the hoodia cactus
at phytopharm s nursery in south africa will also rise from eight million plants to
potentially hundreds of millions said phytopharm chief executive richard dixey.
the firm had initially hoped to market a slimming drug from hoodia with pfizer. but
the research collaboration came to an end in 2003. analysts said unilever could
launch the new products in 2007. this deal goes a long way to restoring the market
faith in phytopharm s pipeline after the pfizer exit said analyst erling refsum
at nomura.
relay squad thrilled with honours jason gardener says being made an mbe in the new
year honours list underlines the achievement of great britain s 4x100m relay squad
at the olympics. gardener darren campbell marlon devonish and mark lewis-francis
have all been awarded mbes after beating pre-race favourites usa to gold. i think
this award reinforces what we did on that fantastic night he said. this
recognition is really inspiring and makes me want to have more success said
lewis-francis. the british sprint quartet produced a string of faultless baton
changes in the final to put pressure on the americans. and when the usa stumbled
with a poor switch between justin gatlin and coby miller at the 300m stage britain
edged ahead going into the final bend. then on cue lewis-francis ran a textbook
final leg holding off maurice greene to bring team gb home in 38.07 seconds - just
one hundredth of a second ahead of their rivals. winning the gold medal was the
highlight of my athletics career so far said the birchfield harrier. this award
is not just for me but for all my friends family and the people who have helped
me to get to this level in my sport. gardener added: all of us had worked very
hard for a long long time to carry off what most believed was an impossible task.
of course this award is very special but for me nothing will ever take away
winning an olympic gold medal. it s all i ever wanted. all my life that is what i
dreamed of doing. life since then has been fantastic. campbell agreed receiving
the honour capped off what has been a difficult year for the sprinter. i think the
mbe is important because the people closest to me know my journey said the
newport-based athlete. i ve not just stumbled upon this. it gives me a lot of joy
and satisfaction to know the stuff you do for your country does mean something. -
there was also recognition for james clarke chairman of the london marathon. he
becomes an obe.
u2 stars enter rock hall of fame singer bruce springsteen has inducted irish rock
band u2 into the rock and roll hall of fame in new york. the lavish ceremony
celebrating the 50th anniversary of rock n roll also saw the induction of the
pretenders percy sledge the o jays and buddy guy. this was a band that wanted to
lay claim to this world and the next one too said springsteen. bono the edge
adam clayton and larry mullen jr who formed u2 at school in 1977 begin a world
tour on 28 march. introducing the band springsteen mocked bono as the man who
single-handedly pioneered the irish mullet poking fun at one of the best and
most endearingly messianic complexes in rock n roll . but he also spoke of the
group s enduring stature adding that it was the only band of the last 20 years
where he knew all four members names. u2 s contemporaries the pretenders led by
chrissie hynde - took to the stage to perform my city was gone with inductee neil
young. we are a tribute band said hynde 53. we re paying tribute to james
honeyman-scott and pete farndon without whom we would not have been here she
said referring to the premature deaths of two of the band s guitarists from drug
overdoses. britain s rod stewart introduced percy sledge citing his best-known
hit when a man loves a woman as one of the best performances i ve ever heard .
justin timberlake introduced soul group the o jays a gospel-style quartet from
ohio who performed a medley of their best-known songs including back stabbers
love train and for the love of money. anyone who s ever written produced or
performed something soulful stands in the shadows of these giants said
timberlake. joining the ceremony at new york s waldorf astoria were legendary r&b
star bo diddley who performed with eric clapton and robbie robertson. clapton
alongside bb king also introduced fellow guitarist buddy guy and recalled seeing
him play as a teenager in england. he was for me what elvis was probably like for
other people he said. my course was set and he was my pilot said clapton who
joined guy and king in a performance of let me love you baby. also performing at
the ceremony was veteran musician jerry lee lewis who continued his reputation as a
rowdy piano-pounder despite his 69 years kicking over his stool and sitting on the
piano during a rendition of whole lotta shakin goin on.
movie body targets children s pcs the body that represents the us movie industry
has released its latest tool in its campaign to clamp down on movie file-sharing
aimed at parents. the movie association for america s (mpaa) free parent file scan
software lets parents check their children s computers for peer-to-peer programs.
it will also list all movie and music files they have on their hard drive. parents
then have the choice to remove programs and files. the mpaa said files found would
not be passed on to it. our ultimate goal is to help consumers locate the
resources and information they need to make appropriate decisions about using and
trading illegal files said dan glickman mpaa chief. many parents are concerned
about what their children have downloaded and where they ve downloaded it from.
but some computer users who had tested the latest software reported on some
technology sites that the program had identified windows default wav files as
copyrighted material and wanted to delete them. movie piracy cost the industry
£3.7bn ($7bn) in 2003 according to analysts. the mpaa said in a statement that it
would continue to provide easy access to similar tools in the coming months to
combat the deleterious effects of peer-to-peer software including such common
problems as viruses trojan horses and identity theft . mr glickman said that the
film industry was embracing digital age technologies like movielink and
cinemanow which are legal movie sites. but legal services such as these need a
chance to grow and thrive without having to compete against illegitimate operations
that depend on stolen property to survive he added. the industry body also said
it had launched a second round of legal action against online movie-swappers across
the us but did not say how many were being sued. its first set of lawsuits were
filed in november 2004. it also started a campaign against operators of bittorrent
edonkey and directconnect peer-to-peer networks. the first convictions for peer-to-
peer piracy were handed out in the us in january. william trowbridge and michael
chicoine pleaded guilty to charges that they infringed copyright by illegally
sharing music movies and software.
redknapp poised for saints southampton are set to unveil harry redknapp as their
new manager at a news conference at 1500 gmt on wednesday. the former portsmouth
boss replaces steve wigley who has been relieved of first-team duties after just
one win in 14 league games in charge. redknapp 57 quit his fratton park position
on 24 november and vowed: i will not go down the road - no chance. pompey coach
kevin bond is poised to join redknapp who will be saints third boss of the
season. redknapp s first game in charge will be at home to middlesbrough on
saturday. portsmouth chairman milan mandaric said he was disappointed by the news
and claimed redknapp had been in talks with southampton for some time . it would
appear that negotiations over this have been going on for some time mandaric said
on portsmouth s official website. i am surprised and a little shocked that the
chairman of southampton has not picked up the phone and kept me informed.
according to mandaric redknapp vowed he would not join their south coast rivals
when he left portsmouth. i said to harry i hope you don t go to southampton and
he told me absolutely not he said. i m wouldn t say i m bitter disgusted or
angry just disappointed but it s harry s life and it s his decision. redknapp
became a cult hero after leading portsmouth into the premiership for the first time
and then masterminding their survival in their debut season. but he left the club
claiming he needed a break from football though many believed he was upset with
mandaric s decision to bring in velimir zajec as executive director. southampton
chairman rupert lowe was desperate to give former academy director wigley who
replaced paul sturrock just two games into the season every chance to succeed at
st mary s. but results under wigley have been poor and southampton are deep in
trouble near the foot of the table. when redknapp s appointment is confirmed he
will be saints ninth manager in eight years.
pakistani women must not hide hiding women away in the home hidden behind veils
is a backward view of islam president musharraf of pakistan has said during a
visit to britain. he was speaking to the bbc s newsnight programme a few hours
before visiting the pakistani community in manchester. my wife is travelling
around. she is very religious but she is very moderate said general musharraf. it
comes after pakistan s high commissioner to britain said some pakistanis should
integrate more. dr maleeha lodhi said people could not expect others to listen to
their grievances if they isolated themselves. gen musharraf told the bbc: some
people think that the women should be confined to their houses and put veils on and
all that and they should not move out - absolutely wrong. the pakistani president
was also asked whether he thought the war on terror had made the world less safe.
yes absolutely. and i would add that unfortunately we are not addressing the core
problems so therefore we can never address it in its totality he said. we are
fighting it in its immediate context but we are not fighting it in its strategic
long-term context. it is the political disputes and we need to resolve them and
also the issue of illiteracy and poverty. this combined are breeding grounds of
extremism and terrorism. on monday the pakistani president met prime minister tony
blair at 10 downing street on his first official visit to london. he is due to
visit the pakistani community in manchester on tuesday afternoon. the mirror
newspaper said on tuesday it had been handed a sensitive dossier outling the
details of gen musharraf s visit to britain. the paper said the document had been
found in a london street by a member of the public. it said the dossier contained
details about his movements and also confidential police radio channels call signs
and codes. speaking in london on monday gen musharraf said al-qaeda was on the
run in pakistan. but standing next to mr blair he added that it was crucial to
tackle the core of what creates terrorists what creates an extremist militant
environment which then leads on to terrorism . that is the resolution of political
disputes. mr blair said the two leaders had talked about afghanistan the wider
war on terror the situation in the middle east and the ongoing dispute over
kashmir. we agreed that in afghanistan there is some cause for optimism about the
progress that has been made there said mr blair. in respect of iraq we agreed
that whatever the issues of the past the important thing now is to see the
strategy through and ensure that iraq is capable of becoming a stable and
democratic state.
brizzel to run aaa s in sheffield ballymena sprinter paul brizzel will be among
eight of ireland s european indoor hopefuls competing in this weekend s aaa s
championships. us-based alistair cragg and mark carroll are the only irish
athletes selected so far for the europeans who will not run in sheffield. brizzel
will defend his 200m title in the british trials. in-form james mcilroy will hope
to confirm his place in the british team for madrid by winning the 800m title.
mcilroy has been in tremendous form on the european circuit in recent weeks. he is
one of the fastest 800m runners in the world this winter and already seems assured
of a place in madrid. corkman mark carroll confirmed in midweek that he would join
cragg in the european championships. carroll is ranked number three in the world
3000m ranking at the moment with cragg occupying top spot. meanwhile nine-times
champion dermot donnelly will not be coming out of retirement to compete in the
northern ireland cross country championships in coleraine on saturday. an injury
crisis in the annadale striders squad led to donnelly being entered by coach john
mclaughlin but the athlete told bbc sport on friday evening that he would not be
running. willowfield s paul rowan will go in as individual favourite but annadale
could have a tough job holding on to their team title as andrew dunwoody and noel
pollock are unlikely to run.
euronext poised to make lse bid pan-european group euronext is poised to launch a
bid for the london stock exchange uk media reports say. last week the lse
rejected a takeover proposal from german rival deutsche boerse - the 530 pence-a-
share offer valued the exchange at about £1.35bn. the lse which saw its shares
rise 25% said the bid undervalued the business. euronext - formed after the
brussels paris and amsterdam exchanges merged - is reportedly working with three
investment banks on a possible offer. the lse europe s biggest stock market is a
key prize listing stocks with a total capitalisation of £1.4 trillion. euronext
already has a presence in london due to its 2001 acquisition of london-based
options and futures exchange liffe. trades on the lse are cleared via clearnet in
which euronext has a quarter stake. euronext which also operates an exchange in
lisbon last week appointed ubs and abn amro as additional advisors. it is also
working with morgan stanley. despite the rejection of the deutsche boerse bid last
week werner seifert chief executive of the frankfurt-based exchange may well
come back with an improved offer. it has long wanted to link up with london and
the two tried and failed to seal a merger in 2000. responding to the lse s rebuff
deutsche boerse - whose market capitalisation is more than £3bn - said it believed
it could show its proposal offered benefits and that it still hoped to make a cash
bid. last week the lse said not only was the bid undervalued but that it had
been advised that there can be no assurance that any transaction could be
successfully implemented . however it has indicated it is open for further talks.
meanwhile german magazine der spiegel said part of mr seifert s negotiations with
the lse were about where to base the future board of any merged exchange. while mr
seifert has suggested a merged company would be run out of london the mayor of
frankfurt has raised concerns that such a move could cost german jobs. many
analysts believe german boerse has more financial firepower than euronext if it
came to a bidding war.
yukos bankruptcy not us matter russian authorities do not have to abide by any us
court decisions taken with regard to troubled oil giant yukos a houston court has
been told. legal expert william butler said there was no treaty between the us and
russia to recognise the other s legal rulings. that meant moscow would not have to
adhere to us rulings in the yukos case. yukos says a us court was entitled to
declare it bankrupt before its yugansk unit was sold since it has a us subsidiary
and local bank accounts. yukos made its surprise chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in
houston in december in an unsuccessful attempt to halt the auction of yugansk its
main oil producing unit by russian authorities. yugansk was sold to help pay off a
$27.5bn (£14.5bn) back tax bill. it was bought for $9.4bn by a previously unknown
group which was in turn bought by state-controlled oil company rosneft. the us
court s jurisdiction has been challenged by deutsche bank and gazpromneft a former
unit of russian gas monopoly gazprom which is due to merge with rosneft. deutsche
bank maintains the case has no place in a us court because yukos has no assets in
the us apart from two bank accounts and a house in houston owned by its chief
finance officer bruce misamore. deutsche bank is involved in the case because it is
itself being sued by yukos. it had agreed to loan gazpromneft the money to bid for
yugansk. us bankruptcy judge letitia clark who issued an injunction in december to
try and prevent the yugansk sale has said she will rule pretty promptly however
i do not anticipate ruling on it before next tuesday . yukos has claimed it sought
help in the us because other forums - russian courts and the european court of
human rights - were either unfriendly or offered less protection. it has claimed
that russia imposed the huge tax bill and forced the sale of yugansk as part of a
campaign to destroy yukos and its former owner mihkail khodorkovsky who is facing
a 10-year prison term in russia for fraud and tax evasion. yukos parent company
the gibraltar-based menatep group is suing russia in europe for $28.3bn in
financial damages. the company is also seeking $20bn in a separate us lawsuit
against rosneft and gazprom for their role in the sale of yugansk.
bargain calls widen softbank loss japanese communications firm softbank has widened
losses after heavy spending on a new cut-rate phone service. the service launched
in december and dubbed otoku or bargain has had almost 900 000 orders
softbank said. the firm a market leader in high-speed internet had an operating
loss for the three months to december of 7.5bn yen ($71.5m; £38.4m). but without
the otoku marketing spend it would have made a profit - and expects to move into
the black in 2006. the firm did not give a figure for the extent of profits it
expected to make next year. it was born in the 1990s tech boom investing widely
and becoming a fast-rising star till the end of the tech bubble hit it hard. its
recent return to a high profile came with the purchase of japan telecom the
country s third-biggest fixed-line telecoms firm. the acquisition spurred its
broadband internet division to pole position in the japanese market with more than
5.1 million subscribers at the end of december.
what really divides the parties so what is the gap between labour and the tories
nowadays one starbucks one rymans and one small greek cafe as it happens. both
parties have now completed their moves to new headquarters with labour creating
its election hub just three doors away from the tories new headquarters in
victoria street just down the road from the commons. that should make things a
little easier if and when the crack-of-dawn election press conferences kick off.
unlike 2001 there should be no need for colleagues to have taxis gunning their
engines outside or to buy scooters to get themselves between the tightly-
timetabled events. and to all intents and purposes we already appear to be in
that general election campaign. certainly the press conference hosted by election
co-ordinator alan milburn in the rather compact new conference room - still
smelling of new carpet and with the garish new labour coffee mugs as yet unstained
- had all the hallmarks of an election event. welcome to the unremittingly new
labour media centre he said. and i ll bet he hadn t checked that one with gordon
brown. along with work and pensions secretary alan johnson and minister for work
jane kennedy he then went on to tear into the tory plans to scrap the new deal
welfare-to-work scheme which they claimed would lead to an increase of almost 300
000 in unemployment. and they ridiculed the claims made on monday by michael howard
that he could save £35 billion of labour waste and inefficiency to spend on public
services while also offering £4 billion of tax cuts. labour has come up with a
figure of £22 billions worth of efficiency savings so understandably perhaps
believe mr howard must be planning cuts to squeeze the extra £13 billion. these
figures based on the two parties own detailed studies will be battered to within
an inch of their lives during the campaign. wednesday was just the start.
director nair s vanity project indian film director mira nair has said she was
thrilled to be given the chance to make william makepeace thackeray s novel vanity
fair - as the book has been a favourite through her life. the book is one of the
classics of english literature - the story of scheming 19th century social climber
becky sharp played in the film by reese witherspoon. nair said that she jumped at
the chance to work on the film which she has - controversially - made in a
bollywood style including two song-and-dance routines in the film s second half.
it was serendipity really - i was offered vanity fair by the studio focus features
who had distributed monsoon wedding nair told bbc world service s masterpiece
programme. they offered me their next-best thing not realising that vanity fair
had actually been one of my favourite novels since i was 16 years old in an irish
catholic boarding school in india. since her 1988 debut feature salaam bombay! -
nominated for the best foreign language oscar and winner of best first feature at
cannes - nair has become one of india s most famous and respected directors. she is
not restricted to bollywood however - she followed salaam bombay! with mississippi
masala starring denzel washington and the perez family her first hollywood film.
her career peaked with monsoon wedding in 2001 which won the golden lion award at
venice. nair s indian-style adaptation of vanity fair however has been attacked
by critics in the us - where it only reached number eight at the box office in its
opening week - who described the bollywood elements as jarring. the film has a
new ending with becky sharp running off for a new life in india. but nair said
that her film had picked up on the way thackeray - who was born in india but moved
to england as a young man - had seen the world. first when i was 16 it was becky
sharp who is a completely memorable character because i recognised myself in her
- i recognised all the ladies who did not want to be ladies who wanted to buck the
system that they were in she said. but it was the sort of novel i somehow kept
at the side of my bed for many years and i would dip into every now and then and
suddenly get completely mesmerised again. as i got older and read it i think it
was thackeray s clarity - his clear-sightedness about his own society the fact
that he was born in india but came to england as a young man - that gave him the
eyes of an outsider and yet he was an insider. that perspective was something i
really loved. nair also defended her decision to cast an american actress - reese
witherspoon - as becky sharp despite the fact that all the rest of the cast are
british or irish. i cast intuitively - in my films i cast as many non-actors as i
cast actors she said. for me it is intuition - i have to fall in love with an
actor. it is a visceral response. thackeray describes becky sharp as a minx. also
she s described as someone who s tiny red-headed and thin. reese had that
completely minx-like irresistibility about her. having won the role because she
seemed physically perfectly suited to the part however witherspoon then became
pregnant. but nair said that though this had created the need for some filming
tricks it had in fact also helped the film. it was a self-fulfilling prophesy -
when i first met her husband [actor ryan philippe] i said knock her up won t you
i need some flesh on the girl she joked. i m not a fan of the underfed los
angeles actor at all. this was for me about becky sharp being eventually a
full-blown woman through the course of the film. i love the luminosity that
pregnancy brings i love the fleshiness i love the ample bosom - it gave me much
more to play with. nair explained how camera tricks had been used to disguise
witherspoon s bump in various scenes - including hiring a number of young boys in
costumes to stand in front of her. she runs she gets off coal carts she jumps
off horses - she does everything nair said. but there s also a certain carriage
with horses that is going to wipe the screen at a certain moment because of the
bump.
johnson announces june retirement former england captain martin johnson has
announced he is to retire from rugby union at the end of the season. johnson who
captained england to world cup glory in 2003 will play his final match in june.
johnson won 84 england caps and quit test rugby at the start of 2004 just two
months after leading sir clive woodward s team to victory in sydney. the 34-year-
old leicester lock s final match will be his testimonial at twickenham on 4 june.
i m confident i have made the right decision to retire said johnson. i m sure
there will be times next season when i ll wish i was out there playing for the
tigers but you know when the time is right to go and i feel this is the right
time. i feel physically that i could play for another season but playing week in
and week out in the premiership is a full-time occupation and i only want to be out
there for the right reasons. johnson will always be revered by england fans for
captaining england to their dramatic world cup win against australia in sydney but
his list of achievements does not stop at that. he is the only man to captain the
lions twice and he also led england to a six nations grand slam. johnson also had
huge success as captain of leicester guiding the tigers to back to back heineken
cup victories and several premiership titles. apart from his marvellous captaincy
johnson was also one of the finest second rows to ever play the game. teak tough
and physically intimidating he ruled the rucks and mauls for the best part of a
decade and was integral in england s rise to the top of the world game. his final
appearance will be in his testimonial at twickenham where he will lead a team
against a side captained by new zealand winger jonah lomu. the all black is aiming
to return to action after a kidney transplant and johnson expects it to be a
memorable occasion. this game against jonah will be a great way to end the season
and end my career said johnson. lomu rugby union s first global superstar after
his exploits in the 1995 world cup said he was proud to be part of johnson s
farewell. we hold him in such high esteem said lomu. he is such a great leader
and i am just honoured to be on the same pitch.
labour mps fears over squabbling if there is one thing certain to stiffen the
spines of labour mps it is the prospect of losing their seats at a general
election. and it was largely that fear that led to tony blair and gordon brown
being read the riot act during a meeting of the parliamentary labour party. the
views expressed by both backbenchers and labour peers over the claimed squabbling
between the two men starkly demonstrated the widely-held view within the labour
party that the two most powerful figures in the government are jeopardising the
next election. as one hugely-disgruntled backbencher said before the meeting: it
is time they realised it s not just my seat they are threatening but if they go on
like this they could put the election in doubt. it is a sentiment that is now
running throughout the labour benches with mps eager to underline the message to
their leaders to stop the squabbling and get on with the job at hand. as paul
flynn said: what has deeply upset the party is in this time of all times when we
wanted to come together we wanted to lead on the global issues to change politics
for the next decade the whole thing was wrecked by a piece of childishness by the
two main people in the party two people we greatly respect. stephen pound echoed
the message saying: we know that the one thing that could entirely jeopardise
what we are trying to achieve not for the labour party but for this country is
the appearance of division. we remember the 1980s . they backed the suggestion that
unless the squabbling stopped the people briefing on behalf of the two men would
be named and shamed . the dressing down appears to have done the trick with mr
brown joining his alleged rival alan milburn - who the prime minister put in charge
of election planning in mr brown s stead - and deputy prime minister john prescott
at an election poster launch. but the effect of all this is to have achieved two
things. firstly nobody is attempting to suggest any more that the stories of the
rift between the chancellor and the prime minister are fictions created by the
media and authors. even mr prescott admitted that had he still been a backbencher
he would have been giving mr blair and mr brown the same message. secondly it has
also underlined the view that the election campaign has to all intents and
purposes kicked off. but whether the telling off and the subsequent change in
behaviour by the two men will do any good - or can even be sustained through the
campaign - remains to be seen. even as the mps were expressing their fears it
emerged that while mr brown is in africa for a week the prime minister is to
deliver a keynote speech on election themes for a third term. and he is expected to
repeat his recent insistence that the next manifesto will be new labour through
and through. similarly some were pointing out that the chancellor during the
election poster launch once again refused to deny the claim that he told the prime
minister he could never trust anything he said. none the less what some believe
now is that the effect of the warnings from the backbenchers will actually be to
silence the brown camp effectively strengthening the prime minister s hand. for
example will those brownite briefers suggest their man is unhappy at the prime
minister s timing or subject matter as may have been the case in the past what
all seem agreed on however is that this sniping simply cannot be allowed to go on
through the election campaign. mind you we have heard similar pledges before.
bbc web search aids odd queries the bbc s online search engine was used a record
amount in 2004 helping with enquires both simple and strange. more than 277
million enquiries were made asking for informaton of a wide range of subjects. the
most requested search terms of 2004 included games eastenders cbbc john peel
harry potter and olympics. but there were many strange enquiries including: what
is a dog how do you say basketball and what is the biggest collection of naval
fluff the search engine works by matching key words typed in to different web
pages but many people still type in natural language questions. here are some of
the strangest queries of 2004 - spelling and grammar errors left untouched - and
their possible solutions: - how to fold a serviette like an elf s boot -
how do i structure a french letter - what is better one long vacation each
year or several short vacations throughout the year - what is so special
about the swiss - what are the contemporary issue in nurses - what is
the number 4 in this number 40052308090 - what is up - what is the
name of james martin s dog search engines are key to the way people use the
internet. companies such as google have become of paramount importance as they
dictate how people travel through websites while online.
wal-mart to pay $14m in gun suit the world s largest retailer wal-mart has agreed
to pay a total of $14.5m (£7.74m) to settle a lawsuit over gun sales violations in
california. the lawsuit alleged wal-mart committed thousands of gun sales
violations in california between 2000 and 2003. the total payment includes $5m in
fines and more than $4m to fund state compliance checks with gun laws and prevent
ammunition sales to minors. wal-mart agreed to suspend firearms sales in its
california stores in 2003 the alleged violations included the sale of guns to 23
people who were not allowed to possess them and delivering 36 guns to customers
who acquired them for people not allowed to own firearms. although wal-mart has
suspended firearms sales in the state california attorney general bill lockyer
said he wanted to be sure the giant supermarket chain would follow state rules in
future. wal-mart s failure to comply with gun safety laws put the lives of all
californians at risk by placing guns in the hands of criminals and other prohibited
persons said mr lockyer. although wal-mart has suspended gun sales in california
this settlement will ensure that it follows state law if it renews sales and will
also provide valuable public education about the importance of gun safety. the
world s largest retailer has not yet decided whether to resume firearms sales in
california company spokesman gus whitcomb said.
reliance unit loses anil ambani anil ambani the younger of the two brothers in
charge of india s largest private company has resigned from running its
petrochemicals subsidiary. the move is likely to be seen as the latest twist in a
feud between mr ambani and his brother mukesh. anil 45 has stepped down as
director and vice-chairman of indian petrochemicals corporation (ipc). the company
was not available for comment. ipc is 46%-owned by reliance industries which in
turn is run by mukesh. mukesh has spoken of ownership issues between the two
brothers who took over control of the reliance empire following the death of their
father in july 2002. reliance s operations have massive reach covering textiles
telecommunications petrochemicals petroleum refining and marketing as well as
oil and gas exploration insurance and financial services. the brothers spat has
hogged headlines in india during recent weeks despite a denial from the family
that there was anything wrong. speculation has been rife about what has triggered
the stand-off with some observers blaming anil s political ambitions others the
heavy investment by mukesh and reliance in a mobile phone venture. shares of ipc
dipped on the news in mumbai but recovered to trade almost 6% higher. reliance
shares added 1.7% while reliance energy headed by anil jumped 7%.
apple unveils low-cost mac mini apple has unveiled a new low-cost macintosh
computer for the masses billed as the mac mini. chief executive steve jobs showed
off the new machine at his annual macworld speech in san francisco. the $499
macintosh sold for £339 in the uk was described by jobs as the most important
mac made by apple. mr jobs also unveiled the ipod shuffle a new music player
using cheaper flash memory rather than hard drives which are used in more
expensive ipods. the new computer shifts the company into new territory -
traditionally the firm is known as a design and innovation-led firm rather than as
a mass-market manufacturer. the mac mini comes without a monitor keyboard and
mouse and a second version with a larger hard drive will also be sold for $599.
the machine - which will be available from 22 january - was described by jobs as
byodkm... bring your own display keyboard and mouse . in an attempt to win over
windows pc customers mr jobs said it would appeal to people thinking of changing
operating systems. people who are thinking of switching will have no more excuses
he said. it s the newest and most affordable mac ever. the new computer has been
the subject of speculation for several weeks and while few people will be surprised
by the announcement many analysts had already said it was a sensible move. in
january apple sued a website after it published what it said were specifications
for the new computer. ian harris deputy editor of uk magazine mac format said the
machine would appeal to pc-owning consumers who had purchased an ipod. they want
a further taste of mac because they like what they have seen with ipod. harris
added: everybody thought that apple was happy to remain a niche maker of luxury
computers and moving into a market dominated by low margin manufacturers like dell
is a bold move. but it shows that apple is keen to capitalise on the mass market
success it s had with the ipod. the mac mini will appeal to pc users looking for an
attractive no fuss computer. the new ipod shuffle comes in two versions - one
offering 512mb of storage for $99 (£69 in the uk) and a second with one gigabyte of
storage for $149 (£99) - and went on sale tuesday. the music player has no display
and will play songs either consecutively or shuffled. the smaller ipod will hold
about 120 songs said mr jobs. mr jobs told the delegates at macworld that ipod
already had a 65% market share of all digital music players.
three djs replace peel radio show the late john peel s bbc radio 1 show is to be
succeeded in february by three shows hosted by three djs focusing on diverse non-
commercial music. huw stephens ras kwame and rob da bank will each host the mid-
week late-night timeslot showcasing uk talent. radio 1 said the show would not
try to replace peel but would rise to the challenge of keeping his legacy alive
with unpredictable music. peel died after suffering a heart attack in peru in
october. radio 1 said the three djs had been chosen for their in-depth musical
knowledge across a variety of musical genres . rob da bank has been hosting the
john peel show since the dj s death. he is also one of the hosts of the blue room
an early morning weekend show that plays a mix of old and new electronic and dance
music. huw stephens is currently one half of the radio 1 thursday night show bethan
and huw in wales which explores new music especially up and coming acts breaking
through in wales. and ras kwame is the host of 100% homegrown on radio 1 s digital
station 1xtra. his show is dedicated to showcasing the best of uk black music and
broadcasts live sessions often giving new artists their first chance to perform on
live national radio. all of the three djs will continue to host their current
shows on radio 1. it is widely accepted that john peel can never be replaced
said the radio station. it added that one music would support both signed and
unsigned talent and said: it will seek out those making music for music s sake
rather than for commercial success. above all it will provide support to emerging
genres of music and styles that have not yet and may never reach the mainstream.
one music is not new to radio 1 as it already exists as a website offering advice
on aspects of the music industry such as recording a demo and signing a record
contract. radio 1 s controller andy parfitt said: we believe that by having a
series of djs hosting a selection of shows under the one music title we will
ensure that his legacy lives on. stephens said he grew up listening to john and
that it was a massive honour to continue peel s work championing new music. the
show will be broadcast from 1 february on tuesdays wednesdays and thursdays from
2300 gmt - 0100 gmt.
arthur hailey: king of the bestsellers novelist arthur hailey who has died at the
age of 84 was known for his bestselling page-turners exploring the inner workings
of various industries from the hotels to high finance. born in luton
bedfordshire on 5 april 1920 hailey was the only child of working class parents
they could not afford to keep him in school beyond the age of 14. he served as a
pilot with the royal air force during world war ii flying fighter planes to the
middle east. it was an occupation that was later to feature in his authorial debut
the television screenplay flight into danger. hailey emigrated to canada in 1947
where he eventually became a citizen. he wanted to be a writer from an early age
but did not take it up professionally until his mid-thirties when he was inspired
to write his first screenplay while on a return flight to toronto. i fell to
daydreaming. i visualised the pilots at the controls and wondered what would happen
if they both got sick. could i fly the airplane i was a rusty wartime pilot who
hadn t flown for nine years... hailey later recalled. the canadian broadcasting
corporation bought flight into danger for $600 (£318) and it was shown on tv in
april 1956. it was later memorably spoofed in the 1980 comedy airplane! starring
leslie nielsen. hailey worked as a screenwriter for a couple of years before
turning to novels. he went on to produce 11 best-selling books which were
published into 38 languages in 40 countries. flight into danger was adapted to
become hailey s first novel runaway zero-eight in 1958. the final diagnosis and in
high places followed both achieving a popular following. but it was not until
hotel in 1965 that hollywood came calling. the hit novel took four years to write
and stayed on national best-seller lists for a full year. it was turned into a
movie in 1967 and later adapted into a glossy soap in the 1980s starring james
brolin. airport (1968) arguably remains hailey s best-loved work and prompted the
disaster movie genre. the thriller follows events in the sky and on the ground at
a snow-logged airport when a terrorist boards an airplane with a bomb. the book
was adapted into a hit film in 1970 starring burt lancaster as the harassed aiport
manager and dean martin as a womanising pilot alongside jean seberg and jacqueline
bisset. in a testament to the popularity of the fledgling disaster genre - three
sequels followed. the writer was known for his painstaking research into the
professions around which each novel was centred drawing his characters from real
life and taking up to three years to produce each book. i have never been able to
write quickly or easily. i am too self-critical for that. i am never satisfied he
once said. in 1969 he moved to nassau in the bahamas with his wife sheila. wheels
(1971) the moneychangers (1975) and overload (1979) followed. despite a lukewarm
response from critics and few literary accolades hailey was at the height of his
fame in the seventies and continued to attract the attention of hollywood
producers. strong medicine hailey s blockbuster focusing on the pharmaceutical
industry was turned into a film in 1986 starring sam neill douglas fairbanks jr
and a panoply of former soap stars. the 1997 novel detective proved to be hailey s
final book when at the age of 77 he decided to retire. hailey s health began to
deteriorate in recent years twice undergoing heart surgery. he suffered a stroke
just two months ago. he died in his sleep on wednesday after dinner with his wife
and two of his six children at his home in new providence island. he had a
wonderful life. his greatest ambition was to see his name on a book and he
certainly achieved that said his wife sheila.
man auctions ad space on forehead a 20-year-old us man is selling advertising space
on his forehead to the highest bidder on website ebay. andrew fisher from omaha
nebraska said he would have a non-permanent logo or brand name tattooed on his
head for 30 days. the way i see it i m selling something i already own; after 30
days i get it back he told the bbc today programme. mr fisher has received 39
bids so far with the largest bid currently at more than $322 (£171). the winner
will be able to send me a tattoo or have me go to a tattoo parlour and get a
temporary ink tattoo on my forehead and this will be something they choose a
company name or domain name perhaps their logo he told the radio 4 programme.
on the online auction mr fisher describes himself as an average american joe
give or take . his sales pitch adds: take advantage of this radical advertising
campaign and become a part of history. mr fisher said that while he would accept
any brand name or logo i wouldn t go around with a swastika or anything racial .
he added: i wouldn t go around with 666 the mark of the beast. other than that i
wouldn t promote anything socially unacceptable such as adult websites or stores.
he said he would use the money to pay college - he is planning to study graphic
design. the entrepreneur said his mother was initially surprised by his decision
but following all the media attention she felt he was thinking outside the box .
rich pickings for hi-tech thieves viruses trojans and other malicious programs
sent on to the net to catch you out are undergoing a subtle change. the shift is
happening as tech savvy criminals turn to technology to help them con people out of
cash steal valuable data or take over home pcs. viruses written to make headlines
by infecting millions are getting rarer. instead programs are now crafted for
directly criminal ends and firms are tightening up networks with defences to combat
the new wave of malicious code. the growing criminal use of malware has meant the
end of the neat categorisation of different sorts of viruses and malicious
programs. before now it has been broadly possible to name and categorise viruses by
the method they use to spread and how they infect machines. but many of the viruses
written by criminals roll lots of technical tricks together into one nasty package.
you cannot put them in to the neat little box that you used to said pete simpson
head of the threat laboratory at security firm clearswift. now viruses are just as
likely to spread by themselves like worms or to exploit loopholes in browsers or
hide in e-mail message attachments. it s about outright criminality now said mr
simpson explaining why this change has come about. he said many of the criminal
programs came from eastern europe where cash-rich organised gangs can find a ready
supply of technical experts that will crank out code to order. former virus writer
marek strihavka aka benny from the 29a virus writing group recently quit the
malware scene partly because it was being taken over by spyware writers phishing
gangs and spammers who are more interested in money rather than the technology. no
longer do virus writers produce programs to show off their technical prowess to
rivals in the underground world of malware authors. not least said paul king
principal security consultant at cisco because the defences against such attacks
are so common. in many ways the least likely way to do it is e-mail because most
of us have got anti-virus and firewalls now he said. few of the malicious
programs written by hi-tech thieves are cleverly written many are much more
pragmatic and use tried and tested techniques to infect machines or to trick users
into installing a program or handing over important data. if you think of
criminals they do not do clever said mr king they just do what works. as the
tactics used by malicious programs change said mr king so many firms were
changing the way they defend themselves. now many scan machines that connect to the
corporate networks to ensure they have not been compromised while off the core
network. many will not let a machine connect and a worker get on with their job
before the latest patches and settings have been uploaded. as well as using
different tactics criminals also use technology for reasons that are much more
transparent. the main motivation now is money said gary stowell spokesman for
st bernard software. mr stowell said organised crime gangs were turning to computer
crime because the risks of being caught were low and the rates of return were very
high. with almost any phishing or spyware attack criminals are guaranteed to catch
some people out and have the contacts to exploit what they recover. so-called
spyware was proving very popular with criminals because it allowed them to take
over machines for their own ends to steal key data from users or to hijack web
browsing sessions to point people at particular sites. in some cases spyware was
being written that searched for rival malicious programs on pcs it infects and then
trying to erase them so it has sole ownership of that machine.
santini resigns as spurs manager tottenham manager jacques santini has resigned for
personal reasons . the former france manager moved to white hart lane this summer
but now wants to return to france. santini said: my time at tottenham has been
memorable and it is with deep regret that i take my leave. i wish the club and the
supporters all the best. private issues in my personal life have arisen which
caused my decision. i very much hope that the wonderful fans will respect my
decision. he added: i should like to thank (sporting director) frank arnesen and
(chairman) daniel levy for their understanding. assistant coach martin jol has
been put in temporary charge and will take care of team affairs for saturday s
premiership match against charlton. arnesen said the club were sad to see santini
go: we are obviously disappointed that jacques is leaving us. we fully respect his
decision. i can assure you that the club will act swiftly to minimise the impact
of jacques departure. our priority is to ensure that this season s performance
remains unaffected by this move. i shall make a further statement on monday
clarifying our position. we wish jacques well.
newcastle to join morientes race newcastle have joined the race to sign real madrid
striker fernando morientes and scupper liverpool s bid to snap up the player
according to reports. liverpool were reported to have bid £3.5m for the 28-year-
old spanish international this week. but the liverpool echo newspaper has said
anfield boss rafa benitez will avoid a bidding war and instead turn his attentions
to nicolas anelka. real are believed to still want £7m before selling morientes.
monaco are also in the race for the player they had on loan last season. reports
suggest liverpool will lift their offer to £5m - the highest they are willing to go
before bowing out of any deal. on tuesday morientes had said: i like liverpool
and i am pleased that a club of their stature want to buy me. i have told madrid
that i want it to happen. madrid know my situation and they know they must do
something about me. they must sort out the situation by being sensible. i am in a
position where i want to play and i will have to look elsewhere to do that. if
madrid do not want me then it s in the best interests of everyone that they are
realistic. i haven t spoken to rafa benitez but i have always appreciated his
work and i would like to play for him. but benitez could yet turn his attentions to
the younger anelka should morientes be reluctant to pledge his future to liverpool.
anelka previously played at anfield under gerard houllier before sealing his
permanent switch to manchester city.
belle named best scottish band belle & sebastian have been named the best
scottish band of all time after a three month-long public poll. the group beat
travis and idlewild into second and third place respectively. franz ferdinand who
recently picked up five brit award nominations ended up in 15th place while the
eurythmics wound up at a lowly 38. other scottish acts such as the mull historical
society who also featured in the top 50 performed at a party in glasgow where the
result was announced. scottish-based band snow patrol who finished 14th in the
vote and have been nominated for a pair of brit awards were among the performers
who covered well-known scottish pop songs at the party on wednesday night. indie
stalwarts belle & sebastian have enjoyed a chart career stretching back to 1997.
they were the surprise winners of the brit award for best breakthrough act two
years later. scottish bands from earlier musical eras also made it into the final
list including 1970s tartan boy band the bay city rollers and goth favourites the
jesus and mary chain. scottish magazine the list recently compiled a list of the
top 50 scottish bands of all time but left the final decision to the public. the
magazine s music editor mark robertson said: the idea behind the project was
simple - to rediscover the very best of scottish music from the finest musical
talent spanning from the age of 70s rock through to 80s pop right up to today s
international stars. everyone has strong opinions about this and we wanted to
open it up to the public to decide he added. bbc radio scotland presenter vic
galloway who has been involved in the project said it had been great fun to
look back at scotland s musical heritage and take note of up-and-coming scottish
acts.
call for action on internet scam phone companies are not doing enough to warn
customers about internet rogue-dialling scams according to premium phone line
regulator icstis. it has received 45 000 complaints in recent months about dial-up
internet connections diverting to premium rate numbers without users knowledge.
phone companies refuse to pay compensation because they say calls must be paid for.
they must warn people earlier about possible fraud icstis said. people who use
dial-up connections can be affected by the scams. without realising a program can
be downloaded which diverts internet calls via a premium phone line. victims often
fail to notice until they receive an unusually high bill. icstis spokesman rob
dwight said: phone companies should get in touch with their customers sooner. if
my bill goes over the usual £50 a month i want to know about it straight away - i
don t want to be told when it s hit £750. phone companies had the systems in
place to spot fraudulent activity and artificially-inflated traffic he said. we
alert them to the numbers that we have under investigation and they should be
looking out for these numbers he added. telecoms ombudsman elizabeth france
said: certainly i would not be surprised to find my credit card company phoning me
if i do something out of the ordinary. so i would expect phone companies to be
looking to see if they can have a similar approach. the biggest phone company bt
says it is doing what it can to monitor fraud and warn people about rogue dialling.
its advice to customers is to use call barring if they want to prevent calls to
premium lines because under the current system once the call has been made there
s little that can be done. gavin patterson group managing director for bt
consumer said we do look at customer s calling patterns and we do make
interventions when they are out of the ordinary. we re looking at the moment at
whether we can improve this. but as bt handled 180 million calls a day monitoring
was quite a task in itself he added. the government has ordered a review of
premium line services and is likely to say icstis should have more power to deal
with rogue diallers in future. at the moment it cannot demand pay-outs on the
behalf of customer - it can only close illegal services down. i use free anti-
virus software (avg) and free firewall protection (zonealarm). both of these tools
have prevented unauthorised access and outgoing calls inadvertently and innocently
caused by my daughter s love of music sites. how about isps informing all customers
of such facilities the responsibility clearly falls with the customer but many
fall prey through simply not knowing how to avoid these issues. ignorance is and
always has been an expensive business. does any one know what happens once this
fraud has been committed and recognised the phone companies pay the people who
obtaining money fraudulently so are these people followed up and prosecuted
these diallers are mainly downloaded from sites offering illegal mp3s porn and
pirated software. if people didn t visit such sites they d be considerably less at
risk. whatever happened to personal responsibility it seems everyone has to be a
victim these days! part of the blame has to rest with the manufacturers of home
computer operating systems. a secure system should not allow a web page or email to
download and install anything without the user s knowledge. these scams are
illegal and telephone companies should have nothing to do with them. they should
refuse to pay money over to the perpetrators. or are they themselves receiving such
good returns that it is in their interest to keep the scam going why don t bt et
al block all premium numbers by default and only turn it off at the customer s
request to anyone who falls foul of this scam - refuse to pay your telephone
provider for these calls. after you notify your telephone provider of these
fraudulent transactions they cannot insist on you paying the bill. to do so would
be to knowingly assist the fraudsters to commit the fraud. no customers have yet
been taken to court for refusing to pay these bills. disable or remove your modem
and use broadband instead - then you have nothing to worry about. or buy some
decent firewall software and anti-virus. you would not walk out in the freezing
cold without a coat - you would not drive your car without any insurance - so why
not protect your pc stop blaming the phone companies - it s not their fault! i
was very impressed with our phone company recently. i had kept ringing a hotline
number for kylie tickets and next day they rang back to ask if i was aware there
were 40-odd calls to the same number. great service. and i got the tickets as well!
i have a colleague who has fallen victim to this kind of scam. he informed the
phone company about it they subsequently put a block on premium rate numbers.
three months later another huge bill of over £1 000 came in - the block apparently
didn t work and he still has to pay for it even though a block was in place. phone
companies are probably quite happy for their customers to be hit with a huge bill
otherwise they d be taking extra steps to prevent this kind of problem. i have
been scammed of £139. the operator will do nothing about this and to add insult to
injury i was charged vat by the government. premium rate numbers have been
subject to various scams ever since they were invented. one example was where
thieves would set up a premium rate number and then dial it day and night from
phones whose quarterly bills were never paid. the telephone company was the victim
here and you can bet that loophole was blocked very quickly. i know people who
have run up large bills despite being it-literate. from talking to bt in belfast
i believe that they will shortly be giving out a free application that can stop you
dialling expensive numbers without knowing. it s not the fault of phone companies
and at last they are doing something about it. it s about time that the
profiteering by the legitimate phone companies came to an end mainly by doing
away with dial-up altogether and bring broadband down to the same price as dial-up!
not only will this ruin things for the dialler scammers but also allow people to
update and upgrade their security more easily and quickly. i haven t fallen
victim to a rogue-dialling scam but i think you re seriously remiss in not
pointing out that the vast majority of these scams arise from people trying to
access services purporting to provide free pornography. in most cases the user is
entirely at fault which is probably why the telephone companies are rightly
unwilling to refund them. my telephone supplier did not inform me that my monthly
bill had risen from its normal £3 to £5 to £320. this was because of the scam.
they simply billed me. what particularly galls me over and above having over £300
stolen is that the supplier and the government (through vat) are profiting from
this crime and will not reimburse me their portion of my losses. how about an
automatic monthly cap of say £20 on premium rate calls that you would have to
contact your provider to have lifted that way you could use legitimate premium
rate numbers while limiting fraudulent usage. at least any disputed amount would be
limited far easier for a telecoms operator to write off £20 than it is £750. a
few years back i was also the target of such scams but thank god i have already
upgraded to broadband and nothing was connected to my modem so all i heard was the
sound of an attempted connection. how about home users take some responsibility
and ensure their anti-virus and firewall software is up to date that should
prevent the vast majority of these scams.
veteran comic cyril fletcher dies veteran comedian and broadcaster cyril fletcher
has died aged 91 at his home in guernsey. fletcher will be remembered for his odd
odes and amusing misprints on tv show that s life in the 1970s and 80s as well as
a long variety career. he was also a regular on does the team think a comic
version of radio information show the brains trust. that s life host esther rantzen
said he was so lovely and a delight to work with. the thing about cyril was
that he was to use a slightly old-fashioned phrase an english gentleman she
said. he was courteous and understated and he adored gardens particularly
creating them for his beautiful wife. he was funny and witty to work with. he was
a real friend and i shall miss him. one of the last comedians of old-time variety
era fletcher made his first tv appearance in 1937. a year after bbc television
began he was seen reciting humorous poems appearing in a revue tele-ho and
playing the emperor of morocco in the first televised pantomime dick whittington.
he went on to become a regular voice on radio have a string of tv shows in the
1950s and appear in several films including 1947 s nicholas nickleby. he married
actress betty astell in 1941 and in the 1950s and 60s they produced pantos and
summer shows discovering new stars including harry secombe. in the mid-1990s
fletcher said he had made a fabulous living since the age of 22 and had never had
a day out of work. he was most recently seen presenting a gardening programme for
channel tv. fletcher was described as a consummate professional by his friend and
fellow broadcaster michael pointon. it really was a pleasure to work with him - he
had met everyone and done everything mr pointon said. he was a whimsical droll
fellow but also a very artistic man. as a friend he was very kind and generous.
fletcher s daughter jill said her father would be sorely missed. he was greatly
loved by the public she said.
jones files lawsuit against conte marion jones has filed a lawsuit for defamation
against balco boss victor conte following his allegations that he gave her
performance-enhancing drugs. the sydney olympic gold medallist says conte damaged
her reputation and she is seeking $25m (£13m) in the suit. conte whose company is
at the centre of a doping investigation made the claims in a us television
programme. he and three others were indicted in february by a federal grand jury
for a variety of alleged offences. in an email to the associated press on wednesday
conte said: i stand by everything i said . jones won three gold medals and two
bronzes in sydney in 2000. her lawsuit filed in the us district court in san
francisco said the sprinter had passed a lie detector test and that she has never
taken banned performance-enhancing drugs . conte s statements the suit added were
false and malicious . after the abc television program earlier this month jones
lawyer richard nicholls said: marion has steadfastly maintained her position
throughout: she has never ever used performance-enhancing drugs. victor conte is
a man facing a 42-count federal indictment while marion jones is one of america s
most decorated female athletes. mr conte s statements have been wildly
contradictory. mr conte chose to make unsubstantiated allegations on television
while marion jones demanded to take and then passed a lie detector examination.
mr conte is simply not credible. we challenge him to submit to the same lie
detector procedure that marion jones passed. the sport s ruling body the iaaf is
taking a cautious approach to conte s allegations but contacted the us anti-doping
agency. communications director nick davies said the iaaf would seek to contact
conte for further information . but davies stressed it would be up to the american
authorities to decide whether they will take action against jones in light of conte
s television interview and the world governing body would monitor the situation
closely. if it is felt there is case to answer it would be for its national
governing body (usa track and field) to take the appropriate disciplinary action
he added. the us anti-doping agency has proved itself to be very diligent in its
anti-doping war. and i am sure like ourselves they will be watching the
television programme with great interest. jones who is under investigation for
steroid use by the us anti-doping agency has continually denied ever taking
illegal substances since being investigated in the balco scandal although she
praised a zinc supplement conte marketed. jones who did not win any medals in
athens in august has never failed a drugs test. meanwhile conte who has been
charged along with three other men of distributing illegal steroids and money
laundering is due to face trial in march.
eu rules won t stop uk spending the shape of the uk s economy in graphics but he
denied that he was ruling out british membership of the euro despite saying there
would be no assessment of the five economic tests this year. mr brown said that it
was vital the uk continued to invest in infrastructure science and education in
the future. otherwise it would be overtaken by the likes of china he told mps.
the chancellor said that the eu s planned changes in the growth and stability pact
- designed to ensure that countries in the euro zone do not borrow too much - would
force britain to run a budget surplus of 1% over the economic cycle. under mr
brown s rules the uk current budget must be in balance over the economic cycle
but public investment is not counted as part of that deficit. he told the house of
commons treasury select committee that the eu rules make it difficult for a low
debt country to run the investment programmes that are necessary to improve its
infrastructure . but he argued that the eu was moving in the direction of the uk
principles and would eventually recognise the need to consider budget deficits
over a longer period than one year to include investment and to take more account
of the total size of government debt as well as the balance each year. under mr
brown s sustainable investment rule government debt should be under 40% - in
contrast to the 60% allowed under the growth and stability pact. mr brown
vigorously denied conservative claims that he had in effect fiddled the figures to
ensure that he met his own fiscal rules. in march the office of national statistics
(ons) reclassified £3.4bn of spending on road repairs as public investment -
shortly before the chancellor announced in the budget that he would meet his own
fiscal budget rule by only £6bn. conservative michael fallon asked mr brown whether
the treasury had leaned on ons to make this change and said that the ons had
received a written paper from the treasury on this matter. but the chancellor said
mr fallon was impugning the integrity of the office of national statistics and
said the decision had been made completely independently. mr brown also denied that
he was increasing taxes to fund his spending gap. he told the treasury select
committee that a growing economy meant more people in work and more profits for
companies which would boost treasury coffers. earlier ex-conservative chancellor
ken clarke welcomed a relaxation of the rules governing the euro zone. speaking on
radio 4 s today programme mr clarke said political give and take would replace
more rigid rules. but fellow tory david heathcoat-amory said the folly of the
system was in trying to run europe s varied economies on one set of rules. the
essential point here is that the stability and growth pact has turned out to be a
fake he said. the warning is about the european constitution which we are going
to have a vote on in a year or two and that centralises and entrenches these rules
in a constitution. it gives more powers to brussels to co-ordinate things like
employment and economic policy. but speaking to the treasury select committee
gordon brown said that the new stability pact rules were not part of a binding
treaty and could be changed again the future - potentially opening the way for
future euro membership. the conditions for euro entry are unchanged by this new
decision about the stability and growth pact mr. brown said.
gadget market to grow in 2005 the explosion in consumer technology is to continue
into 2005 delegates at the world s largest gadget show in las vegas have been
told. the number of gadgets in the shops is predicted to grow by 11% while
devices which talk to each other will become increasingly important. everything is
going digital kirsten pfeifer from the consumer electronics association told the
bbc news website. the consumer electronics show (ces) featured the pick of 2005 s
products. consumers are controlling what they want and technologies like hdtvs
[high-definition tvs] digital radio and digital cameras will remain strong in
2005. all the products on show really showed the breadth and depth of the
industry. despite showing diversity some delegates attending complained that the
showcase lacked as much wow factor as in previous years. the portable
technologies on show also reflected one of the buzzwords of ces which was the
time and place shifting of multimedia content - being able to watch and listen to
video and music anywhere at any time. at the start of last year s ces the cea
predicted there would be an average growth of 4% in 2004. that figure was surpassed
with the rise in popularity of portable digital music players personal video
recorders and digital cameras. it was clear also that gadgets are becoming a lot
more about lifestyle choice with fashion and personalisation becoming increasingly
key to the way gadgets are designed. part of this has been the rise in spending
power of the generation x-ers who have grown up with technology and who now have
the spending power and desire for more devices that suit them. more than 57% of the
consumer electronics market is made up of female buyers according to cea research.
hybrid devices which combine a number of multimedia functions were also in
evidence on the show floor. a lot of this is driven by just the ability to do it
said stephen baker a consumer electronics analyst with retail research firm npd
group. some of these functions cost next to nothing to add. as well as the show
floor showcasing everything from tiny wearable mp3 players to giant high-definition
tvs several keynote speeches were made by industry leaders such as microsoft
chief bill gates. despite several embarrassing technical glitches during mr gate s
pre-show speech he announced several new partnerships - mainly for the us market.
he unveiled new ways of letting people take tv shows recorded on personal video
recorders and watch them back on portable devices. he disappointed some however
by failing to announce any details of the next generation of the xbox games
console. another disappointment was the lack of exposure sony s new portable games
device the psp had at the show. sony said the much-anticipated gadget would most
likely start shipping in march for the us and europe. it went on sale in japan
before christmas. there were only two psps embedded in glass cabinets at the show
though and no representatives to discuss further details. a sony representative
told the bbc news website this was because sony did not consider it to be part of
their consumer technology offering. elsewhere at the show there was a plethora
of colour and plasma screens including samsung s 102-inch (2.6 metre) plasma - the
largest in the world. industry experts were also excited about high-definition
technologies coming to the fore in 2005 with new formats for dvds coming out which
will hold six times as much data as conventional dvds. with so many devices on the
move there were a lot of products on show offering external storage like seagate s
5gb pocket sized external hard drive which won an innovation for engineering and
design prize. more than 120 000 trade professionals attended ces in las vegas
which officially ran from 6 to 9 january.
giant waves damage s asia economy governments aid agencies insurers and travel
firms are among those counting the cost of the massive earthquake and waves that
hammered southern asia. the worst-hit areas are sri lanka india indonesia and
thailand with at least 23 000 people killed. early estimates from the world bank
put the amount of aid needed at about $5bn (£2.6bn) similar to the cash offered
central america after hurricane mitch. mitch killed about 10 000 people and caused
damage of about $10bn in 1998. world bank spokesman damien milverton told the wall
street journal that he expected an aid package of financing and debt relief.
tourism is a vital part of the economies of the stricken countries providing jobs
for 19 million people in the south east asian region according to the world travel
and tourism council (wttc). in the maldives islands in the indian ocean two-
thirds of all jobs depend on tourism. but the damage covers fishing farming and
businesses too with hundreds of thousands of buildings and small boats destroyed
by the waves. international agencies have pledged their support; most say it is
impossible to gauge the extent of the damage yet. the international monetary fund
(imf) has promised rapid action to help the governments of the stricken countries
cope. the imf stands ready to do its part to assist these nations with
appropriate support in their time of need said managing director rodrigo rato.
only sri lanka and bangladesh currently receive imf support while indonesia the
quake s epicentre has recently graduated from imf assistance. it is up to
governments to decide if they want imf help. other agencies such as the asian
development bank have said that it is too early to comment on the amount of aid
needed. there is no underestimating the size of the problem however. the united
nations emergency relief coordinator jan egeland said that this may be the
worst national disaster in recent history because it is affecting so many heavily
populated coastal areas... so many vulnerable communities. many people will have
[had] their livelihoods their whole future destroyed in a few seconds. he warned
that the longer term effects many be as devastating as the tidal wave or the
tsunami itself because of the risks of epidemics from polluted drinking water.
insurers are also struggling to assess the cost of the damage but several big
players believe the final bill is likely to be less than the $27bn cost of the
hurricanes that battered the us earlier this year. the region that s affected is
very big so we have to check country-by-country what the situation is said serge
troeber deputy head of the natural disasters department at swiss re the world s
second biggest reinsurance firm. i should assume however that the overall
dimension of insured damages is below the storm damages of the us he said. munich
re the world s biggest reinsurer said: this is primarily a human tragedy. it is
too early for us to state what our financial burden will be. allianz has said it
sees no significant impact on its profitability. however a low insurance bill may
simply reflect the general poverty of much of the region rather than the level of
economic devastation for those who live there. the international federation of the
red cross and red crescent societies told the reuters news agency that it was
seeking $6.5m for emergency aid. the biggest health challenges we face is the
spread of waterborne diseases particularly malaria and diarrhoea the aid agency
was quoted as saying. the european union has said it will deliver 3m euros (£2.1m;
$4.1m) of aid according to the wall street journal. the eu s humanitarian aid
commissioner louis michel was quoted as saying that it was key to bring aid in
those vital hours and days immediately after the disaster . other countries also
are reported to have pledged cash while the us state department said it was
examining what aid was needed in the region. getting companies and business up and
running also may play a vital role in helping communities recover from the weekend
s events. many of the worst-hit areas such as sri lanka thailand s phuket island
and the maldives are popular tourist resorts that are key to local economies.
december and january are two of the busiest months for the travel in southern asia
and the damage will be even more keenly felt as the industry was only just
beginning to emerge from a post 9/11 slump. growth has been rapid in southeast asia
with the world tourism organisation figures showing a 45% increase in tourist
revenues in the region during the first 10 months of 2004. in southern asia that
expansion is 23%. india continues to post excellent results thanks to increased
promotion and product development but also to the upsurge in business travel
driven by the rapid economic development of the country the wto said. arrivals
to other destinations such as... maldives and sri lanka also thrived. in thailand
tourism accounts for about 6% of the country s annual gross domestic product or
about $8bn. in singapore the figure is close to 5%. tourism also brings in much
needed foreign currency. in the short-term however travel companies are
cancelling flights and trips. that has hit shares across asia and europe with
investors saying that earnings and economic growth are likely to slow.
duff ruled out of barcelona clash chelsea s damien duff has been ruled out of
wednesday s champions league clash with barcelona at the nou camp. duff sustained
a knee injury in the fa cup defeat at newcastle and manager jose mourinho said: he
cannot run. his injury is very painful so he is out. but mourinho has revealed
defender willian gallas and striker didier drogba will be in the starting line-up.
the blues boss took the unusual step of naming his side a day before the match
with jole cole named in midfield. mourinho said: we have one more session but i
think drogba will play and gallas will play. drogba trained on monday with no
problems and will do the same on tuesday. gallas feels he can play and wants to
play. we are protecting him still but he will be okay to play. drogba chelsea s
£24m striker has missed the last three weeks through injury. cech ferreira
carvalho terry gallas tiago makelele lampard cole drogba gudjohnsen.
original exorcist to be screened the original version of horror prequel exorcist:
the beginning dropped by producers over claims it was not scary enough is to have
its world premiere. the film directed by paul schrader will be screened on 18
march at the international festival of fantastic film in brussels. the
psychological drama stars stellan skarsgard and foreruns the 1973 film. schrader
was replaced by director renny harlin who made a new version of the film which
debuted in 2004. the prequel project was originally announced in 2001 with actor
liam neeson in the lead role and john frankenheimer as director. however
frankenheimer pulled out in 2002 a month before he died. skarsgard then replaced
neeson in the role of father merrin made famous by max von sydow in the 1973 film.
principal footage was shot in morocco and rome at a reported cost of $32m. however
in august 2003 it emerged that producers morgan creek were shelving schrader s
version of the film having complained it was not scary enough. as well as
replacing schrader with harlin - the director behind die hard 2 and cliffhanger -
the producers also changed most of the cast but swedish star skarsgard stayed in
the merrin role. harlin s film released in the uk in october 2004 received
lukewarm reviews but went on to make over $76m (£40.7m) worldwide. the festival
screening will be the first time that schrader s film has been seen in public.
reports that it will be released either in cinemas or on dvd have yet to be
confirmed. other films at the festival in the belgium capital which runs from 11-
26 march include the us horror hit boogeyman and the forthcoming sequel ring 2 as
well as a selection of films adapted from the works of jules verne.
record year for chilean copper chile s copper industry has registered record
earnings of $14.2bn in 2004 the governmental chilean copper commission (cochilco)
has reported. strong demand from china s fast-growing economy and high prices have
fuelled production said cochilco vice president patricio cartagena. he added that
the boom has allowed the government to collect $950m in taxes. mr cartagena said
the industry expects to see investment worth $10bn over the next three years.
with these investments clearly we are going to continue being the principle actor
in the mining of copper. it s a consolidation of the industry with new projects and
expansions that will support greater production. australia s bhp billiton - which
operates la escondida the world s largest open pit copper mine - is planning to
invest $1.9bn between now and 2007 while state-owned codelco will spend about $1bn
on various projects. chile the biggest copper producer in the world is now
analyzing ways of to keep prices stable at their current high levels without
killing off demand or leading customers to look for substitutes for copper. the
copper price reached a 16-year high in october 2004. production in chile is
expected rise 3.5% in 2005 to 5.5 million tonnes said mr cartagena. cochilco
expects for 2005 a slight reduction on copper prices and forecasts export earnings
will fall 10.7%.
sales fail to boost high street the january sales have failed to help the uk high
street recover from a poor christmas season a survey has found. stores received a
boost from bargain hunters but trading then reverted to december levels the
british retail consortium and accountants kpmg said. sales in what is traditionally
a strong month rose by 0.5% on a like-for-like basis compared with a year earlier.
consumers remain cautious over buying big-ticket items like furniture said brc
director general kevin hawkins. higher interest rates and uncertainty over the
housing market continue to take their toll on the retail sector the brc said. but
clothing and footwear sales were said to be generally better than december while
department stores also had a good month. in the three-months to january like-for-
like sales showed a growth rate of -0.1% the same as in the three months to
december the brc said. following a relatively strong new year s bank holiday
trading then took a downward turn said mr hawkins. even extending some
promotions and discounts and the pay-day boost later in the month could not tempt
customers. the previous brc survey found christmas 2004 was the worst for 10 years
for retailers. and according to office for national statistics data sales in
december failed to meet expectations and by some counts were the worst since 1981.
church anger over bollywood film roman catholic organisations in india have
demanded the withdrawal of a film that depicts a priest having an affair with a
girl half his age. indian television channels are now refusing to run the
promotional material for the film sins ahead of its release on friday. the
director of the film vinod pande says the movie is not offensive and has refused
to withdraw it. catholics are planning a protest in mumbai (bombay) on wednesday.
the president of one of mumbai s main catholic organisations dolphy d souza says
the portrayal of an ordained priest as a man of loose moral character has hurt the
religious sentiments of india s catholic community. he called the film
pornographic and sensational . mr d souza who is also the vice-president of the
catholics national body has accused the director of the film of portraying a
priest in bad light for commercial gains. catholics have urged mr pande to withdraw
the film to show respect to the christian community s hurt sentiments. religion
needs to be a personal affair and should not be a subject for entertainment or for
commercial use joseph dias general secretary of the catholic secular forum said
in a statement. but mr pande said that if the critics were to see the film they
would not protest against it and would not insist on its withdrawal. he says he has
no plans to cancel the film ahead of its scheduled screening on friday. it s
about forbidden love. there was no agenda whatsoever to hurt anyone he said. the
bbc s zubair ahmed in mumbai says that the controversial film shows a priest in
steamy scenes with a girl half his age. she apparently goes to him for help but he
falls in love with her. it takes place in the picturesque southern indian state of
kerala. the film has already been cleared by the censor board with an a (adults
only) certificate. mr d souza says he is shocked at the censor board s decision to
clear the film. our correspondent says that india s tv channels have so far refused
to be dragged into the controversy and have not screened the film s promotional
material. most of the catholic community s anger has come after watching newspaper
advertisements and hoardings of the film. christians make up about two per cent of
india s population of more than a billion people.
tv calls after carroll error spurs boss martin jol said his team were robbed at
manchester united after pedro mendes shot clearly crossed the line but was not
given. the referee is already wearing an earpiece so why can t we just stop the
game and get the decision right said jol after the 0-0 draw. but at the end of
the day it s so obvious that pedro s shot was over the line it s incredible. we
feel robbed but it s difficult for the linesman and referee to see it. mendes shot
from 50 yards and united goalkeeper roy carroll spilled the ball into his own net
before hooking it clear. jol added: we are not talking about the ball being a
couple of centimetres or an inch or two over the line it was a metre inside the
goal. what really annoys me is that we are here in 2005 watching something on a
tv monitor within two seconds of the incident occurring and the referee isn t told
about it. we didn t play particularly well but i am pleased - even now - with a
point although we should have had three. mendes could not believe the goal was
not given after seeing a replay. he said: my reaction on the pitch was to
celebrate. it was a very nice goal it was clearly over the line - i ve never seen
one so over the line and not given in my career. it s really really over. what
can you do but laugh about it it s a nice goal and one to keep in my memory even
though it didn t count. it s not every game you score from the halfway line.
manchester united manager sir alex ferguson sympathised with tottenham and said the
incident highlighted the need for video technology. i think it hammers home what a
lot of people have been asking for and that s that technology should play a part in
the game ferguson told mutv. what i was against originally was the time factor
in video replays. but i read an article the other day which suggested that if a
referee can t make up his mind after 30 seconds of watching a video replay then the
game should carry on. thirty seconds is about the same amount of time it takes to
organise a free-kick or take a corner or a goal-kick. so you wouldn t be wasting a
lot of time. i think you could start off by using it for goal-line decisions. i
think that would be an opening into a new area of football. arsenal boss arsene
wenger also used the incident to highlight the need for video technology. when the
whole world apart from the referee has seen there should be a goal at old trafford
that just reinforces what i feel - there should be video evidence said wenger.
it s a great example of where the referee could have asked to see a replay and
would have seen in five seconds that it was a goal.
parmalat sues 45 banks over crash parmalat has sued 45 banks as it tries to reclaim
money paid to banks before the scandal-hit italian dairy company went bust last
year. the firm collapsed with debts of about 14bn euros ($19bn; £10bn) and new
boss enrico bondi has already taken legal action against a number of lenders. he
claims the banks were aware of the problems but continued to work with the company
so they could earn commissions. parmalat has not identified which banks it has gone
after this time. under italian law administrators can seek to get back money paid
to financial institutions prior to insolvency if there is a suspicion that the
institutions knew that the company was in financial trouble. the firm also said it
is preparing further law suits. according to the reuters news agency 35 of the
companies sued on thursday are italian while the remaining 10 are international.
the unidentified parmalat source also told reuters that the company was planning to
take action against a total of 80 financial institutions. among those already
targeted are bank of america ubs credit suisse first boston deutsche bank and
citigroup. it has also gone after auditors grant thornton. they have all denied any
wrongdoing. parmalat was declared insolvent in december 2003 after it emerged that
4bn euros thought to be held in an offshore account did not in fact exist. in the
investigation that followed it became apparent that the company among other things
had been billing clients twice in order to boost sales and bolster the balance
sheet. that enabled parmalat to borrow heavily and expand overseas allowing it to
become a darling of the italian stock exchange.
what now for british tennis tim henman s decision to quit davis cup tennis has
left the british team with a gargantuan void to fill. the world number seven is
tied for fourth among his countrymen for wins in the history of the tournament (he
has 36 from his 50 rubbers). and great britain s last davis cup win without henman
came against slovenia as far back as 1996. worse could follow according to former
british team member chris bailey. bailey told bbc sport: after tim s announcement
i doubt greg rusedski will be that far behind him. but without their top two
where does that leave british ambitions in the sport s premier team event captain
jeremy bates has singled out alex bogdanovic and andrew murray as potential
replacements. the yugoslavian-born bogdanovic though is 184 places below henman
in the world rankings and has played just two cup ties - winning one and losing the
other. murray on the other hand is 407th in the current atp entry list and yet
to make his cup debut. but bailey does see some hope for the future. he said: now
we ve dropped down to the euro-africa zone the time was right for him to step down
and let the young guys come to the fore. britain s next opponents israel are
hardly likely to be quaking in their boots ahead of the 4-6 march match against a
likely trio of bogdanovic murray and the 187th-ranked arvind parmar. bailey said:
it will be tough for gb to move up but there comes a time when our young players
have to step up. this was always going to be inevitable with tim and greg s growing
years. i m confident about the future. i wouldn t lay money on us getting back
into the world group next year but i d imagine in five years time we ll be
competing for the major honours. of those lining up to replace henman the 17-
year-old murray with four futures titles under his belt last year looks the best
long-term bet. murray is the one that looks likeliest to take over tim s mantle
said bailey. he has an enormous amount of self-confidence judging by what he s
said in the past. bogdanovic three years murray s senior has had a more troubled
time under britain s davis cup umbrella. while murray has been marked out as
britain s golden boy bogdanovic was warned by the lawn tennis association for a
lack of drive at the end of 2003. and bailey said: despite that alex is clearly
talented as well while arvind is another contender. they re among the guys who
have experienced the intensity of davis cup tennis - whether as players or on the
sidelines. the lta has always done an exceptional job of ensuring that. now they
ll finally get to play regularly in the cauldron of the cup. and i m confident that
will springboard team gb to greater success.
commodore finds new lease of life the once-famous commodore computer brand could be
resurrected after being bought by a us-based digital music distributor. new owner
yeahronimo media ventures has not ruled out the possibility of a new breed of
commodore computers. it also plans to develop a worldwide entertainment concept
with the brand although details are not yet known. the groundbreaking commodore 64
computer elicits fond memories for those who owned one back in the 1980s. in the
chronology of home computing commodore was one of the pioneers. the commodore 64
launched in 1982 was one of the first affordable home pcs. it was followed a few
years later by the amiga. the commodore 64 sold more than any other single computer
system even to this day. the brand languished somewhat in the 1990s. commodore
international filed for bankruptcy in 1994 and was sold to dutch firm tulip
computers. in the late 1980s the firm was a great rival to atari which produced
its own range of home computers and is now a brand of video games formerly known
as infogrames. tulip computers sold several products under the commodore name
including portable usb storage devices and digital music players. it had planned to
relaunch the brand following an upsurge of nostalgia for 1980s-era games.
commodore 64 enthusiasts have written emulators for windows pc apple mac and even
pdas so that the original commodore games can be still run. the sale of commodore
is expected to be complete in three weeks in a deal worth over £17m.
at a glance: tory health checks the uk opposition conservatives have unveiled
plans to introduce health checks for immigrants if they win the general election.
here s a guide to the plan: people coming to live and work in britain from outside
the eu. if they plan to stay six months or more and are from a country with lots of
tb they would have to have a chest x-ray and further tests if appropriate. all
people from outside the european union who want to stay a year or more will have to
undergo a full medical. tuberculosis hepatitis b and hiv. a positive test for tb
would automatically mean visa applications being turned down. all other conditions
would be dealt with on a case by case basis. people would have to prove they have
an acceptable standard of health and are unlikely to be a danger to public health
in the uk or impose significant costs or demands on the nhs. they would also if
appropriate have to be able to undertake the work or study they applied to come
here for. people coming to britain for less than six months would not be medically
tested unless they intended to work in health care childcare or teaching. children
and pregnant women wanting to live in britain permanently would not have to have a
chest x-ray for tb. under 16s would not face tests for hepatitis and hiv. the
tories say people fleeing persecution will not be denied sanctuary in britain
because of poor health. however they will undergo health checks to ensure they
receive the right medical treatment and do not spread infectious diseases. they
claim government figures show that tb in england has increased by 25% over the last
10 years and that nearly two-thirds of people with the disease were born overseas.
they also believe there should be stricter controls over who comes into britain to
ensure they are not a public health risk. they say the plans will protect access to
the nhs. applicants will be tested in their home country. only asylum seekers will
be tested in the uk once their refugee status is established. home office minister
des browne says the government already routinely checks people for tb if they come
into the uk for six months or more from high-risk countries. recent medical checks
were carried out on 175 000 people at heathrow airport and 10 000 at gatwick. from
those tests about 100 infectious cases of tb were found. the tories say 47 other
countries across the world impose requirements of this kind. the party has looked
at the way the system is operated in australia canada and new zealand. the tory
proposals are quite closely modelled on the new zealand system. labour claims
the policy is little more than a desperate attempt to catch up with labour s five-
year plan for immigration and asylum which was published last week. this says
health screening for tb will be targeted on applicants from high-risk areas before
they are given entry clearance. those who are diagnosed with the disease would then
need to seek treatment at home before being allowed to enter the uk. the liberal
democrats have warned labour and the tories they were in danger of pandering to
prejudice rather than challenging it .
housing plans criticised by mps irreversible environmental damage will be caused
by government plans to build more than one million homes in south-east england mps
have warned. sustainable communities were being promoted without a real
understanding of what sustainable means the environmental audit committee said.
it said issues like energy needs and transport were not properly addressed. deputy
prime minister john prescott said the report was completed before new initiatives
were announced. he said: we are working across government especially with our
colleagues at defra to create cleaner safer and greener communities while
protecting and enhancing the environment. the report said there was far too
little attention paid to many environmental issues including water even though
supplies in parts of the south east are already too low. regulations designed to
ensure energy-efficient buildings are too lax and builders routinely flout them
anyway it said. financing for improving transport was around one-twentieth of
what would be required. the report was a stinging rebuke for the government and
especially john prescott s department bbc environment correspondent richard black
said. chairman of the environmental audit committee peter ainsworth mp said: the
government s housing policy is an alarming example of disjointed thinking in an
areas where joined-up policy is crucial. i accept the need to improve housing
supply but as things stand the principal beneficiary of housing growth will be
property developers with the environment we all depend on being the principal
loser. points raised in the report included: - no proposals to further increase
housing supply should be taken forward without strong supporting evidence. - the
government should recognise shortcomings of the treasury s barker review which
said 140 000 new homes a year were needed in britain. - the government should
consider a national spatial framework for england such as those already in place
in scotland and wales. - the office of the deputy prime minister should maximise
brown field development and housing densities. - measures to encourage improved
energy efficiency for existing homes should be considered - including reduced stamp
duty for homes that achieve set standards and a clear timetable for achieving zero-
emissions homes. - the government should make clear how it intends to measure its
success at creating sustainable communities. conservative local government
spokeswoman caroline spelman said: there is now growing evidence that john
prescott s buildings programme is environmentally unsustainable leaving a concrete
scar across the face of rural england.
speak easy plan for media players music and film fans will be able to control their
digital media players just by speaking to them under plans in development by two
us firms. scansoft and gracenote are developing technology to give people access
to their film and music libraries simply by voice control. they want to give people
hands-free access to digital music and films in the car or at home or on the move.
huge media libraries on some players can make finding single songs hard. voice
command-and-control unlocks the potential of devices that can store large digital
music collections said ross blanchard vice president of business development for
gracenote. these applications will radically change the car entertainment
experience allowing drivers to enjoy their entire music collections without ever
taking their hands off the steering wheel he added. gracenote provides music
library information for millions of different albums for jukeboxes such as apple s
itunes. the new technology will be designed so that people can play any individual
song or movie out of a collection just by saying its name. users will also be able
to request music that fits a mood or an occasion or a film just by saying the
actor s name. speech is a natural fit for today s consumer devices particularly
in mobile environments said alan schwartz vice president of speechworks a
division of scansoft. pairing our voice technologies with gracenote s vast music
database will bring the benefits of speech technologies to a host of consumer
devices and enable people to access their media in ways they ve never imagined.
the two firms did not say if they were developing the technology for languages
other than english. users will also be able to get more information on a favourite
song they have been listening to by asking: what is this portable players are
becoming popular in cars and a number of auto firms are working with apple to
device interfaces to control the firm s ipod music player. but with tens of
thousands of songs able to be stored on one player voice control would make
finding that elusive track by elvis presley much easier. the firms gave no
indication about whether the ipod or any other media player were in mind for the
use of the voice control technology. the companies estimate that the technology
will be available in the fourth quarter of 2005.
uk s national gallery in the pink the national gallery home to some of the uk s
greatest artworks has seen a big jump in visitor numbers. five million visitors
made the london gallery - which houses treasures like raphael s madonna of the
pinks - the uk s most visited museum in 2004. it recorded a 13.8% rise in numbers
and was the country s second most visited tourist attraction behind blackpool
pleasure beach. charles saumarez smith the gallery s director said he was
delighted . he said the number of visitors through the doors had boosted figures to
pre-11 september 2001 levels. mr saumarez smith added that the pedestrianisation of
trafalgar square where the gallery is located and strong temporary collections
throughout 2004 had led to the strong performance. our 2004 exhibition programme
of el greco russian landscape in the age of tolstoy and raphael: from urbino to
rome was particularly strong and exceeded all targets he said. the exceptional
quality of the paintings in our permanent collection is also huge draw for the
public. the expectations of today s visitors are higher than ever and we have kept
pace with their demands. mr saumarez smith said he was confident the gallery could
maintain the attendance. with important exhibitions of the work of caravaggio
stubbs and rubens in place for 2005 i am confident that the gallery is set for
another highly successful year he added. the figures were prepared by the
association of leading visitor attractions (alva). it found that the figures had
been boosted by an increase in europeans travelling to the uk on budget airlines.
popular cultural tourist spots such as the tate modern and the natural history
museum all recorded increases of more than 10% in visitor numbers compared with
2003. but for legal or confidentiality reasons some alva members did not submit
figures for 2004 including buckingham palace windsor castle madame tussauds and
alton towers. alva director robin broke said: visits from western europe were up
by 10% and from north america by some 9% compared to 2003 while numbers from the
rest of the world rose 20%. european figures were helped by the rapid growth of
low-cost flights to britain from europe especially from new eu countries.
blair looks to election campaign tony blair s big speech will be looked back on as
the performance that kicked off the election campaign. that poll may still be
about 16 weeks away but there can be little doubt left that the campaign is now in
full swing. the prime minister used his speech to a selected audience in the south
east to set out his broad brush election manifesto. there was a detailed account of
the government s past record with a major emphasis on the economy and public
services. there was an attempt to draw the line under the gossip surrounding his
rift with chancellor gordon brown. and there was an insistence on the importance of
the party continuing to operate as unremittingly new labour - although that may
continue to irritate his chancellor. there was little in terms of concrete
proposals or what might form manifesto pledges although the prime minister talked
about a new labour manifesto that will be aimed at all sections of society . his
was more a speech designed to remind people and some in his own party precisely
what new labour stood for and to leave them in no doubt there would not be any
shrinking away from that approach. and for some that means showing that new
labour actually does stand for something - that it is as he said more than an
electoral device . to that end he set out a broad programme aimed to appeal to
both middle england voters who switched to the party in 1997 and stuck with it
possibly through some gritted teeth in 2001 and to more traditional lower income
old labour supporters. in a key section he declared: in our third term we can
achieve an unprecedented widening of opportunity and prosperity. for the first
time ever a whole generation growing up with unbroken economic stability. every
family - not just the fortunate few - knowing their children will have an
inheritance at adulthood. every pupil in every secondary school guaranteed a place
in university or a quality apprenticeship. every adult - including those who missed
out at school - able to get the skills then need to advance. home ownership
extended to its highest ever level and to families who have never before been able
to afford it. the highest ever level of employment with everyone in work
guaranteed a decent wage and decent conditions . under what is to be the general
election slogan britain is working the prime minister time and again insisted
the future direction would be unremittingly new labour. that might get under the
skin of mr brown but he also heaped praise on him as the most successful post-war
chancellor britain has had. probably the greatest ideological divide between the
two men in so far as there is one is about the degree of private finance allowed
into the public services. an unremittingly new labour manifesto as the prime
minister is happy to make plain will stress the importance of that - the belief
patients and parents for example want a choice of good services before they start
worrying about who has provided them. the chancellor is said to be far more
sceptical about private finance although there is no suggestion he opposes it in
principle. with an election looming the next big speech from gordon brown will be
closely examined for any signs of divisions and in particular the use of that
little three letter word. but for now all eyes have been focused on the next
general election. and for many in westminster mr blair s performance has only
succeeded in hardening the belief that will be on 5 may.
queen recruit singer for new tour the remaining members of rock band queen are to
go on tour next year with former free and bad company singer paul rodgers taking
freddie mercury s place. guitarist brian may has said he expects to be on the road
with rodgers and drummer roger taylor from april. may said: suddenly the queen
phoenix is rising again from the ashes and will take precedence over... our lives.
queen have played with many different singers since mercury s death in 1991 but
have reportedly not toured. may performed with rodgers at a concert to celebrate
the 50th anniversary of the fender stratocaster guitar in london in september. we
were both so amazed at the chemistry that was going on in [free hit] all right now
that suddenly it seems blindingly obvious that there was something happening here
may wrote on his website. they teamed up again for a concert to mark their
induction into the uk music hall of fame and were joined by taylor. the show went
so incredibly well from our point of view and we got so many rave reactions from
out there we decided almost then and there that we would look at a tour together
may wrote. queen went to number one in 2000 with a version of we will rock you
sung by boy band 5ive and they have also played with robbie williams will young
and bob geldof. queen bassist john deacon has currently retired from the stage.
rodgers was singer with early 1970s rockers free who had a global hit with all
right now before forming bad company a successful supergroup with members of
king crimson and mott the hoople. he has also been in the firm with led zeppelin s
jimmy page and the law with the small faces and the who drummer kenny jones.
us adds more jobs than expected the us economy added 337 000 jobs in october - a
seven-month high and far more than wall street expectations. in a welcome economic
boost for newly re-elected president george w bush the labor department figures
come after a slow summer of weak jobs gains. jobs were created in every sector of
the us economy except manufacturing. while the separate unemployment rate went up
to 5.5% from 5.4% in september this was because more people were now actively
seeking work. the 337 000 new jobs added to us payrolls in october was twice the
169 000 figure that wall street economists had forecast. in addition the labor
department revised up the number of jobs created in the two previous months - to
139 000 in september instead of 96 000 and to 198 000 in august instead of 128
000. the better than expected jobs data had an immediate upward effect on stocks in
new york with the main dow jones index gaining 45.4 points to 10 360 by late
morning trading. it looks like the job situation is improving and that this will
support consumer spending going into the holidays and offset some of the drag
caused by high oil prices this year said economist gary thayer of ag edwards &
sons. other analysts said the upbeat jobs data made it more likely that the us
federal reserve would increase interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point to
2% when it meets next week. it should empower the fed to clearly do something
said robert macintosh chief economist with eaton vance management in boston.
kathleen utgoff commissioner of the bureau of labor said many of the 71 000 new
construction jobs added in october were involved in rebuilding and clean-up work in
florida and neighbouring deep south states following four hurricanes in august
and september. the dollar rose temporarily on the job creation news before falling
back to a new record low against the euro as investors returned their attention to
other economic factors such as the us s record trade deficit. there is also
speculation that president bush will deliberately try to keep the dollar low in
order to assist a growth in exports.
qatar and shell in $6bn gas deal shell has signed a $6bn (£3.12bn) deal with the
middle eastern sheikhdom of qatar to supply liquid natural gas (lng) to north
america and europe. the uk-dutch group will own 30% of the project with qatar s
state oil firm owning the rest. the agreement is the latest in a string of deals
reached by qatar which is trying to make itself a regional leader in natural gas.
us oil giant exxonmobil signed up for a $12.8bn deal earlier on sunday. france s
total is expected to join the exxonmobil scheme dubbed qatargas-2 on monday
taking 5 million tonnes of lng a year. exxonmobil will be taking some 15 million
tonnes each year for 25 years from the end of 2007 under the deal. shell s
agreement under the name qatargas-4 foresees the building of new facilities to
handle 1.4 billion cubic feet of gas and 7.8 million tonnes of lng each year from
2011 onwards.
candidate resigns over bnp link a prospective candidate for the uk independence
party (ukip) has resigned after admitting a brief attachment to the british
national party(bnp). nicholas betts-green who had been selected to fight the
suffolk coastal seat quit after reports in a newspaper that he attended a bnp
meeting. the former teacher confirmed he had attended the meeting but said that was
the only contact he had with the group. mr betts-green resigned after being
questioned by the party s leadership. a ukip spokesman said mr betts-green s
resignation followed disclosures in the east anglian daily times last month about
his attendance at a bnp meeting. he did once attend a bnp meeting. he did not like
what he saw and heard and will take no further part of it the spokesman added. a
meeting of suffolk coastal ukip members is due to be held next week to discuss a
replacement. mr betts-green of woodbridge suffolk has also resigned as ukip s
branch chairman.
old firm pair handed suspensions celtic s henri camara and nacho novo of rangers
have both been suspended for offences missed by the referee in a recent old firm
game. both were given automatic one-match bans and 12 additional disciplinary
points for their actions. that means novo will miss a further two games because of
his prior record. camara will miss one additional game. novo was found guilty of
stamping on celtic s stephen pearson. camara was punished for kicking gregory
vignal. i m extremely disappointed. i don t know if there s a lot to add to that
said rangers manager alex mcleish of novo s punishment. but what i will say is
that i m at a loss as to why that incident should be picked up and highlighted when
there were so many other incidents during the game. both players will miss this
weekend s games when celtic host dundee united and rangers visit kilmarnock unless
they decide to appeal. the additional bans come into effect from 28 december
meaning camara will also be unavailable for the home game against livingston while
novo will miss the meetings with dundee united and dunfermline. an sfa spokesman
said: they have seven days to appeal but with matches coming along at the weekend
they would need to do so before friday. but if they do appeal it won t be heard
before this weekend because it takes a bit of time to seat up an appeals tribunal.
meanwhile bob malcolm and rangers have been informed by letter as to the outcome
of the hearing regarding his reaction to rangers being awarded a penalty in the
same game. malcolm a substitute on the day was taken from the rangers dug-out and
spoken to by police about an alleged gesture he made. but the sfa would not detail
what if any punishment malcolm would receive. once rangers receive our letter we
will be in a position to make a comment on the findings added the spokesman.
toxic web links help virus spread virus writers have begun using the power of the
web to spread their malicious wares. a windows virus called bofra is turning
infected machines into distributors of its malicious code. those clicking on the
poisoned links in e-mail messages sent out by infected machines may fall victim to
the virus. the trick is being used to prevent the progam being caught by anti-virus
software that combs through code contained in e-mail attachments. the virus that
uses this trick is called bofra and the first member of the family of worms
appeared on 10 november. they exploit a windows vulnerability that was discovered
only a few days earlier. like many other recent viruses bofra plunders the
address book in microsoft outlook for e-mail addresses and scours other files on an
infected machine for fresh target addresses. the virus uses its own mail sending
software to despatch e-mail messages to potential victims but unlike many other
recent viruses does not itself travel via mail. instead the body of the mail
messages sent out contain fake weblinks that when clicked on connect back to the
machine that distributed that e-mail. essentially bofra turns infected machines
into small web servers that happily dole out copies of the virus. the messages try
to trick people into clicking on the links by promising pornographic videos and
images or by posing as payment confirmation for a paypal transaction. copies of
the messages seen by the bbc news website had bright yellow and green backgrounds.
those clicking on the links will inadvertently download the bofra virus which will
then start searching for new addresses to send itself to. filtering firm clearswift
said this tactic of creating thousands of mini web servers was designed to help the
virus spread quickly and avoid attempts to shut it down. in the past other
malicious programs have relied on a single web server that downloads viral code to
target machines. shutting down this central server usually stops the virus
spreading. clearswift said that fact that no viral code travels in the e-mail
messages sent out by machines infected by bofra could hamper effects to limit its
spread. finnish anti-virus firm f-secure said that so far it had not seen many
copies of the bofra virus and its variants in circulation. tim warner spokesman
for anti-virus firm finjan said: you have people getting very creative now to
deliver the virus and get it propagating. mr warner said organisations needed to
prepare deep defences to keep out the modern form of malicious mobile code. most
firms have secured their e-mail gateway said mr warner but the irony is that
most of them let malicious content through the web gateways. he said behavioural
systems that monitor what users do can help to spot when viruses have penetrated
organisations and have started hunting for other victims. the bofra family of
viruses which were originally thought to be offshoots of the mydoom bug can
infect machines running windows 2000 95 98 me nt xp and server 2003. users
running windows xp that have applied the sp2 update are not vulnerable to the
loophole that bofra exploits.
wru proposes season overhaul the welsh rugby union wants to restructure the
northern hemisphere season into four separate blocks. the season would start with
the celtic league in october followed by the heineken cup in february and march
and the six nations moved to april and may. after a nine week break the wru then
proposes a two-month period of away and home international matches. wru chairman
david pickering said the structure would end problems of player availability for
club and country. he added: we feel sure that spectator interest would respond to
the impetus of high intensity rugby being played continuously rather than the
fragmented timetable currently in operation. equally we suspect that the sponsors
would prefer the sustained interest in a continuous tournament and hopefully the
broadcasters would also enjoy increased exposure. moving the six nations from its
traditional february beginning should also ensure better weather conditions and
stimulate greater interest in the games and generally provide increased skills and
competition and attract greater spectator viewing pickering argued. the plan will
be put before the international rugby board next month where four other plans
drawn up by independent consultants for a global integrated season will also be
discussed. pickering added: it s very early days and there are a number of caveats
associated with it - not least the revenue from the broadcasters which is
extremely important. we ve got a good plan and one which should be judged on its
merits.
uefa approves fake grass uefa says it will allow european matches to be played on
artificial pitches from the start of next season. european football s governing
body made the decision at a meeting of its executive committee on wednesday. uefa
explained that the move follows comprehensive studies into the sporting and
medical aspects of using artificial playing surfaces. they can be used subject to
complying with uefa quality criteria but there use will not be made obligatory.
luton preston queens park rangers and other clubs used to have plastic pitches
during the the 1980s but after a two-year study uefa insists the surfaces have
moved on. international matches can also be played on such pitches although games
at major tournaments have to be contested on grass. uefa spokesman rob faulkner
said: people in england have bad memories of the artificial pitches of luton and
qpr in the 1980s but the latest generation are completely different and are much
more like grass. we have sanctioned its use from the start of next season but only
as long as it is the latest generation of artificial turf and meets a whole series
of standards. several leading clubs from scandinavia russia and eastern europe -
especially those who only play champions league or uefa cup matches in winter - are
now expected to instal artificial pitches.
bortolami predicts dour contest italy skipper marco bortolami believes saturday s
six nations contest against scotland will be a scrappy encounter. with both sides
looking for their first win of the championship the third-round game at
murrayfield has been billed as a wooden-spoon decider. and bortolami feels the
edinburgh contest could end up being a bruising battle of the packs. it will not
be a pretty game because both teams are desperate to gain their first win said
the lock forward. italy have only recorded three wins since they joined the six
nations in 2000 but two of those have come against scotland. this year italy
opened up with a stubborn display against ireland but ended up losing 28-17.
however they were thoroughly outplayed by an impressive welsh side in rome last
time out. now the italians travel to edinburgh hoping to claim their first away win
in the six nations. scotland played extremely well against france in paris but not
so well when ireland came to edinburgh said bortolami. we are still very
disappointed with our last game against wales in rome and we are thoroughly
determined to right the wrongs. as a nation our quest is to be respected as a
team worthy of a place in this tournament and we can only do this by winning games.
whitehall cuts ahead of target thousands of civil service jobs have already been
cut or moved out of london as part of a major cost-cutting drive. chancellor
gordon brown said 12 500 jobs had gone while 7 800 were being moved out of the
south east. he plans to axe 104 000 jobs to free up money for education health
defence housing and overseas aid. unions oppose the plans but mr brown said £2bn
savings had already been made and more jobs had been cut than had been expected at
this stage. a further 200 jobs at the department of the environment food and rural
affairs have been earmarked to be cut. at the department for work and pensions 30
000 jobs are to go 560 will be lost by the end of the month at the department of
trade and industry and 400 are to go at the inland revenue and customs. in his
budget statement the chancellor said the first 12 500 civil service jobs had been
cut on target. about 4 300 civil servants will leave london and the south east by
the end of march 2005 and there are plans to relocate another 3 500. of those 300
department of health posts will go to yorkshire while hundreds at the department of
culture will move to birmingham and newcastle. mr brown also announced plans to
merge 35 agencies into nine - described by one civil service union as a bonfire of
the quangos . mark serwotka the leader of the public and commercial services union
said: in last year s budget we had the day of the long knifes as the chancellor
kicked off the crude game of who could cut the most civil service jobs between the
government and the tories. there was a time when the only worry thousands of hard
working civil and public servants had on budget day was whether petrol or taxes
would go up nowadays the worry is whether they will have a job by the end of it.
he said mr brown had made welcome announcements on closing tax loopholes and
extending the new deal while cutting the very people who deliver them. the
treasury also announced plans to reduce the number of public sector workers on sick
leave with a new system of checks and tougher measures against those suspected of
abusing the system.
ryanair in $4bn boeing plane deal budget airline ryanair has placed an order for 70
boeing 737-800 planes in a deal valued at $4bn (£2.1bn) which should lead to 2 500
new ryanair jobs. it also has an option for a further 70 aircraft a move which
brings the ryanair/boeing order book up to 225 firm orders and options on 193 more.
ryanair said the new planes would help it to cut operating costs further. the
carrier reported a drop in quarterly profit earlier this year after it was hit by
higher fuel costs. however when it reported the results the airline was upbeat
about prospects for 2005 despite tough competition in the budget airline market.
ryanair chairman david bonderman said that the 737-800 had significantly reduced
our unit operating costs and allowed us to reduce air fares each year for the last
five years . with this new order and new pricing in place ryanair expects that
unit operating costs (excluding fuel) will continue to fall each year for the next
five years he added. at the end of this year ryanair will have taken delivery of
about 100 new planes while the 70 new orders are due for delivery between 2008 and
2012. the airline said that when all these planes have been delivered it will be
able to carry more than 70 million passengers a year making it europe s largest
airline. about 2 500 new jobs should be created in the next seven years it added.
the order can be seen as good news for boeing which in recent years has been
overtaken by european plane maker airbus as the world s biggest-selling plane
maker.
mccall earns tannadice reprieve dundee united manager ian mccall has won a reprieve
from the sack with chairman eddie thompson calling for an end to speculation over
his future. it is understood that mccall would have been sacked if sheffield
wednesday manager paul sturrock had been willing to return to tannadice. but
sturrock has distanced himself from the position. we re in a difficult situation.
we must get out of it through the efforts of current personnel said thompson.
ian mccall and i have had a long and detailed talk about a number of areas
including the current league position and the manner of the exit from the league
cup he added. however the continuing speculation is doing no one any good
especially as we have several crucial games coming up. the minds of the coaching
staff and the players have to be on those games and those games only. our season
would of course improve considerably if in the next few weeks we achieved some
improved league results and there is also the potential of another cup semi-final
subject to the draw. all that matters at the present time - is us all having a
total focus on the games ahead and a positive series of results being achieved.
dundee united players had expressed their solidarity with mccall after their side s
3-0 scottish cup win over queen of the south. we want the boss to stay we don t
want someone else coming in said jim mcintyre. hopefully now he gets the chance
to stay. keeper tony bullock echoed mcintyre s sentiments. i think all the boys
are behind ian mccall he added. at the moment it is all speculation and we have
got to rise above all that and do a job on the pitch. on saturday sturrock
insisted that he had unfinished business with wednesday who are fourth in league
one. i ve only been here five months and i don t expect to be leaving very very
soon he said. i can appreciate the rumours because i ve emphasised my thoughts
and ambitions to go back to dundee united. i can assure you the timescale is not
the right one. it (dundee united) is my team. i had five years there as a coach
six as a player two years as a manager - once you ve done that kind of thing it s
the result you look for. the important thing now is i ve come here to do a job and
i m going to try to finish it.
venezuela and china sign oil deal venezuelan president hugo chavez has offered
china wide-ranging access to the country s oil reserves. the offer made as part
of a trade deal between the two countries will allow china to operate oil fields
in venezuela and invest in new refineries. venezuela has also offered to supply 120
000 barrels of fuel oil a month to china. venezuela - the world s fifth largest oil
exporter - sells about 60% of its output to the united states. mr chavez s
administration which has a strained relationship with the us is trying to
diversify sales to reduce its dependence on its largest export market. china s
quick-growing economy s need for oil has contributed to record-high oil prices this
year along with political unrest in the middle east and supply bottlenecks. oil
prices are finishing the year roughly 30% higher than they were in january 2004.
in 2004 according to forecasts from the ministry of commerce china s oil imports
will be 110m tons up 21% on the previous year. china has been a net importer of
oil since the mid 1990 s with more than a third of the oil and gas it consumes
coming from abroad. a lack of sufficient domestic production and the need to lessen
its dependence on imports from the middle east has meant that china is looking to
invest in other potential markets such as latin america. mr chavez who is visiting
china said his country would put its many of its oil facilities at the disposal of
china. chinese firms would be allowed to operate 15 mature oil fields in the east
of venezuela which could produce more than one billion barrels he confirmed. the
two countries will also continue a joint venture agreement to produce stocks of the
boiler fuel orimulsion. mr chavez has also invited chinese firms to bid for gas
exploration contracts which his government will offer next year in the western gulf
of venezuela. the two countries also signed a number of other agreements covering
other industries including mining.
us top of supercomputing charts the us has pushed japan off the top of the
supercomputing chart with ibm s prototype blue gene/l machine. it is being
assembled for the lawrence livermore national laboratory under the us department
of energy. ibm test results show that blue gene/l has managed speeds of 70.72
teraflops. the previous top machine japan s nec earth simulator clocked up 35.86.
the top 500 list was announced on monday and officially charts the fastest
computers in the world. it is announced every six months and is worked out using
an officially recognised mathematical speed test called linpack which measures
calculations per second. once completed in 2005 blue gene/l will be more powerful
than its current prototype. next year with the final blue gene four times what it
is this year it is going to be a real step up and will be hard to beat said
erich strohmaier one of the co-founders of the top500 list. it will help
scientists work out the safety security and reliability requirements for the us s
nuclear weapons stockpile without the need for underground nuclear testing. it
will also cut down on the amount of heat generated by the massive power a big
problem for supercomputers. in second place was silicon graphics columbia
supercomputer based at the us space agency s (nasa) ames research center in
california. the linux-based machine was reported to have reached a top speed of
42.7 trillion calculations per second (teraflops) in october. it will be used to
model flight missions climate research and aerospace engineering. the defeated
japanese contender the earth simulator which was listed in third place losing
the top spot it had held since june 2002. it is dedicated to climate modelling and
simulating seismic activity. since the first supercomputer the cray-1 was
installed at los alamos national laboratory us in 1976 computational speed has
leaped 500 000 times. the cray-1 was capable of 80 megaflops (80 million operations
a second). the blue gene/l machine that will be completed next year will be five
million times faster. started in 1993 the top 500 list is decided by a group of
computer science academics from around the world. it is presented at the
international supercomputer conference in pittsburgh.
fit-again betsen in france squad france have brought flanker serge betsen back into
their squad to face england at twickenham on sunday. but the player who missed
the victory over scotland through injury must attend a disciplinary hearing on
wednesday after being cited by wasps. serge has a good case so we are confident he
will play said france coach bernard laporte. the inexperienced nicolas mas jimmy
marlu and jean-philippe grandclaude are also included in a 22-man squad. the trio
have been called up after pieter de villiers ludovic valbon and aurelien rougerie
all picked up injuries in france s 16-9 win on saturday. laporte said he was
confident that betsen would be cleared by the panel investigating his alleged trip
that broke wasps centre stuart abbott s leg. if he was to be suspended we would
call up imanol harinordoquy or thomas lievremont said laporte who has dropped
patrick tabacco. we missed serge badly against scotland. he has now recovered from
his thigh injury and played on saturday with biarritz. france s regular back-row
combination of betsen harinordoquy and olivier magne were all missing from france
s side at the weekend because of injury. laporte is expected to announce france s
starting line-up on wednesday. forwards: nicolas mas sylvain marconnet olivier
milloud william servat sebastien bruno fabien pelous jerome thion gregory
lamboley serge betsen julien bonnaire sebastien chabal yannick nyanga. backs:
dimitri yachvili pierre mignoni frederic michalak yann delaigue damien traille
brian liebenberg jean-philippe grandclaude christophe dominici jimmy marlu
pepito elhorga.
tobacco giants hail court ruling us tobacco companies have welcomed an appeal court
s decision to reject the government s $280bn (£155bn) claim for alleged deceit
about smoking dangers. tobacco stocks rose sharply on wall street after the 2-1
decision. the court in washington found the case - filed by the clinton
administration in 1999 - could not be brought under federal anti-racketeering laws.
anti-smoking groups urge the government to fight on but the justice department has
not said if it will appeal. among the accused were altria group rj reynolds
tobacco lorillard tobacco liggett group and brown and williamson. they were
delighted by the decision which sent reynolds shares up 4.5% and altria shares up
5.11%. charles a blixt executive vice-president of rj reynolds tobacco said the
ruling dramatically transforms the government s lawsuit. altria group said in a
statement the government now must not only prove that the companies have engaged
in fraudulent behaviour in the past but that they are likely to do so in the
future. the government had claimed tobacco firms - manipulated nicotine levels
to increase addiction - targeted teenagers with multi-billion dollar advertising
campaigns - lied about the dangers of smoking and ignored research to the
contrary. prosecutors wanted the cigarette firms to disgorge $280bn in
profits accumulated over the past 50 years and impose tougher rules on marketing
their products. they brought the case under racketeering laws which were passed to
deny mafia gangs the profits of their crimes. but the tobacco companies denied that
they illegally conspired to promote smoking and defraud the public. they also said
they had already met many of the government s demands in a landmark $206bn
settlement reached with 46 states in 1998. the three-judge panel in the district of
columbia s court of appeals ruled on friday that the us government could not sue
the firms under the anti-racketeering laws. judge david sentelle in his ruling
said such laws were aimed at putting an end to illegal conduct going forward. we
hold that the language of (the law) and the comprehensive remedial scheme of (the
law) preclude disgorgement as a possible remedy in this case he wrote. the
justice department refused to say if it would appeal. all we re saying today is
that we have received the ruling and are reviewing it a spokeswoman said on
friday. but william corr of the campaign for tobacco-free kids urged the government
to continue pressing its case. today s ruling should not be an excuse for this
administration to seek a weak settlement that lets the tobacco industry off the
hook he said.
millions to lose textile jobs millions of the world s poorest textile trade
workers will lose their jobs under new trade rules to be introduced in the new year
a charity has warned. the world trade organisation (wto) is to end its multi-fibre
agreement (mfa) on midnight of 31 december. christian aid condemned the move
saying it would see almost a million jobs in bangladesh alone being axed. however
supporters of the change claim it will mean increased efficiency and lower costs
for western consumers. it will also see more jobs created in india and china
advocates argue. the wto said that many developing countries support the end of
quotas and stressed that funding was available to countries such as bangladesh to
help them make the transition to a fully liberalised market. there will be a
period of adjustment required said wto spokesman keith rockwell. some countries
will do better than others but there is no one who is suggesting that no developing
country will do well out of this. some countries where it may appear that orders
will dry up have seen orders surging and there are many companies who will continue
with existing trading relationships. christian aid has called on british firms
not to simply cut and run but look after their workers in a new report called
rags to riches to rags. it added that with few employment alternatives available
many sacked garment workers could end up in far worse jobs - with some of the
mainly female workers forced into the sex trade. the wto itself has warned that as
many as 27 million jobs could be lost as a result of liberalisation in the textile
industry. some of the world s fastest developing countries which rely on textile
exports to build growth - for example in bangladesh textiles account for almost 85%
of the country s exports and the industry employs around 1.5 million people. the
mfa pact has helped developing countries get a bigger share of the world market.
the losers in this new trade landscape will be some of the most vulnerable workers
in countries such as bangladesh cambodia sri lanka and nepal andrew pendleton
christian aid s head of trade policy said. they will be hard-pressed to cope when
garment industries there lose their protection. we are deeply concerned that the
new year will spell misery for huge numbers of garment workers. the wto said there
was no consenus among its members to retain the quotas and emphasised that funding
was available to countries such as bangladesh to help them adjust to the
liberalised market. it added that the impact of the changes for workers most
affected by the shake-up had not been considered adding such seismic changes to
policy should put the interests of poor people first - rather than simply aiming
to liberalise markets at any cost . while the current mfa was not perfect its did
allow third world countries like bangladesh to get onto the first rung of
industrial development christian aid said. international trade must not be
governed by a race to the bottom that pitches one set of poor people against
another mr pendleton added.
jol joy at professional cup win tottenham manager martin jol acclaimed his
players for their patience in their 3-0 fa cup fifth-round victory over a
determined nottingham forest side. we had the initiative but it wasn t easy. it
was a professional sort of performance the dutchman said. forest played with a
lot of players behind the ball in the first half but at 2-0 they were dead and
buried. looking ahead to the quarter-final jol said: newcastle have got a very
good side and they are always difficult. however he added that his side who are
four places above the magpies in the premiership were not afraid of anyone .
robbie keane skipper for the night and scorer of the crucial second goal echoed
his manager s sentiments on the last-eight match. they re on a high but we re
confident and in the last few games we ve played well and hopefully we can go there
and get the win he said. he conceded the win over forest which included goals
from noe pamarot and mido was not pretty to watch. it wasn t the best display but
it s all about the result the irishman said. we knew it was going to be
difficult with the conditions. the pitch wasn t the best but we still tried to pass
it. we dug in and the gaffer said to us at half-time to keep being patient and
that the goal will come. forest manager gary megson conceded his team did not
deserve anything after a poor performance. if you play like we did and concede two
goals from corners you re going to have an uphill battle against a very good team
he said. if we defend in the championship like we did we ll not get another point.
we were organised but i felt at times we thought the system would be enough but we
didn t look like scoring.
galloway plea for hostage release ex-labour mp george galloway has appealed for the
release of aid worker margaret hassan kidnapped in iraq. mrs hassan 59 who led
care international operations in iraq was abducted in baghdad on 19 october. mr
galloway was expelled from the labour party because of his staunch opposition to
the war on iraq. he denied an earlier report that he planned to make a direct
appeal to the kidnappers via the al-jazeera arabic television channel. speaking in
london on saturday at the first annual delegate conference of his newly-founded
party the respect coalition he said: i have deliberately not involved myself
before in any of these situations. but this woman has been a prominent opponent of
both the war and the preceding years of sanctions. i am prepared to do anything i
can to help save her life. a spokesman later said mr galloway had friends in
common with ms hassan who he described as a prominent anti-war activist and that
he was willing to do anything - go to iraq or be an intermediary or anything that
s necessary . since her abduction several videos of mrs hassan have been broadcast
by al-jazeera. the latest footage showed mrs hassan asking for british troops to be
pulled out of iraq. she also urged care international the aid agency she works for
to close its office in baghdad and appealed for iraqi women prisoners to be freed.
care has since closed down all its operations in iraq.
savvy searchers fail to spot ads internet search engine users are an odd mix of
naive and sophisticated suggests a report into search habits. the report by the
us pew research center reveals that 87% of searchers usually find what they were
looking for when using a search engine. it also shows that few can spot the
difference between paid-for results and organic ones. the report reveals that 84%
of net users say they regularly use google ask jeeves msn and yahoo when online.
almost 50% of those questioned said they would trust search engines much less if
they knew information about who paid for results was being hidden. according to
figures gathered by the pew researchers the average users spends about 43 minutes
per month carrying out 34 separate searches and looks at 1.9 webpages for each
hunt. a significant chunk of net users 36% carry out a search at least weekly and
29% of those asked only look every few weeks. for 44% of those questioned the
information they are looking for is critical to what they are doing and is
information they simply have to find. search engine users also tend to be very
loyal and once they have found a site they feel they can trust tend to stick with
it. according to pew research 44% of searchers use just a single search engine 48%
use two or three and a small number 7% consult more than three sites. tony
macklin spokesman for ask jeeves said the results reflected its own research
which showed that people use different search engines because the way the sites
gather information means they can provide different results for the same query.
despite this liking for search sites half of those questioned said they could get
the same information via other routes. a small number 17% said they wouldn t
really miss search engines if they did not exist. the remaining 33% said they could
not live without search sites. more than two-thirds of those questioned 68% said
they thought that the results they were presented with were a fair and unbiased
selection of the information on a topic that can be found on the net. alongside the
growing sophistication of net users is a lack of awareness about paid-for results
that many search engines provide alongside lists of websites found by indexing the
web. of those asked 62% were unaware that someone has paid for some of the results
they see when they carry out a search. only 18% of all searchers say they can tell
which results are paid for and which are not. said the pew report: this finding is
ironic since nearly half of all users say they would stop using search engines if
they thought engines were not being clear about how they presented paid results.
commenting mr macklin said sponsored results must be clearly marked and though they
might help with some queries user testing showed that people need to be able to
spot the difference.
newcastle 2-1 bolton kieron dyer smashed home the winner to end bolton s 10-game
unbeaten run. lee bowyer put newcastle ahead when he fed stephen carr on the right
flank then sprinted into the area to power home a header from the resultant cross.
wanderers hit back through stelios giannakopoulos who ended a fluid passing move
with a well-struck volley. but dyer had the last word in a game of few chances
pouncing on a loose ball after alan shearer s shot was blocked and firing into the
top corner. neither side lacked urgency in the early stages of the game with
plenty of tackles flying in but opportunities in front of goal were harder to come
by. bolton keeper jussi jaaskelainen had to make two saves in quick succession
midway through the first-half - keeping out shearer s low shot and dyer s close-
range header - but that was the only goalmouth action of note. and it was almost
out of nothing that the magpies took the lead on 35 minutes. bowyer found space
with a neat turn on the half-way line and striding forward picked out carr to his
right. he then continued his run and with perfect timing made his way into the box
where he met carr s cross with a downward header into the far corner. bolton had
produced little going forward at this point but they responded well. they were
level within six minutes thanks to a smart finish from giannakopoulos. jay-jay
okocha twisted and turned on the edge of the area and after a neat exchange of
passes involving kevin davies and gary speed the greek striker found the bottom
corner with a first-time strike. the magpies were opened up again before half-time
as davies set giannakopoulos in space and given had to block at his near post. but
the home side survived and they should have re-taken the lead with the first
meaningful attack of the second half. fernando hierro cynically chopped down dyer
on the edge of the area with the midfielder clean through. but the veteran defender
escaped with a booking as there were other defenders nearby and from the resultant
free-kick laurent robert curled the ball just wide. bolton were creating little
going forward and they seemed content to frustrate the magpies. their strategy
seemed to be working until the 69th minute. alan shearer s snap-shot was charged
down and dyer reacted first to smash the ball past the despairing jaaskelainen from
six yards. - bolton boss sam allardyce i am bitterly disappointed with the result
but i am probably more disappointed with the second-half performance. in the first
half we had put them under a lot of pressure and our goal matched theirs in
quality. i thought it would lift us and that they might be tired after playing a
lot of games but unfortunately we were not up for the battle in the second half.
we allowed them to heap too much pressure on us and in the end we cracked. -
newcastle boss graeme souness we deserved the win. we had a really good second
half. bolton are a difficult side to play. you have to match them physically first
but we did that and then we played some football. we had a slow first 45 minutes
when we looked a bit tired but we got going after that. the scoreline flattered
them and we could have had one or two more goals. newcastle: given carr boumsong
bramble babayaro dyer faye bowyer robert (jenas 77) ameobi shearer. subs not
used: butt harper milner hughes. goals: bowyer 35 dyer 69. bolton: jaaskelainen
hunt (fadiga 14) n gotty ben haim candela giannakopoulos okocha (vaz te 77)
hierro (campo 64) speed gardner davies. subs not used: jaidi poole. booked: ben
haim hierro. goals: giannakopoulos 41. att: 50 430 ref: s dunn (gloucestershire).
asia quake increases poverty risk nearly two million people across asia could be
thrown into poverty because of the indian ocean tsunami the asian development bank
(adb) has said. in its first overview of the disaster the adb said the impact on
economic growth would be slight because major cities and factories escaped damage.
but the blow to many low-income people could be enormous . the paris club of rich
creditor nations on wednesday offered to freeze debts owed by tsunami-hit
countries. the move was aimed at helping south asian governments find budgets to
rebuild devastated coastal areas though so far only sri lanka indonesia and the
seychelles have indicated that they will take it up. other countries believe their
economies are strong enough to cope or wish to avoid being viewed as credit risks.
poverty is potentially the most important impact of this natural disaster said
adb chief economist ifzal ali. donor nations have promised to give $717m (£379m) in
disaster relief over the next six months according to the united nations. mr ali
added his voice to those warning that aid pledges must be promptly delivered
saying the number of people at risk of poverty hinged on concerns over sanitation
and health conditions and other basic needs being properly and quickly addressed
. there are 1.9 billion people in asia living on less than $2 a day. the adb fears
that 1 million indonesians could join them while in india just over half a million
people - 645 000 - are at risk of falling into poverty. a quarter of a million sri
lankans and 23 500 people in the maldives are also facing poverty. in the maldives
where 43% of the population already lives on less than $2 a day this could rise to
half. sri lanka and the maldives are the two countries the adb fears are most at
risk of suffering lasting economic damage from the tsunami. sri lanka s government
has estimated reconstruction costs at nearly $3bn. a government task force held
meetings to discuss an emergency rebuilding plan with the adb world bank and
japanese aid agencies on wednesday and promised to publish the plan within 10
days. indonesia malaysia thailand and india have enjoyed strong economic growth
in recent years which should cushion them against reconstruction costs. although
indonesia s northern province of aceh suffered the worst death toll the region s
oil and natural gas production facilities have survived intact the report said.
however it remains too soon to asses the damage to poor people s livelihoods in
aceh because it would depend on how much farm land had been flooded by seawater.
this is a profoundly tragic event for the region and for the millions who are
suffering. but the economies of the affected countries except sri lanka and the
maldives should emerge with minimal damage the adb report said. some businesses
may even gain from the reconstruction efforts thereby creating jobs. at a meeting
in thailand abd president thadao chino said he was confident of the country s own
capabilities to restore normalcy to the affected areas and meet the rehabilitation
requirements . thailand has said it does not wish to opt for a debt repayment
freeze while india has also rejected international aid saying it can cope on its
own resources. debt repayment holidays carry the risk of credit ratings downgrades
making it more expensive to borrow money in future. indonesia however is pressing
for greater help with its debts than the current freeze would bring. it is one of
the world s most indebted countries.
hollywood campaign hits websites movie studio efforts to stop pirated films being
shared on peer-to-peer networks have claimed a high-profile victim. the campaign
of legal action is thought to be behind the closure of the widely used suprnova.org
website. the site was the most popular place for people swapping and sharing links
for the bittorrent network. a recent study showed that more than half of the peer-
to-peer traffic during june was for the bittorrent system. in a message posted on
suprnova.org on sunday the site s controllers said the site was closing down for
good in the way that we all know it . if the site did return the message said it
would not be hosting any more torrent links. it continued: we are very sorry for
this but there was no other way we have tried everything. the only parts that
would keep going said the operators of the suprnova site were the discussion
forums and net chat channels. the site is thought to have closed following an
announcement by the motion picture association of america that it was launching
legal action against those operating bittorrent servers rather than end users.
because of the way that bittorrent works server sites do not host the actual file
being shared instead they host a link that points people to others that have it.
by targeting servers the mpaa hopes to cripple bittorrent s ability to share
files. in the opening days of the mpaa campaign the organisation filed 100
lawsuits against operators of bittorrent server site. the launching of the legal
seems to be having an effect. phoenix torrents another popular bittorrent site
has also decided to shut down and though it gave no reasons for the closure it is
thought to be motivated by the threat of legal action. last week finnish police
raided a bittorrent site based in the country that according to reports let 10
000 users shared pirated films software music and games.
arsenal through on penalties arsenal win 4-2 on penalties the spanish goalkeeper
saved from alan quinn and jon harley as arsenal sealed a quarter-final trip to
bolton with a 4-2 victory on penalties. lauren patrick vieira freddie ljungberg
and ashley cole scored for arsenal while andy gray and phil jagielka were on
target for the blades. michael tonge and harley wasted chances for the underdogs
but paddy kenny was inspired to keep arsenal at bay. arsenal stripped of attacking
talent such as thierry henry and dennis bergkamp partnered 17-year-old italian
striker arturo lupoli with ljungberg up front. it was a revamped arsenal line-up
and they were almost a goal behind within seconds as tonge wasted a glorious
chance. gray ran free down the right flank and his cross left tonge with the
simplest of chances but he blazed over the top from six yards. arsenal were
barely seen as an attacking force in the opening 45 minutes although ljungberg
turned a half-chance wide after good work by cesc fabregas. arsene wenger
introduced quincy owusu-abeyie for the ineffective lupoli at half-time and the
pacy dutch youngster had an immediate impact. he ran clear after good work by
mathieu flamini but his finish was tame and kenny saved easily. owusu-abeyie then
fired in a testing cross which was met by fabregas and it needed a desperate
clearance by kenny s legs to save the blades. arsenal were now totally dominant
and were desperately unlucky not to take the lead after 62 minutes when fabregas
crashed a rising drive against the bar from 20 yards. it then took a brilliant
tackle by jagielka to deny ljungberg as he was poised to strike. arsenal continued
to press and once again kenny was called into action with eight minutes left
diving low to clutch another close-range effort from fabregas. neil warnock s side
almost snatched victory in the dying seconds when derek geary s cross found harley
at the far post but his diving header was brilliantly turned over by almunia.
owusu-abeyie s pace was causing all sorts of problems for the blades and as extra-
time began another surging run into the penalty area almost set up a chance for
ljungberg. pascal cygan missed arsenal s best chance after 106 minutes blazing
across the face of goal when he was unmarked at the far post. arsenal sent on
jeremie aliadiere with seven minutes of extra-time left and he almost broke the
deadlock with his first touch. kolo toure s misplaced free-kick landed at his feet
but kenny once again blocked from a tight angle. arsenal laid siege to sheffield
united s goal in the dying minutes but they somehow held on to force penalties.
almunia was then arsenal s hero as another brave blades cup campaign came to a
losing end. kenny geary morgan bromby harley liddell montgomery jagielka
thirlwell tonge (quinn 97) gray. subs not used: francis kabba shaw haystead.
morgan. almunia lauren cygan senderos cole fabregas (toure 90) vieira
flamini (aliadiere 113) clichy lupoli (owusu-abeyie 45) ljungberg. subs not
used: eboue taylor. clichy lauren senderos. 27 595 p dowd (staffordshire).
fear will help france - laporte france coach bernard laporte believes his team will
be scared going into their game with england on sunday but claims it will work in
their favour. the french turned in a stuttering performance as they limped to a
16-9 win against scotland in the opening match of the six nations on saturday. we
will go to twickenham with a little fear and it ll give us a boost said the
french coach. he added: we are never good enough when we are favourites.
meanwhile perpignan centre jean-philippe granclaude is delighted to have received
his first call-up to the france squad. it s incredible the youngster said. i
was not expecting it at all. playing with the france team has always been a dream
and now it has come true and i am about to face england at twickenham in the six
nations. laporte will announce his starting line-up on wednesday at the french
team s training centre in marcoussis near paris.
verizon seals takeover of mci verizon has won a takeover battle for us phone firm
mci with a bid worth $6.8bn (£3.6bn) reports say. the two firms are expected to
seal the deal on monday morning according to news agency reports despite what was
thought to be a higher bid from qwest. the us telecoms market is consolidating fast
with former long-distance giant at&t being bought by former subsidiary sbc earlier
this year for $16bn. mci exited bankruptcy in april having gone bust under
previous name worldcom. the bankruptcy followed its admission in 2002 that it
illegally booked expenses and inflated profits. shareholders lost about $180bn
when the company collapsed while 20 000 workers lost their jobs. former worldcom
boss bernie ebbers is currently on trial accused of overseeing an $11bn fraud.
qwest has itself come under suspicion of sub-standard behaviour paying the
securities and exchange commission $250m in october to settle charges that it
manipulated its results to keep wall street happy. mci is the us s second-biggest
long distance firm after at&t. consolidation in the us telecommunications industry
has picked up in the past few months as companies look to cut costs and boost
client bases. a merger between mci and verizon would be the fifth billion-dollar
telecoms deal since october. last week sbc communications agreed to buy its former
parent and phone trailblazer at&t for about $16bn. buying mci would give either
qwest or verizon access to mci s global network and business-based subscribers. the
rationale is similar to the one underpinning sbc s at&t deal. verizon is by far the
bigger company and has its own successful mobile arm - factors which may have swung
the board in its favour since both suitors are offering a mixture of cash and
shares.
us to probe airline travel chaos the us government is to investigate two airlines-
us airways and delta air lines comair subsidiary - after travel chaos over the
christmas weekend. staff calling in sick at us airways and computer failures at
comair left 30 000 passengers stranded and 10 000 pieces of baggage undelivered. us
airways is in chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for the second time in two years
and battling to cut costs. it is currently trying to negotiate pay cuts with flight
and baggage staff. transportation secretary norman mineta said he was deeply
concerned at the disruption to passengers and ordered a thorough investigation.
comair s computer breakdown plunged its flight-crew scheduling system into
disarray. altogether some 1 100 flights were cancelled over the holiday long
weekend. mr mineta said it was important to understand what happened why it
happened and whether the carriers properly planned for the holiday travel period
and responded appropriately to consumer needs in the aftermath . adding to the
atmosphere of chaos were mountains of luggage left to pile up when a third of us
airways baggage handling staff called in sick. there was also a shortage of us
airways flight attendants with nearly a fifth saying they were too sick to work
leading to many flight cancellations. however union officials denied there had
been a deliberate sickout . they said that many people have flu at this time of
year and that the airline is chronically understaffed. us airways ended up
cancelling over 100 flights on christmas day stranding passengers in as many as
119 airports. ground crews at us airways the seventh-largest us airline which is
now in chapter 11 bankruptcy protection face a court-imposed pay cut next month.
the airline needs to negotiate other paycuts if it is to find a route out of
bankruptcy. it is looking for paycuts totalling $800m. us airways has a full-
scale employee mutiny on its hands commented michael boyd an industry
consultant. disruptions to flight schedules could discourage customers from flying
with us airways reducing revenues. us airways had to cancel approximately 65
flights on thursday 180 on friday 140 on saturday 43 on sunday and 15 on monday
said industry officials. the airline said it was embarrassed by the situation and
deeply regrets any inconvenience caused to customers the probe will focus on the
industry s compliance with a 1999 agreement aimed at improving the quality of
passenger service that has so far allowed airlines to avoid congressionally-
mandated standards. analysts said the christmas chaos cast doubt on us airway s
ability to emerge from bankruptcy - and was likely to worsen the finances of
troubled delta parent of comair. comair deeply regrets the inconvenience to all
of our customers caused by the severe winter storm in the ohio river valley during
the busy holiday season exacerbated by problems with the airline s crew scheduling
system causing additional flight delays and cancellations the delta subsidiary
said in a statement.
malaysia lifts islamic bank limit malaysia s central bank is to relax restrictions
on foreign ownership to encourage islamic banking. banks in malaysia will now be
able to sell up to 49% of their islamic banking units while the limit on other
kinds of bank remains at 30%. rhb malaysia s third-biggest lender is already
scouting for a foreign partner for its new islamic banking unit the firm told
reuters. the moves put malaysia ahead of a 2007 deadline to open up the sector. the
country s deal to join the world trade organisation set that year as a deadline for
liberalisation of islamic banking. also on tuesday the central bank released
growth figures showing malaysia s economy expanded 7.1% in 2004. but growth slowed
sharply in the fourth quarter to 5.6% and the central bank said it expected 6%
expansion in 2005. malaysia changed the law to allow islamic banking in 1983. it
has granted licences to three middle eastern groups which - along with local
players - mean there are eight fully-operational islamic banking groups in the
country. islamic banks offer services which permit modern banking principles while
sticking to islamic law s ban on the payment of interest. most of the malays which
make up half the country s population are muslims.
worldcom director ends evidence the former chief financial officer at us telecoms
firm worldcom has finished giving evidence at the trial of his ex-boss bernie
ebbers. scott sullivan admitted to jurors he was willing to commit fraud to meet
wall street earnings projections. mr ebbers is on trial for fraud and conspiracy in
relation to worldcom s collapse in 2002. he pleads not guilty. mr sullivan has
spent two days being cross-examined by lawyers for former worldcom chief executive
mr ebbers. attorney reid weingarten has attempted to portray mr sullivan as a liar
and on thursday quizzed him about his decision to commit fraud to meet analysts
profit estimates. at that point in time mr sullivan said referring to the first
false entries in late 2000 i knew it was wrong and i knew it was against the law
but i thought we would get through it in the short term. mr sullivan 42 has
already pleaded guilty to fraud and will be sentenced following mr ebbers trial
where he is appearing as a prosecution witness. mr ebbers 63 has always insisted
that he was unaware of any hidden shortfalls in worldcom s finances. the former
finance officer said mr ebbers knew about the improper accounting entries that were
made between 2000 and 2002 to conceal soaring expenses and inflate revenue. mr
ebbers could face a sentence of 85 years if convicted of all the charges he is
facing. worldcom s problems appear to have begun with the collapse of the dotcom
boom which cut its business from internet companies. prosecutors allege that the
company s top executives responded by orchestrating massive fraud over a two-year
period. worldcom emerged from bankruptcy protection in 2004 and is now known as
mci. on monday mci agreed to a buyout by verizon communications in a deal valued
at $6.75bn.
sainsbury s labour election gift science minister lord sainsbury has made a £2m
donation to the labour party for its general election fund. it is the latest hefty
donation to the party by the billionaire - he has contributed more than £10m since
1999. david sainsbury said he was pleased to give cash to a party that had the
vision to deliver economic prosperity and better public services for britain.
general secretary matt carter said it was a fantastic gift that would help labour
fight and win the election . through the generosity of david sainsbury and other
labour supporters labour will be campaigning hard to take britain forward and to
stop the tories taking us back mr carter said. lord sainsbury added: i am
pleased to be able to make this contribution to the general election funds of the
labour party because i believe that they are the only party that has the vision to
deliver both economic prosperity and better public services for britain. the 64-
year-old latest donation follows a £2.5m gift to the party in 2003. lord sainsbury
was created a life peer in 1997 a year before he was appointed as minister for
science.
greer attacks bully big brother germaine greer has criticised celebrity big
brother s bullying of housemates after quitting the reality tv show. she said
superior bullying tactics like making housemates cold and hungry could encourage
playground bullying. she also condemned the complete irresponsibility of adding
brigitte nielsen s former mother-in-law jackie stallone to the house on monday.
nielsen had panicked that if she reacted badly it could harm her access to her
children greer said. the feminist writer and broadcaster said big brother had
behaved like a child rather than a parent by taunting contestant john mccririck
after denying him a cola drink. i thought it was actually demonstrating the role
of taunting in the playground and there are so many children whose lives have
actually been destroyed by taunting in the playground greer said. she also said
that her fellow housemates had publicity-seeking agendas . i had no idea who
would be in here and it s wrong for me to present myself in the same context as
they are. media observers had been surprised by greer s initial decision to join
the third celebrity version of the channel 4 reality tv show given that she has
written critical articles about the format in the past. as she packed her suitcase
to leave the house she told fellow housemates: i m leaving over specific issues
but best for everyone if i don t discuss them. i have a problem with decisions i
make them fast and when i make them i stick to them. greer had earlier failed to
persuade other contestants to stage a naked protest against big brother. other
celebrities to walk out of a reality show tv include sex pistol john lydon former
eastenders actress danniella westbrook and ex-e17 singer brian harvey who all left
i m a celebrity... get me out of here. previous big brother housemates to leave
before their time were sunita sharma and sandy cumming from the third series of the
non-celebrity version of the show. vote was germaine greer right to leave
celebrity big brother yes no results are indicative and may not reflect
public opinion happy mondays dancer bez is now 2-1 favourite to win the show
followed by blazin squad singer kenzie at 5-2 and actor jeremy edwards at 4-1.
ladbrokes spokesman warren lush said that the series was still wide open adding
that the last 24 hours had also seen a rush of bets on mccririck slashing his odds
to 8-1. dj lisa i anson is the outsider with odds of 40-1 while jackie stallone
who joined the house on monday is also one of the less popular housemates at 20-1.
the first eviction of the series has now been postponed after greer s exit
unexpectedly reduced the number of competitors. the eight remaining contestants are
competing for a £50 000 prize to be donated to the charity of their choice if
they survive a series of public votes. for every 50p vote cast by viewers by
telephone or text during the programme s run 9p will go to a tsunami charity
appeal.
gadget growth fuels eco concerns technology firms and gadget lovers are being urged
to think more about the environment when buying and disposing of the latest hi-tech
products. at the consumer electronics show in las vegas earlier this month
several hi-tech firms were recognised for their strategies to help the environment.
ebay also announced the rethink project bringing together intel apple and ibm
among others to promote recycling. the us consumer electronics market is set to
grow by over 11% in 2005. but more awareness is needed about how and where old
gadgets can be recycled as well as how to be more energy efficient said the us
environmental protection agency (epa). of particular growing concern is how much
energy it takes to recharge portable devices one of the fastest growing markets in
technology. the consumer electronics association (cea) has predicted that shipments
of consumer technologies in 2005 will reach more than $125.73 billion (nearly £68
billion). ebay s initiative pulls together major technology firms environment
groups government agencies and ebay users to give information about what to do
with old computers and where to send them. the online auction house thinks that its
already-established community of loyal users could be influential. we really
became aware of the e-waste issue and we saw that our 125 million users can be a
powerful force for good ebay s david stern told the bbc news website. we saw
the opportunity to meet the additional demand we have on the site for used
computers and saw the opportunity too to good some good for the environment. but
it is not just computers that cause a problem for the environment. teenagers get a
new mobile every 11 months adults every 18 months and a 15 million handsets are
replaced in total each year. yet only 15% are actually recycled. this year a
predicted two billion people worldwide will own a mobile according to a deloitte
report. schemes in the us like ripmobile could help in targeting younger
generations with recycling messages. the initiative which was also launched at ces
rewards 10 to 28-year-olds for returning unused phones. this system allows for the
transformation of a drawer full of unused mobile phones into anything from music to
clothes to electronics or games said seth heine from ripmobile. one group of
students collected 1 000 mobiles for recycling in just three months. mr heine told
the bbc news website that what was important was to raise awareness amongst the
young so that recycling becomes learned behaviour . europe is undoubtedly more
advanced than the us in terms of recycling awareness and robust end of life
programmes although there is a tide change happening in the rest of the world too.
intel showcased some its motherboards and chips at ces which are entirely lead
free. there is more and more awareness on the consumer side but the whole
industry is moving towards being lead free intel s allen wilson told the bbc news
website. there is still low-level awareness right now but it is on the rise - the
highest level of awareness is in europe. a european union (eu) directive weee
(waste electronic and electrical equipment) comes into effect in august. it puts
the responsibility on electrical manufacturers to recycle items that are returned
to them. but developments are also being made to design better technologies which
are more energy efficient and which do not contain harmful substances. elements
like chromium lead and cadmium - common in consumer electronics goods - will be
prohibited in all products in the eu by 2006. but it is not just about recycling
either. the predicted huge growth in the gadget market means the amount of energy
used to power them up is on the rise too. the biggest culprit according to the epa
is the innocuous power adaptor nicknamed energy vampires . they provide vital
juice for billions of mobile phones pdas (personal digital assistants) digital
cameras camcorders and digital music players. although there is a focus on
developing efficient and improved circuits in the devices themselves the
technologies inside rechargers are still outdated and so eat up more energy than is
needed to power a gadget. on 1 january new efficiency standards for external power
supplies came into effect as part of the european commission code of conduct. but
at ces the epa also unveiled new guidelines for its latest energy star initiative
which targets external power adapters. these map out the framework for developing
better adaptors that can be labelled with an energy star logo meaning they are
about 35% more efficient. the initiative is a global effort and more manufacturers
adaptors are being brought on board. most are made in china. about two billion are
shipped global every year and about three billion are in use in the us alone. the
epa is already working with several companies which make more than 22% of power
supplies on the market. we are increasingly finding companies that not only want
to provide neat hi-tech devices but also bundle with it a hi-tech efficient
power supply the epa s andrew fanara said. initiatives like this are critical; if
power adaptors continue to be made and used as they are now consumer electronics
and other small appliances will be responsible for more than 40% of electricity
used in us homes said the epa.
indonesians face fuel price rise indonesia s government has confirmed it is
considering raising fuel prices by as much as 30%. millions of indonesians use
kerosene for basic cooking and prices have been heavily subsidised for years.
president susilo bambang yudhoyono s government has said it wants to curb fuel
subsidies and direct the money into aid programmes for the poor. but critics argue
cutting subsidies will hurt the poorer families that his government says it wants
to help. millions of people were left homeless in indonesia aceh s region following
the earthquake and tsunami disaster in late december. indonesia pays subsidies to
importers in order to stabilise domestic fuel prices but higher oil prices have
forced the government to spend more on holding prices down. it spent 59.2 trillion
rupiah ($6.58bn; £3.5bn) on fuel subsidies in 2004 a sum far in excess of its
original projection of 14.5 trillion rupiah. since president yudhoyono s government
came to power in october it has indicated its intention of raising domestic fuel
prices by cutting subsidies. the (january to march) quarter of this year is the
best time for us to increase fuel prices said sri mulyani indrawati state
minister for national development planning. we are still considering if a 30% hike
is suitable at the moment. the sooner the better for the state budget. the bbc s
correspondent in jakarta rachel harvey told world business report that there was
likely to be a strong public reaction to any price rise. the big question is
whether they go for one big short sharp shock and raise prices between 20% and
30% or whether they try to stagger it she said. indonesia s previous government
led by president megawati sukarnoputri also attempted to cut subsidies in 2003
but was forced to back down in the face of public protests.
mystery surrounds new yukos owner the fate of russia s yuganskneftegas - the oil
firm sold to a little-known buyer on sunday - is the subject of frantic speculation
in moscow. baikal finance group emerged as the auction winner agreeing to pay
260.75bn roubles (£4.8bn; $9.4bn). russia s newspapers claimed that baikal was a
front for gas monopoly gazprom which had been expected to win. the sale has
destroyed yukos once the owner of yuganskneftegas said founder mikhail
khodorkovsky. yuganskneftegas has been sold in the best traditions of the 90s. the
authorities have made themselves a wonderful christmas present - russia s most
efficient oil company has been destroyed the interfax news agency quoted mr
khodorkovsky as saying via his lawyers. gazprom had been expected to win the
auction but is thought to have failed to get finance for the deal after a us court
injunction barred it from taking part. last week yukos filed for chapter 11
bankruptcy protection in the us in a last-ditch attempt to hang on to
yuganskneftegas which accounts for 60% of its output. a us judge banned gazprom
from taking part in the auction and barred international banks from providing the
firm with cash. they screwed up the financing said ronald smith an analyst at
renaissance capital in moscow. and gazprom doesn t have this sort of money lying
around. gazprom has denied that it is behind the purchase. it is a front for
somebody but not necessarily for gazprom said oleg maximov an analyst at troika
dialog in moscow. we don t know if this company is linked 100% to gazprom. we
tried to find it but we couldn t and as far as i know the papers had the same
result. the sale has however bought time for gazprom to raise the money needed for
the purchase analysts said. one scenario is that baikal will not pay when it is
supposed to in two weeks time putting yuganskneftegas back in the hands of
bailiffs and back within the reach of gazprom. yukos is not planning on letting go
of its unit without a fight and has threatened legal action against any buyer.
menatep yukos main shareholders group has also threatened legal action. yukos
claims that it is being punished for the political ambitions of its founder
mikhail khodorkovsky who is now in jail facing separate fraud charges. it has been
hit with more than $27bn in taxes and fines and many observers now say that the
break up of the firm that accounts for 20% of russia s oil output is inevitable.
bridge could miss rest of season chelsea left-back wayne bridge could miss the rest
of the season with a suspected broken ankle. the england international 24 was
hurt in an innocuous challenge with alan shearer during the londoners fa cup
defeat at newcastle on sunday. we think it s a big injury said jose mourinho
whose chelsea team this week meet barcelona in the champions league and liverpool
in the carling cup final. william gallas and damien duff could also miss the
barcelona game. france defender gallas and ireland winger duff both picked up their
injuries in the closing stages of chelsea s 1-0 defeat at st james park. with
bridge having gone off after mourinho used all three substitutes those knocks plus
carlo cudicini s red card meant chelsea finished the game with seven able-bodied
players. cudicini would not have played against barcelona but had been promised a
game in the carling cup final although he will now miss the cardiff showpiece
through suspension. the manager is not planning to add any new names to his squad
ahead of the trip to barcelona even though he has few options to replace bridge at
left-back. celestine babayaro left the club in january ironically to join
newcastle and although gallas has deputised at left-back before he is struggling
to be fit himself. it could be that paulo ferreira usually a right-back is
switched to left-back with glen johnson who ended the newcastle game in goal
playing on the right. youngsters ben hudell joe keenan and sam tillen would be
options should mourinho decide to call up a replacement but it is unlikely he
would risk an untried prospect in a champions league tie. bridge s injury also
means mourinho who reportedly wants to sign ashley cole from arsenal will not
have a specialist senior left-back for the run-in to the season. he (bridge) has
no chance of playing against barcelona probably will not play against liverpool
(in the carling cup final) and maybe not for the rest of the season he said. the
medical department will try to do everything to recover gallas and duff. we will
have to wait and see but i won t cry about injuries because we will have 11
players to play on tuesday. shearer said he was unsure what caused bridge s
injury. i don t know what happened. he said. it was just a shame. i don t think
we even touched each other. by all accounts it s pretty serious. i went into the
dressing-room after the game and wished him all the best. mourinho whose team are
chasing three trophies has already lost winger arjen robben to a serious injury.
uk house prices dip in november uk house prices dipped slightly in november the
office of the deputy prime minister (odpm) has said. the average house price fell
marginally to £180 226 from £180 444 in october. recent evidence has suggested
that the uk housing market is slowing after interest rate increases and economists
forecast a drop in prices during 2005. but while the monthly figures may hint at a
cooling of the market annual house price inflation is still strong up 13.8% in
the year to november. economists however forecast that odpm figures are likely to
show a weakening in annual house price growth in coming months. overall the
housing market activity is slowing down and that is backed up by the mortgage
lending and the mortgage approvals data said mark miller at hbos treasury
services. the odpm data is a fairly lagging indicator. the figures come after
the bank of england said the number of mortgages approved in the uk has fallen to
the lowest level for nearly a decade. the halifax meanwhile said last week that
house prices increased by 1.1% in december - the first monthly rise since
september. the uk s biggest mortgage lender said prices rose 15.1% over the whole
of 2004 but by only 2.8% in the second half of the year. it is predicting a 2%
fall in overall prices in 2005 as the market stabilises after large gains in recent
years. the odpm attributed the monthly fall of prices in november to a drop in the
value of detached houses and flats. it said annual inflation rose between october
and november because prices had fallen by 1.1% in the same period in 2003. the
odpm data showed the average house price was £192 713 in england; £139 544 in
wales; £116 542 in scotland and £111 314 in northern ireland. all areas saw a
rise in annual house price inflation in november except for northern ireland and
the west midlands where the rate was unchanged the odpm said. the north east
showed the highest rate of inflation at 26.2% followed by yorkshire and the humber
on 21.7% and the north west on 21.1%. the east midlands the west midlands and the
south west all had an annual inflation rate of more than 15%. in london the area
with the highest average house price at £262 825 annual inflation rose only
slightly in november to 7.1% from 7% the previous month.
howl helps boost japan s cinemas japan s box office received a 3.8% boost last year
with ticket sales worth 211bn yen (£1.08bn). the surge was led by animated movie
howl s moving castle which took 20bn yen (£102m) to become the biggest film in
japan in 2004. it is expected to match the 30.7bn yen (£157m) record of hayao
miyazaki s previous film spirited away. japan motion picture producers figures
showed that 170 million cinema admissions were made in japan in 2004. the last
samurai starring tom cruise was the biggest foreign movie hit in japan last year
taking 13.8bn yen (£70.7m). it was followed by harry potter and the prisoner of
azkaban finding nemo and the lord of the rings: the return of the king. the second
highest-grossing japanese film was romantic drama crying out love in the centre of
the world followed by be with you and pocket monsters advanced generation.
japanese films accounted for 37.5% of japan s box office total last year with
foreign films taking the remaining 62.5%. this represented a 4.5% gain for the
proportion of japanese films in 2004 compared to 2003. the number of japanese films
released rose to 310 in 2004 from 287 the previous year. sales of movies on dvd and
video amounted to 497bn yen (£2.54bn) for the year.
sbc plans post-takeover job cuts us phone company sbc communications said it
expects to cut around 12 800 jobs following its $16bn (£8.5bn) takeover of former
parent at&t. sbc said 5 125 positions would go as a result of network
efficiencies. another 1 700 will go from its sales department 3 400 from business
operations and 2 600 across legal advertising and public relations. sbc currently
employs 163 000 people while at&t employs 47 000. the takeover was announced on
monday. the deal will be financed with $15bn of shares as well as a $1bn special
dividend paid to at&t shareholders. it effectively marks the end of at&t which
was founded in 1875 by telephone pioneer alexander graham bell and is one of the us
s best-known companies. sbc and at&t said estimated cost savings of at least $2bn
from 2008 were a main driver for the merger. at&t is a long-distance telecoms firm
while sbc is mainly focused on the local market in the western us. both also have
data network businesses. the takeover is subject to approval by at&t s shareholders
and regulators. the companies said they expected to complete the agreement during
the first half of 2006.
stars pay tribute to actor davis hollywood stars including spike lee burt reynolds
and oscar nominee alan alda have paid tribute to actor ossie davis at a funeral in
new york. veteran star ossie davis a well-known civil rights activist died in
miami at the age of 87 on 4 february 2005. friends and family including actress
ruby dee his wife of 56 years gathered at the riverside church on saturday. also
present at the service was former us president bill clinton and singer harry
belafonte who gave the eulogy. he would have been a very good president of the
united states said mr clinton. like most of you here he gave more to me than i
gave to him. the 87-year-old was found dead last weekend in his hotel room in
florida where he was making a film. police said that he appeared to have died of
natural causes. davis made his acting debut in 1950 in no way out starring sidney
poiter. he frequently collaborated with director spike lee starring in seven lee
films including jungle fever do the right thing and malcolm x. attallah shabazz
the daughter of activist malcolm x recalled the famous eulogy delivered by davis
at her father s funeral. harlem has come to bid farewell to one of its finest
hopes she said quoting the man she knew as uncle ossie. ditto. ossie was my
hero and he still is said aviator star alan alda a family friend for over forty
years. ossie was a thing of beauty. i want so badly someday to have his dignity
- a little of it anyway added burt reynolds davis s co-star in the 90s tv comedy
evening shade. before the midday funeral scores of harlem residents formed a queue
outside the church to pay their respects to davis. it is hard to fathom that we
will no longer be able to call on his wisdom his humour his loyalty and his moral
strength to guide us in the choices that are yet to be made and the battles that
are yet to be fought said belafonte himself an ardent civil rights activist who
had been friends with davis for over 60 years. but how fortunate we were to have
him as long as we did.
o sullivan quick to hail italians ireland coach eddie o sullivan heaped praise on
italy after seeing his side stutter to a 28-17 victory in rome. it was a hell of
a tough game said o sullivan. we struggled in the first half because we hadn t
the football. italy played really well. they handled the ball well in terms of
kicking it if that s not an oxymoron. we said before the game that it might take
until 10 minutes from the end for this game to be won and that s how it turned
out. ireland struggled to cope with italy s fierce start and were indebted to
skipper brian o driscoll who set up tries for geordan murphy and peter stringer.
we had our first attack in the italian half after 22 minutes said o sullivan. we
had a good return with three first-half possessions in their half and we scored
twice. the second half was about spending more time in their half. scrum-half
peter stringer was also glad that ireland escaped wtih a victory. all credit to
them he told bbc sport. we knew it would be tough coming to rome. they always
give us a tough game here and they showed a lot of spirit. they had a lot of ball
in the first half but we got a few scores when we got into their 22.
blair damaged by blunkett row a majority of voters (68%) believe the prime
minister has been damaged by the row over david blunkett s involvement in a visa
application a poll suggests. but nearly half those surveyed said mr blunkett
should return to cabinet if labour won the next election. some 63% of respondents
in the sunday times poll thought his former lover - kimberly quinn - acted
vindictively and 61% that he had been right to resign. yougov polled a weighted
sample of 1 981 voters online on 16-18 december. mr blunkett resigned as home
secretary on wednesday after an inquiry uncovered an e-mail showing a visa
application by mrs quinn s former nanny had been speeded up. sir alan budd s
inquiry also found mr blunkett s account of events had been wrong. almost a quarter
(21%) of those polled for the sunday times said he should return to the cabinet
straight after the election. one in four said he should be back in the government s
top ranks within a year or two while 39% opposed a comeback. three-quarters said
mr blunkett was right to go to court for the right to see mrs quinn s son - whom he
says he fathered - and just 14% voiced sympathy for mrs quinn. a total of 53% of
those polled said they had sympathy for mr blunkett with 40% saying they did not.
forty-three per cent thought mr blunkett had done a good job as home secretary and
17% disagreed. meantime 32% said mr blair was a good prime minister and 38%
disagreed. a majority 52% said chancellor gordon brown had done a good job and
just 16% disagreed. a second poll for the independent on sunday found that support
for all political parties remained largely unchanged after the blunkett
controversy. labour lead the conservatives by 39% to 34% with the liberal democrats
on 19%. communicateresearch interviewed 401 people before david blunkett s
resignation and 601 afterwards. some 82% said mr blunkett had set a good example by
wanting to take responsibility for the child he says is his but 42% backed his
legal action compared to 45% who thought it was unbecoming. thirty per cent said
the affair showed mr blunkett could not be trusted as a minister while 63%
disagreed.
turkey-iran mobile deal at risk turkey s investment in iran s mobile industry
looks set to be scrapped after its biggest mobile firm saw its investment there
slashed by mps. iran s parliament voted by a large majority to cut turkcell s
stake in a new mobile network from 70% to 49%. the move which was justified on
national security grounds follows an earlier vote by mps to give themselves a veto
over foreign investments. turkcell said the decision increases the risks attached
to the project. although the company s statement said it would continue to monitor
developments observers said they thought turkcell was set to pull out of the $3bn
deal. the possibility of carrying out this project is next to zero said atinc
ozkan analyst at finans investment in istanbul. if turkcell does back out mtn -
the south african firm which lost out in the original tender - may well be back in
the running. the company has said it is prepared to accept a minority stake if iran
will award it the mobile deal. turkcell s mobile deal is the second turkish
investment in iran to run into trouble. turkish-austrian consortium tav was chosen
to build and run tehran s new imam khomeini international airport - but the army
closed it just hours after it opened in may 2004. in both cases the justification
has been national security amid allegations that the turkish firms are too close
to israel. the hardline posture taken by parliament which is dominated by
religious conservatives could yet impact other inward investments.
china bans new tobacco factories the world s biggest tobacco consumer china has
said it will not allow any new tobacco factories to be built. china already has
more than enough cigarette-making capacity according to a spokesman for the
tobacco industry regulator quoted in china daily. the ban threatens to reignite
tensions between the regulator and british american tobacco which plans to become
china s first foreign cigarette maker. a spokeswoman for bat declined to comment on
the report. china won t allow any new tobacco factories to be built including
joint ventures said xing wangli a spokesman for the state tobacco administration
monopoly quoted in china daily. he also said that the state would retain its
monopoly on cigarette distribution. china has 350 million smokers who consumer 1.7
trillion cigarettes a year. smoking is fashionable in china where it is seen as an
essential - and manly - sociable touch for some jobs such as salesmen. more young
urban woman are taking up smoking too. in july 2004 bat announced it had won
approval for to build a $1.5bn (£800m) joint venture factory in china which would
make it the first foreign cigarette maker to manufacture there. the state tobacco
monopoly administration said a week later that it had not approved the deal
leading to an embarrassing public row. bat told the bbc at that time that it had
not negotiated with the stmc and secured approval from the highest levels of
government . since then the row has flared occasionally most recently at a forum
in november. bat consistently declines to comment. xing s statement comes as
especially bad news for british american tobacco the china daily newspaper said
of the latest development. the bat spokeswoman said: there is nothing for us to
add...since our announcement in july last year. the central government of china is
the authority that approved our strategic investment. the decision to ban further
tobacco factories does not apply to deals made before 2005 according to the french
news agency afp. the joint venture factory was expected to take till 2006 to build.
the bat spokeswoman would not comment on its progress. however if the stma
continues to take a tough stance expansion opportunities could be limited. china
s tobacco market is increasingly valuable as anti-smoking campaigners target public
smoking in the west. china daily said the market was currently enjoying steady
growth making more than 210bn yuan ($25.4bn) in pre-tax profits last year almost
double the figure in 2000. the paper made no mention of health concerns. the stma
is trying to restructure the domestic tobacco industry closing some factories
though such moves can be unpopular with local governments.
blinx sequel purrs nicely the original blinx was intended to convert many platform
game lovers to microsoft s then new xbox console. its sharp graphics and novel
gameplay with the main character able to pause slow rewind and fast-forward time
were meant to lure many fans to the new machine. but poor design meant the game
became a very frustrating affair with players often stranded half-way through a
level without the required tools to finish. thankfully the sequel has fixed many
of the original faults. this time around you do not play as blinx but instead you
are given the chance to create two unique cat characters and two pig characters.
the character generator is very detailed and a few minutes of tweaking and
adjusting will create a unique personality to unleash on the game. as the game
progresses you swap between the two rival factions pig and feline assuming the
role of your created characters. the thrust of the game sees the two factions
competing to recover pieces of a missing time crystal. as in the original your
feline persona can control time but this time the pigs get to control space. there
are a number of puzzles which require control over time to solve while the pigs can
create things such as warps space bubbles and void traps in order to progress. the
control over space and time is achieved through a number of vcr-style icons and is
quite intuitive. annoyingly the puzzles are a little too obviously flagged up and
most gamers will find it more of a chore than a challenge to solve them. the game
has also tried to emulate franchises such as jak and daxter and ratchet and clank
on ps2 and so there are a number of combat elements. these are a little predictable
and tend to drag the general polish of the game down to a more dulled affair. but
the game s excellent graphics easily the best-looking platform game around sound
and dollops of humour make it an attractive game for younger platform fans. blinx
2 is out on xbox now.
chris evans back on the market broadcaster chris evans has begun selling thousands
of his possessions from a stall in camden market london. evans perched on a stool
as shoppers wandered around the open-fronted shop packed with his furniture. among
the items from his homes in los angeles and london were countless sofas chairs
pictures beds and memorabilia from his past tv shows. asked the reason for the
sale evans said: i just want to get rid of it all it s just a headache. he
added: it feels good to be selling this stuff it s a weight off my mind. look at
it all there s so much clutter. i ve enjoyed every bit of furniture and every
poster but it s not important anymore. the normally gregarious evans cut a
peculiarly unshowbusiness-like figure as he sipped coffee and smoked cigarettes
wrapped in a big coat and scarf in front of his aladdin s cave. however the
ostentation of some of the items on sale painted a picture of the eccentricity that
endeared him to the british public in shows such as channel 4 s gameshow don t
forget your toothbrush. the most striking thing about many of the pieces was their
sheer size. sofas looked like they could seat a small party and a bed seemed big
enough for four. the elaborate nature of the pieces many custom-made had to be
admired particularly a huge red and gold upholstered throne and a stripy
deckchair from the queen mary liner. to help people in their browsing evans had
given the pieces labels with not only the price but a helpful often comic aside.
isn t it great was the comment on the £1 950 throne and bob dylan s old sofa -
honest was written on a dark wood couch priced £4 250. the prices were steep by a
lot of people s standards but evans said it was not deterring shoppers. i ve sold
quite a lot already. everything here is on sale for less than i bought it for but
it s not really about the money. it s about getting rid of it all. we ve all been
bartering that s what it s all about. he added that he was not going to reveal
what he was going to do with the money he was making. vintage tv and film posters
also lined the walls including a rare portrait of raquel welch and an original
advertising print from the benny hill show. and almost hidden at the back of the
lock-up were the two giant toothbrushes from his former channel 4 show although
these were not for sale. despite the sheer curiosity value of the sale there was
a healthy trickle of interest from the public rather than the perhaps expected
crowds. some wandered in just to browse as they would any of the other stalls not
knowing that it belonged to evans. paul burgess said: i didn t realise. i thought
it was just a load of junk. i should go back and have a better look. but local
resident francesca detakats came specially to the stall and left happy with her
purchase of an original 1960s photograph of the who by david wedgburg. ms detakats
said she was a collector and did not mind paying £350 for the print. if you like
something you don t really count it like that she said. martin hellewell who
had also made a point of visiting evans shop said he thought it was a great idea.
why not if you ve got stuff to get rid of it s a good place to do it said mr
hellewell. evans has taken out the stall with business partner pete winterbottom.
they plan to open every day if possible although evans did not know how often he
would be there. we ll stay definitely until christmas and then maybe a week after
that said evans.
israeli economy picking up pace israel s economy is forecast to grow by 4.2% in
2004 as it continues to emerge from a three-year recession. the main driver of the
faster-than-expected expansion has been exports with tourism seeing a strong
rebound the statistical office said. the economy is benefiting from a quieter
period in palestinian-israeli violence and a pick-up in global demand for
technology products. the outlook is better than it has been for a number of years
analysts said. many companies have focused on cost cutting and greater efficiency
while the government has been trying to trim public spending and push through
reforms. the growth figures come about despite a strike earlier this year by about
400 000 public sector worker which closed banks hospitals postal services and
transport facilities. growth did slow in the second half but only slightly.
exports for the year rose by 14% while tourist revenues were up by 30%. imports
gained by 13% signalling that domestic demand has picked up again. in 2003
imports declined by 1.8%. in 2003 the economy expanded by 1.3%
britannia members £42m windfall more than 800 000 britannia building society
members are to receive a profit share worth on average £52 each. members of the uk
s second largest building society will share £42m with 100 000 receiving a
windfall of more than £100. depending on how much they borrow or invest members
earn reward points which entitle them to a share of the society s profits. the
payouts are bigger than last year because of stricter eligibility rules. last year
britannia members shared £42m but the average payment was only £38. to qualify
for this year s payment customers must have been members for at least two years on
31 december 2004. britannia has also stopped making payments to members if they are
worth less than £5. to qualify for the profit share members must have either a
mortgage or an investment account other than a deposit account. customers can also
qualify if they have permanent interest bearing shares (pibs). the profit share
scheme was introduced in 1997 and has paid out more than £370m. britannia will
unveil its results on wednesday.
indy buys into india paper irish publishing group independent news & media is
buying up a 26% stake in indian newspaper company jagran in a deal worth 25m euros
($34.1m). jagran publishes india s top-selling daily newspaper the hindi-language
dainik jagran which has been in circulation for 62 years. news of the deal came as
the group announced that its results would meet market forecasts. the company
reported strong revenue growth across all its major markets. group advertising
revenues were up over 10% year-on-year the group said with overall circulation
revenues are expected to increase almost 10% year-on-year. this was helped by the
positive impact of compact newspaper editions in ireland and the uk it said.
2004 has proven to be an important year for independent news & media said chief
executive sir anthony o reilly. our simple aim at independent is to be the low
cost producer in every region in which we operate. i am confident that we will show
a meaningful increase in earnings for 2005. meanwhile the group made no comment
about the future of the independent newspaper despite recent speculation that sir
anthony had held talks with potential buyers over a stake in the daily publication.
he has consistently denied suggestions that the independent and the independent on
sunday are up for sale. buy it is understood that the recent success of the smaller
edition of the independent which has pushed circulation up by 20% to 260 000 has
prompted interest from industry rivals with daily mail & general trust tipped as
the most likely suitor. the loss-making newspaper is not expected to reach break-
even until 2006.
blair to face mps amid feud talk tony blair faces his first prime minister s
questions of 2005 after a week of renewed speculation about his relationship with
gordon brown. meanwhile the chancellor is leaving britain on a high-profile tour
of africa to highlight poverty issues. but before doing so he insisted he still
trusted mr blair despite claims to the contrary in a new book. labour mps have
warned against disunity and tory leader michael howard may well take up the theme
in the commons. the tories have already accused the prime minister and his
chancellor of behaving like schoolboys squabbling in a playground . michael
howard is likely to want to capitalise further on the spat when he goes head-to-
head with the prime minister in the commons. at a campaign poster launch on tuesday
mr brown was joined by alan milburn who mr blair controversially put in charge of
election planning in place of the chancellor. later this week the prime minister
is due to set out the themes of his party s next election manifesto which for the
past two polls have been drawn up by the chancellor. mr brown meanwhile is
visiting tanzania mozambique and kenya to highlight the plight of many africans
hit by aids war and famine - issues which mr blair has also spoken out on. the
prime minister and chancellor faced backbench discontent at monday s meeting of the
parliamentary labour party over claims made in journalist robert peston s new book.
mr blair told mps and peers: i know from everyone here in cabinet and government
nothing is going to get in the way of a unified labour party with a unified
position and winning the third term people desperately need. labour s paul flynn
said the pair had had a scorching from mps. on tuesday deputy prime minister mr
prescott told bbc news: they told us very clearly it was the troops telling the
leaders: get in line. the new book claims mr prescott hosted a dinner in november
2003 where the prime minister told mr brown he would stand down before the next
election because he had lost trust over the iraq war. mr blair then changed his
mind in june 2004 after cabinet allies intervened and amid suspicion the
chancellor was manoeuvring against him writes mr peston. in mr peston s book mr
brown is alleged to have told the prime minister: there is nothing you could ever
say to me now that i could ever believe.
honda wins china copyright ruling japan s honda has won a copyright case in beijing
further evidence that china is taking a tougher line on protecting intellectual
property rights. a court ruled that chongqing lifan industry group must stop
selling honda brand motorbikes and said it must pay 1.47m yuan ($177 600) in
compensation. internationally recognized regulation is now a key part of china s
plans for developing its economy analysts said. beijing also has been threatened
with sanctions if it fails to clamp down. chinese firms copy products ranging from
computer software and spark plugs to baby milk and compact discs. despite the fact
that product piracy is a major problem foreign companies have only occasionally
won cases and the compensation awarded has usually been small. still recent
rulings and announcements will have boosted optimism that attitudes are changing.
earlier this week china said that in future it will punish violators of
intellectual property rights with up to seven years in jail. and on tuesday paws
incorporated - the owner of the rights to garfield the cat - won a court battle
against a publishing house that violated its copyright. other firms that have taken
legal action in china with varying degrees of success include yamaha general
motors and toyota. the problem of piracy is not limited to china however and the
potential for profit is huge. the european union estimates that the global trade in
pirated wares is worth more than 200bn euros a year (£140bn; $258bn) or about 5%
of total world trade. and it is growing. between 1998 and 2002 the number of
counterfeit or pirated goods intercepted at the eu s external borders increased by
more than 800% it said. last month the eu said it will start monitoring china
ukraine and russia to ensure they are going after pirated goods. other countries on
the eu s hit list include thailand brazil south korea and indonesia. any
countries that are not making enough of an effort could be dragged to the world
trade organisation (wto) a step that could trigger economic sanctions the eu
warned.
uk heading wrong way - howard tony blair has had the chance to tackle the problems
facing britain and has failed michael howard has said. britain is heading in the
wrong direction the conservative leader said in his new year message. mr blair s
government was a bossy interfering government that takes decisions that should be
made by individuals he added. but labour s campaign spokesman fraser kemp
responded: britain is working don t let the tories wreck it again . mr howard
also paid tribute to the nation s character for its generous response to the asian
quake disaster. the catastrophe was overshadowing the hopes for the future at this
usually positive time of the year mr howard said. we watched the scenes of
destruction with a sense of disbelief. the scale the speed the ferocity of what
happened on boxing day is difficult to grasp. yet britain s response has shone a
light on our nation s character. the last week has shown that the warm caring
heart of britain beats as strong as ever. he went on to reflect on the values that
most britons hold dear . looking ahead to the coming general election he pledged
to turn these beliefs into reality and set out the choices he says are facing
britain. how much tax do people want to pay who will give taxpayers value for
money the clean hospitals and good disciplined schools they want who can be
trusted to get a grip on the disorder on our streets and the chaos in our
immigration system mr blair has failed to tackle these problems he claimed
saying he has the wrong solution to them. the result is big government and
higher taxes eroding incentives undermining enterprise and denying people choice.
worst of all it is a government that has wasted people s money and failed to
tackle the problems families face today. the tories he said can cut crime and
improve public services without asking people to pay more taxes. we can have
progress without losing what makes britain great - its tolerance the respect for
the rule of law the ability of everyone to fulfil their potential. we simply need
to change direction. the election will give britain the chance to change. this is
the record mr blair will have to defend in the coming months he said urging
voters to hold him to account. but labour spokesman mr kemp said: it would be
more appropriate for this message to come out on 1 april not 1 january. let us
never forget that when michael howard was in government britain suffered mass
unemployment 15% interest rates record home repossessions and the introduction
of the poll tax. with labour britain is working. rather than alluding to false
promises michael howard should be starting 2005 with an apology to the british
people for the misery that the government of which he was a member inflicted upon
the country.
text message record smashed again uk mobile owners continue to break records with
their text messaging with latest figures showing that 26 billion texts were sent
in total in 2004. the figures collected by the mobile data association (mda)
showed that 2.4 billion were fired off in december alone the highest monthly total
ever. that was 26% more than in december 2003. the records even surpassed the mda s
own predictions it said. every day 78 million messages are sent and there are no
signs of a slow down. before december s bumper text record the previous highest
monthly total was in october 2004 when 2.3 billion were sent. text messaging is
set to smash more records in 2005 too said the mda with forecasts suggesting a
total of 30 billion for the year. even though mobiles are becoming increasingly
sophisticated with much more multimedia applications texting is still one of the
most useful functions of mobiles. people are using sms to do much more too. booking
cinema tickets text voting and news or sports text alerts are growing popular.
mobile owners have also given the chance to donate to the disasters emergency
committee s (dec) asian tsunami fund by texting donate to a simple short code
number. looking further ahead in the year the mda s chairman mike short has
predicted that more people will go online through their mobiles estimating 15
billion wap page impressions. handsets with gprs capability - an always on net
connection - will rise to 75% while 3g mobile ownership growing to five million by
the end of 2005. these third generation mobiles offer a high-speed connection which
means more data like video can be received on the phone. globally mobile phone
sales passed 167 million in the third quarter of 2004 according to a recent report
from analysts gartner. that was 26% more than the previous year. it is predicted
that there would be two billion handsets in use worldwide by the end of 2005.
dvd review: i robot only one man recognises that robots are a threat to humanity -
but that s fine because it only takes one man to save the day in the thriller i
robot. will smith co-stars alongside more cgi robots than you can count and as a
thrill-a-minute kind of action film it s perfectly adequate. you ll have forgotten
it all tomorrow but you ll have a fun night with the film and all the extras. there
is a one-disc version that has commentaries and a making of but the two-disc adds
more. unusually for this kind of film the extras don t solely concentrate on the
special effects. they re covered but there s also a general production diary and a
post-production feature. remember the national lottery s draw machines arthur and
guinevere they were more accurate than this glossy hollywood version of the tale.
but as long as you re not expecting a documentary live with it: king arthur is a
fun exciting totally shallow experience and looks excellent. clive owen is the
brooding king keira knightly rises above her costume and ray winstone gives it all
some grit. it s at its best in its battle scenes which are well done and are also
the best part of the making of extra. less flashy than a david attenborough show
and less detailed than a simon schama one the bbc series british isles
nevertheless turned out to be quite engrossing. admit it the fact that this is one
of the shows alan titchmarsh left ground force to present did mean that you
expected something equally frothy. but titchmarsh turns out to know his subject and
the sight of our present-day landscape being peeled back to reveal the past was
fascinating. he s now written an accompanying book too.
defiant hunts put ban to the test thousands of hunt supporters have been out on the
first day of hunting in england and wales after the ban on hunting with dogs came
into force. the countryside alliance called on hunt supporters to meet as normal
but vowed to stay within the law. although hunting with dogs is now a criminal
offence exercising hounds chasing a scent trail and flushing out foxes to be shot
are still legal. one anti-hunt protester was taken to hospital after a violent
clash in kent. the man suffered facial injuries after an incident involving a
group of men at the end of the east kent hunt near ashford. in wiltshire police
arrested four men under the new law suspected of hunting with dogs. the group from
south wales and ireland have been released on bail but police say they may face
prosecution under new poaching laws. it is believed more than 270 hunts went out
on saturday just one day after the ban came in. they were greeted by big crowds
in many areas of the country with actor jeremy irons and former minister kate hoey
among the supporters. anti-hunt groups - such as the league against cruel sports -
deployed 100 monitors at hunts to check for illegal activity. mike hobday from
the league said video evidence of the law being broken was to be passed onto
police. our evidence suggests that most hunts did operate within the law many
meeting and promptly going home and others peacefully exercising their hounds or
drag hunting. however we have received reports of what we believe is clearly
illegal activity by a number of hunts across britain. bbc correspondent simon hall
at postbridge on dartmoor in the west country said 2 000 people had turned out to
welcome the hunt. and the bbc s sarah mukherjee with the beaufort hunt in
badminton gloucestershire said several hundred people had gathered on foot to see
the hunt with 150 on horseback. tom heap bbc rural affairs correspondent said it
appeared that hunstman had for now been sticking to the new rules. and while
there was big turnout in support of the hunts on saturday he said it remains to be
seen if the level of backing can be maintained. before riding out with the hunt
former minister kate hoey told crowds: we will prevail and this law will have to
be overturned. judith moritz in melton mowbray said anti-hunt activists were out
to monitor the four hunts operating in that part of leicestershire but were
outnumbered by large crowds of followers. the countryside alliance said the meets
would show the new law was impossibly difficult to determine and open to
different interpretations. chief executive simon hart said: there has been
hunting in england for 700 years. this [ban] may take two or three years perhaps
two or three months to unpick. it will be nothing more than a temporary break in
normal service as broadcasters say. conservative family spokeswoman theresa may
said if the party was in government again it would make sure the law was repealed.
suffolk chief constable alastair mcwhirter the association of chief police
officers spokesman on rural policing told the bbc the law would be enforced
although the police would not break up hunts. the attorney general lord goldsmith
has so far not issued any instructions to police on how they should deal with any
hunters who do violate the law. he said he would consult the director of public
prosecutions and the police in the near future to decide what measures to take on
hunting prosecutions.
the producers scoops stage awards the producers has beaten mary poppins in the
battle of the blockbuster west end musicals at the olivier awards. the producers
won three prizes at the uk s most prestigious annual theatre awards while mary
poppins won two. mel brooks hit show triumphed in the battle for best new musical
where it was up against mary poppins and andrew lloyd webber s the woman in white.
alan bennett s the history boys was the big winner in the straight theatre
categories picking up three trophies. but all eyes were on the musical prizes
after the producers mary poppins and the woman in white all had high-profile
openings in the last six months. the producers nathan lane a last-minute
replacement for richard dreyfuss beat his former co-star lee evans to win best
musical actor. lane has already left the production. a smash hit on broadway before
moving to london the show also won best musical performance in a supporting role
for conleth hill who plays director roger debris. mary poppins awards came for
best choreography and best musical actress for its star laura michelle kelly. it
led the nominations going into sunday s ceremony at london s hilton hotel up for
nine awards. both shows are stage adaptations of 1960s films. the history boys set
in a grammar school in the early 1980s and partly based on bennett s experiences as
a teacher was named best new play. it also won best actor for richard griffiths
who beat his harry potter film co-star michael gambon nominated for endgame as
well as jonathan pryce and ben whishaw. the play also won national theatre artistic
director nicholas hytner best director and bennett got a special award for
outstanding contribution to british theatre. dame judi dench who starred in all s
well that ends well at the gielgud lost out in the best supporting role category
to amanda harris who played emilia in othello for the royal shakespeare company.
the olivier awards have been handed out by the society of london since 1976. -
best lighting design - his dark materials designed by paule constable at the
olivier - best sound design - the woman in white designed by mick potter at the
palace - best new opera - lady macbeth of mtsensk at the royal opera house -
outstanding achievement in opera - thomas ades and the royal opera house for the
world premiere of the tempest - best costume design - all s well that ends well
designed by deirdre clancy at the gielgud - best revival - hamlet by william
shakespeare at the old vic - best set design - his dark materials designed by
giles cadle at the olivier - outstanding musical production - grand hotel at the
donmar warehouse - best supporting role in a musical - conleth hill for the
producers at theatre royal drury lane - best theatre choreographer - matthew
bourne and stephen mear for mary poppins at the prince edward - best actor -
richard griffiths for the history boys at the lyttelton - outstanding achievement
or performance in an affiliate theatre - andrew scott for a girl in a car with a
man at the jerwood theatre upstairs at the royal court - best new dance
production - rambert dance company s swamp at sadler s wells - outstanding
achievement in dance - san francisco ballet for their season at sadler s wells -
best performance in a supporting role - amanda harris for othello at trafalgar
studios - best actress - clare higgins for hecuba at the donmar warehouse -
best musical actor - nathan lane for the producers at theatre royal drury lane -
best musical actress - laura michelle kelly for mary poppins at the prince edward
- best director - nicholas hytner for the history boys at the lyttelton - best
new play - the history boys by alan bennett at the lyttelton - best new musical -
the producers at theatre royal drury lane - special award - alan bennett for his
outstanding contribution to british theatre
poll explains free-kick decision referee graham poll said he applied the laws of
the game in allowing arsenal striker thierry henry s free-kick in sunday s 2-2 draw
with chelsea. keeper petr cech was organising his defensive wall when henry s
quick free-kick flew in which angered chelsea. the whistle doesn t need to be
blown. i asked henry do you want a wall . he said can i take it please he was
very polite. i said yes said poll. i deal with the laws of the game. i deal
with fact. poll added: i gave the signal for him to take it. that s what he did.
the same thing happened when i refereed chelsea against west ham in an fa cup
replay two years ago - when jimmy floyd hasselbaink scored - and i don t remember
them complaining about that. henry explained why he paused before striking the
ball for the goal which put arsenal 2-1 ahead. henry told bbc radio five live:
the ref asked me if i wanted 10 yards or if i wanted to take it straight away and i
said that i wanted to take it straight away. he said to me go . it looks a bit
strange because i took my time. i was waiting for eidur gudjohnsen to move and give
me some space. at one point he turned and that s when i tried it. former
referees chief philip don backed poll s decision to allow the strike. the
advantage should go to the non-offending team. on this occasion it was arsenal
don told bbc radio five live. referees have been told to ask the player do you
want to take the quick free-kick or do you want me to get the wall back 9.15
metres if they say quick the referee tends to move away and allow the kick.
don was head of the referees for the premier league and revealed all clubs were
informed of free-kick options. we spoke to all the premier league clubs as well as
all the football league clubs in the summer of 2003 explaining what the situation
was he added we gave them the option of either the quick free-kick or the
ceremonial free-kick. players and clubs were aware of what referees were doing.
new browser wins over net surfers the proportion of surfers using microsoft s
internet explorer (ie) has dropped to below 90% say web analysts. net traffic
monitor onestat.com has reported that the open-source browser firefox 1.0
released on 9 november seems to be drawing users away from ie. while ie s market
share has dropped 5% since may to 88.9% mozilla browsers - including firefox -
have grown by 5%. firefox is made by the mozilla foundation which was set up by
former browser maker netscape in 1998. although there have been other preview
versions of firefox version 1.0 was the first complete official program. it seems
that people are switching from microsoft s internet explorer to mozilla s new
firefox browser said niels brinkman co-founder of amsterdam-based onestat.com.
mozilla browsers - including firefox 1.0 - now have 7.4% of the market share the
figures suggest. mozilla said that more than five million have downloaded the free
software since its official release. supporters of the open-source software in the
us managed to raise $250 000 (£133 000) to advertise the release of firefox 1.0 in
the new york times and support the mozilla foundation. there was a flurry of
downloads on its first day of release. the figures echo similar research from net
analyst websidestory which suggested that ie had 92.9% of users in october compared
to 95.5% in june. microsoft ie has dominated the browser market for some time after
taking the crown from netscape and its share of users has always stayed at around
the 95% mark. firefox is attractive to many because it is open-source. that means
people are free to adapt the software s core code to create other innovative
features like add-ons or extensions to the program. fewer security holes have also
been discovered so far in firefox than in ie. paul randle microsoft windows client
product manager responded to the figures: we certainly respect that some
customers will choose alternative browsers and that choosing a browser is about
more than a handful of features. microsoft continues to make significant
investments in ie including service pack 2 with advanced security technologies
and continues to encourage a vibrant ecosystem of third party add-ons for internet
explorer. firefox wants to capture 10% of the market by the end of 2005. other
browser software like opera and apple s safari are also challenging microsoft s
grip on the browser market. opera is set to release its version 7.60 by the end of
the year. onestat.com compiled the statistical measurements from two million net
users in 100 countries.
blunkett row should end - blair prime minister tony blair said it was time to draw
a line under the controversy surrounding david blunkett. the tories and the lib
dems have called for a second inquiry into the fast-tracking of a visa application
for mr blunkett s ex-lover s nanny. sir alan budd found a chain of events linked
mr blunkett to leoncia casalme s indefinite leave to remain application. at the end
of his middle east trip mr blair said he still admired mr blunkett and thought his
integrity was intact. on tuesday sir alan said the application for leave to remain
in the uk made by kimberly quinn s nanny was processed in 52 days 120 days faster
than the average. but he could not find evidence to show whether mr blunkett s
intervention was intended to give special help for his then lover s nanny - or if
he was raising the case as an example of poor departmental performance. in his
first comments since sir alan s announcement mr blair told bbc news he had not yet
read the report in detail. but told bbc news: as far as i m concerned we have
drawn a line under that. asked if mr blunkett could return to frontline politics
at some point he replied: i have made my admiration for david very clear and it
remains. he s been a tremendous colleague he s done a great job for us first as
home secretary then as education secretary. the future is something we will have to
approach in the future. the prime minister shrugged off claims from conservative
leader michael howard that he led a grubby government . he said mr blunkett s
integrity remained intact: he was the person first of all who asked for this
inquiry to be set up. he accepted that what he originally thought had happened had
not happened he said. but i think sir alan budd also accepted there wasn t some
conspiracy or cover-up and i just think a line should be drawn under now and we
should move on. earlier mr howard said: there does need to be another inquiry
a judge-led inquiry. there were so many questions that weren t answered. there was
deceit at the heart of government which was not limited to the visa affair he
argued. lib dem home affairs spokesman mark oaten also said there was a strong
case for a judge-led judicial review . he said: next time it happens it may not
be about a nanny and their visa. it may be about something even more important than
that. mr blunkett quit as home secretary last week after being told in advance of
sir alan s findings. in a statement the ex-home secretary said he accepted the
inquiry s findings. he said he had told the truth throughout and had raised the
nanny case as an example of unacceptable backlogs in the system.
watchdog probes vivendi bond sale french stock market regulator amf has filed
complaints against media giant vivendi universal its boss and another top
executive. it believes the prospectus for a bond issue was unclear and that
executives may have had privileged information. amf has begun proceedings against
vivendi its chief executive jean-rene fourtou and chief operating officer jean-
bernard levy. vivendi advisor deutsche bank was also the subject of a complaint
filing. deutsche bank which was responsible for selling the convertible bonds to
investors could face penalties if the complaint is upheld. vivendi has said it
believes there is no legal basis for the complaints. the watchdog is said to
believe the executive pair were party to privileged information surrounding the
issue of the bonds. both men bought some of the bonds the associated press news
agency reported. amf is investigating claims that the duo were aware of an interest
in vivendi s us assets from investor marvin davis at the time of the bond sale.
vivendi however has said that the information was public knowledge as mr davis
offer for the us assets had already been rejected by vivendi s board. amf is also
looking into whether the executives knew that vivendi was considering exercising
its right to buy british telecom s shares in cegetel. vivendi has rejected the
charge saying the decision to buy the cegetel shares was no more than a
possibility of which the public was perfectly aware at the time of the bond
issue. back in december vivendi and its former chief executive jean-marie messier
were each fined 1m euros ($1.3m; £690 000) by amf. the fines came after a 15-month
probe into allegations that the media giant misled investors after a costly
acquisition programme went wrong.
remote control rifle range debuts soon you could go hunting via the net. a texas
company is considering letting web users use a remote-controlled rifle to shoot
down deer antelope and wild pigs. for a small fee users will take control of a
camera and rifle that they can use to spot and shoot the game animals as they roam
around a 133-hectare texas ranch. the live-shot website behind the scheme already
lets people practise shooting at targets via the internet. john underwood the man
behind the live-shot website said the idea for the remote-control hunting came to
him a year ago when he was watching deer via a webcam on another net site. we were
looking at a beautiful white-tail buck and my friend said if you just had a gun
for that . a little light bulb went off in my head mr underwood told the reuters
news agency. a year s work and $10 000 has resulted in a remote-controlled rig on
which sits a camera and .22 calibre rifle. mr underwood is planning to put one of
these rigs in a concealed location in a small reserve on his texas ranch and let
people shoot at a variety of game animals. also needed is a fast net connection so
remote hunters can quickly track and aim at passing game animals with the camera
and rifle rig. each remote hunting session will cost $150 with additional fees for
meat processing and taxidermy work. species that can be shot will include barbary
corsican and mouflon sheep blackbuck antelope and wild pigs. already the live-shot
site lets people shoot 10 rounds at paper and silhouette targets for $5.95 for each
20-minute shooting session. for further fees users can get the target they shot
and a dvd recording of their session. handlers oversee each shooting session and
can stop the gun being fired if it is being aimed off-range or at something it
should not be. mr underwood said that internet hunting could be popular with
disabled hunters unable to get out in the woods or distant hunters who cannot
afford a trip to texas. in a statement the rspca said it had grave concerns about
people being allowed to go online and remotely control a rifle. we assume it would
be extremely difficult to accurately control a gun in this way and therefore it
would be difficult to ensure a clean kill something the rspca accepts is the
intention of those shooting for sport it said. animals hit but not killed would
without doubt be caused to suffer unnecessarily said the statement. mike berger
wildlife director of the texas parks and wildlife department said current hunting
statutes did not cover net or remote hunting. he said state laws on hunting only
covered regulated animals such as native deer and bird species. as such there was
nothing to stop mr underwood letting people hunt unregulated imported animals and
wild pigs. mr underwood also lets people come in person to the ranch to hunt and
shoot game animals.
hingis hints at playing comeback martina hingis has admitted that she might
consider a competitive return to tennis if an appearance in thailand later this
month goes well. the former world number one will play at the volvo women s open
in pattaya which starts on 31 january as part of her charity work in the region.
the tournament is a test she said. i don t know how my body will react. i
support several charities in thailand. i m also playing to see where i am.
speaking to le matin the 24-year-old swiss added: at pattaya there will not be as
many people and the players are ranked between the 30th and 95th in the world.
hingis was 22 when she retired after having surgery on both ankles and her last
wta event was in filderstadt germany in october 2002 when she lost to elena
dementieva.
umbro profits lifted by euro 2004 uk sportswear firm umbro has posted a 222% rise
in annual profit after sales of replica england football kits were boosted by the
euro 2004 tournament. pre-tax profit for 2004 was £15.4m ($29.4m). umbro which
recently lost sponsorship deals with chelsea and celtic said on thursday it had
signed a new four-year agreement with scottish club rangers. it hopes 2005 sales
will benefit from the launch of a new england replica shirt ahead of the 2006 world
cup. in january umbro announced its sponsorship agreement with chelsea which gave
umbro the lucrative right to make replica shirts would end in 2006 five years
earlier than expected. the firm which is to receive a payment from chelsea of
£24.5m said it is appraising a number of additional investment opportunities as a
result of this compensation . chief executive peter mcguigan said the firm plans
to grow sales both in the uk and internationally. the firm reporting its first
annual results since listing on the london stock exchange in june said the uk
market had seen sales growth of 8% last year. it said the launch of its evolution x
fashion range had boosted sales. umbro supplies more than 150 teams across the
world including the national sides of ireland sweden and norway. shares in umbro
were up 1.76% at 115.5 pence in morning trade.
germany nears 1990 jobless level german unemployment rose for the 11th consecutive
month in december - making the year s average jobless total the highest since
reunification. the seasonally adjusted jobless total rose a higher than expected
17 000 to 4.483 million the bundesbank said. allowing for changes in calculating
statistics the average number of people out of work was the highest since 1990 -
or a rate of 10.8%. bad weather and a sluggish economy were blamed for the rise.
the increase was due primarily to the onstart of winter labour office chief
frank-juergen weise said. unadjusted the figures showed unemployment rose 206 900
to 4.64 million - with many sectors such as construction laying off workers amid
bad weather. the three years of stagnation in the german economy came to an end in
2004. but the upturn is still not strong enough to boost the labour market mr
weise added. news of the rise came as government welfare reforms came into force a
move that is expected to see unemployment swell still further in coming months.
under the hartz iv changes the previous two tier system of benefits and support
for the long term unemployed has been replaced with one flat-rate payout. in turn
that means more people will be classified as looking for work driving official
figures higher. be prepared for a nasty figure for january 2005 about five
million unemployed on a non-seasonally adjusted basis warned hvb group economist
andreas rees. but he did add that the numbers should subside throughout the year
to remain near 2004 s level of 4.4 million jobless. i don t expect a strong and
lasting turnaround until 2006 german economy minister wolfgang clement said. by
2010 however the hartz iv reforms should help cut the average jobless rate to
between 3% and 5% he added. europe s biggest economy has been too weak to create
work as it struggles to shake off three years of economic stagnation. in recent
months companies such as adam opel - the german arm of us carmaker general motors -
and retailer karstadtquelle have slashed jobs.
vera drake s bafta triumph hope at the bafta film awards on saturday night there
is the prospect that a home-grown movie could walk off with a clutch of trophies.
vera drake mike leigh s tale about a 1950s backstreet abortionist is nominated in
11 categories. these include best film best director and best actress shortlist
for imelda staunton who plays the eponymous character. the film has spent months
being lauded with prizes from the venice film festival to five awards from the
london critics circle on wednesday night. the baftas has a tradition of honouring
british cinema and this year vera drake is the obvious candidate to be heaped with
praise. empire magazine s reviews editor dan jolin said the film had a very good
chance of doing well on saturday predicting that it would collect five or six
awards. i don t think it s going to do a lord of the rings-style sweep but imelda
staunton is a shoo-in for best actress he said. a best director prize for mike
leigh and best british film are also likely and it could steal some awards from
heavily-nominated competitors the aviator and finding neverland. mr jolin tipped
another contender - most likely the aviator - to walk away with the bafta for best
film and added that finding neverland had been lavished with nominations but not
trophies. strong oscar contenders million dollar baby and sideways did not figure
in the bafta nominations giving vera drake greater potential to walk away with the
big prizes. there is a sense that this film is ours and we should slap our own
guys on the back. out of all the films in the running for the baftas vera drake is
the true blue british one. if mike leigh is going to win awards for anything it
should be vera drake at this year s baftas said mr jolin adding that the film
was probably his most technically accomplished and lavish work yet. mr jolin also
tipped phil davis for a best supporting actor prize for his role in vera drake but
felt that heather craney could be outdone by kate winslet or natalie portman in the
supporting actress category. if there is anywhere where this film is going to win
it will be at the baftas he said. the guardian s film critic peter bradshaw felt
that there might well be a sweep of awards for vera drake on saturday night. i
hope that bafta voters will respond to the extremely high standard of acting from
the whole cast of the film. if bafta can t do so what hope is there he said. mr
bradshaw felt that mike leigh s masterpiece was entitled to the best film award -
leaving dead man s shoes harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban my summer of
love and shaun of the dead to slug it out for the best british film trophy. i will
be cheering if vera drake wins a whole host of awards he added.
millions to miss out on the net by 2025 40% of the uk s population will still be
without internet access at home says a study. around 23 million britons will miss
out on a wide range of essential services such as education and medical information
predicts the report by telecoms giant bt. it compares to 27 million or 50% of the
uk who are not currently online. the idea that the digital divide will evaporate
with time is wishful thinking the report concludes. the study calls on the
government and telecoms industry to come up with new ways to lure those that have
been bypassed by the digital revolution. although the percentage of britons without
home access will have fallen slightly those that remain digital refuseniks will
miss out on more the report suggests. as more and more everyday tasks move online
and offline services become less comprehensive the divide will become more obvious
and more burdensome for those that have not got net access it predicts. the gap
between have-nets and have-nots has been much talked about but predictions
about how such a divide will affect future generations has been less discussed. bt
set out to predict future patterns based on current information and taking account
of the way technology is changing. optimists who predict that convergence and the
emergence of more user-friendly technology will bridge the digital divide could be
way off mark the report suggests. internet access on other devices tends to be
something taken up by those who already have it said adrian hosford director of
corporate responsibility at bt. costs of internet access have fallen dramatically
and coverage in remote areas have vastly improved over the last year but the real
barrier remains psychological. there is a hard rump of have-nots who are not
engaging with the net. they don t have the motivation or skills or perceive the
benefits said mr hosford. as now the most disadvantaged groups are likely to
remain among low income families the older generation and the disabled. those on
low incomes will account for a quarter of the digital have-nots the disabled will
make up 16% and the elderly nearly a third by 2025 the report forecasts.
organisations such as bt have a responsibility to help tackle the problem said mr
hosford. the telco has seen positive results with its everybody online project
which offers internet access to people in eight deprived communities around
britain. in one area of cornwall with high levels of unemployment online training
helped people rewrite cvs and learn skills to get new jobs explained mr hosford.
such grassroot activity addressing the specific needs of individual communities is
essential is the problem of the digital divide is to be overcome he said. if we
don t address this problem now it will get a lot worse and people will find it
more difficult to find jobs education opportunities will be limited and they ll
simply not be able to keep up with society he said. the alliance for digital
inclusion an independent body with members drawn from government industry and the
voluntary sector has recently been set up to tackle some of the issues faced by the
digital refuseniks.
nasdaq planning $100m share sale the owner of the technology-dominated nasdaq stock
index plans to sell shares to the public and list itself on the market it operates.
according to a registration document filed with the securities and exchange
commission nasdaq stock market plans to raise $100m (£52m) from the sale. some
observers see this as another step closer to a full public listing. however nasdaq
an icon of the 1990s technology boom recently poured cold water on those
suggestions. the company first sold shares in private placements during 2000 and
2001. it technically went public in 2002 when the stock started trading on the otc
bulletin board which lists equities that trade only occasionally. nasdaq will not
make money from the sale only investors who bought shares in the private placings
the filing documents said. the nasdaq is made up shares in technology firms and
other companies with high growth potential. it was the most potent symbol of the
1990s internet and telecoms boom nose-diving after the bubble burst. a recovery in
the fortunes of tech giants such as intel and dot.com survivors such as amazon has
helped revive its fortunes.
could yukos be a blessing in disguise other things being equal the notion of
entrepreneurs languishing in jail while their companies are sold off for a song
ought to be bad for business. but in the looking-glass world of modern russia the
opposite might just be true a new report* has argued. the study from the centre
for economic policy research does not praise the rough handling of oil company
yukos. but it argues that more rigorous tax policing has benefited all russian
firms even targets of the tax police. an increase in tax enforcement can increase
the amount [of dividends and other income] outside shareholders will receive even
accounting for increased levels of taxation the authors say. the paper s
reasoning is complex and is based on a sophisticated model of the relationship
between tax regimes and corporate governance - in particular the propensity of
management to steal from the company. the calculations demonstrated what many
russian analysts already knew: that increasing the tax rate increases the amount
that managers steal since undeclared income becomes relatively more valuable. in
the west meanwhile higher tax rates translate far more smoothly into higher
government revenues. on the other hand increasing the rigour with which taxes are
collected encourages companies to become more transparent forcing them to be able
to demonstrate their financial position far more accurately. the net result the
authors say is that the extra amount companies pay in tax is more than compensated
for by greater efficiency and financial soundness. after vladimir putin became
president in 2000 he did not raise taxes but put a lot of effort - too much
critics argue - into enforcement. since then the russian stock market has more
than trebled in value a rise the authors attribute at least in part to the newly
tough approach. the report highlights the case of sibneft a russian oil company
that came close to merging with yukos last year. after mr putin came to power the
company s overall effective tax rate rose from 2.6% to 10.4% and sibneft was the
target of a series of aggressive raids by fiscal police. but shareholders benefited
hugely: sibneft started to pay dividends - $53m in 2000 and almost $1bn in 2001 -
and closed down the network of opaque subsidiaries it had previously used for
siphoning off unofficial funds. according to the authors although a variety of
changes were sweeping through russian industry at the time the increase in tax
enforcement is the only likely explanation for the change of fortunes at sibneft
and many of its peers. does this analysis make sense in part certainly. for all
its faults corporate russia has become far more orderly and law-abiding since
2000. companies have rushed to list their shares on international stock exchanges -
something unthinkable in the wilder days of the 1990s - and most large firms now
produce their accounts to international standards. foreign direct investment long
negligible is starting to flow in serious amounts - $7bn in 2003 - and stock
market returns have been among the healthiest in europe. but the authors model
does not quite cover all the complexities. for a start the model assumes that the
various parties have clearly-defined motivation: companies want to maximise profit
governments want to maximise tax revenue. in fact the alarmingly close connections
between big business and government in russia - connections often greased by
bribery - blur the apparently antagonistic relationship. companies can for example
persuade officials to overlook non-payment of taxes. and the authors definition
of tax enforcement seems unrealistically western. genuine disinterested tax
collection might well work wonders in russia; the problem with recent examples has
been the erratic and unpredictable way laws are enforced. the case against yukos
for example has moved in fits and starts with little clarity from the government
about its intentions and little faith from investors that the letter of the law
would be followed. as far as most commentators are concerned the state is pursuing
yukos out of a political vendetta rather than simply to enforce fiscal rectitude.
since yukos founder mikhail khodorkovsky was arrested a year ago the russian
market has dropped by 10% - an indication that few investors feel optimistic about
the salutary effect on corporate performance.
henin-hardenne beaten on comeback justine henin-hardenne lost to elena dementieva
in a comeback exhibition match in belgium on sunday for her second defeat in two
days. and the belgian who has slipped to eight in the world after struggling with
a virus faces a tough australian open title defence next month. i will be heading
to australia with a lot of question marks over me i know that she said. but i
think there ll be less pressure than last time even if i am champion. henin-
hardenne was speaking after a 6-2 5-7 6-2 loss to world number six dementieva in
charleroi belgium on sunday. the previous day the olympic champion went down 6-2
7-5 to france s nathalie dechy. i have to be positive i still have a few weeks
she said. my body has to get accustomed again to the stress the rhythm. henin-
hardenne slid down the world rankings in the second half of 2004 after contracting
the illness in april. after an initial lay-off she was forced off the circuit for
a second time after being knocked out of the french open in the second round. a
comeback at the us open after a three-month absence ended when she crashed out at
the fourth-round stage. but despite her problems she still won five of the nine
official tournaments she entered in 2004 and won olympic gold in athens an
achievement which saw her named belgian sportswoman of the year on friday.
physically it s obvious that i hit rock bottom said the 22-year-old who will
make her comeback in the sydney international from 10-16 january. since april
with the exception of the olympics i have not done much. all the successes i had
prior to that were mainly due to the work i put in on building up my fitness. now
it s time to get back to putting in 200% effort and i think i am capable of doing
that.
barkley fit for match in ireland england centre olly barkley has been passed fit
for sunday s six nations clash with ireland at lansdowne road. barkley withdrew
from bath s team for friday s clash with gloucester after suffering a calf injury
in training. gloucester centre henry paul has also been cleared to play after
overcoming an ankle injury. england coach andy robinson who names his team on
wednesday has called up bath prop duncan bell following phil vickery s broken arm.
with vickery sidelined for at least six weeks and julian white out with a neck
injury bell could make his england debut. bell 30 had set his sights on an
international career with wales. but last december the international rugby board
confirmed that he could only be eligible for england as he had travelled on tour
with them in 1998. i thought i d burned all my bridges with england when i
expressed an interest in wanting to play for wales so it s fantastic to get this
opportunity he said. bell who featured in the england a side which beat france
30-20 10 days ago added: i recognise that i got into the england a squad because
of injuries. and it s the same again in getting into the senior squad. but now
that i have this opportunity i intend to take it fully if selected and play my
heart out for my country. england coach andy robinson could take a gamble and
call inexperienced sale sharks prop andrew sheridan into his front row. but
sheridan favours the loosehead side of the scrum and a more likely scenario is for
uncapped bell - who was among the try-scorers when england a beat france a 30-20
nine days ago - to be drafted in.
downloads enter us singles chart digital music downloads are being included in the
main us singles chart for the first time. billboard s hot 100 chart now
incorporates data from sales of music downloads previously only assigned to a
separate download chart. green day s boulevard of broken dreams is currently number
two in billboard s pop chart and tops its digital chart. download sales are due to
be incorporated into the uk singles chart later this year. digital sales in the us
are already used to compile billboard s hot digital sales chart. they will now be
tallied with sales of physical singles and airplay information to make up its new
hot 100 chart. its second new chart - the pop 100 - also combines airplay digital
and physical sales but confines its airplay information to us radio stations which
play chart music. in addition to green day other artists in the current us digital
sales top 10 include kelly clarkson the game and the killers. sales of legally
downloaded songs shot up more than tenfold in 2004 with 200 million track
purchased online in the us and europe in 12 months the international federation of
the phonographic industry (ifpi) reported last month. in the uk sales of song
downloads overtook those for physical singles for the first time at the end of last
year. the last week of december 2004 saw download sales of 312 000 compared with
282 000 physical singles according to the british phonographic industry. the uk s
first official music download chart was launched last september compiling the most
popular tracks downloaded from legal uk sites - including itunes od2
mycokemusic.com and napster. westlife s flying without wings - a 1999 track
reissued for the occasion - was the first number one of the uk download chart. a
spokesman for the british phonographic industry (bpi) said the first combined uk
download and sales chart was due to be compiled within the first half of this year
. work is going on across the music business right now to make sure the new chart
works to plan he said. the bpi spokesman described the uk music download chart
compiled by the official charts company as having been a great success since its
launch. it has provided a focus for the industry and has really driven interest in
downloads among music fans he said.
wales want rugby league training wales could follow england s lead by training with
a rugby league club. england have already had a three-day session with leeds
rhinos and wales are thought to be interested in a similar clinic with rivals st
helens. saints coach ian millward has given his approval but if it does happen it
is unlikely to be this season. saints have a week s training in portugal next week
while wales will play england in the opening six nations match on 5 february. we
have had an approach from wales confirmed a saints spokesman. it s in the very
early stages but it is something we are giving serious consideration to. st helens
who are proud of their welsh connections are obvious partners for the welsh rugby
union despite a spat in 2001 over the collapse of kieron cunningham s proposed
£500 000 move to union side swansea. a similar cross-code deal that took iestyn
harris from leeds to cardiff in 2001 did go through before the talented stand-off
returned to the 13-man code with bradford bulls. kel coslett who famously moved
from wales to league in the 1960s is currently saints football manager while
clive griffiths - wales defensive coach - is a former st helens player and is
thought to be the man behind the latest initiative. scott gibbs the former wales
and lions centre played for st helens from 1994-96 and was in the challenge cup-
winning team at wembley in 1996.
lords wrong on detainees - straw jack straw has attacked the decision by britain s
highest court that detaining foreign terrorist suspects without trial breaks human
rights laws. the foreign secretary said the right to life was the most important
liberty and the government had a duty to protect people from terrorism. law lords
were simply wrong to imply the men were being held arbitrarily. new home
secretary charles clarke vowed the nine men would remain in prison while the law
was being reviewed. the house of lords ruled by an eight to one majority in favour
of appeals by the men - dealing a major blow to the government s anti-terror
policy. but mr straw denied it amounted to a constitutional crisis . he said
those held had a right of appeal to the special immigration appeal tribunal and the
decision to hold the suspects was upheld by that court. the law lords are simply
wrong to imply that this is a decision to detain these people on the whim or the
certificate of the home secretary he told bbc radio 4 s today programme. the
foreign secretary insisted it was for parliament and not judges to decide how
best britain could be defended against the threat of terrorism. but liberal
democrat peer lord carlile the government s independent reviewer of anti-terrorism
laws said it was possible some of the detainees could now be released. he said the
law lords ruling was an embarrassment for the government and major changes were
needed to the law. the ruling came on charles clarke s first day as home secretary
following david blunkett s resignation. in a statement to mps mr clarke said: i
will be asking parliament to renew this legislation in the new year. in the
meantime we will be studying the judgment carefully to see whether it is possible
to modify our legislation to address the concerns raised by the house of lords.
the detainees took their case to the house of lords after the court of appeal
backed the home office s powers to hold them without limit or charge. the
government opted out of part of the european convention on human rights concerning
the right to a fair trial in order to bring in anti-terrorism legislation in
response to the 11 september attacks in the us. any foreign national suspected of
links with terrorism can be detained or can opt to be deported. but those detained
cannot be deported if this would mean persecution in their homeland. on thursday
lord bingham - a senior law lord - said the rules were incompatible with the
european convention on human rights as they allowed detentions in a way that
discriminates on the ground of nationality or immigration status by justifying
detention without trial for foreign suspects but not britons. lord nicholls of
birkenhead in his ruling said: indefinite imprisonment without charge or trial
is anathema in any country which observes the rule of law. in a statement
detainee a in woodhill prison said: i hope now that the government will act upon
this decision scrap this illegal law and release me and the other internees to
return to our families and loved ones. the case was heard by a panel of nine law
lords rather than the usual five because of the constitutional importance of the
case. solicitor gareth pierce who represents eight of the detainees claimed the
detention had driven four of the detainees to madness saying two were being held
in broadmoor hospital.
hewitt falls to dent lleyton hewitt suffered a shock defeat to taylor dent in the
quarter-finals of the australian hardcourt championships in adelaide on friday.
the top seed was a strong favourite for the title but went down 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 to
the american. dent will face juan ignacio chela next after the fourth seed was too
strong for jurgen melzer. olivier rochus beat third seed nicolas kiefer 6-7 (4-7)
7-6 (8-6) 7-5 and will take on second seed joachim johansson. the swede reached the
last four by beating compatriot thomas enqvist 6-3 4-6 6-1. i felt like i was
striking the ball much better said johansson. i felt like i had a lot of break
chances i didn t take care of them all but i broke him four times and he only
broke me once. i felt that was the key to get up in the set early.
uk firm faces venezuelan land row venezuelan authorities have said they will seize
land owned by a british company as part of president chavez s agrarian reform
programme. officials in cojedes state said on friday that farmland owned by a
subsidiary of the vestey group would be taken and used to settle poor farmers. the
government is cracking down on so-called latifundios or large rural estates which
it says are lying idle. the vestey group said it had not been informed of any
planned seizure. the firm whose agroflora subsidiary operates 13 farms in
venezuela insisted that it had complied fully with venezuelan law. prosecutors in
the south of the country have targeted hato el charcote a beef cattle ranch owned
by agroflora. according to reuters they plan to seize 12 900 acres (5 200
hectares) from the 32 000 acre (13 000 hectare) farm. officials claim that
agroflora does not possess valid documents proving its ownership of the land in
question. they also allege that areas of the ranch are not being used for any form
of active production. the legal boundaries did not match up with the actual
boundaries and there is surplus state prosecutor alexis ortiz told reuters. as a
consequence the government has taken action. controversial reforms passed in 2001
give the government the right to take control of private property if it is declared
idle or ownership cannot be traced back to the 19th century. critics say the
powers - which president chavez argues are needed to help the country s poorest
citizens and develop the venezuelan economy - trample all over private property
rights. the vestey group said it had owned the land since 1920 and would co-operate
fully with the authorities. but a spokesman added: agroflora is absolutely
confident that what it has submitted will demonstrate the legality of its title to
the land. the company pointed out that the farm which employs 300 workers
provides meat solely for the venezuelan market. last month the government said it
had identified more than 500 idle farms and had yet to consider the status of a
further 40 000. the authorities said landowners whose titles were in order and
whose farms were productive had nothing to fear . under president chavez the
venezuelan government has steadily expanded the state s involvement in the country
s economy. it recently said all mining contracts involving foreign firms would be
examined to ensure they provided sufficient economic benefits to the state.
wales critical of clumsy grewcock wales coach mike ruddock says england lock danny
grewcock needs to review his actions after he kicked dwayne peel. trouble flared
at a ruck in the first half of wales 11-9 win in cardiff as grewcock came
recklessly over the top with his boot leaving peel bloodied. grewcock was sin-
binned with wales captain gareth thomas for retaliation. it s up to the citing
commissioner said ruddock. i m not saying it s deliberate but grewcock did a
similar thing for bath against leinster. last june grewcock was banned from rugby
for two months for reckless use of a boot in a match against new zealand. six
years earlier also in new zealand grewcock became only the second england player
to be sent off in tests. the player himself and his captain jason robinson have
both said that the clash with peel was accidental. if the ball is at the back of
the ruck and i feel i can step over and disrupt it then i will do that said
grewcock. but ruddock feels that the england man should be more careful. the boy
himself should look at his actions it was a clumsy piece of footwork he said.
he s a great player and i don t want to knock him we won t be calling for the
match commissioner to review the incident. i m not going to go too far with the
lad. it could just be a clumsy action and dwayne had just a minor cut. the referee
s interpretation was that grewcock was attempting to step over the ruck. ruddock
also warned his rbs 6 nations championship rivals that his team can make massive
improvements. we created more opportunities and also squandered them by taking
more contact and playing more individually said the coach. we ve looked through
things on the video debrief and there were definitely a lot of chances that we
wasted. in the forthcoming games ruddock may use penalty hero gavin henson as his
first-choice kicker in place of stephen jones. our first aim was to get gavin
settled into the team but it s something we ll talk about in selection this week
said ruddock.
deutsche boerse boosts dividend deutsche boerse the german stock exchange that is
trying to buy its london rival has said it will boost its 2004 dividend payment by
27%. analysts said that the move is aimed at winning over investors opposed to its
bid for the london stock exchange. critics of the takeover have complained that the
money could be better used by returning cash to shareholders. deutsche boerse also
said profit in the three months to 31 december was 120.7m euros ($158.8m; £83.3m).
sales climbed to 364.4m euros lifting revenue for the year to a record 1.45bn
euros. frankfurt-based deutsche boerse has offered £1.3bn ($2.48bn; 1.88bn euros)
for the london stock exchange. rival pan-european bourse euronext is working also
on a bid. late on monday deutsche boerse said it would lift its 2004 dividend
payment to 70 euro cents (£0.48; $0.98) from 55 euro cents a year earlier. there
is a whiff of a sweetener in there anais faraj an analyst at nomura told the bbc
s world business report. most of the disgruntled shareholders of deutsche boerse
are complaining that the money that is being used for the bid could be better
placed in their hands paid out in dividends mr faraj continued. deutsche boerse
is trying to buy them off in a sense he said.
police probe bnp mosque leaflet police are investigating a british national party
leaflet posted to homes in south wales opposing plans for a new mosque. anti-
racism campaigners in swansea have handed copies to south wales police. swansea s
muslim community is raising money to open a new mosque and community centre in the
former st andrews united reform church. the building on george street has been
derelict since the 1980s. taha idris director of the swansea bay race equality
council said his organisation contacted police after receiving complaints from the
public. i m quite shocked to see this sort of leaflet by the bnp in swansea he
said. the bnp has tried in the past to get into swansea and this is another
example of them trying again. i am in no doubt that the bnp are not needed and not
wanted here. a south wales police spokeswoman confirmed that they were looking at
the contents of the leaflet. according to the bnp s website they have been posted
to homes in the castle ward. the bnp website carries a photograph of party leader
nick griffin - who lives near welshpool mid wales - delivering the leaflet. the
bnp has denied it is trying to stir up hatred of any race or religion but argues
that they should be able to debate this without fear of arrest. swansea unite
against fascism (uaf) is meeting this week to plan a campaign. following the death
earlier this year of kalan kawa karim an iraqi kurd living in swansea it
organised an anti-racism march in the city that was supported by more than 1 000
people. it is planning its own mail shot campaign and may launch a petition in
support of the plans for the mosque. andy richards of swansea uaf said the
leaflet was exactly what he had come to expect from the bnp. the people of
swansea will not put up with this. swansea s muslim community bought the former
church just across the road from the existing mosque on st helen s road in the
late 1990s. mr idris said the community was now raising money to renovate the
building. it is a landmark building in swansea and would otherwise just crumble
he said. it is the ideal opportunity for the building to be restored and used in
the proper manner. it will be a muslim community centre. it s a holistic place
used for education weddings deaths and births. he said space was limited in the
current mosque and on some occasions muslims had to travel to llanelli for cultural
events.
protesters plan airport challenge campaigners against the expansion of britain s
airports have begun challenging the government s plans in the high court. baa s
expansion of stansted airport in essex by building an extra runway is one of the
most fiercely opposed plans. opponents say the £2bn cost of the new runway could
not be met unless cash from heathrow and gatwick was used. they said this is
illegal under current rules and are trying to block the government from changing
legislation. baa are also owners of the airports at heathrow and gatwick. they have
said they cannot raise the money needed for the stansted upgrades from current
landing charges. baa also says it has attempted to involve communities in any
future airport plans. groups challenging the plans include stop stansted expansion
heathrow anti-noise campaigners hacan clearskies and the london boroughs of
hillingdon and wandsworth. their opponents are also likely to complain there was no
public consultation before an extra runway was built at luton airport or when it
changed take-off and landing procedures at heathrow. if the group wins the
government s future aviation plans outlined in last year s transport white paper
could be left in ruins. the campaigners will say the government did not adequately
consider the building of new airports such as one planned for the isle of sheppey
east of london. lord hanningfield leader of essex county council told bbc radio 4
s today programme: we are going to the high court because we want a judge to rule
there should be a proper inquiry. we want a judge to say there has been inadequate
preparation consultation and thought before the government came out with its green
paper. then there could be a proper debate nationally about where this extra
capacity should go. he added: politicians should not decide where runways should
be. the stansted expansion apart from the building of the new runway would also
need to include new terminal buildings to deal with the projected 50m passengers
who will use it every year. the airport is the hub of many of the no-frills
airlines operating in the uk. but baa has said it has attempted to involve
communities in any future airport plans. at heathrow gatwick edinburgh and
glasgow airports baa launched a series of consultations on blight to properties
from the proposed expansion in september 2004 which will close next week. baa is
also offering to buy noise-hit properties for an index-linked unblighted price. at
heathrow baa said it was working closely with all interested parties to see how
the strict environmental air quality and noise targets for a third runway can be
met. at gatwick the company has written to homes and business likely to be
affected by any extra runway.
ericsson sees earnings improve telecoms equipment supplier ericsson has posted a
rise in fourth quarter profits thanks to clients like deutsche telekom upgrade
their networks. operating profit in the three months to 31 december was 9.5bn
kronor (£722m; $1.3bn) against 6.3bn kronor last year. shares tumbled however as
the company reported a profit margin of 45.6% less than the 47.3% forecast by
analysts and down from 47.1% in the third quarter. ericsson shares dropped 5.9% to
20.7 kronor in early trading on thursday. however the company remained optimistic
about its earnings outlook after sales in the fourth quarter rose 9% to 39.4bn
kronor. long-term growth drivers of the industry remain solid ericsson said in a
statement. chief executive carl-henric svanberg explained that about 27% of the
world s population now has access to mobile communications . this is exciting for
a company with a vision of an all-communicating world he added. mr svanberg
however warned that the extra demand that had driven 2004 sales had already
dissipated and it was business as usual . he added that sales in the first three
months of 2005 would be subject to normal seasonality . for the whole of 2004
ericsson returned a net profit of 19bn kronor compared with a loss of 10.8bn
kronor in 2003. sales climbed to 131.9 billion kronor from 117.7bn kronor in 2003.
howard unveils election platform the conservatives would stand up for the
forgotten majority michael howard pledged as he unveiled the first part of the
tory election manifesto. the tory leader argued there was a mass of people whom he
says feel let down by tony blair and who share tory values. in the foreword to the
manifesto he promises to focus on restoring order trying to lower taxes and
giving power back to the people. labour says the document offers only a return to a
failed tory past . the liberal democrats say the conservatives cannot win what they
predict will be a three-party contest. campaigning activity is accelerating ahead
of the general election which is widely tipped for may but could be any time
before june 2006. labour on monday postponed a launch of election posters because
of the asian tsunami disaster. mr howard published the introduction to the tory
manifesto. other chapters will follow in coming weeks. in a speech in
northamptonshire he said the forgotten majority made up the backbone of britain.
they were people who were saving for their first home or their retirement working
hard and accepting their responsibilities. he says in the manifesto foreword: they
have been forgotten neglected and taken for granted by mr blair. saying britain
must change direction mr howard argues government is too big and cannot continue
down the path of ever rising taxes . he promises to ensure frontline professionals
parents and patients make the key decisions rather than whitehall bureaucrats .
and he says the tories would get a grip on crime immigration and disorder. the
decline of responsibility and the proliferation of so-called human rights have
left us in a moral quagmire unable to get a grip on rising crime and disorder he
says. mr howard says he will produce a timetable for action so people can hold him
to account but on issues like taxation he has so far only published options not
specific plans. mr howard told bbc news: i m determined to lower taxes but i m
also determined not to make any promises i can t keep. the tories were unveiling
material months ahead of the expected election because they needed time to make
voters aware of their policies he said. he was asked if tory support for the
government on iraq and identity cards had given the lib dems the chance to portray
themselves as the opposition to labour. mr howard argued the only test for his
policies was whether they were best for britain. it had nothing to do with putting
clear blue water between himself and his opponents. labour s election slogan will
be: britain s working don t let the tories wreck it again . campaign coordinator
alan milburn accused the tories of launching thatcherism in instalments while
labour helped the hard working majority of families. lib dem president simon hughes
said his party had set out its election stance in september. the liberal democrats
will ask the british people for support this year as the party with the policies
best able to deliver freedom and fairness and to restore trust he said.
poles play with gameboy blip-pop a group of artists in poland has taken the
cacophony of blips boops and beeps created as players bash buttons on nintendo s
handheld gameboy console to a new level. the gameboyzz orchestra project has taken
the game sounds to put together music tunes they have dubbed blip-pop. think of
it as donkey kong meets norman cook or maybe tetris takes on kraftwerk. any way
you slice it the sound is distinct. all the sounds are made by six nintendo
gameboys with a mixture of older models and newer advance sp handhelds. the
gameboyzz orchestra project tweaks the software a bit and then connects the units
through a mixing board. jarek kujda one of the project s founding members has
been into electronic music and video games for a while now. i was playing some
experimental music and three four years ago when i first used a gameboy in my band
as a drum machine said kujda. he realised that the console could be used as a
rudimentary synthesizer. he wondered if one gameboy can make music what would
happen if he put six of them together kujda found five other people who were
interested and the gameboyzz orchestra project was born. gameboyzz orchestra
project is more of an improvisational project said kudja. we prepare some
patterns before a concert and then improvise during the concert. the group plays
maybe four or five shows a year. malgorzata kujda jarek s younger sister and a
fellow band member describes a gameboyzz orchestra project concert as a lot of
noise. for example i make music with more hard beats and noises she said. but
each of us makes another music a different sound. and then in the concert we just
improvise and that i think is more fun for us. the gameboyzz orchestra project
admits they get mixed reactions from audiences. some love the group s music and
others are not quite sure what to make of it. in the world of electronic music
these purveyors of blip-pop are not unique. but jarek kujda says they try to be
unique. we have lots of people making music on old school stuff electronic old
school stuff like commodore atari spectrum he said. we want to play only
experimental music not cover songs. we re something like an electronic jam
session. the gameboyzz orchestra project s tracks are available online and the
group hopes to make a cd next year. and they have sponsorship courtesy of the
polish distributor of nintendo products. the members of the gameboyzz orchestra
project do not expect serious competition anytime soon. a gameboy advance costs
about us $200 in poland these days which is still way beyond the reach of most
polish gamers or musicians. clark boyd is technology correspondent for the world
a bbc world service and wgbh-boston co-production
hanks greeted at wintry premiere hollywood star tom hanks was in london s leicester
square for the uk premiere of polar express. the west end landmark was turned into
a festive landscape complete with snow and carol singers to celebrate the arrival
of the animated film. this is leicester square like you ve never seen it before
said hanks who plays five roles in the movie. polar express is based on a children
s book which tells the story of a young boy s journey to meet santa claus. the 48-
year-old actor crossed a three-metre high bridge built in the square which he said
was almost impossible to get across . hundreds of fans greeted the star all
wearing santa hats and mince pies were on offer. hanks said that the new film has
an elegant message . christmas is a special time of the year and you get out of
it what you put into it added the two-time academy award winner. i believe in
the spirit of christmas and i think that s embodied in santa claus he said. polar
express uses technology similar to that used in lord of the rings to bring gollum
to life. the performance capture technique enables hanks to play a number of
roles including the eight-year-old boy who is at the centre of the story and
father christmas. it is directed by robert zemeckis who has previously worked with
hanks on forrest gump and castaway.
man utd stroll to cup win wayne rooney made a winning return to everton as
manchester united cruised into the fa cup quarter-finals. rooney received a
hostile reception but goals in each half from quinton fortune and cristiano
ronaldo silenced the jeers at goodison park. fortune headed home after 23 minutes
before ronaldo scored when nigel martyn parried paul scholes free-kick. marcus
bent missed everton s best chance when roy carroll who was later struck by a
missile saved at his feet. rooney s return was always going to be a potential
flashpoint and he was involved in an angry exchange with a spectator even before
kick-off. and rooney s every touch was met with a deafening chorus of jeers from
the crowd that once idolised the 19-year-old. everton started brightly and fortune
needed to be alert to scramble away a header from bent near the goal-line. but that
was the cue for united to take complete control with a supreme passing display on a
goodison park pitch that was cutting up. fortune gave united the lead after 23
minutes rising to meet ronaldo s cross from eight yards after the portuguese
youngster had been allowed too much time and space by the hapless gary naysmith.
united dominated without creating too many clear-cut chances and they almost paid
the price for not making the most of their domination two minutes before half-time.
mikel arteta played a superb ball into the area but bent played onside by gabriel
heintze hesitated and carroll plunged at his fee to save. united almost doubled
their lead after 48 minutes when ronaldo s low drive from 25 yards took a
deflection off tony hibbert but martyn dived to save brilliantly. and martyn came
to everton s rescue three minutes later when rooney s big moment almost arrived as
he raced clean through but once again the veteran keeper was in outstanding form.
but there was nothing martyn could do when united doubled their lead after 57
minutes as they doubled their advantage. scholes free-kick took a deflection and
martyn could only parry the ball out for ronaldo who reacted first to score
easily. everton s problems worsened when james mcfadden limped off with an injury.
and there may be further trouble ahead for everton after goalkeeper carroll
required treatment after he was struck on the head by a missile thrown from behind
the goal. rooney s desperate search for a goal on his return to everton was halted
again by martyn in injury-time when he outpaced stubbs but once again martyn
denied the england striker. - manchester united coach sir alex ferguson: it was a
fantastic performance by us. in fairness i think everton have missed a couple of
players and got some young players out. the boy ronaldo is a fantastic player. he
s persistent and never gives in. i don t know how many fouls he had he gets up and
wants the ball again he s truly a fabulous player. everton: martyn hibbert yobo
stubbs naysmith osman carsley arteta kilbane mcfadden bent. subs: wright
pistone weir plessis vaughan. manchester united: carroll gary neville brown
ferdinand heinze ronaldo phil neville keane scholes fortune rooney. subs:
howard giggs smith miller spector. referee: r styles (hampshire)
home loan approvals rising again the number of mortgages approved in the uk has
risen for the first time since may last year according to lending figures from the
bank of england. new loans in december rose to 83 000 slightly higher than
november s nine-year low of 77 000. mortgage lending rose by £7.1bn in december up
from a £6.4bn rise in november. the figures contradict a survey from the british
bankers association which said approvals were at a five-year low. analysts say
the figures show the market may be stabilising but still point to further house
price softness. the modest rise in mortgage approvals and lending in december
reinforces the impression that the housing market is currently slowing steadily
rather than sharply said global insight analyst howard archer commenting on the
boe s figures. the bba believes that the property market is continuing to cool
down. changes to mortgage regulation may have artificially depressed figures in
november thus flattering the december figures analysts said. in october last year
new rules came into force which meant some lenders were forced to withdraw
mortgage products temporarily in november and defer some lending until they had
made sure they had complied with the rules properly. separately the bank of
england said that consumer credit rose by £1.5bn in december more than the £1.4bn
expected and above the £1.4bn reported in the previous month.
spector facing more legal action music producer phil spector is facing legal action
from the mother of the actress he has been accused of killing. donna clarkson
whose daughter lana was found dead in mr spector s home in february 2003 is
seeking unspecified damages in a civil action. the legal action accuses mr spector
of murdering the actress at his la home. mr spector is currently free on $1m (£535
000) bail and is awaiting trial. the 64-year-old has denied the killing saying her
death was accidental. ms clarkson s legal action filed in los angeles superior
court also accuses mr spector of negligence and battery alleging he grabbed hit
fought with and restrained lana clarkson before shooting her to death. her lawyers
said in a statement: the clarkson family had hoped that there would be some
resolution with regard to the criminal proceedings before moving forward with the
civil action. however ms clarkson and her family understand that the fair
administration of justice takes time and in light of the numerous changes mr
spector has made in his legal defence team over the last two years ms clarkson was
forced to file the action before (the statute of limitations expired) on 3 february
2005. mr spector known for his work with the beatles has claimed that lana
clarkson committed suicide. his lawyers led by bruce cutler have vowed to prove
him innocent at trial. mr cutler said: phil did not cause the death of this woman
he s not criminally responsible and he s not civilly responsible either. but i m
not surprised they filed a suit for money that seems to be de rigueur nowadays. a
los angeles superior court judge is expected to set a trial date later this month
for spector who was indicted on murder charges in september. roderick lindblom
one of ms clarkson s lawyers said: our intent is to let the criminal proceedings
go forward and not do anything that would interfere with the prosecution.
o driscoll/gregan lead aid stars ireland s brian o driscoll will lead the northern
hemisphere team in the irb rugby aid match at twickenham. o driscoll heads a star-
studded cast for the contest to raise funds for the tsunami appeal. the south will
be led by george gregan one of four wallabies alongside five springboks and four
all blacks including captain tana umaga. south african flanker schalk burger has
shaken off a leg injury to take his place in the starting line-up. he will join
fellow springboks john smit cobus visagie and victor matfield in the south pack
with jacque fourie among the centres. the north side have been hit by the
withdrawals of scotland duo gordon bulloch and chris cusiter plus france captain
fabien pelous. but leicester s england centre ollie smith has been added to the
squad giving him an opportunity to impress lions coach sir clive woodward who
takes charge of the north side. i think it s fantastic for ollie tigers coach
john wells told bbc radio leicester. he was probably going to have the weekend off
this week and i hope clive gets the chance to see the qualities that leicester and
england have been seeing all year. woodward will also assess other potential lions
candidates such as scotland pair simon taylor and chris paterson wales scrum-half
dwayne peel and ireland lock paul o connell. i m looking forward to working with
such outstanding players woodward said. both teams are fielding top-quality
sides and i really hope that the rugby public and community get behind this game to
raise as much money as possible for such a deserving cause. despite the withdrawal
of wales wing rhys williams who is required for the blues celtic league match
with munster three other members of their six nations squad - ceri sweeney john
yapp and jonathan thomas - will also play. not only it is for a good cause but it
gives these players the opportunity to play with and against some of the best
players in the world said wru general manager steve lewis. supporters can watch
the teams train for free at twickenham on friday 4 march. woodward will put his
north team through their paces at 1030 gmt with the south side coached by former
wallabies coach rod macqueen due at the stadium at 1330. c paterson (scotland) b
cohen (england) b o driscoll (ireland capt) d traille (france) o smith
(england) c sweeney (wales) d humphreys (ireland) d peel (wales); a lo cicero
(italy) p de villiers (france) j yapp (wales) r ibanez (france) p o connell
(ireland) m bortolami (italy) j thomas (wales) s taylor (scotland) l dallaglio
(england) s parisse (italy) others to be added. c latham (australia); b lima
(samoa) j fourie (sa) t umaga (new zealand) s bobo (fiji); a mehrtens (nz) g
gregan (aus capt); c hoeft (nz) j smit (sa) c visagie (sa) s maling (nz) v
matfield (sa) s burger (sa) p waugh (aus) t kefu (aus). e taukafa (tonga) e
guinazu (argentina) s sititi (samoa) o palepoi (samoa) m rauluni (fiji) t
delport (sa) a n other.
manchester wins labour conference the labour party will hold its 2006 autumn
conference in manchester and not blackpool it has been confirmed. the much
trailed decision was ratified by labour s ruling national executive committee in a
break with the traditional choice of a seaside venue. it will be the first time
since 1917 that the party has chosen manchester to host the annual event. blackpool
will get the much smaller february spring conference instead in what will be seen
as a placatory move. for years the main political parties have rotated between
blackpool bournemouth and brighton. and the news the much larger annual conference
is not to gather in blackpool will be seen as a blow in the coastal resort. in 1998
the party said it would not return to blackpool but did so in 2002. the following
year bournemouth hosted the event before the party signed a two year deal for
brighton to host the autumn conference. colin asplin blackpool hotel association
said: we have tried very hard to make sure they come back to blackpool. obviously
we have failed in that. i just hope manchester can handle the crowds. it amazes me
that the labour party which is a working class party doesn t want to come to the
main working class resort in the country. the exact cost to blackpool in terms of
lost revenue for hotel accommodation is not yet known but it is thought that block
bookings will be taken at the major manchester hotels after the official
announcement.
clarke to press on with id cards new home secretary charles clarke has vowed to
plough on with plans for id cards despite a call for him to pause for thought
from charles kennedy. the lib dem leader said david blunkett s resignation was a
good opportunity to question whether the legislation was necessary. but mr clarke
said he had supported the plans when mr blunkett argued for them in cabinet and he
supported them now. id cards are a means to creating a more secure society he
said. mr clarke acknowledged how the measure was introduced remained a matter for
debate but he said legislation had already been significantly influenced by the
recommendations of the commons home affairs committee. the issue would be debated
in parliament next monday as scheduled he insisted. earlier mr kennedy whose party
opposes the id cards plan as deeply flawed said with christmas coming up the new
home secretary had time to think again. he told bbc radio 4 s today programme that
mr clarke had been reported to be less enthusiastic about id cards than his
predecessors. wouldn t this be a good opportunity for a new home secretary a new
broom to sweep clean in this respect and why do we need this legislation in the
first place he asked. earlier this week the tories announced they would back the
government s plans although michael howard was forced to deny the shadow cabinet
was split over its decision. they had decided to support the plans as the police
said they would help fight terror crime and illegal immigration. among those
reported to have serious reservations over the strategy were senior shadow cabinet
members david davis oliver letwin and tim yeo. the chairman of the bar council
guy mansfield qc has warned there is a real risk that people on the margins of
society would be driven into the hands of extremists. what is going to happen to
young asian men when there has been a bomb gone off somewhere they are going to be
stopped. if they haven t [id cards] they are going to be detained. the home
office says people will pay £85 for a passport and id card together or a undecided
fee for a separate id card. the first cards would be issued in 2008 and when he was
introducing the bill mr blunkett suggested parliament could decide in 2011 or 2012
whether to make it compulsory for everybody to own the cards although not to carry
them. the new bill will also create new criminal offences on the possession of
false identity documents. and there will be civil penalties including a fine of up
to £1 000 fine for people who fail to say they have moved house or changed other
details and of up to £2 500 for failing to sign up if the cards become compulsory.
the scheme will be overseen by a new independent watchdog.
microsoft debuts security tools microsoft is releasing tools that clean up pcs
harbouring viruses and spyware. the virus-fighting program will be updated monthly
and is a precursor to microsoft releasing dedicated anti-virus software. also being
released is a software utility that will help users find and remove any spyware on
their home computer. although initially free it is thought that soon microsoft will
be charging users for the anti-spyware tool. the anti-spyware tool is available
now and the anti-virus utility is expected to be available later this month.
microsoft s windows operating system has long been a favourite of people who write
computer viruses because it is so ubiquitous and has many loopholes that can be
exploited. it has proved such a tempting target that there are now thought to be
more than 100 000 viruses and other malicious programs in existence. latest
research suggests that new variants of viruses are being cranked out at a rate of
up to 200 per week. spyware is surreptitious software that sneaks on to home
computers often without users knowledge. in its most benign form it just bombards
users with pop-up adverts or hijacks web browser settings. the most malicious forms
steal confidential information or log every keystroke that users make. surveys have
shown that most pcs are infested with spyware. research by technology firms
earthlink and webroot revealed that 90% of windows machine have the malicious
software on board and on average each one harbours 28 separate spyware programs.
before now microsoft has left the market for pc security software to specialist
firms such as symantec mcafee trend micro and many others. it said that its virus
cleaning program would not stop machines being infected nor remove the need for
other anti-virus programs. on spyware freely available programs such as ad-aware
and spybot have become widely used by people keen to keep the latest variants at
bay. microsoft s two security tools have emerged as a result of acquisitions the
company has made over the last two years. in 2003 it bought romanian firm gecad
software to get hold of its anti-virus technology. in december 2004 it bought new
york-based anti-spyware firm giant company software. last year microsoft also
released the sp2 upgrade for windows xp that closed many security loopholes in the
software and made it easier for people to manage their anti-virus and firewall
programs.
angels favourite funeral song angels by robbie williams is the song britons would
most like played at their funeral a survey has suggested. while the melancholy
hit topped the uk poll europeans favoured queen s more upbeat anthem the show must
go on as their first choice. frank sinatra s my way was second in the uk vote with
monty python s always look on the bright side of life in third place. more than 45
000 people were surveyed by digital tv station music choice. the european chart
which included denmark france and germany put led zeppelin s stairway to heaven
in second and ac/dc s highway to hell in third. queen s who wants to live forever
was highly favoured by both uk and european voters. both lists featured only one
traditional or classic song each with britons requesting the royal scots dragoon
guards amazing grace and their continental counterparts opting for mozart s
requiem. wanting to share your most treasured musical gem with those you re
leaving behind is the perfect way to sign off and leave a lasting impression
music choice music and marketing manager simon george said.
troubled marsh under sec scrutiny the us stock market regulator is investigating
troubled insurance broker marsh & mclennan s shareholder transactions the firm has
said. the securities and exchange commission has asked for information about
transactions involving holders of 5% or more of the firm s shares. marsh has said
it is co-operating fully with the sec investigation. marsh is also the focus of an
inquiry the new york attorney-general into whether insurers rigged the market.
since that inquiry was launched in october marsh has replaced its chief executive
and held a boardroom shake-out to meet criticism by lessening the number of company
executives on the board. prosecutors allege that marsh - the world s biggest
insurance broker - and other us insurance firms may have fixed bids for corporate
cover. this is the issue at the heart of the inquiry by new york s top law officer
eliot spitzer and a separate prosecution of five insurers by the state of
california. the sec s investigation into so-called related party transactions
includes dealings in the trident funds managed by mmc capital the company s
private equity firm. marsh s new chief executive michael cherkasky is trying to
negotiate a settlement with mr spitzer. mr spitzer has built up a reputation as a
fierce critic and campaigner against corporate america s misdeeds. the uncertainty
unleashed by the scandal has prompted three credit rating agencies - standard &
poor s moody s and fitch - to downgrade marsh in recent weeks. according to the
financial times insurance analysts are now questioning whether marsh will be able
to maintain its strong record of earning growth as they draw up forecasts for the
first quarter of next year. doubts also exist over how much the company may have to
pay regulators and lawyers to put the scandal behind.
milburn defends poster campaign labour s election chief alan milburn has defended
his party s campaign posters amid tory claims the ads were nothing short of sly
anti-semitism . mr milburn said he appreciated people s concerns but insisted
that what they were was anti-tory and not in any way shape or form anti-semitic
. he was responding to tory spokesman julian lewis who said the ads were part of a
wider trend of smearing the party. labour has withdrawn two controversial posters
and launched four new designs. a row was sparked after the party published posters
appearing to depict michael howard who is jewish as fagin and as a flying pig
amid claims they were anti-semitic. the posters were labelled a big misjudgement
by the conservatives who said labour s first shot in the election has badly
backfired . the posters were among a series of ideas shown to labour members who
were asked to vote on their favourite. labour has taken them off its website
saying members preferred other posters. the party s four new designs launched on
tuesday steer clear of the fagin or flying pig images but make clear that labour
is sticking to its strategy of targeting the tory leader personally with reminders
of his record in office. the posters were among a series of ideas shown to labour
members who have been asked to choose which one should be used ahead of the
election. in the commons tory spokesman mr lewis suggested the posters were part
of a wider trend and reminded mps that labour chairman ian mccartney last year
described shadow chancellor oliver letwin as a 21st century fagin . given the
outrage that that smear caused then how could you have thought anything other than
the fact that what you were doing in reviving it in your poster advertisements was
nothing more and nothing less than a calculated campaign of sly anti-semitism mr
milburn replied that they were not anti-semitic. what they were was anti-tory and
i make no apologies at all for making clear to the british public exactly what the
conservative plans would mean he said. i fully understand and indeed respect the
views of those who have concerns about any poster designs that have appeared on the
labour party website. the fagin and pigs might fly posters were taken off labour s
website on monday after supporters voted for their favourite poster featuring mr
howard and shadow chancellor oliver letwin holding a blackboard reading 2+2=5. a
labour spokesman later said their removal from the party s website was not affected
by the row.
short attacks us over tsunami aid former cabinet minister clare short has
criticised the us-led tsunami aid coalition saying the un should be leading
efforts. president bush has announced that an alliance of the us india australia
and japan will co-ordinate a humanitarian drive. but ms short said the effect of
the parallel coalition would be to undermine the un. she said only the un had the
moral authority to lead the relief work. ms short resigned as international
development secretary over the iraq war. i think this initiative from america to
set up four countries claiming to co-ordinate sounds like yet another attempt to
undermine the un when it is the best system we have got and the one that needs
building up she said. only really the un can do that job she told bbc radio
four s pm programme. it is the only body that has the moral authority. but it can
only do it well if it is backed up by the authority of the great powers. ms short
said the countries involved could not boast good records on their response to major
disasters. the us was very bad at coordinating with anyone and india had its own
problems ms short said. i don t know what that is about but it sounds very much
i am afraid like the us trying to have a separate operation and not work with the
rest of the world through the un system she added.
gebrselassie in london triple bid double olympic 10 000m champion haile
gebrselassie will race in the london marathon for the next three years. the
ethiopian legend won sunday s almeria half-marathon in spain on his return from an
operation on his achilles tendon. he was third in london in 2002 in his first
serious attempt at the marathon. it is a coup for us to secure haile s presence
for the next three years and it guarantees a quality race said race director
david bedford. gebrselassie will face olympic champion stefano baldini world
champion jaouad gharib and arch-rival paul tergat the current world record
holder. if i didn t think i could win i would not be here said gebrselassie who
has set world records on 18 occasions in his illustrious career and is keen to add
the marathon record to his collection. there are a lot of fantastic runners in the
race but i shall be doing my utmost to upset them.
gamer buys $26 500 virtual land a 22-year-old gamer has spent $26 500 (£13 700) on
an island that exists only in a computer role-playing game (rpg). the australian
gamer known only by his gaming moniker deathifier bought the island in an online
auction. the land exists within the game project entropia an rpg which allows
thousands of players to interact with each other. entropia allows gamers to buy and
sell virtual items using real cash while fans of other titles often use auction
site ebay to sell their virtual wares. earlier this year economists calculated that
these massively multi-player online role-playing games (mmorpgs) have a gross
economic impact equivalent to the gdp of the african nation of namibia. this is a
historic moment in gaming history and this sale only goes to prove that massive
multi-player online gaming has reached a new plateau said marco behrmann
director of community relations at mindark the game s developer. the virtual
island includes a gigantic abandoned castle and beautiful beaches which are
described as ripe for developing beachfront property. deathifier will make money
from his investment as he is able to tax other gamers who come to his virtual land
to hunt or mine for gold. he has also begun to sell plots to people who wish to
build virtual homes. this type of investment will definitely become a trend in
online gaming said deathifier. the entopia economy lets gamers exchange real
currency into ped (project entropia dollars) and back again into real money. ten
peds are the equivalent to one us dollar and typical items sold include iron ingots
($5) and shogun armour ($1.70) gamers can theoretically earn money by accumulating
peds through the acquisition of goods buildings and land in the entropia
universe. mmorpgs have become enormously popular in the last 10 years with hundreds
of thousands of gamers living out alternate lives in fantasy worlds. almost 200 000
people are registered players on project entropia.
uk homes hit £3.3 trillion total the value of the uk s housing stock reached the
£3.3 trillion mark in 2004 - triple the value 10 years earlier a report indicates.
research from halifax the country s biggest mortgage lender suggests the value of
private housing stock is continuing to rise steadily. all regions saw at least a
doubling in their assets during the past decade. but northern ireland led the way
with a 262% rise while scotland saw the smallest increase of just 112%. the core
retail price index rose by just 28% in the same period underlining how effective
an investment in housing has been for most people during the past decade. more than
a third of the uk s private housing assets - representing more than a trillion
pounds in value - are concentrated in london and the south east the halifax s
figures indicate. tim crawford group economist at halifax said: the value of the
private housing stock continues to grow and the family home remains by a large
margin the most valuable asset of the majority of households in the uk. halifax s
own monthly figures on house sales - issued on thursday - suggest the average price
of a british property now stands at £163 748 after a 0.8% rise in january. housing
experts are split on prospects for the market with some saying price growth will
slow but not fall while others predict a sharp drop in values.
parry relishes anfield challenge bbc sport reflects on the future for liverpool
after our exclusive interview with chief executive rick parry. chief executive
parry is the man at the helm as liverpool reach the most crucial point in their
recent history. parry has to deliver a new 60 000-seat stadium in stanley park by
2007 amid claims of costs spiralling above £120m. he is also searching for an
investment package of a size and stature that will restore liverpool to their place
at european football s top table. but it is a challenge that appears to sit easily
with parry who has forged a reputation as one of football s most respected
administrators since his days at the fledgling premier league. liverpool have not
won the championship since 1990 a fact that causes deep discomfort inside anfield
as they attempt to muscle in on the top three of chelsea manchester united and
arsenal. throw in the small matter of warding off every top club in world football
as they eye captain steven gerrard and you can see parry is a man with a lot on
his plate. but in the comfort of a conference room deep inside liverpool s
heartbeat - the kop end - parry spoke to us with brutal honesty about the crucial
months ahead. he only dodged one question - when asked to reveal the name of the
mystery investor currently courting liverpool a polite smile deflected the
inquiry. but to his credit he met everything else head on in measured tones that
underscore the belief that liverpool still mean business. by business he means
becoming title challengers again and locking the pieces together that will help
return the trophy to liverpool is parry s mission. parry has already successfully
put one of those planks in place in the form of new manager rafael benitez. and his
enthusiasm for the spaniard s personality and methods is an indication of his clear
feeling that he has struck gold. benitez s early work has given parry renewed
optimism about the years ahead. but it remains a massive task at a club with a
unique history and expectations. this will not come as news to parry a lifelong
liverpool supporter but his quiet determination suggests he is no mood to be found
wanting... captain gerrard is central to liverpool s plans and parry s insistence
that all offers will be refused is a firm statement of intent. as ever the player
will have the final say and parry acknowledges that but he is determined to
provide the framework and environment for liverpool and gerrard to flourish. in
terms of the search for new investment hawkpoint were appointed as advisors to
flush out interest in march 2004. thailand prime minister thaksin shiniwatra came
and went while the most serious statement of intent came from tycoon and lifelong
fan steve morgan. morgan had a succession of bids rejected having come close in
the summer only for talks to break down over potential costs for the new stadium.
bbc sport understands morgan is still ready and willing to invest in liverpool and
parry has kept the door ajar despite currently seeking investment elsewhere.
morgan however has had no formal contact with liverpool or their advisors since
last december blaming indecision at board level as he publicly withdrew his £70m
offer. he was also convinced his interest was being used to lure in others so any
new approach would now have to come from liverpool. morgan will certainly not be
making another call. so speculation continues about the new benefactor with trails
leading to the middle east and america but all met with an understandable veil of
secrecy from anfield. parry meanwhile sees the new ground as crucial to liverpool
s future but is refusing to become emotionally attached to the idea. he is
determined the ground will only be built on an affordable basis and will not make
future liverpool management hostages to the new stadium. parry will pull back the
moment the figures do not stack up but there has been a vital new development in
north london that has re-shaped liverpool s thinking. liverpool have publicly
refused to entertain the idea of stadium sponsorship and potential naming rights -
but the realism of arsenal s stunning £100m deal for their new emirates stadium at
ashburton has changed the landscape. parry labelled the deal an eye-opener and
admits liverpool would be missing a trick not to explore the possibilities. he
knows some traditionalist liverpool fans will reel at any attempt to call the new
stadium anything other than just anfield but the maths of modern-day football
decree that multi-millions for stadium and team could ease the pain. i would take
£50m if we had no investment but if we did keep him. as for the stadium if it
gets us cash what difference does it make really £50m for gerrard i don t care
who you are the directors would take the money and it is the way it should be. we
cannot let that sum of money go despite gerrard s quality. through a cleverly
worded statement the club has effectively forced gerrard to publicly make the
decision for himself which i think is the right thing to do. critical time for
liverpool with regards to gerrard. ideally we would want to secure his future to
the club for the long term. i am hoping he doesn t walk out of the club like
michael owen did for very little cash. £50m realistically would allow rafa to
completely rebuild the squad however if we can afford to do this and keep gerrard
we will be better for it. i would however be happy with gerrard s transfer for any
fee over £35m. parry s statements are clever in that any future gerrard transfer
cannot be construed as a lack of ambition by the club to not try and keep their
best players. upping the ante is another smart move by parry. i would keep
gerrard. no amount of money could replace his obvious love of the club and
determination to succeed. the key is if gerrard comes out and says that he is
happy. clearly if he isn t then we would be foolish not to sell. the worrying
thing is who would you buy (or who would come) pending possible non-champions
league football.
us afflicted with awards fatigue the film world and media may be wild about the
oscars but cinema-goers and the tv-viewing public are sick of watching award
ceremonies according to some la film critics. bob strauss from the la daily news
thinks there are just too many televised gatherings of stars showering praise on
each other. he came up with a colourful but unprintable description for these
glitzy events which roughly translates a celebrity love-in . this echoed the
views of oscars host and comedian chris rock who whipped up a media storm for
saying he rarely watched them calling award shows idiotic . as chris rock
accurately said they re about celebrity and fashion mr strauss said. the recent
grammy music awards proved to be a ratings loser and it seems oscars organisers
are determined not to go the same way. recently announced changes to the ceremony
include lining up all five nominees on stage before announcing the winner.
unsurprisingly this prompted press speculation that the changes were aimed at
boosting flagging advertising revenue. but entertainment weekly s dave karger
maintained the oscars only generated excitement outside the industry when a
blockbuster such as titanic or lord of the rings was nominated. the near constant
flow of us film awards representing directors actors and producers guilds also
means few surprises are left by the time the oscar ceremony is upon us he said.
a quick scan of the los angeles times and los angeles daily news bears this out -
speculation about who will win seems to have ground to a halt. on thursday the
times simply printed a picture of the plastic tents going up outside the kodak
theatre to protect the red carpet from rain. variety and the hollywood reporter
have also kept their focus firmly on industry-related news while in the uk bets
have closed on the best actor category with ray star jamie foxx a dead cert to
win. screen international s us editor mike goodridge thinks 2004 s films have
simply not grabbed the public s imagination. film-makers haven t produced films
that people adore this year he said. they adored saving private ryan for example
- people loved it and it made a ton of money. 2004 s films could be a reaction to
9/11 - there was a realisation in america that things might not be so rosy after
all. audiences don t necessarily want to see darker films such as million dollar
baby aviator and finding neverland which end with casualty. as to whether rock
could pep up the awards the critics were not hopeful. mr strauss doubted whether
rock would make an impact but added: i m all for lower ratings though - there are
far more important things going on than the oscars. mr karger said the comic might
boost younger viewers but mike goodridge thought rock s humour could prompt
america s conservative states to switch off. so despite all this did the critics
have any views on who would win clint eastwood s million dollar baby affected
people emotionally which is why it will beat aviator which was about technical
artistry not feelings mr karger said. eastwood has it in the bag added mr
strauss. oscar voters often vote with their hearts not their heads. and mr
goodridge said best film and director were between martin scorsese s aviator and
million dollar baby. mr karger whose favourite film of the year was mike leigh s
abortion drama vera drake stayed upbeat about the awards despite his other
comments. i hope this is the year for small films to triumph he said. after all
it s still one of the biggest tv events of the year.
sydney return for henin-hardenne olympic champion justine henin-hardenne will
return to action in january s sydney international tournament. the belgian has not
competed since losing her top world ranking at the us open in september where she
was beaten in the fourth round by nadia petrova. she took time out to shake off a
virus but will defend her titles in sydney and at the australian open. women s
world number one lindsay davenport and french open champion anastasia myskina will
also compete. in the men s event world number three lleyton hewitt returns to
defend his title along with runner-up carlos moya. moya spain s davis cup final
hero in their recent win over the us had to retire with an ankle injury in the
first set of the final. tournament director craig watson said: i had a message
relayed to me from him after spain s davis cup victory saying he was looking
forward to trying to make up for his disappointment in the (2004) final. the
tournament will take place from 9-15 january.
fockers retain film chart crown comedy meet the fockers has held on to the number
one spot at the north american box office for a second week. it took $42.8m
(£23.7m) at the weekend making its overall takings more than $163m (£90m) in 12
days according to studio estimates. it took $19.1m (£9.9m) on christmas day alone
the highest takings on that day in box office history. the sequel to the ben
stiller comedy meet the parents stars robert de niro dustin hoffman and barbra
streisand. the success of meet the fockers could help produce record box office
revenue for 2004 said paul dergarabedian president of the industry s tracker
exhibitor relations. we ve had a much stronger than anticipated final week of the
year that helped the industry end on a high note said mr dergarabedian. meet the
fockers also broke the box office records for the most money taken on new year s
eve when it made $12.2m (£6.2m) and new year s day when it took $18m (£9.4m).
the previous new year s eve record was set in 2000 by cast away with $8.5m (£4.5m).
the lord of the rings: the return of the king had held the new year s day title
with $12.8m (£6.7m). however christmas takings were down 26.5% on 2003 s figures -
which was blamed on christmas falling over a weekend this year. this weekend s top
12 films took an estimated $125.4m (£65.8m) a 4.3% increase on the same weekend
last year. but there were no major releases last week to provide competition to
meet the fockers or lemony snicket s a series of unfortunate events which finished
in second place with $14.7m (£7.7m). the aviator starring leonardo dicaprio as
howard hughes ended up in third position after taking $11.2m (£5.9m). comedy fat
albert - co-written by bill cosby - moved down the chart to fourth place after
taking $10.7m (£5.6m).
owen determined to stay in madrid england forward michael owen has told the bbc he
is happy in spain and has no plans to quit real madrid to return to the premiership
in the near future. but the 25-year-old who has spent much of his time coming off
the bench in la liga did not rule out a return to the premiership at some stage.
i m pleased with the start i ve made here he told bbc radio five live. england
is my country. it s definitely part of me but who knows whether if or when i ll be
playing there again. owen who moved to the bernabeu from liverpool last summer
has grabbed 11 goals for real but has been unable to replace raul or ronaldo in the
starting line-up. however he said he was delighted with the way his time in spain
was going and dismissed criticism of his decision to join real. when i first came
there was a lot of scepticism back in england any maybe some out here he said.
people were saying fourth-choice striker what are you going there for you ll be
sat on the bench all the time . but as much as our press like to build it up as
if i ve permanently had my backside on the bench i ve played as many games as
anyone else in the team this year. for a fourth-choice striker at the start i m
more than happy with the way i ve settled in. recent speculation has linked owen
with a move back to england with newcastle expressing their interest but the
england striker said he is not ready to return home. he added: i ve got nothing
against the premiership i mean that s where i first performed that s where i made
my name. i can t keep my eyes off the premiership on television when i m at home.
when asked if it would have to be liverpool if he returned owen said: i ve not
really given it much thought. i ve got great memories of liverpool. no matter what
happens it ll always be a club i have fond memories of and it will always have a
place in my heart. it s very flattering to be linked to top clubs in england - i m
glad that no-one is forgetting me! but i couldn t have wished for a better start
in madrid. - listen to the full interview with garry richardson on bbc radio five
live s sportsweek at 0900 gmt on sunday.
fosters buys stake in winemaker australian brewer fosters has bought a large stake
in australian winemaker southcorp sparking rumours of a possible takeover.
fosters bought 18.8% of southcorp the global winemaker behind the penfolds
lindemans and rosemount brands for 4.17 australian dollars per share. a bid at
that price would value the company at a$3.1bn ($2.4bn; £1.25bn ). fosters said it
was currently in discussions which may lead to a major corporate announcement .
in a separate statement southcorp confirmed the brewer had asked for talks. both
firms asked the sydney stock market to suspend trading in their shares until
monday. southcorp s shares were suspended at a$4.25. fosters bought the 18.8%
stake from reline investments the family investment firm for the oatleys who
founded the rosemount estates label and sold it to southcorp in 2001. robert oatley
and his son sandy oatley have both resigned from southcorp s board following the
share deal. southcorp employs 2 700 people and is the largest single investor in
rural australia according to its website. the prospect of fosters launching a
major acquisition startled investors as the brewer said last summer that it was
not looking to expand through a big buy in the near future. it has cash available
after getting a$846m from selling property business lensworth but it has been
widely expected to return cash to shareholders. people will scratching their
heads over this one. fosters has done a back-flip said shawn burns a fund manger
at deutsche asset management. southcorp s shares have risen in recent months on
speculation that it could become a takeover target. it spent two years in the red
returning to profit in 2004. consolidation in the wine industry is being driven by
constellation the world s biggest winemaker. it seized the top spot when it bought
australian firm brl hardy for just over $1bn in 2003. since then it has paid $1bn
for us wine maker robert mondavi bought last month. fosters main wine business is
beringer blass wine estate. its best known brand is fosters lager though it makes
a clutch of beer brands and spirits. analysts were divided on thursday about
whether fosters was more likely to go for a takeover or merely wanted to take a big
enough chunk of southcorp to prevent it falling to a rival. currently i think the
strategic position is more sensible rather than an outright takeover said one
analyst quoted by the agence france presse news agency. however matt williams a
fund manager at perpetual trustees said taking the stake is definitely a precursor
to a takeover .
robinson out of six nations england captain jason robinson will miss the rest of
the six nations because of injury. robinson stand-in captain in the absence of
jonny wilkinson had been due to lead england in their final two games against
italy and scotland. but the sale full-back pulled out of the squad on wednesday
because of a torn ligament in his right thumb. the 30-year-old will undergo an
operation on friday but england have yet to name a replacement skipper. robinson
said: this is very disappointing for me as this means i miss england s last two
games in the six nations at twickenham and two games for my club sale sharks. but
i m looking to be back playing very early in april. robinson picked up the injury
in the 19-13 defeat to ireland at lansdowne road on saturday. and coach andy
robinson said: i am hugely disappointed for jason. as england captain he has been
an immense figure during the autumn internationals and the six nations leading by
example at all times. i look forward to having him back in the england squad. the
announcement is the latest setback for robinson s injury-depleted squad. among the
key figures already missing are jonny wilkinson mike tindall will greenwood
julian white and phil vickery - a list which leaves robinson short on candidates
for the now vacant captaincy role. former england skipper jeremy guscott told bbc
radio five live his choice would be matt dawson even though he is does not hold a
regular starting place. the obvious choice is dawson said guscott. especially
given that harry ellis did not have his best game at scrum-half on saturday.
dawson has the credentials and the experience even though his winning record at
captain is not great. the other option in martin corry who is the standout
forward at the moment. unfortunately england cannot rely on leaders on the field
at the moment. england will announce their squad for the 12 march game against
italy on saturday.
protect whistleblowers tuc says the government should change the law to give more
protection to employees who raise health and safety concerns about their workplaces
the tuc has said. it said data from employment tribunals suggested 1 500 safety
whistleblowers had lost their jobs since 1999. some firms found it cheaper to sack
a worker than to improve buildings or change working conditions it said. the
health and safety executive said it was trying to get workers more involved in
helping to make workplaces safer. the tuc figures were drawn from unfair dismissal
cases at tribunals were health and safety were the main issue. safety
representatives were often ignored when raising concerns because there was no legal
duty to respond claimed the union organisation. general secretary brendan barber
said: it shouldn t be a firing offence to object to unsafe work. workers should
not be placed in the situation where they are forced to choose between risking
their job or risking their personal health and safety. mr barber who said the
problem is far worse than official statistics show called for a legal system that
protects safety whistleblowers . he added that workers who are not in a union as
well as casual and migrant workers stand little chance of redress. rory o
neill editor of union-backed hazards magazine which conducted the research said:
giving union safety reps more rights in more workplaces is the ultimate win-win.
death and injuries at work increased last year for the second time since the turn
of the century. it would be a fatal mistake not to take full advantage of the
union safety effect. the tuc has called on the government to appoint roving
safety reps and to increase spending on health and safety work inspections. the
health and safety executive had said that it had launched an initiative to make
factories and offices safer with more worker involvement.
ring of fire hit co-writer dies merle kilgore co-writer of the country hit ring of
fire has died of congestive heart failure aged 70. he started out as a singer and
songwriter before going into music management looking after country star hank
williams jr. he wrote ring of fire with june carter cash the future wife of johnny
cash who went on to score his most popular hit with the track. kilgore had heart
surgery in 2004 and was also diagnosed with lung cancer. his death has been
attributed to treatment he was undergoing for the cancer. his first self-penned top
10 hit was dear mama in 1959. one of the first songs he wrote for other artists
was wolverton mountain which sold 10 million copies when recorded by claude king.
he then wrote ring of fire with june carter cash which was about her unrequited
love for johnny who she later married. it was first recorded by her younger sister
anita carter before johnny went on to make such a success of it. june carter cash
previously said it upset her husband when kilgore talked about the song without
crediting her and believed he should not have been credited on it. last year
kilgore turned up an awards dinner in a wheelchair expecting to honour hank
williams jr but instead he was the surprise recipient of a lifetime achievement
award from the international entertainment buyers association.
ea to take on film and tv giants video game giant electronic arts (ea) says it
wants to become the biggest entertainment firm in the world. the us firm says it
wants to compete with companies such as disney and will only achieve this by making
games appeal to mainstream audiences. ea publishes blockbuster titles such as fifa
and john madden as well as video game versions of movies such as harry potter and
the james bond films. its revenues were $3bn (£1.65bn) in 2004 which ea hoped to
double by 2009. ea is the biggest games publisher in the world and in 2004 had 27
titles which sold in excess of one million copies each. nine of the 20 biggest-
selling games in the uk last year were published by ea. gerhard florin ea s
managing director for european publishing said: doubling our industry in five
years is not rocket science. he said it would take many years before ea could
challenge disney - which in 2004 reported revenues of $30bn (£16bn) - but it
remained a goal for the company. we will be able to bring more people into gaming
because games will be more emotional. mr florin predicted that the next round of
games console would give developers enough power to create real emotion. it s the
subtleties the eyes the mouth - 5 000 polygons doesn t really sell the emotion.
with ps3 and xbox 2 we can go on the main character with 30 000 to 50 000 polygons
he said. with that increased firepower the finding nemo video game looks just
like the movie but it will be interactive. mr florin said that more than 50% of
all ea s games were sold to adults and played by adults but the perception
remained that the video game industry was for children. our goal is to bring games
to the masses which bring out emotions. ea said the video game industry was now
bigger than the music industry. nobody queues for music anymore. you can t
ignore an industry when people queue to buy a game at midnight because they are so
desperate to play it he said referring to demand for titles for such as grand
theft auto: san andreas and halo 2. jan bolz ea s vice president of sales and
marketing in europe said the firm was working to give video games a more central
role in popular culture. he said the company was in advanced stages of discussions
over a reality tv show in which viewers could control the actions of the characters
as in its popular game the sims. one idea could be that you re controlling a
family telling them when to go to the kitchen and when to go to the bedroom and
with this mechanism you have gamers all over the world playing the show said mr
bolz. he also said ea was planning an international awards show similar to the
oscars and the grammys which would combine video games music and movies. mr bolz
said video games firm had to work more closely with celebrities. people will want
to play video games if their heroes like robbie williams or christina aguilera are
in them. mr florin said the challenge was to keep people playing in their 30s 40s
and 50s. there s an indication that a 30 year old comes home from work and still
wants to play games. if that s true that s a big challenge for tv broadcasters -
because watching tv is the biggest pastime at present.
tokyo says deflation controlled the japanese government has forecast that the
country s economic growth will slow to 1.6% in the next fiscal year starting in
april 2005. while it predicts this fall from the current 2.1% level it said it
was making progress on ending deflation. the figures were given by economics
minister heizo takenaka who said the economy would grow by 2% in 2006/07. he said
the consumer price index (cpi) would rise 0.1% in the next fiscal year the first
gain since 2000/01. we are attempting to make real economic conditions better and
to overcome deflation. i think we are on track said mr takenaka. deflation - or
falling consumer prices - has plagued japan for more than five years. to ease the
problem the bank of japan has regularly flooded the money market with excess cash
to keep short term interest rates at 0% in an attempt to spur economic activity.
hearts 2-1 livingston hearts wrapped up their scottish cup quarter-final tie
against livingston with two goals in the first 10 minutes. lee miller scored
inside the opening 60 seconds heading over colin meldrum and into the net from a
jamie mcallister free kick. mcallister himself scored the second when he met saul
mikoliunas cross at the back post to put the game beyond the visitors. craig
easton headed in a controversial goal after an hour but hearts held on. the opening
goal came after gus bahoken had clumsily fouled miller 35 yards from goal.
mcallister floated the free kick into the livi box and miller outjumped the static
visiting defence to loop his header from 10 yards over meldrum. with just 10
minutes on the clock the home side doubled their lead. mikoliunas sprinted down
the right crossed to the back post where mcallister raced in to head past meldrum.
moments later miller came close to grabbing his second with a first-time drive from
16 yards which skimmed the bar. then mcallister picked up a pass from stephen
simmons and drove an angled shot from 20 yards narrowly past meldrum s far post.
the impressive mikoliunas twice went close before half time - a low drive was
comfortably gathered by meldrum and then he curled a left-footed shot past the
keeper s right-hand post. livi manager richard gough made three changes at the
interval bringing on defender goran stanic midfielder gabor vincze and striker
ferenc horvath for bahoken derek lilley and mark wilson. but in the opening
stages of the second period little changed. however the west lothian side gave
themselves a lifeline with a controversial goal. eric deloumeaux sent jason dair
away on the right and he tried to give the ball to mcpake who looked to be in an
offside position. the livi striker ignored the pass however and dair ran on to it
and played easton in at the back post and he headed home from close range. the home
side called for offside against mcpake but referee alan freeland ignored their
claims and pointed to the centre-circle. livi went all out for the equaliser. in
the 87th minute burton o brien was hauled back at the edge of the box by neil
macfarlane but dair sent his shot just inches wide. gordon webster miller
hartley neilson mcallister simmons (macfarlane 64) berra burchill (wyness 82)
mikoliunas (cesnauskis 77) wallace. moilanen kizys. berra webster. miller 1
mcallister 10. meldrum mcnamee bahoken (stanic 45) deloumeaux strong dair
easton mark wilson (vincze 45) lilley (horvath 45) o brien mcpake. mckenzie
hand. : vincze horvath. easton 60. 9 796 a freeland
labour s four little words labour has unveiled the four little words that will form
the heart of its general election campaign which for those just returned from the
planet galifray is looming . the slogan britain forward not back (no it s not
an instruction from one of those inter-planetary time lords) is to become as much a
part of our daily lives as the sky - it s always there but we mostly stop noticing.
the word britain is cast on a red background - a nod to old labour. forward is
in italics and cunningly slopes forward and along with not back is set against
a mushy pea green background. as one of the journalists assembled at the unveiling
declared it was all very post modern or something. great use of colour. those ad
men really do earn their money. and coincidentally the ad men who came up with
the abandoned flying pigs and so-called fagin posters which caused tory protests
have not been sacked but as election supremo alan milburn declared are doing a
very good job . mr milburn in the latest in his series of pre-election-campaign
campaigning explained the slogan was the reaction to polling which suggests the
public believe labour and tony blair are the future while michael howard and the
tories would take the country backwards. not many people talk about the years
before 1997 as the good old days he declared. it would be an aggressive campaign
because things would inevitably boil down to a choice between labour and the
tories. nobody he claimed could picture liberal democrat leader charles kennedy
walking up downing street the day after polling. they could however picture
michael howard or of course tony blair doing it. so it was only right that the
campaign concentrated on rigorously examining the opposition s policies and past
record. and tony blair would be in the very front line of that campaign he said.
between now and the election the prime minister will be spending more time out of
london than in it but in britain not overseas he promised. he will be leading
the domestic debate from the front listening taking the flak. so let s get on
with it then.
software watching while you work software that can not only monitor every keystroke
and action performed at a pc but also be used as legally binding evidence of wrong-
doing has been unveiled. worries about cyber-crime and sabotage have prompted many
employers to consider monitoring employees. the developers behind the system claim
it is a break-through in the way data is monitored and stored. but privacy
advocates are concerned by the invasive nature of such software. the system is a
joint venture between security firm 3ami and storage specialists bridgehead
software. they have joined forces to create a system which can monitor computer
activity store it and retrieve disputed files within minutes. more and more firms
are finding themselves in deep water as a result of data misuse. sabotage and data
theft are most commonly committed from within an organisation according to the
national hi-tech crime unit (nhtcu) a survey conducted on its behalf by nop found
evidence that more than 80% of medium and large companies have been victims of some
form of cyber-crime. bridgehead software has come up with techniques to prove to a
legal standard that any stored file on a pc has not been tampered with. ironically
the impetus for developing the system came as a result of the freedom of
information act which requires companies to store all data for a certain amount of
time. the storage system has been incorporated into an application developed by
security firm 3ami which allows every action on a computer to be logged.
potentially it could help employers to follow the trail of stolen files and
pinpoint whether they had been emailed to a third party copied printed deleted
or saved to cd floppy disk memory stick or flash card. other activities the
system can monitor include the downloading of pornography the use of racist or
bullying language or the copying of applications for personal use. increasingly
organisations that handle sensitive data such as governments are using biometric
log-ins such as fingerprinting to provide conclusive proof of who was using a
particular machine at any given time. privacy advocates are concerned that
monitoring at work is not only damaging to employee s privacy but also to the
relationship between employers and their staff. that is not the case said tim
ellsmore managing director of 3ami. it is not about replacing dialogue but there
are issues that you can talk through but you still need proof he said. people
need to recognise that you are using a pc as a representative of a company and that
employers have a legal requirement to store data he added.
hereford 1-1 doncaster hereford win 3-1 on penalties. rovers took the lead on 59
minutes as michael mcindoe s corner found adriano rigoglioso whose stunning volley
soared into the top right of the net. danny williams equalised for the hosts after
72 minutes with a crisp finish from just insist the penalty box. mcindoe saw an
extra-time penalty saved giving mills the chance to net the winning penalty.
mawson travis mkandawire james robinson daniel williams stanley hyde (pitman
105) purdie (mills 83) brown stansfield (green 102). subs not used: smith
scott. james. daniel williams 72. ingham mulligan fenton morley priet (ryan
79) mcindoe ravenhill (price 90) rigoglioso tierney (jackson 79) beardsley
coppinger. subs not used: warrington maloney. rigoglioso 59. 1 375 t parkes (w
midlands).
deal to ban homophobic reggae the reggae industry is to refuse to release or
stage concerts featuring homophobic songs under a global deal struck with gay
rights groups. a damaging campaign against stars such as beenie man and sizzla has
been waged over lyrics that allegedly call for gay people to be killed or
assaulted. the campaign which led to gigs being scrapped and a uk police
investigation will now be dropped under the truce. brett lock of gay group
outrage! said they were wiping the slate clean . the protests had been led by the
stop murder music coalition an umbrella group including outrage! the black gay
men s advisory group and jamaican movement j-flag. that coalition has reached a
verbal agreement with major dancehall reggae record labels and concert promoters
covering eight of the scene s biggest stars. but the artists themselves were not
involved in the negotiations and have not directly signed up. instead the record
companies have pledged not to release or re-release any offensive songs - many of
which date back a number of years. and it is believed promoters will make stars
agree not to perform such tunes on stage. the reggae industry will work with the
artists while still maintaining their freedom of speech and artistic freedom
according to media and pr strategist glen yearwood who is representing the reggae
industry. the industry would halt any attempt by an artist to perform or release a
song inciting violence against any group or gender he said. we ll advise them
this is not the way forward in a civilised society. the stop murder music campaign
saw protesters picket gigs resulted in sizzla s uk tour being cancelled in
november forced mobo award organisers to drop artists from nominations and saw
beenie man dropped from an mtv show in august. police have also been investigating
whether lyrics incite the assault and murder of gay people. the campaign was a blow
to the reggae industry mr yearwood admitted. if you can t have major stars
touring then you don t sell many albums he said. but the artists - beenie man
sizzla elephant man buju banton bounty killer tok capleton and vybz kartel -
will not have to apologise for past songs or comments. outrage! s mr lock said:
the main players in the dancehall reggae industry will attempt to regulate the
industry themselves to ensure that there aren t any violently homophobic or gay-
bashing lyrics in the future. as a gesture of good faith the stop murder music
coalition has agreed to suspend our aggressive campaigning against murder music.
so we shall not be picketing concerts or calling for prosecutions to give the
industry the space to regulate and reform itself. record companies vp and
greensleeves distributor jet star and concert promoters including jammins and
apollo entertainment are all on board.
us retail sales surge in december us retail sales ended the year on a high note
with solid gains in december boosted by strong car sales. seasonally adjusted
sales rose 1.2% in the month compared to 0.1% a month earlier boosted by a surge
in shopping just before and after christmas. sales climbed 8% for the year the
best performance since an 8.5% rise in 1999 the commerce department added. the
gains were led by a 4.3% jump in auto sales as dealers used enhanced offers to get
cars out of showrooms. dealers were forced to cut prices in december to maintain
sales growth in a tough quarter when the usual end-of-year holiday sales boom was
slow to get started. the increase in sales during december pushed total spending
for the month to $349.4bn (£265.9bn). sales for the year also broke through the $4
trillion mark for the first time - with annual sales coming in at $4.06 trillion
however if automotives are excluded from december s data retail sales rose just
0.3% on the month. home furnishings and furniture stores also performed well
rising 2.2%. but as well as hitting the shops more us consumers were going online
or using mail order for their purchases - with non-store retailers seeing sales
rise by 1.9%. however analysts said that the strong figures were unlikely to put
the federal reserve bank off its current policy of measured interest rate rises.
consumers for now remain willing to spend freely sustaining the us expansion.
given that attitude the fed remains likely to continue boosting the fed funds rate
at upcoming meetings ubs economist maury harris told reuters. retail sales are
seen as a major part of consumer spending - which in turn makes up two-thirds of
economic output in the us. consumer spending has been picking up in recent years
after slumping during 2001 and 2002 as the country battled to recover from its
first recession of the decade and the world trade centre attacks. during that time
sales grew a lacklustre 2.9% in 2001 and 2.5% a year later. looking ahead analysts
now expect improvement in jobs growth to feed through to the high street with
consumer spending remaining strong. the belief comes despite the latest labor
department report showing a surprise rise in unemployment. the number of americans
filing initial jobless claims jumped to 367 000 the highest rate since september.
however long-term claims slipped to their lowest level since 2001.
edwards tips idowu for euro gold world outdoor triple jump record holder and bbc
pundit jonathan edwards believes phillips idowu can take gold at the european
indoor championships. idowu landed 17.30m at the british trials in sheffield last
month to lead the world triple jump rankings. it s all down to him but if he
jumps as well as he did in sheffield he could win the gold medal said edwards.
his ability is undoubted but all his best performances seem to happen in domestic
meetings. idowu made his breakthrough five years ago but so far has only a
commonwealth silver medal to his name. edwards himself kept idowu off top spot at
the manchester games. but he believes the european indoors in madrid represent a
chance for the 26-year-old to prove his credentials as britain s top triple jumper.
he has to start producing at international level and here is the beginning said
edwards. phillips still needs to be much more consistent. i m sure a victory in
madrid will build up his confidence and self-belief that he can be best in the
world. the qualifying round of the men s triple jump in madrid takes place on
friday with the final scheduled for saturday. olympic champion christian olsson
will not be taking part as he is out for the entire indoor season with an ankle
injury.
baby becomes new oscar favourite clint eastwood s boxing drama million dollar baby
has become the new favourite to win best picture at the oscars on sunday.
according to pundits the film has overtaken previous favourite the aviator with
eastwood also tipped to take the best director award. its star hilary swank is
favourite to win best actress while jamie foxx is tipped to win best actor for ray.
million dollar baby has seven nominations while the aviator has 11. the aviator has
scored a best director nomination for martin scorsese who has never won an oscar
while stars leonardo dicaprio and cate blanchett are both nominated for acting
oscars. if you look at the oscars race the aviator should be ahead said awards
pundit tom o neil. it is the most nominated film and the most nominated movie has
won best picture 18 times out of the last 20 years. but the reality is million
dollar baby is the dark horse. people feel emotionally about it and clint is a
beloved hollywood chum of the academy voters he said. anne thompson of the
hollywood reporter said that million dollar baby was heart-wrenching . it s very
emotional it even makes grown men cry she said. the aviator is a gorgeous movie
but it s colder. in the acting categories foxx is regarded as almost unbeatable
for his performance as ray charles in ray. the performance is based on a real
person who was a showbusiness hero with a handicap who recently died o neil
said. he has unstoppable momentum among the voters. hilary swank is the favourite
to win best actress for the second time in six years. she previously won in 1999
for her performance in boys don t cry. in the supporting categories cate blanchett
is tipped to win for her performance as katharine hepburn in the aviator while
morgan freeman is favourite to take home his first ever oscar for million dollar
baby. the oscars will take place at hollywood s kodak theatre on 27 february.
harinordoquy suffers france axe number eight imanol harinordoquy has been dropped
from france s squad for the six nations match with ireland in dublin on 12 march.
harinordoquy was a second-half replacement in last saturday s 24-18 defeat to
wales. bourgoin lock pascal pape who has recovered from a sprained ankle returns
to the 22-man squad. wing cedric heymans and ludovic valbon come in for aurelien
rougerie and jean-philippe grandclaude. rougerie hurt his chest against wales
while grandclaude was a second-half replacement against both england and wales.
valbon capped in last june s tests against the united states and canada was a
second half replacement in the win over scotland. france coach bernard laporte
said harinordoquy had been axed after a poor display last weekend. imanol has been
dropped from the squad because the least i can say is that he didn t make a
thundering comeback against wales said laporte. we know the ireland game will be
fast and rough and we also want to be able to replace both locks during the game if
needed and gregory lamboley can also come on at number seven or eight. the grand
slam is gone but we ll go to ireland to win. it will be a very exciting game
because ireland have three wins under their belt have just defeated england and
have their eyes set on a grand slam. france who lost to wales last week must
defeat the irish to keep alive their hopes of retaining the six nations trophy.
ireland are unbeaten in this year s tournament and have their sights set on a first
grand slam since 1948. dimitri yachvili (biarritz) pierre mignoni (clermont)
yann delaigue (castres) frederic michalak (stade toulousain) damien traille
(biarritz) yannick jauzion (stade toulousain) ludovic valbon (biarritz)
christophe dominici (stade francais) cedric heymans (stade toulousain) julien
laharrague (brive) sylvain marconnet (stade francais) nicolas mas (perpignan)
olivier milloud (bourgoin) sebastien bruno (sale/eng) william servat (stade
toulousain) fabien pelous (stade toulousain capt) jerome thion (biarritz)
pascal papé (bourgoin) gregory lamboley (stade toulousain) serge betsen
(biarritz) julien bonnaire (bourgoin) yannick nyanga (béziers)
ask jeeves joins web log market ask jeeves has bought the bloglines website to
improve the way it handles content from web journals or blogs. the bloglines site
has become hugely popular as it gives users one place in which to read search and
share all the blogs they are interested in. ask jeeves said it was not planning to
change bloglines but would use the 300 million articles it has archived to round
out its index of the web. how much ask jeeves paid for bloglines was not revealed.
bloglines has become popular because it lets users build a list of the blogs they
want to follow without having to visit each journal site individually. to do this
it makes use of a technology known as really simple syndication (rss) that many
blogs have adopted to let other sites know when new entries are made on their
journals. the acquisition follows similar moves by other search sites. google
acquired pyra labs makers of the blogger software in 2003. in 2004 msn introduced
its own blog system and yahoo has tweaked its technology to do a better job of
handling blog entries. jim lanzone vice president of search properties at ask
jeeves in the us said it did not acquire bloglines just to get a foothold in the
blog publishing world. he said ask jeeves was much more interested in helping
people find information they were looking for rather than helping them write it.
the universe of readers is vastly larger than the universe of writers he said. mr
lanzone said the acquisition would sit well with ask s my jeeves service which lets
people customise their own web experience and build up a personal collection of
useful links. search engines are about discovering information for the first time
and rss is the ideal way to keep track of and monitor those sites he said. it
would also help drive information and entries from blogs to the portals that ask
jeeves operates. there would be no instant sweeping changes to bloglines said mr
lanzone. our intent is to take our time to figure out the right business model not
to try to monetise it right away he said. though mr lanzone added that ask jeeves
would be helping organise the database of 300m blog entries bloglines holds with
its own net indexing technology. being able to search the blogosphere as one
corpus of information will be very useful in its own right said mr lanzone.
rumours about the acquisition were broken by the napsterization weblog which said
it got the hint from ask jeeves insiders.
wenger keeping faith with almunia arsene wenger has pledged to keep faith with
stand-in keeper manuel almunia for the crunch week which could define arsenal s
season. almunia will start tuesday s champions league group tie against rosenborg
and is likely to face chelsea on sunday. wenger said: you don t think i would take
out one goalkeeper for just one game do you i don t do that. i have to give him
a run for a few games. it s just that i don t want to make this story bigger than
it is. wenger insists he has complete faith in the 27-year-old spaniard who was
signed last summer from celta vigo as back-up to jens lehmann. if you look at my
career you will see that i have left many big players out for a long time. i ve
done it with dennis bergkamp kanu everybody. it s because it s a goalkeeper
that s all. it s a usual situation for me. you put your best team out no matter
who it is. for me it was not a big mistake at old trafford and i wasn t alarmed
by what happened against birmingham either. it s nothing against lehmann. i think
he s a great keeper as is almunia. you can only play one of them. these people
are not robots - they have good periods and less good periods. just because lehmann
doesn t play for two or three weeks or longer or shorter it doesn t mean i ve
lost faith in him. but former arsenal keeper david seaman believes lehmann has
been harshly treated. seaman told the daily mail: jens is a fantastic keeper. he
deserves another chance. he has made a few mistakes but on form he deserves to be
the first-team choice. with arsenal hit by injuries and suspension inexperienced
midfield pair of mathieu flamini and cesc fabregas will line up against rosenborg
but wenger is confident they will prove more than capable. it puts a lot of
pressure on them but it s a good learning process said wenger. i m not worried
as they are both mentally strong and will put in the needed workrate. the gunners
go into the game boosted by the news that defender sol campbell is on the verge of
signing a new deal with the club. and the 30-year-old whose current contract runs
out in the summer has made it clear he is determined to achieve champions league
success with arsenal. campbell said: it means a lot to me to go through it s
everything. we want to carry on in this competition. that s where the best teams
in europe are. to be in there playing against these guys and trying to win the
trophy is the first thing in my mind. meanwhile thierry henry believes he will
be blamed if arsenal fail to qualify for the next stage of the champions league.
henry will captain the side in place of the suspended patrick vieira as the gunners
seek the required victory over rosenborg. and the striker said: if we don t win
and we go out of the competition like it or not it s going to be my fault. that s
the way it is. if the team don t win i know i will be criticised no matter how i
play.
have hackers recruited your pc more than one million computers on the net have
been hijacked to attack websites and pump out spam and viruses. the huge number
was revealed by security researchers who have spent months tracking more than 100
networks of remotely-controlled machines. the largest network of so-called zombie
networks spied on by the team was made up of 50 000 hijacked home computers. data
was gathered using machines that looked innocent but which logged everything
hackers did to them. the detailed look at zombie or bot nets of hijacked
computers was done by the honeynet project - a group of security researchers that
gather information using networks of computers that act as honey pots to attract
hackers and gather information about how they work. while bot nets have been known
about for some time estimates of how widespread they are from security firms have
varied widely. to gather its information the german arm of the honeynet project
created software tools to log what happened to the machines they put on the web.
getting the machines hijacked was worryingly easy. the longest time a honeynet
machine survived without being found by an automatic attack tool was only a few
minutes. the shortest compromise time was only a few seconds. the research found
that once compromised machines tend to report in to chat channels on irc servers
and wait instructions from the malicious hacker behind the tools used to recruit
the machine. many well-known vulnerabilities in the windows operating system were
exploited by bot net controllers to find and take over target machines. especially
coveted were home pcs sitting on broadband connections that are never turned off.
the months of surveillance revealed that the different bot nets - which involve a
few hundred to tens of thousands of machines - are used for a variety of purposes.
many are used as relays for spam to route unwanted adverts to pc users or as
launch platforms for viruses. but the research team found that many are put to very
different uses. during the monitoring period the team saw bot nets used to launch
226 distributed denial-of-service attacks on 99 separate targets. these attacks
bombard websites with data in an attempt to overwhelm the target. using a bot net
of machines spread around different networks and nations makes such attacks hard to
defend against. one ddos attack was used by one firm to knock its competitors
offline. other bot nets were used to abuse the google adsense program that rewards
websites for displaying adverts from the search engine. some networks were used to
abuse or manipulate online polls and games. criminals also seem to be starting to
use bot nets for mass identity theft to host websites that look like those of
banks so confidential information can be gathered and to peep into online traffic
to steal sensitive data. leveraging the power of several thousand bots it is
viable to take down almost any website or network instantly said the researchers.
even in unskilled hands it should be obvious that bot nets are a loaded and
powerful weapon.
brown visits slum on africa trip chancellor gordon brown has visited kenya s
biggest shantytown as he opened a week-long visit to africa. mr brown s trip is
designed to highlight how the uk wants to make africa s problems a priority of its
chairmanship of the g8 this year. he will see an hiv/aids orphanage in tanzania and
a women s credit union in mozambique before chairing a meeting of the commission
for africa in cape town. at slums in narobi on wednesday he said education needs
had to be tackled. speaking outside the olympic primary school mr brown said: it
is simply not acceptable in the modern age for the rest of the world to stand by
and have hundreds of millions of children not getting the chance at education. he
pointed to international plans to invest $10bn for education in africa over the
next decade. the school is on the edge of kibera where 800 000 live often in huts
made of mud scrap metal and cardboard. mr brown s aides say he wants to find out
more about the kenyan government s education policies which included introducing
free primary education in early 2003. the chancellor has already unveiled proposals
for a g8 aid package which he has likened to the marshall plan used by the united
states to rebuild europe after world war two. the trip follows claims of infighting
between mr brown and tony blair detailed in a new book. conservative leader michael
howard is expected to seize on those reports at prime minister s questions at 1200
gmt on wednesday.
irish finish with home game republic of ireland manager brian kerr has been granted
his wish for a home game as the final world cup qualifier. ireland will close
their bid to reach the 2006 finals by playing switzerland in dublin on 12 october
2005. the republic met the swiss in their final euro 2004 qualifier losing 2-0
away and missing out on a place in the finals in portugal. the group four fixtures
were hammered out at a meeting in dublin on tuesday. the irish open their campaign
on 4 september at home to cyprus and wrap up the 10-match series on 12 october 2005
with the visit of switzerland. manager brian kerr and fai officials met
representatives from switzerland france cyprus israel and the faroe islands to
arrange the fixture schedule. kerr had hoped to finish with a clash against france
but got the reigning european champions as their penultimate home match on 7
september 2005. the manager got his wish to avoid a repeat of finishing their bid
to qualify with too many away matches. republic of ireland v cyprus; france v
israel; switzerland v faroe islands. switzerland v republic of ireland; israel v
cyprus; faroe islands v france. france v republic of ireland; israel v
switzerland; cyprus v faroe islands. republic of ireland v faroe islands; cyprus v
france. cyprus v israel. france v switzerland; israel v republic of ireland.
switzerland v cyprus; israel v france. republic of ireland v israel; faroe islands
v switzerland. faroe islands v republic of ireland. august 17 - faroe islands v
cyprus. france v faroe islands; switzerland v israel. republic of ireland v
france; cyprus v switzerland; faroe islands v israel. switzerland v france; israel
v faroe islands; cyprus v republic of ireland. france v cyprus; republic of
ireland v switzerland.
palestinian economy in decline despite a short-lived increase in palestinian jobs
in 2003 the economy is performing well below its potential said a world bank
report. unemployment stood at 25% compared with 10% before the uprising against
israeli occupation four years ago. young people are particularly hard hit with 37%
out of work compared with 14% four years ago. but 104 000 new jobs were created
last year during a brief easing of violence and closures. however during the first
half of this year the palestinian economy lost more than 22 000 jobs. last year s
growth rate of 6% can also be attributed to this temporary gap in violence the
report said. according to the report intifada closures and palestinian economic
crisis: an assessment there is a close link between the number of closures - both
border closures and internal closures between cities - and palestinian economic
problems. the closures arranged by israel restrict the movement of palestinian
people and goods slowing down trade. closures are a key factor behind today s
economic crisis in the west bank said nigel roberts world bank country director
for the west bank and gaza. nearly half of all palestinians - some 47% - live below
the poverty line and are particularly vulnerable to economic shocks. the report
said even more would be on the poverty line without an average of $950m a year from
international donors some of which goes towards job creation. it also called on
the palestinian authority to revive its reform programme and maintain financial
discipline to create an investment-friendly climate. this week colin powell us
secretary of state was visiting the west bank to stress us support for a smooth
palestinian election in january.
glastonbury fans to get id cards fans who buy tickets for this year s glastonbury
festival will be issued with photo id cards in an attempt to beat touts it has
been confirmed. the cards will include a photograph of the ticket-holder plus an
electronic chip with their details to prevent tickets being sold on or forged.
tickets for the june event are expected to go on sale in april. there is only one
place in the world where you will be able to get tickets festival organiser
michael eavis said. that will be the official source. if you get them anywhere
else you won t get in. fans not wanting to carry the entrance card could present
their passport or driving licence instead he added. more than 153 000 people are
expected to travel to mr eavis somerset farm from 24-26 june but the event s
rising popularity has meant an extremely high demand for tickets in recent years.
when the id card idea was floated mr eavis daughter emily said it would be quite
a big step in terms of ticketing for events if implemented and they were going as
far as we can to cut touting. as long as it s approached in the right way it
might really work it might really change the system she said. in 2004 all 112
000 tickets for the public sold out in 24 hours. they were personalised with the
names of purchasers who were asked to bring identification such as a driving
licence passport or household bill. but some forgot to take the right information
while some touts simply offered to supply their own bills along with the ticket
bearing their name. no details of this year s line-up have been confirmed but
rumours have suggested u2 and coldplay may be among the headliners.
sony psp tipped as a must-have sony s playstation portable is the top uk gadget
for 2005 according to a round-up of ultimate gizmos compiled by stuff magazine.
it beats the ipod into second place in the top ten essentials list which predicts
what gadget-lovers are likely to covet this year. owning all 10 gadgets will set
the gadget lover back £7 455. that is £1 000 cheaper than last year s list due to
falling manufacturing costs making gadgets more affordable. portable gadgets
dominate the list including sharp s 902 3g mobile phone the pentax optio sv
digital camera and samsung s yepp yh-999 video jukebox. what this year s
essentials shows is that gadgets are now cheaper sexier and more indispensable
than ever. we ve got to the point where we can t live our lives without certain
technology said adam vaughan editor of stuff essentials. the proliferation of
gadgets in our homes is inexorably altering the role of the high street in our
lives thinks mr vaughan. take digital cameras who would now pay to develop an
entire film of photos or legitimate downloads who would travel miles to a record
shop when they could download the song in minutes for 70p he asks. next year will
see a new set of technologies capturing the imaginations of gadget lovers stuff
predicts. the xbox 2 high-definition tv and mp3 mobiles will be among the list of
must-haves that will dominate 2006 it says. the spring launch of the psp in the uk
is eagerly awaited by gaming fans.
cebit opens to mobile music tune cebit the world s largest hi-tech fair has
opened its doors in hanover for a look at the latest technologies for homes and
businesses. there are more than 6 000 exhibitors registered and about 500 000
visitors are expected to pass through the doors. third generation mobiles the
digital home and broadband are key themes at the show. camera phones will get
better resolutions as vendors set out to prove that bigger is definitely better.
samsung is set to steal some initial limelight with the launch of a 7-megapixel
phone on the opening day. the sch-v770 has some of the features of high-end
digital single lens reflex cameras such as manual focus and the ability to attach a
telephoto or wide-angle lens. camera phones are likely to prove an interesting
battle ground at the show said ben wood principal analyst at research firm
gartner. it is firmly established that cameras are an integral part of phones and
now the technology arms race is on in terms of megapixels. there will be a certain
amount of look how big mine is he said. there will also be increasing focus on
music-enabled mobiles. at 3gsm in cannes everyone went music mad and music is
going to be a big theme for all the vendors at cebit said mr wood. sony ericsson
will use the fair to show off the w800 - its recently unveiled walkman branded
phone - and there is speculation that motorola may unveil its rokr handset widely
tipped as the first to carry apple s itunes music software. apple and motorola
announced they were getting together at the end of last year as a result of a long-
standing friendship between motorola s chief executive ed zander and steve jobs.
some analysts think motorola may save the launch for ctia a wireless show in
america the following week which could be a telling sign about how operators are
coming to view the german tech fair. one of the interesting things is that cebit
is clearly a show in decline said mr wood. a lot of the big players such as
nokia are pulling back saying it is hard to justify a big presence at all of the
shows. it could be the last big year for cebit he said. other themes include tv-
enabled mobiles which are bound to create a buzz in the halls as vodafone unveils a
prototype handset that can show live digital television. there has been a glut of
recent headlines about mobile tv - french operators are teaming up o2 is trialling
a system in oxford uk and nokia begins trialling a system in finland with the
finnish broadcasting company yle tv and commercial tv channels. cebit could become
the battleground for the two competing methods for getting tv on to mobiles and is
also likely to provide a stage for a technology slated to compete with 3g. hsdpa
(high speed downlink packet access) has been described as 3g on steroids and
could offer consumers much faster download times. for instance a song which
currently takes one and a half minutes to download to a phone could be done in 10
seconds. korean giants lg electronics and samsung will show off hsdpa handsets at
the show and the technology is set to be rolled out in the us europe and korea
next year. broadband will continue to be a key theme at the show with internet
telephony proving this year s killer application. germany s largest online service
provider t-online is tipped to reveal software for low-cost net telephony which
would see it competing with its parent company deutsche telekom. cebit is used by
many to unveil cutting edge products and in the mobile sphere this is likely to
mean a lot of bright colourful handsets as fashion continues to compete with
technology when it comes to the device everyone has in their pockets. rainbow-
coloured phones influenced by handsets from japan are just one example of how
asian companies will stamp their mark on this year s show at which they will have
their biggest ever presence. cebit organisers have created a digital home in hall
25 of the 27 hangar-like buildings that will house the show. the digital home will
be a hyped theme at the show. the house will be totally wired and full of things
that can be used for home entertainment said cebit organiser gabriele dorries.
clarke defends terror detentions the home secretary has defended his decision not
to release foreign terror suspects despite a legal ruling their detention breached
human rights laws. house of lords law lords ruled against the detention measures
last week. they said it was wrong to have one set of laws for foreign suspects and
another for british suspects. new home secretary charles clarke said he would
carefully consider the ruling and would return to parliament early in the new year
with proposals. he insisted that he would not be rushed into judgement but would
examine the law lords findings in detail. my duty is to look at first of all the
security of this country and in so doing to consider very carefully the precise
legal measures that there are. mr clarke s comments came in response to an
emergency question from liberal democrat constitutional affairs spokesman david
heath. mr heath said the judgement contained unprecedented condemnation and could
not have been more unequivocal . he said he accepted the difficult balance between
the nation s security and human rights but questioned why the home office had made
no contingency plans for the present circumstances . these detainees should be
prosecuted and tried. simply renewing the present deeply unsatisfactory legislation
is not an option. shadow home secretary david davis said it was not possible to
overstate the importance of the judgment and urged the government to move as fast
as competently possible to sort the problem out in the interests of natural
justice. if you do we will give you every support. the law lords ruling came on
charles clarke s first day as home secretary last thursday following david blunkett
s resignation. in a statement on the same day mr clarke said: i will be asking
parliament to renew this legislation in the new year. in the meantime we will be
studying the judgment carefully to see whether it is possible to modify our
legislation to address the concerns raised by the house of lords. but the
government was widely criticised for insisting the detentions would continue
following the ruling last week. lord bingham - a senior law lord - said the rules
were incompatible with the european convention on human rights as they allowed
detentions in a way that discriminates on the ground of nationality or immigration
status by justifying detention without trial for foreign suspects but not
britons. lord nicholls of birkenhead in his ruling said: indefinite imprisonment
without charge or trial is anathema in any country which observes the rule of law.
the detainees took their case to the house of lords after the court of appeal
backed the home office s powers to hold them without limit or charge. the
government opted out of part of the european convention on human rights concerning
the right to a fair trial in order to bring in anti-terrorism legislation in
response to the 11 september attacks in the us.
musicians upbeat about the net musicians are embracing the internet as a way of
reaching new fans and selling more music a survey has found. the study by us
researchers pew internet suggests musicians do not agree with the tactics adopted
by the music industry against file-sharing. while most considered file-sharing as
illegal many disagreed with the lawsuits launched against downloaders. even
successful artists don t think the lawsuits will benefit musicians said report
author mary madden. for part of the study pew internet conducted an online survey
of 2 755 musicians songwriters and music publishers via musician membership
organisations between march and april 2004. they ranged from full-time successful
musicians to artists struggling to make a living from their music. we looked at
more of the independent musicians rather than the rockstars of this industry but
that reflects more accurately the state of the music industry ms madden told the
bbc news website. we always hear the views of successful artists like the britneys
of the world but the less successful artists rarely get represented. the survey
found that musicians were overwhelming positive about the internet rather than
seeing it as just a threat to their livelihood. almost all of them used the net for
ideas and inspiration with nine out of 10 going online to promote advertise and
post their music on the web. more than 80% offered free samples online while two-
thirds sold their music via the net. independent musicians in particular saw the
internet as a way to get around the need to land a record contract and reach fans
directly. musicians are embracing the internet enthusiastically said ms madden.
they are using the internet to gain inspiration sell it online tracking royalties
learning about copyright. perhaps surprisingly opinions about online file-
sharing were diverse and not as clear cut as those of the record industry. through
the recording industry association of america (riaa) it has pursued an aggressive
campaign through the courts to sue people suspected of sharing copyrighted music.
but the report suggests this campaign does not have the wholehearted backing of
musicians in the us. it found that most artists saw file-sharing as both good and
bad though most agreed that it should be illegal. free downloading has killed
opportunities for new bands to break without major funding and backing said one
musician quoted by the report. it s hard to keep making records if they don t pay
for themselves through sales. however 60% said they did not think the lawsuits
against song swappers would benefit musicians and songwriters. many suggested that
rather than fighting file-sharing the music industry needed to recognise the
changes it has brought and embrace it. both successful and struggling musicians
were more likely to say that the internet has made it possible for them to make
more money from their music rather than make it harder for them to protect their
material from piracy said ms madden.
west end to honour finest shows the west end is honouring its finest stars and
shows at the evening standard theatre awards in london on monday. the producers
starring nathan lane and lee evans is up for best musical at the ceremony at the
national theatre. it is competing against sweeney todd and a funny thing happened
on the way to the forum for the award. the goat or who is sylvia by edward albee
the pillowman by martin mcdonagh and alan bennett s the history boys are
shortlisted in the best play category. pam ferris victoria hamilton and kelly
reilly are nominated for best actress. ferris - best known for her television roles
in programmes such as the darling buds of may - has made the shortlist for her role
in notes on falling leaves at the royal court theatre. meanwhile richard
griffiths who plays hector in the history boys at the national theatre will
battle it out for the best actor award with douglas hodge (dumb show) and stanley
townsend (shining city). the best director shortlist includes luc bondy for cruel
and tender simon mcburney for measure for measure and rufus norris for festen.
festen is also shortlisted in the best designer category where ian macneil jean
kalman and paul arditti will be up against hildegard bechtler for iphigenia at
aulis and paul brown for false servant. the milton shulman award for outstanding
newcomer will be presented to dominic cooper (his dark materials and the history
boys) romola garai (calico) eddie redmayne (the goat or who is sylvia ) or ben
wishaw (hamlet). and playwrights david eldridge rebecca lenkiewicz and owen
mccafferty will fight it out for the charles wintour award and a £30 000 bursary.
three 50th anniversary special awards will also be presented to an institution a
playwright and an individual.
big war games battle it out the arrival of new titles in the popular medal of honor
and call of duty franchises leaves fans of wartime battle titles spoilt for choice.
the acclaimed pc title call of duty has been updated for console formats building
on many of the original s elements. for its part the long-running medal of honor
series has added pacific assault to its pc catalogue adapting the console game
rising sun. call of duty: finest hour casts you as a succession of allied soldiers
fighting on world war 2 battlefronts including russia and north africa. it is a
traditional first-person-viewed game that lets you control just one character in
the midst of a unit where cohorts constantly bark orders at you. on a near-
identical note medal of honor: pacific assault does all it can to make you feel
part of a tight-knit team and plum in the middle of all-out action. its arenas are
the war s pacific battles including guadalcanal and pearl harbour. you play one
character throughout a raw and rather talkative us soldier. both games rely on a
carefully stage-managed structure that keeps things ticking along. when this works
it is a brilliant device to make you feel part of a story. when it does not it is
tedious. a winning moment is an early scene in pacific assault where you come
under attack at the famous us base in hawaii. you are first ushered into a gunboat
attacking the incoming waves of japanese planes then made to descend into a
sinking battleship to rescue crewman before seizing the anti-aircraft guns. it is
one of the finest set-pieces ever seen in a video game. this notion of shuffling
the player along a studiously pre-determined path forcibly witnessing a series of
pre-set moments of action is a perilous business which can make the whole affair
feel stilted rather than organic. the genius of something like half life 2 is that
it skilfully disguises its linear plotting by various means of misdirection. this
pair of games do not really accomplish that being more concerned with imparting a
full-on atmospheric experience. call of duty comes with a suitably bombastic score
and overblown presentation. finest hour has a similar determination framing
everything in moody wartime music archive footage and lots of reflective voice-
overs. letting you play a number of different roles is an interesting ploy that
adds new dimensions to the call of duty endeavour even if it sacrifices the
narrative flow somewhat. the game s drawback could be said to be its format; tastes
differ but these wartime shooters often do seem to work better on pc. the mouse
control is a big reason why along with the sharper graphics a top-end computer can
muster and the apparent notion that pc games are allowed to get away with a bit
more subtlety. call of duty on pc was more detailed plot-wise and graphically and
this new adaptation feels a little rough and ready. targeting with the ps2
controller proved tricky not helped by unconvincing collision-detection. you can
shoot an enemy repeatedly with zero question as to your aim yet the bullets will
just refuse to hit him. checkpoints are so few and far between that when you get
shot which happens regularly you are set harshly far back and will find yourself
covering vast tracts of scorched earth again and again. the game wants to be a
challenge and is and many players will like it for that. it is as dynamic a
battlefield simulator as you will experience and even if it is not as refined as
its pc parent the sense of being part of the action is thoroughly impressive.
both of these games feature military colleagues who are disturbingly bad shots and
prone to odd behaviour. and in pacific assault in particular their commands and
comments are irritatingly meaningless. but the teamwork element in titles like
this is superficial designed to add atmosphere and camaraderie rather than affect
the gameplay mechanics at all. of the two games pacific assault gets more things
right including little points like auto-saving intelligently and having tidier
presentation. it engages you very well and also looks wonderful making the most of
the lush tropical settings that are reminiscent of the glorious far cry although
we had to ramp up the settings on a high-spec machine to get the most out of them.
finest hour is by no means bad and it is only because the pc original was so
dazzling that this version sometimes feels underwhelming. those looking for a
wartime game with plenty of atmosphere and a hearty abundance of enemies to shoot
will be contented. but they will also have a niggling puzzlement as to why it does
not break a little more ground rather then just being competent.
mcilroy wins 800m indoor title james mcilroy motored to the aaa s indoor 800m title
in sheffied on sunday in a time of one minute 47.97 seconds. the larne athlete
dominated the race from start to finish although he had to hold off a late
challenge from welshman jimmy watkins in the final 100 metres. i had to go out and
go through all the gears before the europeans and i won t run again until then
said mcilroy. i though if i got lucky i d get close to the british record but i
blew up in the end. mcilroy has been in superb form at the start of the season
and will now start his build-up for the european indoors at madrid on 4-6 march.
meanwhile paul brizzel and anna boyle reached the semi-finals of the 60m hurdles
with boyle setting a season s best of 7.48. in the women s 60m final ailis
mcsweeney broke michelle carroll s long-standing irish record by clocking 7.37
which left her in third place. david gillick showed that he is a genuine medal
contender in the european indoor championships by claiming an impressive 400m
victory. gillick was more than half-a-second clear when taking gold in 46.45 - .02
outside his personal best set in saturday s semi-finals. the irishman is now the
fastest european this season. derval o rourke broke her own irish 60m hurdles
record by clocking 8.06 which left her third behind new british record holder sarah
claxton (7.96). james nolan (3:46.04) took second in the men s 1500m behind neil
speaight (3:45.86) but the offaly man was outside the european indoor standard.
colin costello was seventh in the 1500m final in 3:48.82). deirdre ryan was second
in the women s high jump with a clearance of 1.87m while aoife byrne took silver in
the 800m in a personal best of 2:06.73. lisburn s kelly mcneice reid (4:31.34) was
seventh in the women s 1500m while gary murray (8:11.22) was 11th in the men s
3000m. meanwhile stephen cairns and jill shannon claimed the individual titles at
saturday s northern ireland cross country championship in coleraine. cairns came in
ahead of paul rowan and allan bogle in the men s race. willowfield claimed their
first men s team title in 72 years while shannon helped lagan valley win the women
s team honours.
latin america sees strong growth latin america s economy grew by 5.5% in 2004 its
best performance since 1980 while exports registered their best performance in two
decades. the united nations economic commission for latin america and the
caribbean said the region grew by 5.5% this year. the inter-american development
bank (iadb) said regional exports reached $445.1bn (£227bn;331bn euros) in 2004.
doubts about the strength of the us recovery and overheating of the chinese economy
do however pose risks for 2005. both organisations also warned that high oil prices
raise the risk of either inflation or recession. nevertheless the economic
commission for latin america and the caribbean (eclac) still forecasts growth of 4%
for 2005. strong recovery in some countries such as venezuela and uruguay boosted
the overall performance of the region. eclac also said that the six largest latin
american economies (argentina brazil chile colombia mexico and venezuela) grew
by more than 3% for only the second time in 20 years. chinese and us economic
strength helped boost exports as did strong demand for agricultural and mining
products. in fact latin american exports to china grew 34% to $14bn. higher oil
prices also helped boost exports as mexico and venezuela are important oil
exporters. regional blocs as well as free trade agreements with the us contributed
to the region s strong performance the iadb said.
open source leaders slam patents the war of words between microsoft and the open
source movement heated up this week as linux founder linus torvalds led an attack
on software patents. in a panel discussion at a linux summit in california mr
torvalds said software patents were a problem for the open source movement.
mitchell kapor chairman of the mozilla foundation warned that microsoft could use
patent lawsuits in the future. linux is a freely-available alternative to microsoft
s windows. it relies on a community of programmers for its development and is based
on open source principles which allow others to use and modify it without having
to pay licence fees. the attack on software patents comes at a time when ibm has
made 500 of its patents freely available. other companies are expected to follow
suit. there are between 150 000 and 300 000 registered software patents in the us
and open source developers argue that many should never have been granted. this is
a view corroborated by the uk patent office. some of the patents have dubious
validity and are being wielded by some big companies to force smaller companies to
buy licenses in the knowledge that they can t afford to take them to court said
dr jeremy philpott of the uk patent office. some panel members are worried that
microsoft would issue a series of patent lawsuits in the future. if totally pushed
to the wall - because their business model no longer holds up in an era in which
open source is an economically superior way to produce software...of course they re
going to unleash the wmds mr kapor is reported as saying. microsoft did not want
to comment directly referring the issue instead to trade body intellect of which
it is a member. as far as intellect is concerned open source and patents have co-
existed for many years without problems said spokeswoman jill sutherland. the
industry respects the open source movement and in fact many of the members we
represent use the open source system to develop software we think the important
point to make is that companies should be able to choose between patents
copyrights and open source as to the treatment of their intellectual discoveries
and not be forced into using one or the other she added.
georgia plans hidden asset pardon georgia is offering a one-off tax amnesty to
people who hid their earnings under the regime of former president eduard
shevardnadze. the country s new president mikhail saakashvili has said that
anyone now willing to disclose their wealth will only have to pay 1% in income tax.
the measure is designed to legitimise previously hidden economic activity and boost
georgia s flagging economy. georgia s black market is estimated to be twice the
size of its legal economy. mr saakashvili elected president in january after mr
shevardnadze was toppled has urged the georgian parliament to approve the amnesty
as soon as possible. it is one of a series of proposals designed to tackle
corruption which was rampant during the shevardnadze era and boost georgia s
fragile public finances. the new government is encouraging companies to pay taxes
by scrapping existing corruption investigations and destroying all tax records from
before 1 january three days before president saakashvili was elected. there are
people who have money but are afraid to show it the president told a government
session. documentation about where this money came from doesn t exist because
under the former entirely warped regime earning capital honestly was not
possible. by declaring their assets and paying the one-off tax people would be
able to legalise their property mr saakashvili stressed. no one will have the
right to check this money s origin. this money must go back into the economy. the
amnesty will not extend to people who made money through drugs trafficking or
international money laundering. criminal investigations in such cases -thought to
involve about 5% of georgian businesses -are to continue. mr saakashvili has
accused the shevardnadze regime which was toppled by a popular uprising in
november of allowing bribery to flourish. georgia s economy is in a desperate
condition. half the population are living below the poverty line with many
surviving on income of less than $4 or three euros a day. the unemployment rate
is around 20% while the country has a $1.7bn public debt.
moreno debut makes oscar mark catalina sandino moreno has joined a rare group of
actresses who have been nominated for an oscar for starring in a foreign language
film. the colombian-born actress was the final hope for director joshua marston
who scoured the us and colombia for a lead for maria full of grace. the film sees
the 23-year-old play a teenage drug mule who smuggles heroin by swallowing pellets
in condoms. plaudits have been raining down on her for her gritty performance
making it all the more surprising that this is her first film. her previous acting
experience was in amateur productions in her home city of bogota at the ruben di
pietro theatre academy. she has already received a nomination for the independent
spirit awards leading actress category but these rarely overlap with academy awards
instead recognising quirkier low-budget films. and at the 2004 berlin film
festival the jury could not choose between her and charlize theron s oscar winning
performance in monster so gave them a tied award. sandino moreno is now being
regarded as one of the most promising actresses around at the moment. but she is
taking her time committing to her next project hoping to land a strong spanish
script and would love to be able to work with directors pedro almodovar or
alejandro amenabar.
melzer shocks agassi in san jose second seed andre agassi suffered a comprehensive
defeat by jurgen melzer in the quarter-finals of the sap open. agassi was often
bamboozled by the austrian s drop shots in san jose losing 6-3 6-1. defending
champion and top seed andy roddick rallied to beat sweden s thomas enqvist 3-6 7-6
(8-6) 7-5. but unseeded cyril saulnier beat the fourth seed vincent spadea 6-2 6-4
and tommy haas overcame eighth seed max mirnyi 6-7 (2-7) 7-6 (7-3) 6-2. melzer has
now beaten agassi in two of their three meetings. i had a good game plan and i
executed it perfectly he said. it s always tough to come out to play andre. i
didn t want him to play his game. he makes you run like a dog all over the court.
and agassi who was more than matched for power by his opponent s two-handed
backhand said melzer was an example of several players on the tour willing to take
their chances against him. a lot more guys are capable of it now said the
american. he played much better than me. that s what he did both times. i had
opportunities to loosen myself up agassi added. but i didn t convert on the big
points.
solutions to net security fears fake bank e-mails or phishing and stories about
id theft are damaging the potential of using the net for online commerce say e-
business experts. trust in online security is falling as a result. almost 70% of
those asked in a poll said that net firms are not doing enough to protect people.
the survey of more than 1 000 people reported that 43% were not willing to hand
over personal information online. it is worrying for shopaholics and firms who want
to exploit the net. more people are becoming aware of online security issues but
they have little confidence that companies are doing enough to counter the threats
said security firm rsa which carried out the poll. an estimated 12 million britons
now use the net as a way of managing their financial affairs. security experts say
that scare stories and the vulnerabilities dogging e-commerce and e-banking are
being taken seriously - by banks in particular. i don t think the threat is
overplayed barry beal global security manager for capgemini told the bbc news
website. he added: the challenge for banks is to provide the customer with
something that improves security but balances that with usability. ensuring extra
security measures are in place protects them too as well as the individual and it
is up to both parties to make sure they do what is necessary to prevent fraud he
said. card issuers will keep us informed of types of attacks and what procedure to
take to protect ourselves. if we do that they will indemnify us he said. many
believe using login details like usernames and passwords are simply not good enough
anymore though. one of the biggest challenges to improving security online is how
to authenticate an individual s identity. several security companies have developed
methods which complement or replace passwords which are easily compromised and
easy to forget. last year a street survey found that more than 70% of people would
reveal their password for a bar of chocolate. on average people have to remember
four different passwords. some resort to using the same one for all their online
accounts. those who use several passwords often write them down and hide them in a
desk or in a document on their computer. in a separate survey by rsa 80% said they
were fed up with passwords and would like a better way to login to work computer
systems. for many the ideal is a single online identity that can be validated once
with a series of passwords and questions or some biometric measurement like a
fingerprint or iris scan with a token like a smartcard. activcard is just one of
the many companies like rsa security which has been trying to come up with just
that. rsa has a deal with internet provider aol that lets people pay monthly for a
one-time passcode generation service. users get a physical token which
automatically generates a code which stays active for 60 seconds. many companies
use a token-based method already for employees to access networks securely already.
activcard s method is more complex. it is currently trailing its one-time passcode
generation technology with uk banks. steve ash from activcard told the bbc news
website there are two parts to the process of identification. the most difficult is
to ascertain whether an individual is who they say they are when they are online.
the end solution is to provide a method where you combine something the user knows
with something they have and present those both. the method it has developed makes
use of the chip embedded in bank cards and a special card reader which can generate
unique codes that are active for a specified amount of time. this can be adjusted
at any time and can be active for as little as 30 seconds before it changes. it
combines that with usual usernames and passwords as well as other security
questions. you take the card put it in the reader enter your pin number and a
code is given. if you wanted then to transfer funds for instance you would have
to have the code to authorise the transaction. the clever bit happens back at the
bank s secure servers. the code is validated by the bank s systems matching the
information they expect with the customer s unique key. each individual gets a key
which is unique to them. it is a 2048-bit long number that is virtually impossible
to crack said mr ash. it means that in a typical security attack explains mr ash
even if password information is captured by a scammer using keystroke software or
just through spoof websites they need the passcode. by the time they go back [to
use the information] the code has expired so they can t prove who they are
according to mr ash. in the next few years mr ash predicts that this kind of
method will be commonplace before we see biometric authentication that is
acceptable for widespread use. pcs will have readers built into them the cost of
readers will be very cheap and more people will have the cards. the gadgets we
carry around like personal digital assistants (pdas) and mobiles could also have
integrated card reader technology in them. the pda or phone method is a possible
alternative as people are always carrying phones around he said.
blair sets date for africa report the commission for africa s report will be
released on 11 march - comic relief day tony blair has said. july s g8 summit in
gleneagles in perthshire - chaired by the prime minister - will use the report as
the basis for talks on africa. the announcement followed the final meeting of the
commission - which includes singer bob geldof - in london. as well as more aid
fairer trade and less debt the commission is likely to demand action on corruption
in africa. mr blair told a news conference: it will be a report that s brutally
frank about the reality but i hope idealistic about what can be done if the will
is there. it s an ambitious project we have set ourselves and you will have to
judge on its outcome when we publish it. mr blair has vowed to put africa at the
top of his agenda during his time at the helm of the g8. he acknowledged he would
have a a job of persuading to do on other nations to get the necessary commitment
to debt relief. bob geldof in characteristically blunt style promised that the
commission would not just be a talking shop but would deliver radical new thinking
to change direction for africa. the former rock star s presence on the commission
has been interpreted as a sign that it will be uncompromising in its demands. the
people involved include two african government leaders and a range of other african
politicians as well as experts from some other developed countries.
ex-pm lord callaghan dies aged 92 former labour prime minister lord callaghan has
died on the eve of his 93rd birthday. he passed away at home in east sussex just
11 days after his wife audrey died aged 91. lord callaghan who leaves a son and
two daughters was the longest living former british pm in history. he entered
downing street in 1976 after the resignation of harold wilson. prime minister tony
blair called him a giant of the labour movement. he held each of the major
offices of chancellor home secretary foreign secretary and prime minister during
his career and became lord callaghan of cardiff in 1987. chancellor gordon brown
said the former pm would be mourned throughout the world . it was a commitment to
public service that brought jim callaghan into parliament in 1945 and while jim
rose to the top he never forgot his roots. former cabinet colleague lord
hattersley said his first reaction on hearing the news was immense sadness . it
was not a major surprise - i knew what a blow the death of his wife audrey was a
few days ago he said. he was a decent kindly man who helped me and my generation
of politicians immensely. the labour party and the country will be poorer without
him. conservative peer lord heseltine said that despite their political
differences he and lord callaghan became friends. you don t get to the
premiership unless you have a streak of determination he said. but i saw the
other side of jim callaghan he became a personal friend in a way and my family
and i were very fond of him. tory leader michael howard said he would be
remembered with affection and respect . liberal democrat leader charles kennedy
said: when i was first elected in 1983 as the youngest mp he was the father of
the house and as such took a very keen interest in my early days in parliament.
he was always full of warmth and wisdom. born in 1912 and educated at portsmouth
northern secondary school lord callaghan became a clerk at the inland revenue. he
enlisted in the royal navy in 1942 and rose to the rank of lieutenant. elected for
a cardiff constituency at the 1945 general election he represented cardiff seats
for more than 40 years. after serving as a junior minister in the attlee government
he became chancellor of the exchequer when labour returned to power in 1964. with
sterling under pressure he resisted devaluation for three years before being
forced into it in 1967. his political career was not without controversy. when he
refused to support prime minister harold wilson and dame barbara castle over the
latter s trade union manifesto in place of strife in 1968 he said: i am not
going to resign. they will have to throw me out . when home secretary he ordered
british troops to march into the streets of belfast to protect catholic civilians
amid rising violence - a decision that has dominated british politics into the 21st
century. as foreign secretary in the early 1970s lord callaghan kept an open mind
about the uk s entry into the common market seeing the advantages of the uk s
entry. he once travelled to idi amin s uganda in 1975 to plead for the life of a
british lecturer dennis hills who was under a death sentence for treason. his
political life was often tempered by battles against the hard left of the party. in
the autumn of 1978 before the winter of discontent when trade unions carried out
strikes that brought the country to a standstill lord callaghan refused to hold an
early election which may have delivered a labour victory. as garbage lay
uncollected in the streets and hospital staff council workers and even
gravediggers stayed off work lord callaghan failed to predict the mood of the
country. when britain went to the polls in 1979 tory leader margaret thatcher was
swept into power in a landslide victory and lord callaghan resigned as labour
leader.
mps tout lords replacement plan a group of mps has tried to raise the pressure on
tony blair over reform to the house of lords by publishing a detailed blueprint for
change. the cross-party group has unveiled a draft bill proposing a smaller second
chamber in which 70% of members would be elected. mps and peers have failed to
agree on reform since 1999 when 600 hereditaries lost their seats. the group says
it can win support for removing the last 92 hereditaries. the government postponed
plans to remove the remaining hereditary peers because they said they were unlikely
to succeed after opposition in the lords. tony blair has argued. there needs to be
consensus on reforms. there have been suggestions there will be proposals for
changing at least the powers of the lords in labour s manifesto. but the all-party
group including tories ken clarke and sir george young labour s robin cook and
tony wright and liberal democrat paul tyler is confident its plan would win
support from a large majority . and they list former conservative leader william
hague and former labour leader neil kinnock as supporters of the plans. the group
says the british public and a clear majority of mps support replacing the lords
with a largely-elected second chamber. their plan would see the house of lords
being renamed the second chamber of parliament and its members would be known as
mscps. there would be 385 mscps including 270 elected members 87 appointed
members and 16 bishops. they would serve for between 12 and 14 years. mr cook said
holding elections for mscps on the same day as those for mps might help motivate
the electorate and increase voter turnout. he added: over the last year i have
seen many statements from senior figures of this government insisting the public
must have the right of choice. what could be more important than a choice of the
people who sit in our parliament the group believes pressure is growing for
change and the government s current position is unsustainable. it wants all three
main parties to include a commitment to a largely democratic second chamber in
their manifestos. mr clarke said the issue went to the heart of reforming the
health of the british political system . and mr tyler said the prime minister s
view that there was no agreement on the shape of the future of the lords was
flawed. the problem i think in the prime minister s mind is there doesn t appear
to be a consensus that includes him he said. we are providing a consensus . the
elect the lords campaign said the draft bill was an important contribution to the
debate. we believe this draft bill is detailed enough to form the basis of closer
parliamentary scrutiny said co-ordinator peter facey. in lieu of any other such
clear proposals the government must permit that to happen.
tory candidate quits over remark a conservative election challenger is quitting
after being quoted as wanting a period of creative destruction in the public
services . danny kruger who also works in the tory research unit had been due to
take on tony blair in sedgefield. he says his remark last week was misrepresented
but he will not contest the election for fear of damaging the conservative cause.
tory leader michael howard accepted his decision with regret . mr kruger was
quoted in the guardian newspaper saying: we plan to introduce a period of creative
destruction in the public services. in a statement the party said the comment
had been taken out of context. he fully supports the party s policies on and
approach to the public services said the statement. however in order to avoid
any further misrepresentation of his views and any damage to the party he has
decided not to stand in the sedgefield constituency at the next election. mr
kruger is continuing in his job at the tory campaign headquarters. labour election
coordinator alan milburn claimed mr kruger had exposed the tory agenda for £35bn of
cuts to public services. mr milburn said: he is not some unknown hopeful fighting
an unwinnable seat. he is a man who has worked at the heart of conservative policy
development... his claim that the tories were planning a period of creative
destruction in the public services is not a rogue claim. it is the authentic and
shocking voice of the conservative party. it reveals the true picture of what they
would do.
legendary music studio to close the new york music studio where john lennon spent
his final hours is to close next month. the hit factory which opened 37 years ago
has played host to some of the biggest stars in music including paul simon
madonna and david bowie. however the rise in digital recording has affected
business at the studio which is relocating to smaller premises in miami. lennon
recorded his final album double fantasy at the studio in 1979. the studio was
founded by jerry ragovoy in 1968. in 1975 it was sold to fellow producer edward
germano who turned it into a 100 000 square foot studio with seven recording rooms
and live mastering suites. his first client was stevie wonder who recorded part of
his classic album songs in the key of life there. other well-known albums to be
recorded or partially recorded at the studio include bruce springsteen s born in
the usa the rolling stones emotional rescue and paul simon s graceland. michael
jackson billy joel jay-z and beyonce are also among artists who have used the hit
factory in the past as well as 50 cent who survived an attempt on his life as he
left the premises in 2000. the studio made history in 1994 when it won a record 41
grammy nominations for songs recorded mastered or mixed there including the
soundtrack to the whitney houston film the bodyguard.
snow patrol bassist exits group snow patrol had no other course of action but to
ask their co-founder and bassist to leave the band lead singer gary lightbody has
said. mark mcclelland had been in the band for more than 10 years since its
formation at dundee university. lightbody said over the last 18 months touring has
taken its toll on the rest of the band s relationship with him . he said: this is
the hardest decision we have ever had to make and believe us when we say we didn t
make it lightly. the group originally from northern ireland has only achieved
mainstream success in the last year with the single run and award-winning album
final straw. in a statement on the band s website lightbody said: i started the
group with mark 10 years ago and he was a massive part of snow patrol and my life
throughout that decade. he added: it got to the stage that things couldn t go on
as they were so we felt there was no other course of action but this. i know you
will all be distressed and may not understand this news but we had to do what was
best for the band. snow patrol are currently working on the follow-up to their
breakthrough third album. the band is set to play support to u2 on a number of
summer stadium gigs. last month they were the big winners in ireland s top music
honours the meteor awards picking up accolades for best band and album. it
followed nominations for the brit awards and the mercury music prize. the band
formed in 1994 when lightbody and mcclelland met as students at dundee university.
ethnic producers face barriers minority ethnic led (mel) production companies
face barriers in succeeding in the film and television industries research has
suggested. the study commissioned by pact and the uk film council included
interviews with industry experts and individuals. they indicated that career
progression and a lack of role models are among the main problems within such
companies. the research indicated that about 10% of independent production
companies in the uk are minority ethnic led. a minority ethnic led company is
defined as one in which the majority of decision-making power rests with an
individual or individuals from a minority ethnic group. the report also explored
the problems faced by such companies when attempting to compete within the film and
tv industries. it said they are often smaller than other companies and lack the
resources so are often squeezed out of the market by bigger firms. the research
recommended that minority ethnic led companies could benefit from such positive
actions as career training and business advice plus improved communication within
the film and tv sectors. the uk has a rich and diverse culture and it is essential
that it is reflected on film and television said arts minister estelle morris of
the findings. i welcome this report which i hope will lead to more doors being
opened and all businesses in our film and television industries being given the
same opportunities.
india and russia in energy talks india and russia are to work together in a series
of energy deals part of a pact which could see india invest up to $20bn in oil and
gas projects. on the agenda are oil and gas extraction as well as transportation
deals to be led by russian energy giant gazprom and india s ongc. the indian firm
is also expected to hold talks on tuesday about buying a stake in assets once owned
by yukos. it is reported to be keen on buying a 15% stake in oil unit
yuganskneftegas. the former yukos subsidiary was controversially sold off last year
and eventually acquired by state-owned energy giant rosneft. russian media
reported that india and russia signed a memorandum of understanding on energy co-
operation on tuesday during a meeting between oil and natural gas corporation
chairman subir raha gazprom chairman aleksey miller and india s petroleum minister
mani shankar aiyar. the agreement is likely to see the two companies develop
refining facilities in russia india and elsewhere and organise delivery of oil
gas and petrochemicals from russia to india and other countries across asia. ongc
could invest in gas and oil fields in sakhalin in the far east of russia and may
also take part in joint tender bids for projects in eastern siberia and the caspian
sea. india is urgently searching for fresh energy supplies - particularly
liquefied natural gas - as domestic demand is growing at more than 5% a year. ongc
s mr raha said the two could work together on joint bids from next year. at
current oil and gas prices our cash flow situation is good he told reuters.
what we are saying is - gazprom has a huge amount of gas and we have the money.
the investment may go up to $20bn or more for a period of five years or so.
russian news agencies reported that india s petroleum minister mr aiyar and russian
energy minister viktor khristenko would discuss the future of yugansk at a meeting
on tuesday. ongc s mr raha declined to be drawn on his firm s reported interest in
the company. however he stressed that ongc was not interested in a loan-for-oil
deal in connection to yugansk similar to that concluded recently between rosneft
and china s national petroleum corporation. china s problem is it has immediate
demand and they needed the oil for their coastal refineries. we do not. we would
like long-term security through equity participation. it is thought that any
decision over yugansk will be delayed until a us court has decided whether to grant
yukos bankruptcy protection. yukos is suing a host of companies involved in the
sale of yugansk auctioned off to pay a huge back-tax bill. it has also threatened
legal action against any business which has future commercial dealings with its
former subsidiary.
jowell confirms casino climbdown tessa jowell has announced plans to limit the
number of new casinos in the uk to 24 in a move branded a humiliating retreat by
the tories. it puts an end to plans for up to 40 super casinos originally
outlined in the government s gambling bill. instead there will be a cap of eight
new casinos in each size category - small medium and large. the culture secretary
said the move showed she listened to critics who feared an explosion in gambling.
but conservative shadow culture secretary john whittingdale said the way the
government had handled the bill was a shambles . this announcement is a further
humiliating retreat by the government. instead of the initial intention of the
gambling bill to liberalise the rules governing gambling the bill now imposes a
more restrictive regime than exists at present. shares in british casino operators
london clubs international rank group and stanley leisure who had been hoping the
bill would pave the way for a big expansion in smaller casinos fell by between 10
and 25% following the announcement. ms jowell s deputy richard caborn said the
government had adopted a cautious approach to the issue and responded to the
concerns raised. limiting the number of regional casinos to eight in the first
phase is a cautious move that will allow us to test the impact of a new kind of
casino on the levels of problem gambling he said. we also believe it s right to
apply this same level of caution to small and large casinos. he added that local
authorities would still be able to stop new casinos coming to their areas. church
groups welcomed the limit on the number of casinos. salvation army spokesman
jonathan lomax said: the proliferation of these casinos on high streets across the
country was a real concern and the [three year] trial period which we think should
last at least five years will enable research into the potentially severe social
consequences of an increase in hard and addictive forms of gambling. but british
british casino association chairman penny cobham said her members were outraged
by the decision which followed a campaign in the daily mail newspaper. there was
never going to be a massive explosion of casinos. talk of a casino on every high
street was just a scaring tactic.
tories attack burglar u-turns tory leader michael howard has accused tony blair
of performing u-turns over rules on using force against burglars. the government
has ruled out amending the present law which allows reasonable force in self
defence. mr howard branded the decision unacceptable saying: it is not
householders who should be frightened it s the burglars. home secretary charles
clarke said ministers had kept to their pledge to review the law. metropolitan
police commissioner sir john stevens last month backed a tory attempt to change the
law so only householders using grossly disproportionate force could be
prosecuted. the pressure prompted the prime minister to say the police and crown
prosecution service would be consulted as part of a review of the law. he told mps:
if we get the right response from those people we will of course support a
change in the law. instead the government has decided no change is needed but
there will be a publicity campaign so people are clear they are entitled to defend
themselves. on thursday mr howard told bbc radio 4 s today programme mr blair had
initially refused the law change then had come round to the idea and was now
backtracking again. he said: we ve had three policy positions in three months and
two u-turns. it s not surprising gordon brown told him: there s nothing you could
say to me now that i could ever believe. mr howard said the grossly
disproportionate test matched the hurdle ministers had introduced for civil cases
where burglars where claimed compensation from householders. the issue entered the
public spotlight when norfolk farmer tony martin was jailed for shooting dead a 16-
year-old burglar in 1999 as he ran away from the farm. but the home secretary said
mr howard was wrong to say the law was biased in favour of burglars. the barrister
who had represented mr martin had said the rules were weighted overwhelmingly in
favour of the householder said mr clarke. he said: the problem is there has not
been enough understanding of it - that was the point sir john stevens was making
and the prime minister was making. the new guidance would help ensure clarity on
the issue added mr clarke. the director of public prosecutions ken macdonald
says only 11 householders or occupiers of business premises have been prosecuted in
the last 15 years. those cases included a warehouse manager who had waited for a
burglar tied him up beat him and set him alight he said. tory mp patrick mercer
s private member s bill to change the law received a first reading in parliament on
wednesday and goes to a full debate next month.
smith aims to bring back respect scotland manager walter smith says he wants to
restore the national team s respectability in world football. smith has joined his
first squad for a three-day get-together near manchester in preference to playing a
friendly. while qualification for the 2006 world cup appears to be beyond scotland
smith is anxious that the remainder of the campaign should be positive. i think we
have got to try to get a bit of respectability back in whatever way we can he
said. we will have to approach each game differently. obviously we will have to
approach the italian game away from home in a different manner to moldova at home.
we have to meet the challenge of each match. smith meeting a number of his squad
for the first time brought them together on monday to outline his ideas for
improving the nation s fortunes. he said: i pointed out how i see the
international team going forward and that was the main topic. this is a relaxed
gathering and i don t think there is a lot of doom and gloom about the squad that a
lot of people think exists. a 25-man squad will spend the next three days based at
the mottram hall hotel in cheshire and will train at manchester united s nearby
carrington complex. smith will be absent for the final sessions however as he is
due to fly out to sardinia on wednesday to watch italy s friendly with russia.
jansen suffers a further setback blackburn striker matt jansen faces three weeks
out after surgery to treat a cartilage problem. but central defender lorenzo
amoruso is moving closer to fitness following a knee operation. rovers assistant
manager mark bowen said: matt had a small operation to trim knee cartilage. it s
a tiny piece of work which should be a fairly quick recovery. lorenzo is also
jogging for the first time along with kicking a ball. jansen s career has been
dogged by injury since a freak scooter accident two years ago. he returned to
first-team action soon after mark hughes appointment as blackburn boss and marked
it with a goal against portsmouth in his first appearance of the season. bowen
added: i m guessing but i reckon maybe two to three weeks before he is back in
action completely. the rovers assistant boss forecast a longer time spell for
amoruso s availability for first-team duties. bowen said: there s still some scar
tissue present so it will be some weeks. it s a case of see how he goes. you can t
put a real time on a comeback we ll see how he progresses.
bond game fails to shake or stir for gaming fans the word goldeneye evokes excited
memories not only of the james bond revival flick of 1995 but also the classic
shoot-em-up that accompanied it and left n64 owners glued to their consoles for
many an hour. adopting that hallowed title somewhat backfires on this new game
for it fails to deliver on the promise of its name and struggles to generate the
original s massive sense of fun. this however is not a sequel nor does it relate
to the goldeneye film. you are the eponymous renegade spy an agent who deserts to
the bond world s extensive ranks of criminal masterminds after being deemed too
brutal for mi6. your new commander-in-chief is the portly auric goldfinger last
seen in 1964 but happily running around bent on world domination. with a
determination to justify its name which is even less convincing than that of tina
turner s similarly-titled theme song the game literally gives the player a golden
eye following an injury which enables a degree of x-ray vision. rogue agent
signals its intentions by featuring james bond initially and proceeding to kill him
off within moments squashed by a plummeting helicopter. the notion is of course to
add a novel dark edge to a 007 game but the premise simply does not get the juices
flowing like it needs to. recent bond games like nightfire and everything or
nothing were very competent and did a fine job of capturing the sense of flair
invention and glamour of the film franchise. this title lacks that aura and when
the bond magic shines through it feels like a lucky accident. the central problem
is that the gameplay just is not good enough. quite aside from the bizarre
inability to jump the even more bizarre glaring graphical bugs and dubious enemy
ai the levels simply are not put together with much style or imagination.
admittedly the competition has been tough even in recent weeks with the likes of
halo 2 and half life 2 triumphing in virtually every department. what the game is
good at is enveloping you in noisy dynamic scenes of violent chaos. as is the
trend of late you are made to feel like you are in the midst of a really messy and
fraught encounter. sadly that sense of action is outweighed by the difficulty of
navigating and battling within the chaos meaning that frustration is often the
outcome. and irregular save points mean you have to backtrack each time you are
killed. a minute red dot passes for a crosshair although the collision-detection
is so suspect that the difficulties of aiming weapons are compensated for. shooting
enemies from a distance can be tricky and you will not always know you have picked
them off since dead enemies vanish literally before they have fully hit the floor
and they do so in some woefully uninspiring death animations. it is perhaps
indicative of a lack of confidence that the game maker s allow you several
different weapons almost immediately and throw you quickly into raging firefights -
no time is risked with a measured build-up. by far the most satisfying element of
the game is seeing old favourites like dr no goldfinger hat-fiend oddjob and
crazed russian sex beast xenia onatopp resurrected after all these years and with
their faces rendered in an impressively recognisable fashion. there is a real
thrill from doing battle with these legendary villains and it is a testament to
the power of the bond universe that they can cut such a dash. but the in-game
niggles combined with a story and presentation that just do not feel sufficiently
well thought-through will make this a disappointment for most. diehard fans of
bond will probably find enough here to make it a worthwhile purchase and try to
ignore the failings. the game is weak not completely unplayable. then again 007
fanatics may also take umbrage at the cavalier blending of characters from
different eras. given james bond s healthy pedigree in past games there is every
reason to hope that this is just a blip a commendable idea that just has not
worked that will be rectified when the character inevitably makes his return.
goldeneye: rogue agent is out now
player burn-out worries robinson england coach andy robinson says english rugby has
to act now to prevent injury destroying players careers. he will be without a
host of big names for the six nations as the intensity of professional rugby union
hits players. injuries are part of the sport but we have to have a look at the
amount of injuries that occur in the english season robinson told bbc sport. i
think players are probably going to have three or four years taken off their
careers. robinson will be missing an entire midfield for the six nations with the
likes of jonny wilkinson mike tindall and will greenwood injured. rugby union has
become far more physically demanding since the game went professional nearly 10
years ago. as a result three of the major stakeholders in english rugby have
launched an injury audit to find out how players are coping. the audit is jointly
funded by the professional rugby players association the rugby football union and
premier rugby. as far as robinson is concerned its findings must not be ignored. i
think there s an injury audit coming out in march that s got some great information
in there that i think everybody in the english game has got to look at he said.
if we don t the situation is going to get worse and not better so i think rugby as
a whole has got to look at this.
howard taunts blair over splits tony blair s feud with gordon brown is damaging the
way the uk is governed tory leader michael howard has claimed in a heated prime
minister s questions. mr howard asked: how can they fight crime when they are
fighting each other that question was later unveiled as the headline for new tory
campaign posters. but mr blair dismissed the talk of splits and said people s
priorities at the next elections would be on the economic successes achieved by
labour. he can stick up whatever he likes on billboards about something in a book
but what the public will concentrate on are the low mortgages low inflation low
unemployment that we delivered and that he failed to he said. the chancellor is
currently on a high-profile tour of africa to highlight new anti-poverty plans. but
before doing so he insisted he still trusted mr blair despite claims to the
contrary in a new book. brown s britain by robert peston says there is mutual
animosity between the two men. it claims mr blair said in november 2003 he would
stand down as prime minister before the next election. but he went back on his
pledge after support from cabinet allies and suspicion that mr brown was
manoeuvring against him it says. mr peston s book claimed that mr brown told mr
blair: there is nothing you could ever say to me now that i could ever believe.
mr blair directly denied that quote on wednesday. he again insisted there could be
no deals about the premiership but twice declined directly to say whether or not he
had offered to quit. the tory leader countered that such agreements had been
struck twice at dinners with the chancellor. he declared: he is the deals on meals
prime minister. no wonder the chancellor is not a happy eater. he continued: how
can there be discipline in schools when there is no discipline in government how
can they clean up our hospitals when they don t clean up their act mr blair said
he would not respond to tittle tattle in books and promised to hail labour s
record on the economy waiting lists and law and order from now until polling
day . later at their poster launch tory co-chairman liam fox said his party would
exploit opportunities to show how juvenile the prime minister and chancellor
were. labour staged a show of unity at its own poster launch on tuesday where mr
brown was joined by alan milburn who mr blair controversially put in charge of
election planning in place of the chancellor. but liberal democrat leader charles
kennedy told bbc news: the government is clearly split at the top. this kind of
cosmetic exercise does not persuade anybody. later this week mr blair is expected
to outline the direction of his party s next election manifesto. the prime minister
and chancellor faced backbench discontent at monday s meeting of the parliamentary
labour party over claims made mr peston s book.
call centre users lose patience customers trying to get through to call centres
are getting impatient and quicker to hang up a survey suggests. once past the
welcome message callers on average hang up after just 65 seconds of listening to
canned music. the drop in patience comes as the number of calls to call centres is
growing at a rate of 20% every year. customers are getting used to the idea of an
always available society says cara diemont of it firm dimension data which
commissioned the survey. however call centres also saw a sharp increase of
customers simply abandoning calls she says from just over 5% in 2003 to a record
13.3% during last year. when automated phone message systems are taken out of the
equation where customers have to pick their way through multiple options and
messages the number of abandoned calls is even higher - a sixth of all callers
give up rather than wait. one possible reason for the lack in patience ms diemont
says is the fact that more customers are calling on the move using their mobile
phones. the surge in customers trying to get through to call centres is also a
reflection of the centres growing range of tasks. once a call centre may have
looked after mortgages now its agents may also be responsible for credit cards
insurance and current accounts ms diemont says. problems are occurring because
increased responsibility is not going hand-in-hand with more training the survey
found. in what dimension data calls an alarming development the average
induction time for a call centre worker fell last year from 36 to just 21 days
leaving agents not equipped to deal with customers . this ms diemont warns is
scary and not good for the bottom line either. poor training frustrates both call
centre workers and customers. as a result call centres have a high churn rate
with nearly a quarter of workers throwing in the towel every year which in turn
forces companies to pay for training new staff. resolution rates - the number of
calls where a customer s query is resolved to mutual satisfaction - are running at
just 50%. when the query is passed on to a second or third person - a specialist or
manager - rates rise to about 70% but that is still well below the industry target
of an 85% resolution rate. suggestions that outsourcing - relocating call
centres to low-cost countries like india or south africa - is to blame are wrong
ms diemont says. there are no big differences in wait time and call resolution
between call centres based in europe or north america and those in developing
countries around the world. you can make call centres perform anywhere if you have
good management and the right processes in place she says. however companies
that decide to offshore their operations are driven not just by cost
considerations. only 42% of them say that saving money is the main consideration
when closing domestic call centre operations. half of them argue that workers in
other countries offer better skills for the money. but not everybody believes that
outsourcing and offshoring are the solution. nearly two-thirds of all firms polled
for the survey have no plans to offshore their call centres. they give three key
reasons for not making the move: - call centre operations are part of their
business core function - they are worried about the risk of going abroad -
they fear that they will damage their brand if they join the offshoring drive. the
survey was conducted by sunovate on behalf of dimension data and is based on in-
depth questionnaires of 166 call centres in 24 countries and five continents. what
are your experiences with call centres are you happy to listen to vivaldi or
greensleeves or do you want an immediate response and if you work in a call
centre: did your training prepare you for your job
executive trio leave aer lingus three senior executives of ireland s state-owned
airline aer lingus are set to leave early on 28 january after accusations of a
conflict of interest. the trio are chief executive willie walsh chief financial
officer brian dunne and chief operations officer seamus kearney. the three have
refused to confirm reports they plan to launch a private airline in competition
with aer lingus. they announced in november they would quit in may but did not
give a reason. that decision had followed an announcement by irish prime minister
bertie ahern - who is still considering the future of the airline - which ruled out
a proposed management buy-out of aer lingus. mr walsh denied they had been forced
out early because of the reports claiming they were set to launch a competitor
airline. what i do after i leave aer lingus is still too early to say mr walsh
told ap news agency on wednesday. i have opportunities open to me. brian and
seamus are in the equally fortunate position. he said he had received more than 40
business proposals mostly aviation-related since the trio announced their
resignations two months ago. mr walsh said there was no conflict of interest and
if he was to launch a rival airline or join an existing competitor this thing
happens in every business . there s absolutely no question of a conflict of
interest. i ve been completely focused on my responsibilities at aer lingus he
told ap. this week opposition politicians had called on the irish government to
make an urgent decision on the future of the airline. on wednesday irish transport
minister martin cullen said in a statement: a conflict of interest cannot should
not and will not be allowed to arise between their current roles at aer lingus and
their future career intentions. last friday the minister had announced he was to
advertise for three senior executives for aer lingus. mr walsh who took charge in
2000 and his team have earned praise for turning aer lingus around by cutting air
fares and staff and re-positioning it as a low-fare airline to rival ryanair. the
company is 85% owned by the government and 15% by its staff.
mobile multimedia slow to catch on there is no doubt that mobile phones sporting
cameras and colour screens are hugely popular. consumers swapping old phones for
slinkier dinkier versions are thought to be responsible for a 26% increase in the
number of phones sold during the third quarter of 2004 according to analysts
gartner more than 167 million handsets were sold between july and september 2004 a
period that according to gartner analyst carolina milanesi is seldom strong . but
although consumers have mobiles that can take and send snaps sounds and video
clips few so far are taking the chance to do so. in fact the numbers of people
not taking and sending pictures audio and video is growing. figures gathered by
continental research shows that 36% of british camera phone users have never sent a
multimedia message (mms) up from 7% in 2003. this is despite the fact that during
the same period the numbers of camera phones in the uk more than doubled to 7.5
million. getting mobile phone users to send multimedia messages is really important
for operators keen to squeeze more cash out of their customers and offset the cost
of subsidising the handsets people are buying. the problem they face said
shailendra jain head of mms firm adamind is educating people in how to send the
multimedia messages using their funky handsets. also he said they have to
simplify the interface so its not rocket science in terms of someone understanding
it. research bears out the suspicion that people are not sending multimedia
messages because they do not know how to. according to continental research 29% of
the people it questioned said they were technophobes that tended to shy away from
innovation. only 11% regarded themselves as technically savvy enough to send a
picture or video message. the fact that multimedia services are not interoperable
across networks and phones only adds to people s reluctance to start sending them
said mr jain. they ask themselves: if i m streaming video from one handset to
another will it work he said. there s a lot of user apprehension about that.
there are other deeper technical reasons why multimedia messages are not being
pushed as strongly as they might. andrew bud executive chairman of messaging firm
mblox said mobile phone operators cap the number of messages that can be
circulating at any one time for fear of overwhelming the system. the rate we can
send mms into the mobile network is fairly constant he said. the reason for this
is that there are finite capacities for data traffic on the second generation
networks that currently have the most users. no-one wants to take the risk of
swamping these relatively narrow channels so the number of mms messages is capped
said mr bud. this has led to operators finding other technologies particularly one
known as wap-push to get multimedia to their customers. but when networks do find
a good way to get multimedia to their customers the results can be dramatic.
israeli technology firm celltick has found a way to broadcast data across phone
networks in a way that does not overwhelm existing bandwidth. one of the first
firms to use the celltick service is hutch india the largest mobile firm in the
country. the broadcast system gets multimedia to customers via a rolling menu far
faster than would be possible with other systems. while not multimedia messaging
such a system gets people used to seeing their phones as a device that can handle
all different types of content. as a result 40% of the subscribers to the hutch
alive which uses celltick s broadcast technology regularly click for more
pictures sounds and images from the operator. operators really need to start
utilising this tool to reach their customers said yaron toren spokesman for
celltick. until then multimedia will be a message that is not getting through.
calder fears for scottish rugby former scotland international finlay calder fears
civil war at the sru could seriously hamper his country s rbs six nations campaign.
four members of the executive board including the chairman david mackay have
resigned after a simmering row. and calder said: this is terrible news for every
level of scottish rugby. david is a successful businessman and i thought that if
anybody could transform the negative atmosphere and rising debt level it was him.
mackay s executive board has been in a power struggle with the general committee
which contains members elected by scotland s club sides. he has been driven out by
people who seem happier waging civil war than addressing the central issue that
professional rugby can t be run by amateurs said calder. in fact i don t
understand why we are still having this argument 10 years after professionalism
arrived. but i don t believe the rest of the sru will take this lying down. i
think the banks will be dismayed at this decision and ultimately it is them who
pull the strings. so i wouldn t be surprised if they reviewed their position. but
in the wider picture what message does this send out he thought the work of
scotland s coaches who have been attempting to arrest the decline of the national
side would be made much more difficult. matt williams and willie anderson must be
wondering what have we walked into here said calder. and we can now expect
weeks of arguments and acrimony just at a time when we should be looking forward to
the six nations championship. i am very very disappointed more than you can
imagine. why do so many scots have this knack of turning on each other when the
going gets tough
evil twin fear for wireless net people using wireless high-speed net (wi-fi) are
being warned about fake hotspots or access points. the latest threat nicknamed
evil twins pose as real hotspots but are actually unauthorised base stations say
cranfield university experts. once logged onto an evil twin sensitive data can be
intercepted. wi-fi is becoming popular as more devices come with wireless
capability. london leads the global wi-fi hotspots league with more than 1 000.
the number of hotspots is expected to reach 200 000 by 2008 according to analysts.
users need to be wary of using their wi-fi enabled laptops or other portable
devices in order to conduct financial transactions or anything that is of a
sensitive or personal nature said professor brian collins head of information
systems at cranfield university. users can also protect themselves by ensuring
that their wi-fi device has its security measures activated he added. bt openzone
which operates a vast proportion of public hotspots in the uk told the bbc news
website that it made every effort to make its wi-fi secure. naturally people may
have security concerns said chris clark chief executive for bt s wireless
broadband. but wi-fi networks are no more or less vulnerable than any other means
of accessing the internet like broadband or dial-up. he said bt openzone as well
as others have sophisticated encryption from the start of the login process to the
service at a hotspot. this means that users personal information and data logon
usernames and passwords are protected and secure said mr clark. in the vast
majority of cases base stations straight out of the box from the manufacturers are
automatically set up with the least secure mode possible said dr nobles.
cybercriminals who try to glean personal information using the scam jam
connections to a legitimate base station by sending a stronger signal near to the
wireless client. anyone with the right gear can find a real hotspot and substitute
it with an evil twin. cybercriminals don t have to be that clever to carry out
such an attack said dr phil nobles a wireless net and cybercrime expert at
cranfield. because wireless networks are based on radio signals they can be easily
detected by unauthorised users tuning into the same frequency. although wi-fi is
increasing in popularity as more people want to use high-speed net on the move
there have been fears over how secure it is. some companies have been reluctant to
use them in large numbers because of fears about security. a wireless network that
is not protected can provide a backdoor into a company s computer system. public
wi-fi hotspots offered by companies like bt openzone and the cloud are accessible
after users sign up and pay for use. but many home and company wi-fi networks are
left unprotected and can be sniffed out and hi-jacked by anyone with the correct
equipment. bt advises that customers should change all default settings make sure
that their security settings on all equipment are configured correctly said mr
clark. we also advocate the use of personal firewalls to ensure that only
authorised users can have access and that data cannot be intercepted. dr nobles is
due to speak about wireless cybercrime at the science museum s dana centre in
london on thursday.
j&j agrees $25bn guidant deal pharmaceutical giant johnson & johnson has agreed to
buy medical technology firm guidant for $25.4bn (£13bn). guidant is a key producer
of equipment that combats heart problems such as implant defibrillators and
pacemakers. analysts said that the deal is aimed at offsetting johnson & johnson s
reliance on a slowing drug business. they also pointed out that more mergers are
likely because the drug and healthcare industries are fragmented and are under
pressure to cut costs. a number of johnson & johnson s products are facing patent
expirations while the company is also battling fierce competition from generic
products. meanwhile demand for defibrillators which give the heart a small
electric shock when an irregular heartbeat or rhythm is detected is expected to
increase analysts said. the move by johnson & johnson has been widely expected and
the firm will pay $76 for each guidant share 6% more than wednesday s closing
price. analysts say that us antitrust regulators could force the firms to shed some
overlapping stent operations. stents are tubes that are used to keep an artery open
after it has been unblocked.
broadband in the uk growing fast high-speed net connections in the uk are proving
more popular than ever. bt reports that more people signed up for broadband in the
last three months than in any other quarter. the 600 000 connections take the total
number of people in the uk signing up for broadband from bt to almost 3.3 million.
nationally more than 5 million browse the net via broadband. britain now has among
the highest number of broadband connections throughout the whole of europe.
according to figures gathered by industry watchdog ofcom the growth means that
the uk has now surpassed germany in terms of broadband users per 100 people. the uk
total of 5.3 million translates into 7.5 connections per 100 people compared to
6.7 in germany and 15.8 in the netherlands. the numbers of people signing up to
broadband include those that get their service direct from bt or via the many
companies that re-sell bt lines under their own name. part of the surge in people
signing up was due to bt stretching the reach of adsl - the uk s most widely used
way of getting broadband - beyond 6km. asymmetric digital subscriber line
technology lets ordinary copper phone lines support high data speeds. the standard
speed is 512kbps though faster connections are available. this breakthrough led
to a dramatic increase in orders as we were suddenly able to satisfy the pent-up
demand that existed in many areas said paul reynolds chief executive of bt
wholesale which provides phone lines that other firms re-sell. bt retail which
sells net services under its own name also had a good quarter and provided about
30% of the new broadband customers. this was a slight increase on the previous
three months. despite the good news about growth in broadband figures from
telecommunications regulator ofcom show that bt faces increasing competition and
dwindling influence in other sectors. local loop unbundling (llu) in which bt
rivals install their hardware in exchanges and take over the line to a customer s
home or office is growing steadily. cable & wireless and ntl have announced that
they are investing millions to start offering llu services. by the end of september
more than 4.2 million phone lines were using so-called carrier pre-section (cps)
services such as talktalk and one.tel which route phone calls across non-bt
networks from a local exchange. there are now more than 300 different firms
offering cps services and the percentage of people using bt lines for voice calls
has shrunk to 55.4%.
howard denies split over id cards michael howard has denied his shadow cabinet was
split over its decision to back controversial labour plans to introduce id cards.
the tory leader said his front bench team had reached a collective view after
holding a good discussion but admitted it was not an easy issue . he had
decided to support the plans as the police said they would help fight terror crime
and illegal immigration. the lib dems have pledged to oppose the bill when it is
debated next monday. tory sources say senior party figures had argued vociferously
against the id card scheme. among those reported to have serious reservations over
the strategy were senior shadow cabinet members david davis oliver letwin and tim
yeo. but mr howard denied mr yeo his transport and environment spokesman said the
plans stink . he also said he was confident shadow home secretary mr davis would
set out the position very clearly when he stands up to debate the matter next
week. mr howard said the police had said id cards could help them foil a terror
bomb plot in which people could lose their lives . he added: when the police say
that you have to take them seriously . he acknowledged there were good
libertarian arguments against the cards but said the shadow cabinet had weighed
up all the conflicting interests before reaching its decision. i don t pretend
that it is an easy decision but at the end of the day a decision has to be taken.
he also denied he was afraid of looking soft on the issue compared to labour.
the conservatives announced their support for the government plans on monday
evening. sources within the party told the bbc mr howard had always been in favour
of id cards and tried to introduce them when he was home secretary. but the tories
insisted they would hold ministers to account over the precise purpose of the
scheme. they said they would also press labour over whether objectives could be
met and whether the home office would be able to deliver them. and they pledged to
assess the cost effectiveness of id cards and whether people s privacy would be
properly protected. it is important to remember that this bill will take a decade
to come into full effect a spokesman said. lib dem home affairs spokesman mark
oaten has branded the id scheme a waste of money and deeply flawed . he said:
this has all the signs of michael howard overruling colleagues concerns over id
cards. the chairman of the bar council guy mansfield qc warned there was a real
risk that people on the margins of society would be driven into the hands of
extremists. what is going to happen to young asian men when there has been a bomb
gone off somewhere they are going to be stopped. if they haven t [id cards] they
are going to be detained. tory ex-minister douglas hogg said he opposed the plans
for id cards branding them a regressive step which would intrude into the lives
of ordinary citizens without any counterbalancing benefits. he predicted ultimately
carrying the cards would become compulsory and that would lead to large numbers of
britain s ethnic minorities being stopped by police.
no uk apology for colonial past the days of britain having to apologise for its
colonial past are over gordon brown has said. the chancellor speaking during a
week-long tour of africa said it was time to talk about enduring british values of
liberty and tolerance. mr brown has signed a debt relief deal with tanzania which
could cost the uk £1 billion. south african president thabo mbeki has attacked
british imperialists saying they treated africans like savages. mr brown said that
missionairies had come to africa because of their sense of duty. he added that the
history of internationalism and enterprise had given britain a greater global reach
than any other country. bbc political correspondent mark mardell said britishness
had long been a theme of the chancellor s but never before has he been so
outspoken in defending britain s past history . the uk has pledged to pay 10% of
the developing world s foreign debt bill in an attempt to fight poverty. on top of
the relief deal with tanzania mr brown said the uk would make similar offers to 70
poorer nations around the world. under the plan - which could cost the uk £1bn -
countries must spend the cash saved on health education and welfare. we make this
offer unilaterally but we are now asking other countries to join us the
chancellor said. mr brown on a week-long tour of africa spent two days in
tanzania before heading on friday evening to mozambique a country where more than
half of the 17-million population lives below the poverty line. there he is
expected to strike a similar debt relief pact. the chancellor said he hoped other
g8 and european countries would follow suit. the uk has already cancelled its
bilateral debts - money the uk alone is owed - with the world s poorest nations
including tanzania. former international development secretary clare short
questioned the effectiveness of debt relief as a means of tackling poverty.
anelka eyes man city departure striker nicolas anelka reportedly wants to leave
manchester city in search of champions league football. anelka 25 is in talks
over a contract extension beyond 2007 with city but is believed to fear his career
will go stale if he stays at the club. the news of the world reports that anelka
told a french magazine: i either decide to win titles or to have an easy life. i
think i will always choose football if a great club makes me an offer. he added:
to win titles you need players who have the capability of doing so. if we stagnate
between eighth and 15th place it s impossible to progress. if i am going to score
goals and not win there is a risk it is going to create a feeling of being fed up.
anelka has earned a reputation for being a difficult character to handle after
spells at arsenal real madrid and paris st germain and he feels that is now coming
back to haunt him. i am in talks to sign an extension to my contract he said.
i am well here but the sporting aspect also comes into account. playing for eighth
place is good but i miss the champions league. i won it with real madrid in 2000
and i need to be playing in it - and i should be playing in it. i m not in it
because of things that have happened in the past and had nothing to do with
football. but i don t blame anyone. it s a bit my fault.
markets fall on weak dollar fears rising oil prices and the sinking dollar hit
shares on monday after a finance ministers meeting and stern words from fed chief
alan greenspan. the london ftse fell 0.8% while tokyo s nikkei 225 dropped 2.11%
its steepest fall in three months. g20 finance ministers said nothing about
supporting the dollar whose slide could further jeopardise growth in japan and
europe. and mr greenspan warned asian states could soon stop funding the us
deficit. on monday afternoon the euro was close to an all-time high against the
dollar at above $1.30. oil pushed higher too on monday as investors fretted about
cold weather in the us and europe and a potential output cut from oil producers
group opec although prices had cooled by the end of the day. in london the
benchmark brent crude price closed down 51 cents at $44.38 a barrel while new york
light sweet crude closed down 25 cents at $48.64 a barrel. the slide comes as the
us has been attempting to talk up the traditional strong dollar policy. the
latest to pitch in has been president george w bush himself who told the asia
pacific economic co-operation (apec) summit in chile that he remained committed to
halving the budget deficit. together with a $500bn trade gap the red ink spreading
across america s public finances is widely seen as a key factor driving the dollar
lower. and last week us treasury secretary john snow told an audience in the uk
that the policy remained unaltered. but he also said that the rate was entirely up
to the markets - a signal which traders took as advice to sell the dollar. some had
looked to the g20 meeting for direction. but mr snow made clear exchange rates had
not been on the agenda. for the us government letting the dollar drift is a
useful short-term fix. us exports get more affordable helping perhaps to close
the trade gap. in the meantime the debt keeps getting bigger with congress
authorising an $800bn rise in what the us can owe - taking the total to $8.2
trillion. but in a speech on friday federal reserve chairman alan greenspan warned
that in the longer term things are likely to get tricky. at present much of gap in
both public debt is covered by selling bonds to asian states such as japan and
china since the dollar is seen as the world s reserve currency. similarly asian
investment helps bridge the gap in the current account - the deficit between what
the us as a whole spends and what it earns. but already they are turning more
cautious - an auction of debt in august found few takers. and mr greenspan said
that could turn into a trend if the fall of the dollar kept eating into the value
of those investments. it seems persuasive that given the size of the us current
account deficit a diminished appetite for adding to dollar balances must occur at
some point he said.
concerns at school diploma plan final appeals are being made for the government not
to ditch the reform plan for england s secondary schools put forward by the
tomlinson report. the government s response to the plan for a four-tier diploma to
replace all existing 14-19 qualifications is expected next week. some are worried
it could be scuppered if as tony blair and ruth kelly have suggested gcses and a-
levels stay. sir mike tomlinson himself was briefed only this week. he is said to
be feeling more comfortable about what the government is likely to say than if he
had read only what was in newspapers in the earlier part of the week. but the
government was said to be still rewriting its response on friday. it will be a
tragedy if the government comes through with a half-hearted response said the
chairman of the commons education select committee labour mp barry sheerman. his
main concern was the reports that there would be a diploma - but only to replace
existing vocational qualifications. we must tackle head-on the structural mess
that is our secondary education system he wrote in the times educational
supplement. it is not the case that the academic stream in secondary is fine while
the vocational route is desperately weak. the qualifications and curriculum
authority (qca) has also told the government not to compromise . the qca said the
potential step-change in participation and attainment lay in the integrity of the
whole diploma. any partial implementation of the proposals would in our view
compromise that integrity said its chairman sir anthony greener. it is a sign of
the qca s concern that its advice went to ministers last december but was
publicised only recently. but people understand that a white paper response is
government policy and has to command wider ministerial support than if it were
coming only from the department for education and skills. they may be content if it
does not close too many doors in writing - whatever spin is put on it. the chief
inspector of schools david bell also said recently that gcses and a-levels should
go. one of the reasons why i m so strongly in favour of these terms disappearing
over time is that it s good for the symbols of change to be seen right across the
system he said. if we don t say this is a sea-change in education we will miss
a great opportunity. universities and head teachers in both the independent and
state sectors have also backed the tomlinson proposals which include having higher
grades at advanced level to differentiate between the brightest students. a note of
concern has been expressed repeatedly by the employers organisation the cbi
which complains of a lack of skills. in an attempt to address this the tomlinson
plan is for tests in functional maths and literacy - decidedly not gcses. it has
been suggested the government will take steps of some sort to meet firms concerns
on this score. another dissenter is sir mike tomlinson s predecessor as chief
schools inspector professor chris woodhead who has said there is no need for such
a massive upheaval . the conservative party has put forward plans to revert to a
system of having only the brightest percentage of students each year getting the
top a-level grade no matter how well the others have done.
costin aims for comeback in 2006 jamie costin should be paralysed. he says so
himself in a matter-of-fact way as he recalls the car accident which occurred nine
days before he was scheduled to step out into the olympic stadium in athens for the
50k walk. there is an ironic chuckle as he talks of his immediate thoughts after a
lorry driving on the wrong side of the road had ploughed into his rental car. i
was in a lot of pain and i guessed that one of my toes was broken says the
waterford man. but i was thinking maybe with a cortisone injection you never know.
in my back it felt as though all the muscles had been ripped off my pelvis but i
was thinking maybe we could do something with laser therapy and ultra sound and
hopefully i d be able to race. it took over 10 hours before jamie knew with
certainty that he would not be competing in his second olympics. my back had been
broken in two places and with one of my vertebrae the bottom part had exploded so
i m fierce lucky not be paralysed. i d fractured my big toe as well which was on
the brake. jamie didn t finally arrive at hospital in athens until some nine and a
half hours after the accident. for the first nine hours i had no pain killers
which was ridiculous in 35 degrees heat. but once i got the scans and saw them it
was a case of moving on and thinking: ok i ve got a different set of circumstances
now . within three days he was arriving back in ireland by air ambulance. doctors
in athens had wanted to operate on jamie s back immediately but he insisted on
delaying any surgery until he arrived back home - something he is now very relieved
about. the greek doctors were going to put three or four inch titanium rods either
side of my spinal cord up through my vertebrae. that would have fused all my lower
back and i would never have been able to race again. they were really putting a lot
of pressure on me to agree to the surgery. but when i got to the mater in dublin
they said it was possible for it to heal totally naturally which is giving me the
chance to get back into competition which is very important to me. the people at
the mater have been absolutely fantastic. jamie had to wear a body cast for three
and a half months after the accident and spent most of that time flat on his back.
he then progressed to crutches for six weeks until he was finally able to walk
unaided on 10 january. walking without the crutches seemed like something finally
really measurable in terms of my recovery. physio sessions with johnston mcevoy in
limerick have been a vital part of his recovery. johnston uses an advanced type of
acupuncture and it s very effective. needles get put right close up to my spine. a
two and a half inch needle went in yesterday and i m fairly incapacitated today as
a result. jamie has also travelled to receive treatment at the polish training
centre in spala where he has trained with triple olympic champion robert
korzeniowski over the past five years. i was there for over a fortnight earlier
this month and underwent a fair extreme treatment called cryotherapy. basically
there s a small room which is cooled by liquid nitrogen to minus 160 degrees
centigrade and it promotes deep healing. jamie heads to poland again on sunday
where he will be having daily cryotherapy in addition to twice-daily physio
sessions and pool-work. all these sessions are small steps on the way to what jamie
hopes will be a return to racing in 2006. it s all about trying to get mobility in
my back. lying down for three and a half months didn t really help with the
strength. there s a lot of work involved in my recovery. i m doing about six hours
a day between physio and pool work. i m also going to the gym to lift very light
weights to try and build up my muscles. i m fairly full on with everything i do. i
d hope to be training regularly by march. but training is just part of the process
of getting back. at the moment every time i go and do a big bit of movement my
whole pelvic area all down my lower back just tightens up. it s a case of waiting
and seeing how it reacts. hopefully after four or five months my back won t
tighten up as much.
uk economy facing major risks the uk manufacturing sector will continue to face
serious challenges over the next two years the british chamber of commerce (bcc)
has said. the group s quarterly survey of companies found exports had picked up in
the last three months of 2004 to their best levels in eight years. the rise came
despite exchange rates being cited as a major concern. however the bcc found the
whole uk economy still faced major risks and warned that growth is set to slow.
it recently forecast economic growth will slow from more than 3% in 2004 to a
little below 2.5% in both 2005 and 2006. manufacturers domestic sales growth fell
back slightly in the quarter the survey of 5 196 firms found. employment in
manufacturing also fell and job expectations were at their lowest level for a year.
despite some positive news for the export sector there are worrying signs for
manufacturing the bcc said. these results reinforce our concern over the sector
s persistent inability to sustain recovery. the outlook for the service sector was
uncertain despite an increase in exports and orders over the quarter the bcc
noted. the bcc found confidence increased in the quarter across both the
manufacturing and service sectors although overall it failed to reach the levels at
the start of 2004. the reduced threat of interest rate increases had contributed to
improved confidence it said. the bank of england raised interest rates five times
between november 2003 and august last year. but rates have been kept on hold since
then amid signs of falling consumer confidence and a slowdown in output. the
pressure on costs and margins the relentless increase in regulations and the
threat of higher taxes remain serious problems bcc director general david frost
said. while consumer spending is set to decelerate significantly over the next 12-
18 months it is unlikely that investment and exports will rise sufficiently
strongly to pick up the slack.
eu software patent law faces axe the european parliament has thrown out a bill that
would have allowed software to be patented. politicians unanimously rejected the
bill and now it must go through another round of consultation if it is to have a
chance of becoming law. during consultation the software patents bill could be
substantially re-drafted or even scrapped. the bill was backed by some hi-tech
firms saying they needed protections it offered to make research worthwhile. hugo
lueders european director for public policy at comptia an umbrella organization
for technology companies said only when intellectual property was adequately
protected would european inventors prosper. he said the benefits of the bill had
been obscured by special interest groups which muddied debate over the rights and
wrongs of software patents. other proponents of the bill said it was a good
compromise that avoided the excesses of the american system which allows the
patenting of business practices as well as software. but opponents of the bill said
that it could stifle innovation be abused by firms keen to protect existing
monopolies and could hamper the growth of the open source movement. the proposed
law had a troubled passage through the european parliament. its progress was
delayed twice when polish meps rejected plans to adopt it. also earlier this month
the influential european legal affairs committee (juri) said the law should be re-
drafted after it failed to win the support of meps. to become law both the european
parliament and a qualified majority of eu states have to approve of the draft
wording of the bill. the latest rejection means that now the bill on computer
inventions must go back to the eu for re-consideration.
liberian economy starts to grow the liberian economy started to grow in 2004 but
sustained and deep reform efforts are needed to ensure long term growth the
international monetary fund (imf) has said. an imf mission made the comments in a
report published following 10 days of talks with the transition government. the imf
said that according to data provided by the liberians the country s gdp rose by
2% in 2004 after a 31% decline in 2003. liberia is recovering from a 14-year civil
war that came to an end in 2003. the power-sharing national transition government
of liberia will remain in place until elections on 11 october the first
presidential and parliamentary ballots since the conflict ended. the imf said
liberia s economy started to grow last year thanks to a continued strong recovery
in rubber production domestic manufacturing and local services including post-
conflict reconstruction . the imf however remains cautious about what it sees as a
lack of transparency in government actions. in particular it pointed to mystery
surrounding the sale of iron ore stockpiles and the alleged disappearance of some
import and export permits. these matters are now being investigated by the liberian
authorities and the imf has called for their findings to be made public. the imf
also said it was crucial that the central bank of liberia be strengthened the
national budget be effectively managed and a sound economic basis built to allow
the country s large external debt to be addressed. the imf team stands ready to
assist the (liberian) authorities in strengthening the areas mentioned said the
report. the team agreed with the (liberian) authorities that the period until
elections and the inauguration of a new government will pose exceptional challenges
to fiscal management and expresses its willingness to provide...continued support.
ec calls truce in deficit battle the european commission (ec) has called a truce in
its battle with france and germany over breaching deficit limits. the move came
after france and germany vowed to run their budget deficits below the eu cap in
2005 - for the first time in four years. but the ec did warn the two were under
close scrutiny and it would act if their fiscal situations deteriorated. under eu
rules member countries must keep their deficits below 3%. france and germany will
breach that this year. it will be the third year in a row that the two countries
have broken the european union s stability and growth pact rules. the eurozone s
two biggest economies left the pact in tatters in november 2003 when they persuaded
fellow eu members to put the threat of penalties for deficit breaches on hold. the
commission then took the pair to the european court of human justice - which ruled
eu countries could not put the pact in abeyance and confirmed the ec s right to
launch excessive debt procedures . after announcing its decision to erase france
and germany from its list of deficit rule breakers the eu said that the time lag
created by the ruling meant that 2005 should be the target year for the pair to
bring their budget s below 3%. the commission concludes that the two countries
appear to be on track to correct their excessive deficits by 2005 it said in a
statement. the eu expects the german deficit to fall to fall to 2.9% of gdp next
year from 3.9% this year while france s is forecast to drop to 3% from an expected
3.7% this year. the forecasts are based on ec predictions of gdp growth of 1.5% in
germany next year and 2.2% in france. berlin welcomed the decision with finance
minister hans eichel saying it showed that the ec recognised germany s fiscal
policy was on the right track even amid very difficult economic conditions .
however paris was more subdued with finance minister herve gaymard telling
parliament: we must continue along this path of saving money. however the move
still had its critics with the european people s party (epp) attacking the ec for
backing down from punitive action. the commission is buckling under the pressure
from germany and france epp spokesman alexander radwan said. the scary fact is
that budget sinners despite having repeatedly exceeded the 3% deficit limit do
not have to fear any sanctions. despite the commission delivering its decision on
the two biggest eurozone economies it refused to comment on similar action against
greece which has also broken the 3% deficit ceiling. monetary affairs commissioner
joaquin almunia said that it was a matter for next week.
roxy music on isle of wight bill roxy music will appear at june s isle of wight
music festival along with morrissey supergrass and idlewild. rem have already
been confirmed as headliners for the three-day event which takes place from 10-12
june. original band members bryan ferry phil manzerana andy mackay and paul
thompson will take to the stage on the saturday night of the festival. the band are
also working in the studio on new material their first since the 1982 album
avalon. roxy music were formed in 1971 by ferry mackay and brian eno with
manzanera joining the following year. their first hit was 1972 s virginia plain
with other hits including street life love is the drug and the 1981 john lennon
cover jealous guy. roxy music s back catalogue was re-released in 2000 leading to
the band undertaking a world tour in 2001. morrissey will also play on saturday at
the festival while supergrass and idlewild have been confirmed for the friday.
singer christina aguilera to wed pop star christina aguilera is to marry music
executive jordan bratman the singer s agent has confirmed. bratman 26 proposed
to grammy-winning singer aguilera 23 on holiday at an undisclosed location. the
pair have been together for more than two years. no wedding plans have been set
yet said aguilera s agent meghan prophet. aguilera burst onto the pop scene in
1999 winning a best new artist grammy in 2000. her hits include what a girl wants
dirrty and beautiful. bratman presented his fiancee with a diamond ring designed by
jeweller stephen webster on friday said ms prophet. new york-born aguilera reached
number one in the uk with her debut hit genie in a bottle in october 1999. her
early success was cemented by two further grammys in subsequent years. in 2002
aguilera won best pop collaboration for the hit track lady marmalade with lil kim
maya and pink and last year she picked up the award for best female pop vocal
performance for beautiful. her most recent single car wash featuring missy
elliott reached number four in the uk charts last november.
dibaba breaks 5 000m world record ethiopia s tirunesh dibaba set a new world record
in winning the women s 5 000m at the boston indoor games. dibaba won in 14 minutes
32.93 seconds to erase the previous world indoor mark of 14:39.29 set by another
ethiopian berhane adera in stuttgart last year. but compatriot kenenisa bekele s
record hopes were dashed when he miscounted his laps in the men s 3 000m and staged
his sprint finish a lap too soon. ireland s alistair cragg won in 7:39.89 as bekele
battled to second in 7:41.42. i didn t want to sit back and get out-kicked said
cragg. so i kept on the pace. the plan was to go with 500m to go no matter what
but when bekele made the mistake that was it. the race was mine. sweden s carolina
kluft the olympic heptathlon champion and slovenia s jolanda ceplak had winning
performances too. kluft took the long jump at 6.63m while ceplak easily won the
women s 800m in 2:01.52.
world leaders gather to face uncertainty more than 2 000 business and political
leaders from around the globe are arriving in the swiss mountain resort davos for
the annual world economic forum (wef). for five days they will discuss issues
ranging from china s economic power to iraq s future after this sunday s elections.
uk prime minister tony blair and south african president thabo mbeki are among the
more than 20 government leaders and heads of state leaders attending the meeting.
unlike previous years protests against the wef are expected to be muted. anti-
globalisation campaigners have called off a demonstration planned for the weekend.
the brazilian city of porto alegre will host the rival world social forum timed to
run in parallel with the wef s ritzier event in davos. the organisers of the
brazilian gathering which brings together thousands of campaigners against
globalisation for fair trade and many other causes have promised to set an
alternative agenda to that of the swiss summit. however many of the issues
discussed in porto alegre are davos talking points as well. global warming
features particularly high. wef participants are being asked to offset the carbon
emissions they cause by travelling to the event. davos itself is in deep frost. the
snow is piled high across the mountain village and at night the wind chill takes
temperatures down to minus 20c and less. ultimately the forum will be dominated
by business issues - from outsourcing to corporate leadership - with bosses of more
than a fifth of the world s 500 largest companies scheduled to attend. but much of
the media focus will be on the political leaders coming to davos not least because
the agenda of this year s forum seems to lack an overarching theme. taking
responsibility for tough choices is this year s official talking point hinting at
a welter of knotty problems. one thing seems sure though: transatlantic
disagreements over how to deal with iran iraq and china are set to dominate
discussions. pointedly only one senior official from president bush s new
administration is scheduled to attend. the us government may still make a
conciliatory gesture just as happened a year ago when vice president dick cheney
made a surprise appearance in davos. ukraine s new president viktor yushchenko
is to speak just days after his inauguration an event that crowned the civil
protests against the rigged first election that had tried to keep him from power.
the european union s top leaders among them german chancellor gerhard schroeder
and european commission president manuel barosso will be here too. mr blair will
formally open the proceedings although his speech will be pre-empted by french
president jacques chirac who announced his attendance at the last minute and
secured a slot for a special message two hours before mr blair speaks. the
organisers also hope that the new palestinian leader mahmoud abbas will use the
opportunity for talks with at least one of the three israeli deputy prime ministers
coming to the event a list that includes shimon peres. davos fans still hark back
to 1994 when talks between yassir arafat and mr peres came close to a peace deal.
mr blair s appearance will be keenly watched too as political observers in the uk
claim it is a calculated snub against political rival chancellor gordon brown who
was supposed to lead the uk government delegation. microsoft founder bill gates
the world s richest man and a regular at davos will focus on campaigning for good
causes though business interests will not be wholly absent either. having already
donated billions of dollars to the fight against aids and malaria mr gates will
call on world leaders to support a global vaccination campaign to protect children
in developing countries from easily preventable diseases. on tuesday mr gates
pledged $750m (£400m) of his own money to support the cause. mr gates company
software giant microsoft also hopes to use davos to shore up its defences against
open source software like linux which threaten microsoft s near monopoly on
computer desktops. mr gates is said to be trying to arrange a meeting with brazil s
president lula da silva. the brazilian government has plans to switch all
government computers from microsoft to linux. at davos global problem solving and
networking are never far apart.
millions to miss out on the net by 2025 40% of the uk s population will still be
without internet access at home says a study. around 23 million britons will miss
out on a wide range of essential services such as education and medical information
predicts the report by telecoms giant bt. it compares to 27 million or 50% of the
uk who are not currently online. the idea that the digital divide will evaporate
with time is wishful thinking the report concludes. the study calls on the
government and telecoms industry to come up with new ways to lure those that have
been bypassed by the digital revolution. although the percentage of britons without
home access will have fallen slightly those that remain digital refuseniks will
miss out on more the report suggests. as more and more everyday tasks move online
and offline services become less comprehensive the divide will become more obvious
and more burdensome for those that have not got net access it predicts. the gap
between have-nets and have-nots has been much talked about but predictions
about how such a divide will affect future generations has been less discussed. bt
set out to predict future patterns based on current information and taking account
of the way technology is changing. optimists who predict that convergence and the
emergence of more user-friendly technology will bridge the digital divide could be
way off mark the report suggests. internet access on other devices tends to be
something taken up by those who already have it said adrian hosford director of
corporate responsibility at bt. costs of internet access have fallen dramatically
and coverage in remote areas have vastly improved over the last year but the real
barrier remains psychological. there is a hard rump of have-nots who are not
engaging with the net. they don t have the motivation or skills or perceive the
benefits said mr hosford. as now the most disadvantaged groups are likely to
remain among low income families the older generation and the disabled. those on
low incomes will account for a quarter of the digital have-nots the disabled will
make up 16% and the elderly nearly a third by 2025 the report forecasts.
organisations such as bt have a responsibility to help tackle the problem said mr
hosford. the telco has seen positive results with its everybody online project
which offers internet access to people in eight deprived communities around
britain. in one area of cornwall with high levels of unemployment online training
helped people rewrite cvs and learn skills to get new jobs explained mr hosford.
such grassroot activity addressing the specific needs of individual communities is
essential is the problem of the digital divide is to be overcome he said. if we
don t address this problem now it will get a lot worse and people will find it
more difficult to find jobs education opportunities will be limited and they ll
simply not be able to keep up with society he said. the alliance for digital
inclusion an independent body with members drawn from government industry and the
voluntary sector has recently been set up to tackle some of the issues faced by the
digital refuseniks.
more movies head to sony s psp movies open water and saw are among those to be made
available for sony s psp games console. film studio lions gate entertainment has
announced an initial list of 12 movies that will be on the umd format used by the
handheld. the typical buyer of the machine [is] the core demographic to whom our
films generally appeal said steve beeks president of lions gate. already
available in japan the psp is released in the us on 24 march. spider-man 2 on umd
will be given to the first million customers in the us. the punisher and house of
the dead along with older titles such as total recall and rambo: first blood will
be in the umd format with disks costing between $20 (£10.40) to $30 (£15.60) for
new titles and $10 (£5.20) to $20 for older films. when we first saw the machine
and started talking to sony we immediately decided it was going to be a winner
both from the gaming perspective and from the perspective of people watching movies
on the go mr beeks said. the disks which are smaller than dvds only work in
sony s psp and can hold up to 1.8gb of data. we actually believe people who buy
the umd would not have bought it on dvd he said. there are people who will want
umd because of the portability. maybe they re already taking the games with them
out of the house and they re bigger gamers than they are movie watchers. four
movies have already been announced for psp. they are: xxx hellboy resident evil:
apocalypse and once upon a time in mexico.
brown comes out shooting labour may have abolished hunting - but that didn t stop
chancellor gordon brown using his budget to fire both barrels at some of the
opposition parties core election foxes. specifically it saw him attempting to
slaughter the council tax as an election issue and to tear limb from limb their
wider policies for pensioners and families. in a relatively short speech he kept
the best for last and was clearly out to give exactly that pre-election boost
everyone had been predicting. so if you are a couple with children a pensioner a
patient or a youngster there was something pulled from mr brown s red box in an
attempt to persuade you to stick with or switch to a new labour government. like a
surgeon he attempted to target his handouts with absolute precision onto exactly
the groups the government needs to appeal to in the election campaign. the
announcements brought great cheers from his own mps who are now in full-on election
mode and had been looking to their man to give them ammunition for the doorsteps.
they obviously believed he had done that for them and coincidentally given his
own image as a prime minister-in-waiting another little boost. labour mps for
example will undoubtedly now engage in a debate over exactly how redistributive -
a lovely old labour word - this chancellor really is. but gordon brown is never
going to put on a show and even as he was out to cast himself as the man who will
win labour an historic third term his demeanour remained quiet confident and
reassuring. prudence made an appearance albeit towards the end of his address as
he assured voters he would do nothing to mess up the economic stability he had
brought to britain and which he claimed would be thrown away by anyone else.
according to the opposition parties however it is all one big con trick. as
always they accused him of glossing over the facts of the black hole at the
centre of his finances which they claim would ensure tax increases after the
election. he did it most obviously with his increase in national insurance
contributions after the 2001 election campaign during which he had pledged not to
increase income tax. as liberal democrat leader charles kennedy claimed for most
families the distinction between income tax and a tax on income is meaningless.
tory leader michael howard said the chancellor was up to his old trick of
deliberately re-casting his forecasts to give the illusion that everything in the
treasury larder is as fresh as the day it was first stored away for future use. he
branded it a dodgy vote now pay later budget based on dodgy figures from a dodgy
government that gave britain the dodgy dossier. where the chancellor mostly avoided
direct electioneering mr howard felt no such constraint with attacks like
comparing mr brown s forecasts to the prime minister s forecasts on iraq s weapons
of mass destruction. as ever there will now be a period of frantic activity by the
opposition parties treasury specialists as they pore over the chancellor s red
book which sets out the fine detail of his budget in an attempt to spot the
flaws. in particular there will be an argument over precisely whose policies on the
council tax will offer people the best deal. and in labour circles there will
undoubtedly be an argument over just how good a prime minister gordon brown will
make at some point after the next election.
air passengers win new eu rights air passengers who are unable to board their
flights because of overbooking cancellations or flight delays can now demand
greater compensation. new eu rules set compensation at between 250 euros (£173)
and 600 euros depending on the length of the flight. the new rules will apply to
all scheduled and charter flights including budget airlines. airlines have
attacked the legislation saying they could be forced to push prices higher to cover
the extra cost. the european commission is facing two legal challenges - one from
the european low-fare airlines association (elaa) and the other from the
international air transport association (iata) which has attacked the package as a
bad piece of legislation . previously passengers could claim between 150 euros and
300 euros if they had been stopped from boarding. however only scheduled flight
operators were obliged to offer compensation in cases of overbooking and they did
not have to offer compensation for flight cancellations. the eu decided to
increase passenger compensation in a bid to deter airlines from deliberately
overbooking flights. overbooking can often lead to bumping - when a passenger is
moved to a later flight. when this happens against a passenger s will airlines
will now have to offer compensation. in addition if a flight is cancelled or
delayed for more than two hours through the fault of the airline all passengers
must be paid compensation. however airlines do not have to offer compensation if
flights are cancelled or delayed due to extraordinary circumstances . airlines
fear that extraordinary circumstances may not include bad weather security
alerts or strikes - events which are outside of their control. all eu-based
airlines and operators of flights which take off from the eu will have to adhere to
the new compensation regime which came into force on thursday. low-cost airlines
have criticised the new compensation levels arguing that the pay-out could be
worth more than the ticket. it s a preposterous piece of legislation we among all
airlines are fighting this ryanair deputy chief executive michael cawley told
radio 4 s today programme. the european regions airline association (eraa) claims
that neither airlines nor consumers were consulted over the changes. andy clarke
eraa director of air transport said that the ec advice misleads customers as it
leads them to believe that airlines could be liable for payouts if flights are
delayed because of bad weather. ec spokeswoman marja quillinan-meiland conceded
there were grey areas but said these are not as big as the airlines are making
out . in cases of dispute national enforcement bodies would decide whether the
passenger had a case she said. new technology means it is easier for airlines to
take off and land in bad weather she added. the eraa s mr clarke also warned that
while airlines would comply with the new rules the extra costs would be passed
onto passengers. we reckon it s going to cost european air passengers - not the
airlines the airlines have no money it has to be paid by passengers - 1.5bn euros
that s over £1bn a year loaded onto european passengers mr clarke said. that s
basically a transfer of money from passengers whose journeys are not disrupted to
passengers whose journeys are disrupted. on wednesday jacques barrot vice
president of the european commission and also commissioner for transport said that
the changes were necessary. the boom in air travel needs to be accompanied by
proper protection of passengers right. this is a concrete example of how the
union benefits people s daily lives he added. the ec has launched an information
campaign in airports and travel agencies to inform airline passengers of their new
rights.
new drink limit would cut toll more lives than previously thought could be saved
by cutting drink-drive limits by a third a report says. university college london
research claims cutting the limit from 80mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood to 50mg
would save 65 lives a year. the findings are being published by the parliamentary
advisory council for transport safety as mps are due to vote on the government s
road safety bill. the bill includes changes to speeding fines but not to the drink-
drive limit. the research carried out by transport expert professor richard allsop
says cutting the limit would also lead to 230 fewer serious injuries on the uk s
roads compared with 2003. he estimates that this would save the country £119m a
year. a previous estimate contained in a 1998 department of transport document
suggested such a move could save 50 lives a year. the findings are based on the
assumption that drivers who currently keep below the legal limit would continue to
do so were it to be lowered and that those who tend to exceed the limit slightly
would also lower their drinking. professor allsop said: reducing the limit from
80mg to 50mg can be expected to save around 65 lives a year or around half of those
who die in accidents where the driver s bac [blood alcohol content] is within 30mg
of the current limit. only about one in 50 of those driving during weekend
evenings and nights will need to moderate their drinking to achieve this and fewer
still at other times. ministers do not support a lower limit saying it is not
clear it would have a major impact on drink drive casualties. they believe
educating drivers is more important. the aa motoring trust said it was not sure
what affect dropping the limit would have on drivers attitudes to drink-driving.
road safety head andrew howard said: it remains to be seen whether the social
disapproval of the drinking driver will stay at the current rate if the alcohol
limit is cut. parliamentarians need to consider this carefully. britons police
themselves by consensus much more effectively than they do by weight of enforcement
alone. liberal democrat transport spokesman john thurso said drink-driving
remained a major killer with figures showing a worrying rise in the number of
accidents involving drivers who had been drinking. he said there had been a 29%
drop in the number of drivers being breathalysed since 1997 which he said the
government needed to address if it wanted to reduce the danger caused by drink-
driving. the road safety bill which gets its second reading on tuesday would
allow the results of roadside breath tests to be used in court - currently a blood
test is needed. it also includes plans for a staggered speeding fines and points
system penalising drivers who exceed limits by a wide margin more than those who
are caught going just over. these have been criticised by road safety campaigners
including labour backbencher gwyneth dunwoody who says it will reduce the
incentive for drivers to stay within the limits in residential areas leading to
more road casualties. in an article for the times newspaper ms dunwoody who
chairs the transport select committee says: slight increases to low car speeds
increase hugely the risks to pedestrians and cyclists. it is quite simple: if you
hit someone at 30mph they have a 50 per cent chance of survival. if you are going
at 40mph nine times out of ten they will die.
adriano s chelsea link rejected adriano s agent gilmar rinaldi has insisted that he
has had no contact with chelsea over the striker. chelsea were reported to have
made inquiries about inter milan s 22-year-old brazilian star. rinaldi told bbc
sport from rio de janeiro: i can assure you that chelsea have had no dealings
whatsoever with either me or adriano. parma and real madrid are interested but
there s nothing new there. their interest has been known for some time. adriano
has scored 14 goals in 20 serie a appearances this season. and chelsea boss jose
mourinho had claimed that he was in milan talking to adriano on the day he is
alleged to have held a clandestine meeting with arsenal defender ashley cole.
mourinho said he was just practising my portuguese with him because i don t need
strikers . rinaldi told bbc sport: i have to say that nobody from chelsea or any
other london club has contacted me. if they want to that s fine. i can tell them
what the situation is. if chelsea are interested then they must make an offer.
inter are reported to have slapped a price tag in the region of £40m on the head of
adriano who joined them just over a year ago from parma. real madrid view him as a
natural replacement for compatriot ronaldo. but rinaldi said: i cannot give you a
price that inter would accept for adriano. that s something that would have to be
negotiated between the interested clubs.
parker s saxophone heads auction a saxophone belonging to legendary jazz musician
charlie parker is expected to fetch up to $1m (£535 000) at an auction of jazz
memorabilia next month. the sale at guernsey s auction house in new york will
feature instruments from other musicians including john coltrane and benny goodman.
other items will include an evening gown belonging to ella fitzgerald. organisers
said the auction was the first in the us to be devoted to items belonging to jazz
musicians. other items that will be auctioned include unreleased tape recordings
of music by parker as well as handwritten sheet music by jazz composers john
coltrane and theolonius monk. among the instruments in the sale will be a trumpet
which belonged to dizzy gillespie which is expected to fetch around $500 000 (£267
000) as well as jj johnson s trombone and a vibraphone which beloned to lionel
hampton. works of art by musicians including miles davis and bruni sablan will also
be featured. the proceeds from the auction which will take place on 20 february
will go towards several organisations including the john coltrane foundation a
foundation set up in memory of benny goodman and the red cross.
jungle tv show ratings drop by 4m the finale of itv1 s i m a celebrity... get me
out of here drew an average of 10.9m viewers - about four million fewer than the
previous series. the fourth series of the show peaked on monday at 11.9m and 49.2%
of the audience just before joe pasquale won. this compared with a peak of 15.3m
at and a record 62.2% of the tv audience when kerry mcfadden won in february. comic
pasquale beat former royal butler paul burrell who came second nightclub owner
fran cosgrave who was third. pasquale follows kerry mcfadden phil tufnell and
tony blackburn as winners of the show. singer and tv presenter mcfadden was the
show s first female winner. when cricketer phil tufnell won in may 2003 12.3
million people - 50% of the viewing public - tuned in to watch. and when tony
blackburn won the first show in 2002 10.9 million people saw the show. pasquale
had been the show s hottest ever favourite to win and its hosts anthony mcpartlin
and declan donnelly known as ant and dec said monday s deciding vote was the
closest in the programme s history. pascuale has been flooded with offers of tv
work according to his management company but one of his first jobs on his return
is pantomime. before joining i m a celebrity he had signed up to play jack in
jack and the beanstalk in birmingham and tickets for the show have become
increasingly popular since he joined the tv show. his manager robert voice said:
we ve had interest from different tv producers. some are for comedy shows some are
new-type projects. there are a number of things joe wants to do. he is very
ambitious. he wants to play the west end and do different things other than
straightforward comedy. we are talking to a couple of west end producers about a
musical.
hewitt decries career sexism plans to extend paid maternity leave beyond six
months should be prominent in labour s election manifesto the trade and industry
secretary has said. patricia hewitt said the cost of the proposals was being
evaluated but it was an increasingly high priority and a shared goal across
government . ms hewitt was speaking at a gender and productivity seminar organised
by the equal opportunities commission (eoc). mothers can currently take up to six
months paid leave - and six unpaid. ms hewitt told the seminar: clearly one of
the things we need to do in the future is to extend the period of payment for
maternity leave beyond the first six months into the second six months. we are
looking at how quickly we can do that because obviously there are cost
implications because the taxpayer reimburses the employers for the cost of that.
ms hewitt also announced a new drive to help women who want to work in male
dominated sectors saying sexism at work was still preventing women reaching their
full potential. plans include funding for universities to help female science and
engineering graduates find jobs and taster courses for men and women in non-
traditional jobs. women in full-time work earn 19% less than men according to the
equal opportunities commission (eoc). the minister told delegates that getting rid
of career sexism was vital to closing the gender pay gap. career sexism limits
opportunities for women of all ages and prevents them from achieving their full
potential. it is simply wrong to assume someone cannot do a job on the grounds of
their sex she said. earlier she told bbc radio 4 s today programme: what we are
talking about here is the fact that about six out of 20 women work in jobs that are
low-paid and typically dominated by women so we have got very segregated
employment. unfortunately in some cases this reflects very old-fashioned and
stereotypical ideas about the appropriate jobs for women or indeed for men.
career sexism is about saying that engineering for instance where only 10% of
employees are women is really a male-dominated industry. construction is even
worse. but it is also about saying childcare jobs are really there for women and
not suitable for men. career sexism goes both ways. she added that while progress
had been made there was still a gap in pay figures. the average woman working
full-time is being paid about 80p for every pound a man is earning. for women
working part-time it is 60p. the department for trade and industry will also
provide funding to help a new pay experts panel run by the tuc. it has been set up
to advise hundreds of companies on equal wage policies. research conducted by the
eoc last year revealed that many britons believe the pay gap between men and women
is the result of natural differences between the sexes. women hold less than 10%
of the top positions in ftse 100 companies the police the judiciary and trade
unions according to their figures. and retired women have just over half the
income of their male counterparts on average.
labour s cunningham to stand down veteran labour mp and former cabinet minister
jack cunningham has said he will stand down at the next election. one of the few
blair-era ministers to serve under jim callaghan he was given the agriculture
portfolio when labour regained power in 1997. mr cunningham went on to become tony
blair s cabinet enforcer . he has represented the constituency now known as
copeland since 1970. mr blair said he was a huge figure in labour and a valued
personal friend . during labour s long period in opposition mr cunningham held a
number of shadow roles including foreign affairs the environment and as trade
spokesman. as agriculture minister he caused controversy when he decided to ban
beef on the bone in the wake of fears over bse. he quit the government in 1999 and
in recent years has served as the chairman of the all-party committee on lords
reform and has been a loyal supporter of the government from the backbenches.
manufacturing recovery slowing uk manufacturing grew at its slowest pace in one-
and-a-half years in january according to a survey. the chartered institute of
purchasing and supply (cips) said its purchasing manager index (pmi) fell to 51.8
from a revised 53.3 in december. but despite missing forecasts of 53.7 the pmi
number remained above 50 - indicating expansion in the sector. the cips said that
the strong pound had dented exports while rising oil and metals prices had kept
costs high. the survey added that rising input prices and cooling demand had
deterred factory managers from hiring new workers in an effort to cut costs. that
triggered the second successive monthly fall in the cips employment index to 48.3 -
its lowest level since june 2003. the survey is more upbeat than official figures -
which suggest that manufacturing is in recession - but analysts said the survey did
suggest that the manufacturing recovery was running out of steam. it appears that
the uk is in a two-tier economy again said prebon yamane economist lena komileva.
you have weakness in manufacturing which i think would concern policymakers at the
bank of england.
wall street cheers bush victory the us stock market has closed higher in response
to george w bush s victory in the presidential elections. the benchmark dow jones
share index closed more than 1% higher at 10 137 while the nasdaq rose 0.9% to 2
004. many investors believe that mr bush s policies are more business-friendly than
those of his democrat challenger john kerry. the higher share prices also reflect
relief that a clear winner has emerged from what proved to be a tight poll.
investors had worried that the outcome of the poll would be inconclusive paving
the way for a repeat of the legal wrangling that marred the 2000 election. the dow
lost 5% of its value in the three weeks immediately after that election when it
was unclear who would occupy the white house. mr kerry conceded defeat on wednesday
abandoning last-ditch hopes of carrying the vote in the swing state of ohio. the
relief for the markets may be that we have a decision and can move forward said
tim ghriskey chief investment officer of solaris asset management. some analysts
predicted that the jump in share prices would be short-lived saying investors
would quickly focus once again on the health of the us economy. i would look at
the stock market rally for bush as kind of a one-day event said ken mayland at
clearview economics. the us recent economic performance has been mixed with solid
growth offset by disappointingly low job creation figures and mounting worries
over a record budget deficit. elsewhere in the financial markets on wednesday the
dollar dipped slightly against the euro and climbed against the yen while us oil
prices closed up $1.26 at $50.88 a barrel in new york. the rise in oil prices
partly reflects the view that president bush is less likely than mr kerry to
release supplies from the us strategic oil reserve. share prices in london
frankfurt and paris also closed higher. successive polls in the run-up to tuesday
s election had shown the two candidates running neck and neck. economic issues as
well as the war in iraq were the forefront of the campaign. in key swing states
such as ohio which has suffered substantial job losses in the past four years
president bush s handling of the economy became a crucial election issue. senator
kerry attacked president bush s economic record during his campaign hammering home
the fact that a net 800 000 jobs were lost during his term in office. president
bush focused on the fact that two million jobs have been created in the past year
claiming that it has vindicated his tax-cutting agenda. as for future policies
both candidates pledged to bring america s $422bn federal budget deficit under
control. senator kerry planned to increase taxes on those earning more than $200
000 a year. president bush has placed reform of the pensions system at the heart of
his economic agenda for a second term. however economists have said both
candidates economic programmes rested on questionable assumptions about future
growth.
viewers to be able to shape tv imagine editing titanic down to watch just your
favourite bits or cutting out the slushier moments of star wars to leave you with a
bare bones action-fest. manipulating your favourite films to make a more
personalised movie is just the beginning of an ambitious new 7.5m euro (£5.1m)
project funded by the european union. new media for a new millennium (nm2) will
have as its endgame the development of a completely new media genre which will
allow audiences to create their own media worlds based on their specific interests
or tastes. viewers will be able to participate in storylines manipulate plots and
even the sets and props of tv shows. bt is one of 13 partners involved in the
project. it will be contributing software that was originally designed to spot
anomalies in cctv pictures. the software uses content recognition algorithms. the
three-year project will work on seven productions as it develops a set of software
tools that will allow viewers to edit content to their needs. one of the
productions will be a experimental television show where the plot will be driven by
text messages from the tv audience. participants will text selected words which
will impact how the characters in the drama interact. it is being developed in
finland and will be shown to finnish tv audiences. another team will work on the
bbc s big budget drama of mervyn peake s gothic fantasy gormenghast. it will be re-
engineered to allow people to choose a variety of edited versions. the bbc is
allowing us access to the material so that we can prove the technology and the
principles explained dr doug williams of bt who will be nm2 s technical project
manager. the tv at the moment is a relatively dumb box which receives signals.
this project is about teaching the machine to look at content like lego blocks that
can be reassembled to make perfect sense he said. at the moment we have
interactive gaming and a limited form of interactive tv which usually means
allowing audiences to vote on shows. we are hoping to occupy the space in-between
he added. nm2 s co-ordinator peter stollenmayer explained that the new genre would
radically alter the role of the audience. viewers will be able to interact
directly with the medium and influence what they see and hear according to their
personal tastes and wishes he said. media users will no longer be passive
viewers but become active engagers. it will also be important that the tools are
sophisticated enough to obey the complex rules of cinematography and editing said
john wyver from tv producer illuminations television limited which is also
involved in the project. it s not just a matter of stringing together the romantic
or action portions of a production said mr wyver. the tool has to know which
bits fit together both visually by observing the time-honoured rules that go in
editing and in terms of the story. only then will the personalised version both
make sense and be aesthetically pleasing he added. mr wyver is planning a
production entitled the golden age about renaissance art. it will allow viewers to
create a so-called media world based on their own specific areas of interest such
as poetry music and architecture. other productions that the nm2 team will make
range from news documentaries to a romantic comedy drama.
bad e-mail habits sustains spam the bad behaviour of e-mail users is helping to
sustain the spam industry a new study has found. according to a survey conducted
by security firm mirapoint and market research company the radicati group nearly a
third of e-mail users have clicked on links in spam messages. one in ten users have
bought products advertised in junk mail. clicking on a link in a spam message can
expose people to viruses and alert spammers to live e-mail accounts. the fact that
one in ten e-mail users are buying things advertised in spam continues to make it
an attractive business especially given that sending out huge amounts of spam
costs very little the report concludes. this preliminary data is surprising and
somewhat shocking to us said marcel nienhuis market analyst at the radicati
group. it explains why e-mail security threats including spam viruses and
phishing scams continue to proliferate he said accusing users of bad e-mail
behaviour . spammers are increasingly hooking into whatever happens to be flavour
of the month according to security firm clearswift. it has recently seen a rise in
the number of spam messages offering phoney sony psp giveaways. and in perhaps a
nod to the popularity of the american drama series desperate housewives it has
also seen a dramatic rise in junk mails purporting to give details of women looking
for casual sex. but rather than finding a companion users who click on such mail
will find themselves redirected to porn sites where they run the risk of
downloading spyware on to their pc. clearswift has seen a 180% rise in sex-related
spam over the course of the last month. without casting aspersions those likely
to respond to these kind of adverts will be invariably hoping that one thing leads
to another but aside from the fact that these mails are bogus clicking on any
link within a spam mail can lead to a whole host of unwanted problems said alyn
hockey clearswift s director of research. sexually explicit terms make up 14% of
security firm sophos top 50 word that spammers most commonly try to disguise in
order to beat anti-spam filters. spammers will deliberately misspell a word or use
digits instead of letters in an attempt to by-pass anti-spam software said graham
cluley senior technology consultant for security firm sophos. the list of words
most commonly hidden by the spammers from anti-spam software reveals that most spam
is about the old favourites: money drugs and sex said mr cluley. but anti-spam
filters can only be part of the solution to the menace of junk e-mail. people must
resist their basic instincts to buy from spam mails. spammers are criminals plain
and simple. if no-one responded to junk e-mail and didn t buy products sold in this
way then spam would be as extinct as the dinosaurs he said.
dawson joins england injury list scrum-half matt dawson is an injury doubt for
england s six nations opener against wales next weekend. the world cup winner
missed wasps 12-9 loss to bath on saturday after injuring his right calf. wasps
coach warren gatland said: he s got a fitness test in the week but he s got a good
chance of playing. gloucester s andy hazell and leicester star lewis moody also
received knocks during their respective league matches but should be fit for wales
next week. if dawson is not fit to face wales robinson will have to choose from
gloucester s andy gomarsall or leicester youngster harry ellis. jamie noon is
another player on the sidelines after he limped off in the first half against
saracens on friday with a dead leg. the centre who is in line for a first six
nations start against wales will have to wait 48 hours before knowing the state of
his injury.
bellamy fined after row newcastle have fined their welsh striker craig bellamy two
weeks wages - about £80 000 - following his row with manager graeme souness. but
bellamy 25 has not been put on the transfer list although he did not train with
the first team on tuesday. magpies chairman freddy shepherd told the newcastle
evening chronicle: it is not about money. it is about a player thinking he is
bigger than this club. no individual is be it the chairman the manager or a
player. souness dropped bellamy for sunday s game against arsenal claiming the
welshman had feigned injury after being asked to play out of position. when i
heard what the manager was saying i was in shock bellamy said. i thought not
only has he gone behind my back he s lying he said in response to souness
remarks. and the wales international refused to apologise. i won t apologise
because i have done nothing wrong he told the evening chronicle. there s no
doubt about it i am out of here. the difficult relationship between souness and
bellamy boiled over at the weekend and has led to a war of words in the media.
bellamy s claim that souness had lied about the background to the bust-up was
strongly denied by shepherd who accused the striker of cheating the club. i
wish to put the record straight regarding the bellamy situation said shepherd.
craig walked off the training ground saying his hamstring was tight (on friday)
but what he failed to reveal was that he had told other members of the squad before
training that he intended to feign injury. when graeme discovered this he
immediately ordered bellamy to attend a meeting in my office. at that meeting
bellamy admitted to graeme and i that he had told the players that he was going to
fake an injury in training and walk off. he also agreed at that meeting to
apologise to his team-mates for his behaviour. he didn t do this which resulted in
the action taken by the manager at the weekend which i fully support. in my book
this is cheating on the club the supporters the manager and his own team-mates.
he is paid extremely well and i consider his behaviour to be totally unacceptable
and totally unprofessional. bellamy s latest outburst would appear to make his
chances of a first-team recall remote. but even before newcastle said the player
would not be sold bellamy insisted he had no intention of handing in a transfer
request. i don t want the fans to think for one minute that i wouldn t play for
this club he said. i d play anywhere for this club even in goal. it s a very
difficult situation for me at the moment but i d never ask to leave this club.
this club means so much to me. i couldn t do it because i know i couldn t come back
here and play against newcastle. it would hurt too much.
parties warned over grey vote political parties cannot afford to take older uk
voters for granted in the coming election says age concern. a survey for the
charity suggests 69% of over-55s say they always vote in a general election
compared with just 17% of 18 to 24 year olds. charity boss gordon lishman said if a
decisive blow was struck at the election it would be by older voters who could be
relied on to turn out. a total of 3 028 adults aged 18 or over were interviewed for
the study. mr lishman urged the next government to boost state pension. he also
called for measures to combat ageism and build effective public services to
support us all in an ageing society . older people want to see manifesto
commitments that will make a difference to their lives mr lishman said.
political parties must wake up to the fact that unless they address the demands and
concerns of older people they will not keep or attract their vote. in the survey
carried out by icm research 14% of people aged between 18 and 34 said they never
voted in general elections. among the over-65s 70% said they would be certain to
vote in an immediate election compared with 39% of people under 55. age concern
says the over-55s are united around key areas of policy they want the government
to focus on. for 57% pensions and the nhs were key issues while the economy was
important for a third and tax was a crucial area for 25%. the report was welcomed
by conservative shadow pensions secretary david willetts. the pensioners voice
must certainly be heard in the next election as they have never fitted into blair s
cool britannia he said. labour s continued refusal to admit the true extent of
the pensions crisis will be one of the monumental failures of this government. he
pointed to tory plans to increase the basic state pension to reduce means testing
strengthen company pensions and encourage savings. a liberal democrat spokesman
said the party took the issues raised in the report very seriously. he highlighted
the party s promises to raise the basic state pension provide free long-term care
for the elderly and replace council tax seen as a particular problem for
pensioners on fixed incomes. labour has said it wants to use savings reforms to
incapacity benefit to improve the basic state pension and has set up a review of
the council tax system.
beckham virus spotted on the net virus writers are trading on interest in david
beckham to distribute their malicious wares. messages are circulating widely that
purport to have evidence of the england captain in a compromising position. but
anyone visiting the website mentioned in the message will not see pictures of mr
beckham but will have their computer infected by a virus. the pernicious program
opens a backdoor on a computer so it can be controlled remotely by malicious
hackers. the appearance of the beckham windows trojan is just another example in a
long line of viruses that trade on interest in celebrities in an attempt to fuel
their spread. tennis player anna kournikova popstars britney spears and avril
lavigne as well as arnold schwarzenegger have all been used in the past to try to
con people into opening infected files. the huge amount of interest in mr beckham
and his private life and the large number of messages posted to discussion groups
on the net might mean that the malicious program catches a lot of people out. the
public s appetite for salacious gossip about the private life of the beckhams might
lead some into an unpleasant computer infection said graham cluley from anti-
virus firm sophos. simply opening the message will not infect a user s pc. but
anyone visiting the website it mentions who then downloads and opens the fake image
file stored on that site will be infected. the program that installs itself is
called the hackarmy trojan and it tries to recruit pcs into so-called bot networks
that are often used to distribute spam mail messages or to launch attacks across
the web. computers running microsoft windows 95 98 2000 nt and xp are vulnerable
to this trojan. many anti-virus programs have been able to detect this trojan since
it first appeared early this year and have regularly been updated to catch new
variants.
european medal chances improve what have the european indoor trials told us well
i think we could be heading to the european championships with half a dozen medal
prospects. it was good to see athletes beginning to make steps forward to see a
few new faces and there were lots of personal bests kicking around. the best
performance on the track for me was sarah claxton s win in the 60m hurdles. running
sub-eight seconds twice in a week puts her right up there and if she repeats that
in madrid she will be close to picking up a medal. but what was great about sunday
s performance was that she was under pressure to produce the goods when it counted.
diane allahgreen has been our best hurdler for some time now and i think she was
surprised to be beaten by sarah. and knowing that she got the better of diane in a
head-to-head race will give sarah confidence. in the men s race on saturday allan
scott was right in there and there is definitely more to come from him. in fact
the men s 60m hurdles is so strong i think the selectors will pick three hurdlers
to go to madrid. phillips idowu lit up the field events not only with his hair
but also with his leap of 17.30m which puts him at the top of the world rankings.
i had a chat with him before the competition and he was really looking forward to
getting out there. he feels he is in great shape and has some big jumps inside him
- but then phillips always has. a lot of the athletes said the runway was not very
helpful so for phillips to jump like that is a good performance. he is such a huge
talent but just needs some consistency - and if he does that then the big jumps
will get even further. across the board i thought kelly sotherton had a great
weekend and continued to show she is developing. she picked up three personal bests
in the long jump high jump and 60m hurdles and you can t ask for more than that.
kelly will be up against carolina kluft in the pentathlon at the european
championships but she has every chance of a medal on the basis of what we ve seen
so far. she has a complicated training regime where different people help her with
different disciplines but it seems to be working really well. it wasn t all good
news in sheffield. i thought both the 60m races were disappointing in different
ways. jason gardener may have won but he wasn t at his best. i chatted to him
afterwards and he knows it was an off-day for him. he s there to be shot at and the
other lads nearly got a big scalp out there. in the women s race jeanette kwayke
was hoping to run against defending champion joice maduaka. the pair are enjoying a
bit of rivalry but joice had to pull out with a chest infection. if she had made
the final i think jeanette would have gone a bit quicker. janine whitlock competed
well in the pole vault on her return following a two-year drugs ban. but the most
disappointing thing in the wider view is that she is our best pole vaulter by a
long way and that shouldn t be the case. the event has moved on immensely since
janine has been away and if there was more domestic competition i think that would
help her. a couple of other interesting topics to look out for are the citizenship
issues surrounding mark findlay and rabah yusuf. findlay is a londoner who has
chosen to represent trinidad and tobago but has never run for them so he could
still compete for great britain. yusuf who came third in the 400m is from the
sudan but is trying to gain british citizenship. he came to britain as a high
jumper but damaged his toe started doing more running and found his talent. so we
shall have to see what happens to both of them.
be careful how you code a new european directive could put software writers at risk
of legal action warns former programmer and technology analyst bill thompson. if
it gets its way the dutch government will conclude its presidency of the european
union by pushing through a controversial measure that has been rejected by the
european parliament lacks majority support from national governments and will
leave millions of european citizens in legal limbo and facing the possibility of
court cases against them. if the new law was about border controls defence or even
the new constitution then our tv screens would be full of experts agonising over
the impact on our daily lives. sadly for those who will be directly affected the
controversy concerns the patenting of computer programs a topic that may excite
the bloggers campaigning groups and technical press but does not obsess middle
britain. after all how much fuss can you generate about the directive on the
patentability of computer-implemented inventions and the way it amends article 52
of the 1973 european patent convention yet if the new directive is nodded through
at the next meeting of one of the eu s ministerial councils as seems likely it
will allow programs to be patented in europe just as they are in the us. many
observers of the computing scene including myself think the results will be
disastrous for small companies innovative programmers and the free and open source
software movement. it will let large companies patent all sorts of ideas and give
legal force to those who want to limit their competitors use of really obvious
ideas. in the us you cannot build a system that stores customer credit card
details so that they can pay without having to re-enter them unless amazon lets you
because they hold the patent on one-click online purchase. it is a small
invention but amazon made it to the patent office first and now owns it. we are
relatively free from this sort of thing over here but perhaps not for long. the
new proposals go back to 2002 although argument about patentability of software
and computer-implemented inventions has been going on since at least the mid-1980s.
they have come to a head now after a year in which proposals were made endorsed by
the council of ministers radically modified by the european parliament and then
re-presented in their original form. some national governments seem to be aware of
the problems. poland has rejected the proposal and germany s main political parties
have opposed it but there is not enough opposition to guarantee their rejection.
early in december the british government held a consultation meeting with those who
had commented on the proposals. science minister lord sainsbury went along to
listen and outline the uk position but according to those present it was
embarrassing to see how little the minister and his officials actually understood
the issues concerned. the draft directive is being put through the council as what
is called an a item and can only be approved or rejected. no discussion or
amendment is allowed. so why should we be worried first there is the abuse of the
democratic process involved in disregarding the views of the parliament and
abandoning all of their carefully argued amendments. this goes to the heart of the
european project and even those who do not care about software or patents should
be worried. if coders are treated like this today who is to say that it will not
be you tomorrow more directly once software patents are granted then any
programmer will have to worry that the code they are writing is infringing someone
else s patent. this is not about stealing software as code is already protected by
copyright. patents are not copyright but something much stronger. a patent gives
the owner the right to stop anyone else using their invention even if the other
person invented it separately. i have never to my shame managed to read lord
byron s childe harold s pilgrimage. if it was pointed out that one of my articles
contained a substantial chunk of the poem then i could defend myself in court by
claiming that i had simply made it up and it was coincidence. the same does not
hold for a patent. if i sit down this afternoon and write a brilliant graphics
compression routine and it happens to be the same as the lzw algorithm used in gif
files then i am in trouble under patent law at least in the us. coincidence is no
defence. the proposed directive is supported by many of the major software
companies but this is hardly surprising since most of them are us-based and they
have already had to cope with a legal environment that allows patents. they have
legal departments and more crucially patents of their own which they can trade or
cross-license with other patent holders. even this system breaks down of course
as microsoft found out last year when they initially lost a case brought by eolas
which claimed that internet explorer (and other browsers) infringed an eolas
patent. that one was eventually thrown out but only after months of uncertainty
and millions of dollars. but small companies and the free and open software
movement do not have any patents to trade. much of the really useful software we
use every day programs like the apache web server the gnu/linux operating system
and the fearsomely popular firefox browser is developed outside company structures
by people who do not have legal departments to check for patent infringements. the
damage to software will not happen overnight of course. if the directive goes
through it has to be written into national laws and then there will be a steady
stream of legal actions against small companies and open source products.
eventually someone will decide to attack linux directly probably with some secret
funding from one or two large players. the new directive will limit innovation by
forcing programmers to spend time checking for patent infringements or simply
avoiding working in potentially competitive areas. and it will damage europe s
computer industry. we can only hope that the council of ministers has the integrity
and strength to reject this bad law. bill thompson is a regular commentator on the
bbc world service programme go digital.
brazil plays down varig rescue the brazilian government has played down claims that
it could step in to save the country s biggest airline. brazil s airport authority
chief carlos wilson had claimed the government was on the brink of stepping in to
save varig brazil s flagship airline. however the country s vice president jose
alencar has said the government still is looking for a solution. varig is
struggling under a huge debt burden of an estimated debt of 6.5 billion reais
($2.3bn or £1.2bn). asked whether a rescue was on the cards following a meeting of
the country s congress to discuss the airline s crisis mr alencar replied: no i
don t think so. we will see. earlier mr wilson had said that president luiz
inacio lula da silva has decided to step in and a decree of some kind of
intervention could be signed this week. in practice it will be an intervention
although this is not the technical name used he said. an intervention means that
the government would take administrative control of the company and its finances.
for that to happen varig s main shareholder the non-profit ruben berta foundation
which represents the airline s employees would have to be removed mr wilson said.
however no jobs would be lost and the airline would keep on flying he added.
varig which operates in 18 countries apart from brazil has been driven to the
brink of collapse because of the country s economic downturn. the depreciation of
brazil s currency has had a direct impact on the airline s dollar debt as well as
some of its costs. business has improved recently with demand for air travel
increasing and a recovery in the brazilian economy. the airline could also win a
sizeable windfall from a compensation claim against the government. on tuesday the
courts awarded varig 2bn reais ($725m) after ruling in favour of its compensation
claim against the government for freezing tariffs from 1985 to 1992. but the
government can appeal the decision.
davenport dismantles young rival top seed lindsay davenport booked her place in the
last 16 of the australian open with a convincing 6-2 6-4 win over nicole vaidisova
of the czech republic. the american had too much power for her 15-year-old
opponent breaking twice in the first set and once in the second. the german-born
vaidisova rallied well at times but was unable to find a way back after falling
behind 3-2 in the opening set. davenport who closed out with an ace plays
karolina sprem in the next round. i was fully expecting a tough opponent and was
able to play well enough to get through it said davenport. i think she hits some
great shots. she made some errors but probably some inexperience played a role in
that. but she s so young and obviously has a big game and has many many years to
improve on that. sprem the croatian 13th seed saw off russia s elena likhovtseva
6-3 6-2. former world number one powered her way into the fourth round with a
straight sets win over anna smashnova. the 27th seed from israel stuck with
williams until 3-3 in the first set before it became one-way traffic. the american
made 26 unforced errors but was still good enough to romp through the contest in
exactly an hour. she reeled off nine straight games to finish a 6-3 6-0 winner.
remains on course to become the first australian to win her home title since chris
o neil in 1978. the 10th seed equalled her best performance at a grand slam event
when she beat unseeded russian nadia petrova 6-3 6-2 to reach the fourth round.
after a tough first set molik grew in confidence and won in just 56 minutes. she
will now meet venus williams. bring it on said the 23-year-old. i played pretty
well and it was nice to get through in straight sets. we were destined to meet i
guess williams said referring to her match with molik. it will be a huge match
for her in australia. i can tell she s probably very motivated by that so i need to
get out there and play well. beat slovakia s daniela hantuchova in a
rollercoaster match. dementieva came through 7-5 5-7 6-4 becoming the seventh
russian woman to reach the last 16 in melbourne. the match lasted almost three
hours and featured 13 service breaks including three in the final set when
dementieva held her nerve to seal the win. she now faces after the swiss 12th seed
beat american abigail spears 7-6 6-3. french open champion received a free ride
into the last 16 after lisa raymond was forced to withdraw. raymond the 25th
seeded american was ruled out after sustaining a left abdominal muscle tear in the
doubles. myskina the third seed now plays france s who beat francesca schiavone
of italy 6-3 6-3. i m extremely disappointed because i couldn t have asked to play
better in my first two matches raymond said.
glaxo aims high after profit fall glaxosmithkline saw its profits fall 9% last year
to £6.2bn ($11.5bn) but europe s biggest drugmaker says a recovery during 2005 is
on the way. cheap copies of its drugs particularly anti-depressants paxil and
wellbutrin and a weak dollar had hit profits but global sales were up 1% in 2004.
the firm is confident its new drug pipeline will deliver profits despite the
failure of an obesity drug. chief executive jean-pierre garnier said it had been a
difficult year . in early afternoon trade in london the company share price was
down 1% at 1218 pence. mr garnier said the company had absorbed over £1.5bn of lost
sales to generics but still managing to grow the business. the continuing success
of our key products means we can now look forward to a good performance in 2005
he said. 2005 will also be an important year in terms of research and development
pipeline progress. however the firm discontinued development of an experimental
treatment for obesity known as 771 after disappointing clinical trial results.
glaxo is relying on new treatments for conditions such as cancer diabetes
depression hiv/aids and allergies to lift the pace of sales growth after several
disappointing years.
boothroyd calls for lords speaker betty boothroyd has said the house of lords needs
its own speaker and that peers should lead the way on reforming the upper chamber.
baroness boothroyd who was the first woman to be commons speaker said she
believed tony blair initiated reforms without a clear outcome in mind. now we have
to take care of it ourselves and make the best of it she told the bbc s breakfast
with frost. in 1999 labour removed all but 92 of the lords 750 hereditary peers.
that was billed as the first stage of reform of the institution. the lord
chancellor hinted further reforms could be unveiled in the next labour manifesto.
i think we need to look very carefully at the relationship between the lords and
the commons lord falconer told bbc1 s breakfast with frost. how it interacts
with the commons is a very very important issue. we need to address the issue in
the manifesto but you will have to wait for when the manifesto comes. the lord
chancellor currently has the role of house of lords speaker. he is also head of the
judiciary and a member of the cabinet as constitutional affairs secretary. lady
boothroyd said she believed it was unacceptable for the lord chancellor to have the
role of speaker. i would really like to see a speaker of the house of lords she
said. i don t go for the idea of somebody - a lord chancellor - who is head of the
judiciary a senior cabinet minister and speaker of the lords. i want somebody
there who is going to look after that house and do a job there.
greek sprinters won t run again the careers of sprinters kostas kenteris and
katerina thanou are over says the boss of the organisation that cleared them of
missing a drugs test. greek athletics federation boss vassilli sevastis told the
country s parliament: i believe kenteris and thanou won t race again. the damage
to their commercial interests has been done he added. athletics bosses are
considering its reponse to the ruling while the athletes face a trial in a greek
court. greek prosecutors have brought spearate charges of missing the drugs test
and faking a motorcycle accident. speaking to the greek parliament on tuesday
sevastis said that the evidence sent by the international olympic committee and
athletics governing body the iaaf was not strong enough for the greek association
to find the sprinters guilty. we were given the task of getting the snake out if
its hole but we were not given any evidence to do it with he said. so how can
you as a greek with your hand on your heart try the athletes he added. the
athletes are technically free to compete while the iaaf reviews its response to the
decision to clear kenteris and thanou. but sevastis said: it does not matter if
they are found guilty at the court of arbitration for sport and the current
decision is reversed.
rapper snoop dogg sued for rape us rapper snoop dogg has been sued for $25m
(£13m) by a make-up artist who claimed he and his entourage drugged and raped her
two years ago. the woman said she was assaulted after a recording of the jimmy
kimmel live tv show on the abc network in 2003. the rapper s spokesman said the
allegations were untrue and the woman was misusing the legal system as a means
of extracting financial gain . abc said the claims had no merit . the star has not
been charged by police. the lawsuit filed in los angeles on friday says the
woman s champagne was spiked and she was then assaulted. the rapper s spokesperson
said: snoop will have the opportunity to prove in a court of law that [the alleged
victim] is opportunistic and deceitful. we are confident that in this case [the
alleged victim s] claims against snoop dogg will be rejected. the lawsuit names
snoop dogg - real name calvin broadus - plus three associates the walt disney
company and its parent company abc inc. the woman waited two years to sue because
she was trying to negotiate a settlement with the media companies her lawyer
perry wander said. disney and abc failed to provide a safe working environment
for my client he said. the legal action comes after the rap star sued a woman who
claimed they tried to blackmail him to keep quiet about an alleged assault. the 32-
year-old rapper has enjoyed six us top 10 albums since bursting onto the music
scene with hit songs like what s my name and gin and juice in 1993.
split-caps pay £194m compensation investors who lost money following the split-
capital investment trust scandal are to receive £194m compensation the uk s
financial watchdog has announced. eighteen investment firms involved in the sale
of the investments agreed the compensation package with the financial services
authority (fsa). splits were marketed as a low-risk way to benefit from rising
share prices. but when the stock market collapsed in 2000 the products left
thousands of investors out of pocket. an estimated 50 000 people took out split-
capital funds some investing their life savings in the schemes. the paying of
compensation will be overseen by an independent company the fsa said. further
details of how investors will be able to claim their share of the compensation
package will be announced in the new year. this should save investors from having
to take their case to the financial ombudsman service something no doubt that
will be very welcome rob mcivor fsa spokesman told bbc news. agreeing to pay
compensation did not mean that the eighteen firms involved were admitting any guilt
the fsa added. any investor accepting the compensation will have to waive the right
to take their case to the financial ombudsman service. the fsa has been
investigating whether investors were misled about the risks posed by split-capital
investment trusts. the fsa s 60 strong investigation team looked into whether fund
managers colluded in a so-called magic circle in the hope of propping up one
another s share prices. firms involved were presented with 780 files of evidence
detailing 27 000 taped conversations and over 70 interviews. in may the fsa was
widely reported as having asked firms to pay up to £350m in compensation. mr mcivor
told the bbc that the final settlement figure was smaller because two unnamed firms
had pulled out of the compensation negotiations. investors in these two firms may
now have to take any compensation claim to the financial ombudsman service or the
courts.
media gadgets get moving pocket-sized devices that let people carry around video
and images are set to have a big year in 2005 according to industry experts. last
year saw the emergence of portable media players such as the windows-based
creative zen portable media player the samsung yepp the iriver pmc-100 and the
archos av400 series among others. but this year they are set to get smarter and
more connected to allow people to find more video to watch on them. archos
launched its latest range of its linux-based portable media devices at the consumer
electronics show in las vegas on friday. dubbed the pocket media assistant pma430
it crucially has wi-fi capability built-in for the first time. consumers are
showing a great thirst for devices that store all their media in one place for
anywhere access said henri crohas chief of archos. and now those consumers can
stay connected and productive at the same time. archos said the focus for the
device is to be the second gadget in people s pockets after the mobile. unlike
windows-based players the archos av400 series devices have always been able to
record from any video source such as tvs as well as playback. the content put
onto the devices is copy protected so cannot then be swapped to another device.
recording is perhaps a crucial functionality for those who have not seen the point
of portable video if there is not a lot of video to watch on it. and wi-fi
connectivity opens up the possibility of content delivery via a high-speed wireless
link. archos also announced that it would open up the software development kit to
linux developers so that more applications could be created for the device.
microsoft also made some announcements in the portable media arena at ces
primarily for us consumers though. it has agreed a content deal with personal video
recorder company tivo which bill gates also showcased in his keynote speech at
ces. the tivo to go service means that us consumers will be able to take any
programmes they record on their tivos and transfer it for free to watch on any of
the windows-based portable media players or smartphones. it also said it had
launched a service with mtv to let people watch comedy central vh1 and country
music tv on its devices. and a service is launching with msn to provide people with
shortened versions of news entertainment and other video on a subscription basis
for download via the pc onto the portable devices. but the ability to record
directly from tv vcr and digital cable and satellite boxes which windows-based
devices do not offer certainly gives people more content to watch on the go too.
the increased capability of these devices and the content deals that are being
done may go some way to persuading people to use them. recent research by jupiter
suggested that people would prefer a device that was dedicated to music. only 13%
of europeans wanted to watch video while on the move. more seemed interested in
spending their cash on music-only devices. this year we are ready for an
explosion of portable media microsoft s mike coleman told the bbc news website.
we are very bullish about it. the fact that i can put photos on here too and share
them is super-cool to the consumer he added. the fact that europeans are far
larger public transport users than americans is one reason why portable media will
take off in the coming year too. there is a burgeoning market there for commuters
to watch news and other programmes on their way to work. although microsoft s
content distribution deals are for the us market at the moment talks were always
on-going with european content suppliers to offer similar services. various rights
management issues have to be ironed out first however. but that does not prevent
people from finding ways to create their own content to share online and swap on
portable devices particularly via those which are wi-fi enabled. the possibility
is open for non-professional makers of video and audio to take advantage of the
growing portable media market to distribute their work. ces which runs from 6 to 9
january showcases more than 50 000 new gadgets that will be hitting the shelves in
2005.
tsunami debt deal to be announced chancellor gordon brown has said he hopes to
announce a deal to suspend debt interest repayments by tsunami-hit nations later on
friday. the agreement by the g8 group of wealthy nations would save affected
countries £3bn pounds a year he said. the deal is thought to have been hammered
out on thursday night after japan one of the biggest creditor nations finally
signed up to it. mr brown first proposed the idea earlier this week. g8 ministers
are also believed to have agreed to instruct the world bank and the international
monetary fund to complete a country by country analysis of the reconstruction
problems faced by all states hit by the disaster. mr brown has been locked in talks
with finance ministers of the g8 which britain now chairs. germany also proposed a
freeze and canada has begun its own moratorium. the expected deal comes as foreign
secretary jack straw said the number of britons dead or missing in the disaster
have reached 440.
help for indies in download sales a campaign has been launched to help independent
labels get their music online and benefit from the growing trend for downloading
music. the british phonographic industry has identified a lack of independent
music available for download. we want to ensure that independent repertoire is as
successful in the download world as it is in the physical world said bpi chief
peter jamieson. downloaded singles have now overtaken physical singles in the uk.
mr jamieson said his organisation was lobbying music service providers which
include itunes and napster to urge them to promote independent releases. download
sales are due to be incorporated into the uk singles chart later this year. with
downloads shortly to be eligible for the singles chart this is a key commercial
issue on which the bpi committed to assisting its members added mr jamieson. as
part of the campaign the bpi is running a series of seminars entitled getting your
music online focusing on how independent labels can embrace digital music. the us
has already begun incorporating download sales in the billboard s hot 100 chart.
net fingerprints combat attacks eighty large net service firms have switched on
software to spot and stop net attacks automatically. the system creates digital
fingerprints of ongoing incidents that are sent to every network affected. firms
involved in the smart sensing system believe it will help trace attacks back to
their source. data gathered will be passed to police to help build up intelligence
about who is behind worm outbreaks and denial of service attacks. firms signing up
for the sensing system include mci bt deutsche telekom energis ntt bell canada
and many others. the creation of the fingerprinting system has been brokered by us
firm arbor networks and signatures of attacks will be passed to anyone suffering
under the weight of an attack. increasingly computer criminals are using swarms of
remotely controlled computers to carry out denial of service attacks on websites
launch worms and relay spam around the net. we have seen attacks involving five
and ten gigabytes of traffic said rob pollard sales director for arbor networks
which is behind the fingerprinting system. attacks of that size cause collateral
damage as they cross the internet before they get to their destination he said.
once an attack is spotted and its signature defined the information will be passed
back down the chain of networks affected to help every unwitting player tackle the
problem. mr pollard said arbor was not charging for the service and it would pass
on fingerprint data to every network affected. what we want to do is help net
service firms communicate with each other and then push the attacks further and
further back around the world to their source said mr pollard. arbor network s
technology works by building up a detailed history of traffic on a network. it
spots which computers or groups of users regularly talk to each other and what
types of traffic passes between machines or workgroups. any anomaly to this usual
pattern is spotted and flagged to network administrators who can take action if the
traffic is due to a net-based attack of some kind. this type of close analysis has
become very useful as net attacks are increasingly launched using several hundred
or thousand different machines. anyone looking at the traffic on a machine by
machine basis would be unlikely to spot that they were all part of a concerted
attack. attacks are getting more diffuse and more sophisticated said malcolm
seagrave security expert at energis. in the last 12 months it started getting
noticeable that criminals were taking to it and we ve seen massive growth. he said
that although informal systems exist to pass on information about attacks often
commercial confidentiality got in the way of sharing enough information to properly
combat attacks.
worldcom director admits lying the former chief financial officer at us telecoms
firm worldcom has admitted before a new york court that he used to lie to fellow
board members. speaking at the trial of his former boss bernard ebbers scott
sullivan said he lied to the board to cover up the hole in worldcom s finances. mr
ebbers is on trial for fraud and conspiracy in relation to worldcom s collapse in
2002. he pleads not guilty. the firm had been overstating its accounts by $11bn
(£8.5bn). mr sullivan 42 has already pleaded guilty to fraud and will be
sentenced following mr ebbers trial where he is appearing as a prosecution
witness. mr ebbers 63 has always insisted that he was unaware of any hidden
shortfalls in worldcom s finances. in the new york court on wednesday mr ebbers
lawyer reid weingarten asked mr sullivan: if you believe something is in your
interest you are willing and able to lie to accomplish it isn t that right on
that date yes. i was lying replied mr sullivan. mr weingarten has suggested that
mr sullivan is implicating mr ebbers only to win a lighter sentence something mr
sullivan denies. mr sullivan also rejects a suggestion that he had once told fellow
worldcom board member bert roberts that mr ebbers was unaware of the accounting
fraud at worldcom. the trial of mr ebbers is now into its third week. under 23
hours of questioning from a federal prosecutor mr sullivan has previously told the
court that he repeatedly warned mr ebbers that falsifying the books would be the
only way to meet wall street revenue and earnings expectations. mr sullivan claims
that mr ebbers refused to stop the fraud. mr ebbers could face a sentence of 85
years if convicted of all the charges he is facing. worldcom s problems appear to
have begun with the collapse of the dotcom boom which cut its business from
internet companies. prosecutors allege that the company s top executives responded
by orchestrating massive fraud over a two-year period. worldcom emerged from
bankruptcy protection in 2004 and is now known as mci.
mourinho receives robson warning sir bobby robson has offered chelsea boss jose
mourinho some advice on coping under pressure. the pair worked together at
barcelona and porto and robson had a word of warning for his protege. it has all
gone for him just lately and that is marvellous but sometimes you have to have a
bit of humility and learn how to lose said robson. it is when it goes against
you and you get a bit of bad luck that you learn and he ll get it straight.
robson was speaking after being formally granted the freedom of the city of
newcastle. jose is doing very well at the moment robson added of the man who
worked for him for six years. he has got one pot - possibly two to follow - a big
game against barcelona to come and i cannot see them losing their lead in the
premiership. they are in a good position and i would expect them to go on and win
it which is a wonderful achievement. what has occurred over the last couple of
weeks will stand him in very good stead for the future. if he is intelligent he
will take it on board - and he is very intelligent. he will have learned more in
the last fortnight than the last eight months. before that it was all about
winning. robson also admitted he would relish the chance to get back into
management and test his skills against mourinho. i am not in a hurry to take the
wrong job but i am ready to take the right job and i feel there is another job in
me he added. i know the area i am capable of working in and of course i would
like a job in the premiership if one was available. it would not worry me if i had
to pit my wits against jose. but it is not just a case of him and me against one
another. it would be his team against my team - but i would not be afraid of that.
doves soar to uk album summit manchester rock band doves have entered the uk album
chart at number one with their new release some cities. the trio replace
flamboyant us act scissor sisters at the top. the album follows single black and
white town which reached number six. r&b star nelly has the new number one single
with over and over which sees him team up with tim mcgraw. girls aloud akon and
kaiser chiefs all have new singles in the top ten as do futureheads and usher.
the latest elvis presley re-release (marie s the name) his latest flame entered
the chart at number three one place ahead of girls aloud s wake me up. hip-hop
performer akon s locked up is at number five while hotly-tipped leeds band kaiser
chiefs have their second chart hit at number six with oh my god. futureheads
cover of kate bush s hounds of love entered the chart at number eight while usher
s caught up was a new entry at number nine. in the album chart operatic quartet il
divo s eponymous debut rose 23 places to number six while crooner tony christie s
definitive collection is a new entry at number 10 making it the highest-charting
album of the singer s career.
row brewing over peer-to-peer ads music download networks are proving popular not
just with an audience of youngsters keen to take advantage of free music but with
advertisers equally keen to reach out to a captive audience. the debate over the
legitimacy of file-sharing networks rages on as the music industry continues its
threats to close the services down for good. meanwhile the millions of downloaders
are proving both an advertiser s dream come true and a branding nightmare. paul
myers chief executive of wippit - a peer to peer service which provides paid-for
music downloads - believes it is time advertisers stopped providing oxygen for
companies that support illegal downloading. you may be surprised to know that
current advertisers on the most popular peer to peer service edonkey who now
steadfastly support copyright theft with real cash money include nat west vodafone
o2 first direct ntl and renault he said in an open letter to the british
phonographic industry last month. he urged people to follow his lead and dump
brands associated with companies such as edonkey. the bpi is equally quick to
condemn established brands becoming bedfellows with peer to peer networks.
networks like edonkey kazaa and grokster facilitate illegal filesharing. the bpi
strongly believes that any reputable company should look carefully at the support
they are giving these networks through their advertising revenue it said in a
statement. illegal file-sharers steal millions of pounds worth of music through
these services. we are sure that the companies advertising on them would not put up
with theft on such a scale from their own businesses it said. but the issue is
often more complicated for advertisers said mark mulligan a music analyst with
jupiter research. this has been a problem for a long time ever since the days of
napster he told the bbc news website. the reality is that the millions of
downloaders represent a very attractive audience. advertisers probably pay a lot
less for putting ads here than on more respected sites and they are reaching the
perfect target audience he said. if you put the legality issues aside not to
advertise here would mean missing out on a valuable audience he added. meanwhile
companies contacted by the bbc news website insist that they were not directly
aware of where their ads have been appearing. onetel adverts were spotted on
edonkey this week and its response was typical. we have investigated this matter
and believe that one of our affiliate partners has placed this advert without our
knowledge. it is not our policy to advertise through peer-to-peer networks read a
statement from the discount phone firm. it has requested the advert be removed
immediately said a spokeswoman. similarly telecommunications firm ntl blames its
media buying agency which places adverts with third party networks featuring
thousands of sites. since the matter was brought to its attention last month the
agency has strict instructions to make sure ads do not appear on such sites a
spokesman told the bbc news website. however mr mulligan was not entirely
convinced by these explanations. while smaller brands might not necessarily be
aware of where the money they allocate to online advertising actually ends this is
no excuse for well-known brands he said. i would be surprised if these brands
didn t have the know-how to prevent this happening he said. at the moment edonkey
is enjoying the benefits of having some very well-known faces advert on its
network. many big brands have leveraged the opportunity including perhaps two of
the biggest brands in the world - senator john kerry and president george w. bush
said chief executive sam yagan. there are some distinct advantages of advertising
on such a network he thinks. peer-to-peer clients offer big brands a unique
opportunity to engage with their customers where they re most comfortable: at their
desks interacting with their favourite digital media he said.
web helps collect aid donations the web is helping aid agencies gather resources to
help cope with the aftermath of the tsunami disaster. many people are making
donations via websites or going online to see how they can get involved with aid
efforts. high-profile web portals such as google yahoo ebay and amazon are
gathering links that lead people to aid and relief organisations. so many were
visiting some aid-related sites that some webpages were struggling to cope with the
traffic. an umbrella organisation called the disasters emergency committee (dec)
has been set up by a coalition of 12 charities and has been taking many donations
via its specially created website. it urged people to go online where possible to
help because donations could be processed more quickly than cash donated in other
ways meaning aid could be delivered as quickly as possible. the site has so far
received almost £8 million with more than 11 000 donations being made online every
hour. telco bt stepped in to take over the secure payments on the dec site and
provided extra logistical support for phone and online appeals after it was
initially crippled with online donations. it has also provided space in london s bt
tower for one of the call centres dealing with donations. some of the web s
biggest firms are also helping to channel help by modifying their homepages to
include links to aid agencies and organisations collecting resources. on its
famously sparse homepage google has placed a link that leads users to a list of
sites where donations can be made. among the 17 organisations listed are oxfam
medecins sans frontieres (doctors without borders) and network for good. many of
the sites that google lists are also taking online donations. online retailer
amazon has put a large message on its start page that lets people donate money
directly to the american red cross that will be used with relief efforts. auction
site ebay is giving a list of sites that people can either donate directly to
divert a portion of their profits from anything they sell on ebay to the listed
organisations or simply buy items that direct cash to those in the list. yahoo is
proving links direct to charities for those that want to donate. the auction drop
website is asking people to donate old digital cameras computers and other gadgets
they no longer want that can be auction to raise cash for the aid effort. sadly
the outpouring of goodwill has also encouraged some conmen to try to cash in. anti-
fraud organisations are warning about e-mails that are starting to circulate which
try to convince people to send money directly to them rather than make donations
via aid agencies. those wanting to give cash were urged to use legitimate websites
of charities and aid agencies.
blair buys copies of new band aid prime minister tony blair purchased two copies of
the charity single band aid 20 in edinburgh on friday. staff were surprised when
the prime minister walked into hmv at 0900 gmt accompanied by aides and local
police. when mr blair came in unannounced we were all pretty gobsmacked said
hmv manager clive smith. our customer helper approached him... it was only then we
realised he wanted to buy copies of the band aid single rather than the latest
eminem album. predicted chart-topper do they know it s christmas is expected to
sell at least 300 000 copies by the time the new chart is announced on sunday.
however the new version of the 1984 single is not going to be released in the us
despite being sold in many countries around the world. us record shops are stocking
an import version of do they know it s christmas which is said to be selling very
well in los angeles and new york. the original track was released in the us and
reached number 13 in the singles chart. british stars who appear on the current
recording such as dido and coldplay s chris martin are well-known to music fans
across the atlantic along with u2 frontman bono. record company universal is
responsible for the global distribution of the single which will be available
across europe asia south america and canada. but music fans in the us are still
able to access the song and download it on band aid 20 s official website. in 1985
a group of high-profile american stars known as usa for africa came together to
record their own fund-raising single we are the world. the song was written by
lionel richie and michael jackson with quincy jones as producer. it topped the us
charts for three weeks and went on win grammy awards for best record and song.
dionne warwick diana ross and tina turner were among the line-up of performers. it
is predicted that the band aid 20 song will sell 300 000 copies in the uk by the
time the new chart is announced on sunday. the record is also tipped to become this
year s christmas number one as the original version did in 1984. proceeds from the
sales are going towards relief for the darfur region of sudan and to combat hiv and
aids across africa.
clarke faces id cards rebellion charles clarke faces his first real test as home
secretary on monday with a possible backbench rebellion over the controversial id
cards bill. up to 30 labour mps could oppose the scheme during a commons debate.
mr clarke who took on the post on thursday after david blunkett quit has rejected
calls to pause on the bill. tory leader michael howard also faces a possible
rebellion after deciding to back identity cards. the liberal democrats oppose the
plans. mr clarke writing in the times accused some critics of liberal woolly
thinking and spreading false fears by claiming id cards would erode civil
liberties. he writes that it is actually a profoundly civil libertarian measure
because it promotes the most fundamental civil liberty in our society - which is
the right to live free from fear crime and fear . mr clarke is expected to try and
win over opponents to the scheme by saying officials who secretly accessed
information they were not allowed to see would face up to two years in jail. he is
also expected to cut the £85 cost of the card and passport for the elderly and
those on lower incomes. mr howard last week said his front bench team had reached
a collective view to back id cards after holding a good discussion but
admitted it was not an easy issue . he had decided to support the plans as the
police said they would help fight terror crime and illegal immigration. but former
shadow attorney general bill cash said there was still very deep disquiet about
the plan among senior tories. he told bbc radio 4 s today the government was
intensely authoritarian and was creating increasingly a big brother society .
critics argue that introducing the cards would be a costly scheme with no specific
aim. ministers say it would help the fight against terrorism illegal immigration
and organised crime. but opponents say that similar schemes in other countries have
not prevented attacks like the madrid rail bombing. on sunday lib dem leader
charles kennedy repeated his call for a pause in considering the legislation. he
told bbc s breakfast with frost programme that mr clarke had a real opportunity
on monday following the departure of mr blunkett. if you were running a family or
a business would you have the second reading of the identity cards bill tomorrow or
would you pause to reflect and see what you might do about it in the new year
that is the sensible way to go about it but i think this government has got itself
so much into tram lines now that it is not behaving sensibly at all. the first
cards would be issued in 2008 and when he was introducing the bill mr blunkett
suggested parliament could decide in 2011 or 2012 whether to make it compulsory for
everybody to own the cards although not to carry them. the new bill would also
create new criminal offences on the possession of false identity documents.
millions buy mp3 players in us one in 10 adult americans - equivalent to 22 million
people - owns an mp3 player according to a survey. a study by the pew internet
and american life project found that mp3 players are the gadget of choice among
affluent young americans. the survey did not interview teenagers but it is likely
that millions of under-18s also have mp3 players. the american love affair with
digital music players has been made possible as more and more homes get broadband.
of the 22 million americans who own mp3 players 59% are men compared to 41% of
women. those on high income - judged to be $75 000 (£39 000) or above - are four
times more likely to have players than those earning less than $30 000 ( £15 000).
broadband access plays a big part in ownership too. almost a quarter of those with
broadband at home have players compared to 9% of those who have dial-up access.
mp3 players are still the gadget of choice for younger adults. almost one in five
us citizens aged under 30 have one. this compares to 14% of those aged 30-39 and
14% of those aged 40-48. the influence of children also plays a part. sixteen
percent of parents living with children under 18 have digital players compared to
9% of those who don t. the ease of use and growth of music available on the net are
the main factors for the upsurge in ownership the survey found. people are
beginning to use them as instruments of social activity - sharing songs and taking
part in podcasting - the survey found. ipods and mp3 players are becoming a
mainstream technology for consumers said lee rainie director of the pew internet
and american life project. more growth in the market is inevitable as new devices
become available as new players enter the market and as new social uses for
ipods/mp3 players become popular he added.
hoffman hits out over modern film hollywood legend dustin hoffman has hit out at
the quality of current films and theatre productions. the star of rain man and
tootsie said the film culture was in the craphouse at a press conference on
tuesday. the 67-year-old also said he stopped working a few years ago because he
lost his spark for acting. hoffman is in the uk to publicise his new comedy meet
the fockers which also stars robert de niro barbra streisand and ben stiller. he
said: you go to the cinema and you realise you re watching the third act. there is
no first or second act. there is this massive film-making where you spend this
incredible amount of money and play right to the demographic. you can tell how
much money the film is going to make by how it does on the first weekend. the
whole culture is in the craphouse. it s not just true in the movies it s also true
in the theatre. broadway and now london is the same special effects are in great
demand. it s not a good time culturally. hoffman also said he stopped working a
few years ago and moved into directing and writing. he said: i just lost that
spark i always had. a couple of years ago i didn t like the parts i was getting.
studios weren t interested in the kind of films that people of my generation wanted
to see. i thought i would stop and just try writing and directing. i wasn t aware
of the depression that set in. recently hoffmann has returned to film with roles
in i heart huckabees finding neverland and now meet the fockers which is the
sequel to meet the parents. meet the fockers opens in the uk on friday.
roddick splits from coach gilbert andy roddick has ended an 18-month association
with coach brad gilbert which yielded the us open title and saw the american become
world number one. roddick released a statement through the sfx sports group with
the news but did not give a reason for the split. the decision to not re-hire brad
gilbert for the 2005 season is based on what i think is best for my game at this
time said roddick. any more on this situation s a private matter between coach
and player. roddick won 121 of his 147 matches while working with gilbert and
said he had enjoyed their time together. he won his first grand slam event at
flushing meadows last year and finished 2003 on top of the atp tour rankings. but
roddick slipped to second this year behind roger federer who became the first man
since 1988 to win three majors in a season. federer who has not had a coach since
he split from peter lundgren at the end of last year beat roddick to win the
wimbledon title and in two other tournament finals. roddick hired gilbert after
deciding to part from coach tarik benhabiles in the wake of his first-round exit at
the 2003 french open. he went on to win the us open and four other titles for the
year. he has won four events this season. i have enjoyed all of my time with andy
gilbert said on his personal website. he has been a great student of the game
during the time that we worked together and i am very proud of the results that
were achieved. while i believe that there is still a great deal of work to be done
andy clearly does not feel that way.
star trek fans fight to save show star trek fans have taken out a full-page ad in
the los angeles times in an attempt to persuade tv executives not to scrap star
trek: enterprise. made by the upn tv network the latest spin-off from the hit
sci-fi show is due to end in may after four series. but fans around the world have
pitched in to pay for the advert which had the headline save star trek . they are
also asking the sci-fi channel to pick it up from upn and will stage a rally in los
angeles on 25 february. the advert described the star trek franchise as a
cultural icon . enterprise stars former quantum leap actor scott bakula as captain
archer and is set before the original 1960s star trek series. captain archer and
the crew of the nx-01 need your help to continue their journeys! the advert said.
it also included a cut-out coupon for fans to send to upn s parent companies
paramount and viacom plus the sci-fi channel. it also urged supporters to join the
rally outside the paramount studios. fan website trek united is hoping to raise
$32m (£17m) from donations by the end of march to pay for a fifth series. more than
$23 000 (£12 000) has been pledged so far according to the site. the 98th and
final episode of star trek: enterprise will air in the us on 13 may. the fourth
series has averaged 2.9 million viewers per episode - half the amount it got in its
first series. star trek: enterprise began in 2001 following other star trek spin-
off series the next generation deep space nine and voyager.
robben and cole earn chelsea win cheslea salvaged a win against a battling
portsmouth side just as it looked like the premiership leaders would have to settle
for a point. arjen robben curled in a late deflected left-footed shot from the
right side of pompey s box to break the home side s brave resistance. chelsea had
been continually frustrated but joe cole added a second with a 20-yard shot in
injury-time. nigel quashie had pompey s best chance when his effort was tipped
over. the fratton park crowd were in good voice as usual and even though
portsmouth more than held their own chelsea still managed to carve out two early
chances. striker didier drogba snapped in an angled shot to force home keeper shaka
hislop into a smart save while an unmarked frank lampard had a strike blocked by
arjan de zeeuw. but pompey chased harried and unsettled a chelsea side as the
south-coast side started to gain the upper hand and almost took the lead through
quashie. the midfielder struck a swerving long range shot which keeper petr cech
tipped over at full stretch. pompey stretched arsenal to the limit recently and
were providing a similarly tough obstacle to overcome for a chelsea team struggling
to exert any pressure. velimir zajec s players stood firm as the visitors came out
in lively fashion after the break but just as they took a stranglehold of the
match the visitors launched a counter-attack. drogba spun to get a sight of goal
and struck a fierce shot which rocked keeper hislop back as he blocked before arjan
de zeeuw cleared the danger. the home side were also left breathing a sigh of
relief when a glen johnson header fell to gudjohnsen who had his back to goal in a
crowded pompey goalmouth. the icelandic forward tried to acrobatically direct the
ball into goal but put his effort over. but just like against arsenal portsmouth
let in a late goal when robben s shot took a deflection off matthew taylor on its
way past a wrong-footed hislop. and cole put a bit of gloss on a hard-fought win
when he put a low shot into the bottom of the pompey net. hislop griffin primus
de zeeuw taylor stone (cisse 76) quashie (berkovic 83) faye o neil kamara
(fuller 65) yakubu. subs not used: berger ashdown. kamara. cech paulo
ferreira gallas terry johnson duff makelele smertin (cole 73) lampard
robben (geremi 81) drogba (gudjohnsen 58). subs not used: cudicini bridge.
paulo ferreira robben lampard. robben 79 cole 90. 20 210 a wiley
(staffordshire).
can smith work scottish wonders the worst kept secret in scottish football was
revealed on thursday when walter smith was named as the new national manager. from
the moment berti vogts miserable tenure in charge of scotland ended the former
rangers and everton boss has been the overwhelming favourite for the post. but is
smith the man for what must be one of the hardest jobs in football the 56-year-old
takes over at a time when the national side is in the doldrums. scotland have not
reached a major finals since the world cup in 1998 and reaching germany 2006 looks
near impossible having picked up just two points from the opening three games in
the qualifying race. and the fifa rankings see scotland listed at an all time low
of 77th below the likes of estonia ghana angola and thailand. scotland are not
blessed with quality players with experience at the top level so smith will have
to get the best out of meagre resources. smith s track record make impressive
reading and he is widely respected within the game. the man who was alex ferguson s
assistant when scotland played at the 1986 world cup won seven league titles with
rangers. and his appointment has been widely endorsed by many of the games top
names including ferguson and graeme souness who took him to ibrox as his
assistant in 1986. characters like souness ferguson and current ibrox manager alex
mcleish all cite smith s experience and his expansive knowledge of the scottish
game. much was made of vogts inability to express himself to the players and
media. that will certainly not be the case with smith. the former dundee united and
dumbarton full-back is from the managerial old school - straight talking and never
slow to let players know when he expects better (often with the use of some
colourful invective). but it should be remembered vogts came to scotland with an
impressive curriculum vitae - a world cup winner as a player and a european
championships winner as a manager. smith will inherit the same problems vogts had -
a callow squad of players with no exceptional talents. and it remains to be seen if
smith will experience the rash of call-offs that blighted so much of vogts
preparation work. a fresh start for the scottish national team was imperative and
smith is widely regarded as a safe pair of hands. but will a safe pair of hands be
enough when the adroit hands of a magician might be required...
iaaf launches fight against drugs the iaaf - athletics world governing body - has
met anti-doping officials coaches and athletes to co-ordinate the fight against
drugs in sport. two task forces have been set up to examine doping and nutrition
issues. it was also agreed that a programme to de-mystify the issue to athletes
the public and the media was a priority. nothing was decided to change things - it
was more to have a forum of the stakeholders allowing them to express themselves
said an iaaf spokesman. getting everyone together gave us a lot of food for
thought. about 60 people attended sunday s meeting in monaco including iaaf chief
lamine diack and namibian athlete frankie fredericks now a member of the athletes
commission. i am very happy to see you all members of the athletics family
respond positively to the iaaf call to sit together and discuss what more we can do
in the fight against doping said diack. we are the leading federation in this
field and it is our duty to keep our sport clean. the two task forces will report
back to the iaaf council at its april meeting in qatar.
crisis ahead in social sciences a national body designed to tackle skills
shortages in key subjects should be set up a committee of mps has said. there was
an absolute crisis in the recruitment of statisticians and other social science
experts the commons science and technology committee added. major problems are
expected over the next 10 years as the social science workforce continues to age
it said. the committee was reporting on the work strategy and spending plans of
the economic social research council. the council aims to promote and support
strategic research for social science postgraduates and provide social scientists
to meet the needs of the country. it also liaises with the government and industry
over their social science needs. in its report on the council s work the committee
said: we are deeply concerned by the skills shortages afflicting in particular
the qualitative branches of social sciences. this mirrored previous concerns the
committee had expressed on shortages in the fields of maths and chemistry it said.
it is hard to see how significant progress towards rectifying these shortages can
be made through the deployment of economic and social research council s limited
resources. if the government is serious about addressing skills shortages in key
subjects it needs to find a more effective mechanism to achieve this. a national
strategic capabilities fund to address shortages in key areas should be set up in
response the committee added.
gamers could drive high-definition tv films and games have been gearing up for
some time now for the next revolution to transform the quality of what is on our
screens. it is called high-definition - hd for short - and it is already hugely
popular in japan and the us. it is set according to analysts to do for images
what cds did for sound. different equipment able to receive hd signals is needed
though and is expensive. but europe s gamers may be the early adopters to drive
demand. europeans will have to wait until at least 2006 until they see mainstream
hdtv. to view it it needs to be transmitted in hd format and people need special
receivers and displays that can handle the high-quality resolution. the next
generation of consoles however are expected to start appearing at the end of 2005
start of 2006. and most new computer displays and plasma sets are already capable
of handling such high-resolution pictures. in the next generation [of consoles] hd
support is mandatory dr mark tuffy games systems director at digital content firm
thx told the bbc news website. every game is going to be playable in hd. so
consumers who have gone out and spent all this money on hdtvs and who have no
content to watch are going to be blown away by these really high-detail pictures.
it s going to change really the way they look at gaming. at the end of last year
chris deering sony s european president made a prediction that 20 million
european households would have hdtv sets by 2008. a previous prediction from
analysts datamonitor put the figure at 4.6 million by 2008 an increase from an
estimated 50 000 sets at the end of 2003. but those in europe may see little point
in buying what is quite an expensive bit of technology - about £2 000 - if there
are few programmes or films to watch on them. satellite broadcaster bskyb is
planning hdtv services in 2006 and the bbc intends to produce all of its content in
hd by 2010. until broadcast rights format standards - and the practicalities of
updating equipment - are agreed tv content will be limited. all tv images are made
up of pixels which go across the screen and scan lines which go down the screen.
most standard uk tv pictures are made up of 625 lines and about 700 pixels. hd
offers up to 1 080 active lines with each line made up of 1 920 pixels. this means
the picture is up to six times as sharp as standard tv. probably in the uk
[gaming] is going to be the only thing you are going to really be able to show off
as in look what this tv can do until hd is really adopted by broadcasters
explains dr tuffy. but gamers are also the ideal target audience for hd because
they always crave better quality graphics and more immersive gaming experiences.
they are used to spending money on hardware to match a game s requirements.
demographics have changed too and the sweet spot for the games industry is the
gamer in his or her late 20s. this means they are likely to have higher disposable
incomes and can afford the price of big-screen high-definition display
technologies and hd projectors earlier than others. higher capacity storage discs
such as hd-dvd and blue-ray are set to be standard in the next round of games
consoles - allowing developers more room for detailed graphics. for console
developers though hd offers some production changes. it could make games
production slightly more expensive thinks dr tuffy. but we may see the cross-
platform development of games becoming more common because they will more easily be
able to take a pc game and apply it to a console he says. you are literally
going to get to the point with a lord of the rings game for example is going to
be closer and closer to the actual film especially the cgi stuff from the dvd.
and the transition when they move from a cut scene to the game just now they have
almost got it seamless. with hd he says the transition will be completely
seamless and the same quality as the big-screen cinema release. this could herald
an increasing convergence between the film and gaming industry. but it may not be
until the generation after the next games consoles where the two industries really
collide. at that point says dr tuffy games could become more or less interactive
movies.
sfa awaits report over mikoliunas the scottish football association is awaiting
referee hugh dallas s report before acting against hearts winger saulius
mikoliunas. mikoliunas 20 barged linesman andy davis who had advised dallas to
award rangers an injury-time penalty in hearts s 2-1 defeat at tynecastle. he was
sent off for violent conduct in the 90th minute but we don t know if he did
something else after the whistle. we don t know how many red cards he was shown
said an sfa statement. hearts could also face action after three fans were arrested
for throwing coins on the pitch. rangers striker dad prso was also sent off during
the same incident when he received a second yellow card for wrestling the ball away
from craig gordon and leaving the hearts keeper on the ground. the sfa said: once
the referee s report comes in then we ll immediately look at things. we don t
normally get the reports until a couple of days after the game but we re well aware
of what happened here. prso was sent off for two cautions and that will just be a
one-match suspension. the sfa is certain to come down hard on mikoliunas after
southampton s david prutton was banned for 10-games on wednesday by the english fa
for shoving referee alan wiley. hearts boss john robertson said: mikoliunas has
thrown his chest against the assistant referee s chest and got a red card for it.
the officials have got to take into account the fact he s a young lad. but people
have got to take into account why he was incensed. why were 10 000 hearts fans
incensed why did nobody from the rangers bench claim for a penalty kick
rangers boss alex mcleish accepted referee dallas had no option but to send prso
off. mcleish said: i m glad to see the spirit of the players fighting to the very
end - literally with dado trying to get the ball back from craig gordon. but it
was over-zealousness and i don t think hugh had any option.
bt offers equal access to rivals bt has moved to pre-empt a possible break-up of
its business by offering to cut wholesale broadband prices and open its network to
rivals. the move comes after telecom regulator ofcom said in november that the
firm must offer competitors real equality of access to its phone lines . at the
time ofcom offered bt the choice of change or splitting into two. ofcom is
carrying out a strategic review aimed at promoting greater competition in the uk
telecom sector. bt s competitors have frequently accused it of misusing its status
as the former telecoms monopoly and controller of access to many customers to
favour its own retail arm. this latest submission was delivered to the watchdog
ahead of a deadline for the second phase of its review. central to the proposals
are plans by bt to offer operators lower wholesale prices faster broadband
services and transparent highly-regulated access to bt s local network the
former monopoly said in a statement. the united kingdom has the opportunity to
create the most exciting and innovative telecoms market in the world bt chief
executive ben verwaayen said. bt has a critical role to play and today we are
making a set of far-reaching proposals towards that framework he said. bt wants
lighter regulation in exchange for the changes as well as the removal of the
break-up threat. the group is to set up a new access services division - with a
separate board which would include independent members - to ensure equal access for
rivals to the local loop the copper wires that run between telephone exchanges
and households. the company also unveiled plans to cut the wholesale prices of its
most popular broadband product by about 8% from april in areas of high customer
demand. it added that it plans to invest £10bn in the next five years to create a
21st century network . to meet the growing demand for greater bandwidth bt said it
would begin trials in april with a view to launching higher-speed services
nationally from the autumn. telecom analysts ovum welcomed the move saying bt had
given a lot of ground . the big question now is whether the industry and
particularly ofcom feels bt s proposals go far enough ...now the real negotiation
begins director of telecoms research tony lavender said. internet service
provider (isp) plus.net also backed the proposals saying we will be entirely happy
if ofcom accepts them . bt has been challenged to play fair and its plans will
introduce a level playing field. the scenario now is how well people execute their
business plans as a service provider chief executive lee strafford said. chris
panayis managing director of isp freedom2surf said that it would make the
situation clearer for business. i think it s the first productive thing we ve had
from bt he said. aol backed the price cuts but said regulation was still needed
to ensure a level playing field. this is a reminder to ofcom that as long as bt
can change the dynamics of the whole broadband market at will the process of
opening up the uk s local telephone network to infrastructure investment and
competition remains fragile a spokesman said. ofcom needs to return to
regulation of the wholesale broadband service [ipstream] and provide more robust
rules for local loop unbundling if consumers are to see the benefits of increased
competition and infrastructure investment. more than 100 telecom firms consumer
groups and other interested parties are expected to make submissions to the
regulator during this consultation phase. ofcom is expected to spend the next few
weeks examining the proposals before making an announcement within the next few
months.
dundee utd 4-1 aberdeen dundee united eased into the semi-final of the scottish cup
with an emphatic win over aberdeen. alan archibald prodded united ahead in 19
minutes and james grady made it two from close range 10 minutes later. richie byrne
s header gave aberdeen a way back into the game but stevie crawford restored
united s lead from 18 yards before half time. the scoring was completed by grady
just after the break - a superb shot on the turn making it 4-1. tony bullock in the
united goal was called into action for the first time with just over a quarter-of-
an-hour on the clock. noel whelan laid the ball off to jamie winter on the edge of
the box but his first-time effort was gathered by the united keeper. moments later
though the home side took the lead. barry robson whipped in a free kick from the
right which stevie crawford caught on the volley. russell anderson failed to deal
with it and whelan s clearance off the line landed kindly at the feet of archibald
who poked the ball into the net. united doubled their lead after 29 minutes when
grady tapped the ball into an empty net after robson had headed mark wilson s cross
off the angle of post and bar. but only three minutes later aberdeen clawed their
way back into the match. a free kick from the left by winter was met powerfully by
the head of byrne at the back post leaving bullock helpless. united restored
their two-goal lead four minutes before the end of a highly entertaining first
half. jason scotland played a perfectly-weighted pass into the path of the
onrushing crawford and he coolly beat ryan esson from 18 yards. united ended the
game as a contest just two minutes after the interval. grady received a pass from
crawford with his back to goal on the edge of the box and after taking one touch
he spun to volley the ball past the despairing dive of esson. the home side were in
complete control and it required a good stop from esson to keep out robson s drive
after 62 minutes. the keeper denied the same player again 10 minutes later beating
away his fierce shot from the left of the penalty area. robson saw another long-
range effort tipped round the post before a cute lob was headed off the line.
bullock duff wilson ritchie archibald scotland (samuel 63) brebner kerr
(cameron 87) robson crawford grady. colgan dodds kenneth. brebner.
archibald 19 grady 29 crawford 41 grady 47. esson hart anderson diamond
byrne (morrison 75) mcnaughton heikkinen (foster 27) winter clark (stewart 51)
mackie whelan. blanchard mcguire. : anderson diamond. byrne 33. 8 661 k
clark
chelsea ridiculed over complaint barcelona assistant coach henk ten cate has
branded chelsea s expected complaint to uefa as pathetic . the blues are poised
to complain about an alleged half-time incident during wednesday s 2-1 loss at the
nou camp. the source of chelsea s anger was an alleged talk between barca boss
frank rijkaard and referee anders frisk who later dismissed didier drogba. to
react the way chelsea have is pathetic. mourinho lied with the line-ups and now
this ten cate said. uefa has said its own tunnel representative witnessed nothing
unusual out of the ordinary during the half-time break. spokesman william gaillard
said: frisk says rijkaard greeted him and apologised he had not had the
opportunity to say hello before the game. we had two uefa officials there and
neither witnessed it. the referee s dressing room was locked and he and his
assistants were the only people allowed in. indeed it is the londoners who could
be on the receiving end of any punishment after failing to turn up for the
compulsory press conference after the defeat. uefa delegate thomas giordano added:
the only unusual thing that happened as far as we are concerned is that chelsea
failed to present themselves in the press conference. the referee is not expected
to include any of the alleged incidents in his report to uefa - weakening chelsea s
case. rijkaard was critical of mourinho s decision not to speak to the media after
the match. there was a lot of talking before the game and now surprisingly there
is a lot of talking after the game. it is not good behaviour after a match he
said. maybe they want to start something and make it worse than than it is. i
really don t understand it. i am very calm about it. barca midfielder deco
formerly managed by mourinho at porto agreed that it was not typical of his fellow
portuguese to lodge a protest. it s not normal behaviour on his part. it was not
logical he did not give a news conference he said. rijkaard added: chelsea is
the team which has conceded fewest goals in the english league and they defend very
well so i am very pleased with the win. my men deserved victory and i am pleased
to have won this match. i congratulate my players.
fao warns on impact of subsidies billions of farmers livelihoods are at risk from
falling commodity prices and protectionism the un s food & agriculture
organisation has warned. trade barriers and subsidies severely distort the
market the fao report on the state of agricultural commodity markets 2004 said.
as a result the 2.5 billion people in the developing world who rely on farming
face food insecurity. the most endangered are those who live in the least-developed
countries. the fao report said that support for farmers in industrialised nations
was equivalent to 30 times the amount provided as aid for agricultural development
in poor countries. the fao has urged the world trade organisation to swiftly
conclude negotiations to liberalise trade easing developing countries access to
the world market. it also criticised the high tariffs imposed by both developed and
developing nations. it recommends that developing countries reduce their own
tariffs to encourage trade and take advantage of market liberalisation. according
to the organisation subsidies and high tariffs have a strong impact on the trade
of products such as cotton and rice. global exports of these products are mainly in
the hands of the european union and the us who - thanks to subsidies - sell them
at very low prices. in fact almost 30 wealthy nations spend more than $300bn
(£158.8bn; 230.9bn euros) in agricultural subsidies. the market situation has
divided developing nations in two groups the fao said. the first group have a
reasonably diverse range of agricultural products while in the second group
agriculture lies largely in the hands of small-scale producers. for 43 developing
countries more than 20% of their export incomes come from the sale of just one
product. these countries are mainly situated in sub-saharan africa latin america
and the caribbean.
when technology gets personal in 2020 whipping out your mobile phone to make a
call will be quaintly passé. by then phones will be printed directly on to
wrists or other parts of the body says ian pearson bt s resident futurologist.
it s all part of what s known as a pervasive ambient world where chips are
everywhere . mr pearson does not have a crystal ball. his job is to formulate ideas
based on what science and technology are doing now to guide industries into the
future. inanimate objects will start to interact with us: we will be surrounded -
on streets in homes in appliances on our bodies and possibly in our heads - by
things that think . forget local area networks - these will be body area networks.
ideas about just how smart small or even invisible technology will get are
always floating around. images of devices clumsily bolted on to heads or wrists
have pervaded thinking about future technology. but now a new vision is surfacing
where smart fabrics and textiles will be exploited to enhance functionality form
or aesthetics. such materials are already starting to change how gadgets and
electronics are used and designed. so mp3 players - the mass gadget of the moment
- will disappear and instead become integrated into one s clothing says mr
pearson. so the gadgets that fill up your handbag when we integrate those into
fabric we can actually get rid of all that stuff. you won t necessarily see the
electronics. wearable technology could exploit body heat to charge it up while
video tattoos or intelligent electronic contact lenses might function as tv
screens for those on the move. however this future of highly personal devices
where technology is worn or even fuses with the body itself raises ethical
questions. if technology is going to be increasingly part of clothing jewellery
and skin there needs to be some serious thinking about what it means for us as
humans says baroness susan greenfield. at a recent conference for technology
engineering academic and fashion industry experts at the royal society in london
neuroscientist baroness greenfield cautioned we can t just sleepwalk into the
future . yet this technology is already upon us. researchers have developed
computers and sensors worn in clothing. mp3 jackets based on the idea that
electrically conductive fabric can connect to keyboard sewn into sleeves have
already appeared in shops. these smart fabrics have come about through advances
in nano- and micro-engineering - the ability to manipulate and exploit materials at
micro or molecular scale. at the nanoscale materials can be tuned to display
unusual properties that can be exploited to build faster lighter stronger and
more efficient devices and systems. the textile and clothing industry has been one
of the first to exploit nanotechnology in quite straightforward ways. many
developments are appearing in real products in the fields of medicine defence
healthcare sports and communications. professional swimming suits reduce drag by
incorporating tiny structures similar to shark skin. nanoscale titanium dioxide
(tio2) coatings give fabrics antibacterial and anti-odour properties. these have
special properties which can be activated in contact with the air or uv light. such
coatings have already been used to stop socks smelling for instance to turn
airline seats into super stain-resistant surfaces and applied to windows so they
clean themselves. dressings for wounds can now incorporate nanoparticles with
biocidal properties and smart patches are being developed to deliver drugs through
the skin. but baroness greenfield is concerned about how far this more personal
contact with technology might affect our very being. if our clothing skin and
personal body networks do the talking and the monitoring everywhere we go we
have to think about what that means for our concept of privacy. mr pearson picks up
the theme pointing out there are a lot of issues humans have to iron out before we
become cyborgian . his main concern is privacy . we are looking at electronics
which are really in deep contact with your body and a lot of that information you
really don t want every passer-by to know. so we have to make sure we build
security in this. if you are wearing smart make-up where electronics are
controlling the appearance you don t want people hacking in and writing messages
on your forehead. as technology infiltrates our biology how will our brains
function differently we cannot arrogantly assume that the human brain will not
change with this warns baroness greenfield. there have already been successful
experiments to grow human nerve cells on circuit boards. this paves the way for
brain implants to help paralysed people interface directly with computers. clearly
the organic carbon of our bodies and silicon is increasingly merging. the cyborg -
a very familiar part-human part-inorganic science fiction and academic idea - is
on its way.
bees handed potential man utd tie brentford face a home tie against holders
manchester united in the fa cup sixth round if they can come through their replay
against southampton. the league one side held the saints at st mary s in their
fifth-round tie and were rewarded with a potential draw against sir alex ferguson s
side. newcastle will be at home to either tottenham or nottingham forest. bolton
host arsenal or sheffield united and leicester will visit the winners of the
burnley and blackburn replay. the ties will be played on the weekend of 12-13
march. was delighted to be paired with united although he admitted they still
have plenty of work to do to set up a dream tie. we ve got our work cut out next
tuesday but you can t deny it s exciting he said. it would be a sell-out. it
will probably be on television. we have financial problems and the revenue it could
bring in would certainly help our situation. we re happy to be in the draw but we
ve still got to beat a premiership team. we ve got to beat southampton first and
that s going to be a hard game but if we do there will be some celebration.
welcomed the opportunity to face united. we re not counting on anything yet he
said. it is obviously going to be a difficult replay judging by the way brentford
came back at us on saturday and the fact that united have come out of the hat will
give them even more incentive. but i ve been drawn against united so many times in
cups and beaten them at both bournemouth and west ham. there are no easy ties in
the fa cup and i m sure nobody is counting on one. newcastle v tottenham or
nottingham forest southampton or brentford v manchester united bolton v arsenal
or sheffield united burnley or blackburn v leicester
banker loses sexism claim a former executive at the london offices of merrill lynch
has lost her £7.5m ($14.6m) sex discrimination case against the us investment bank.
an employment tribunal dismissed stephanie villalba s allegations of sexual
discrimination and unequal pay. but the 42-year-old won her claim of unfair
dismissal resulting from her sacking in august 2003. her partial victory is likely
to cap her compensation to about £55 000 a tiny fraction of what she asked for.
the extent of damages will be assessed in the new year. the action - the biggest
claim heard by an employment tribunal in the uk - had been viewed as something of a
test case. the tribunal decided that ms villalba had been unfairly dismissed
because having been removed from a senior post she was entitled to wait to see if
a suitable alternative position could be found in the organisation. ms villalba
the former head of merrill s private client business in europe has made no
decision on whether to appeal. a spokesman for her lawyers described the decision
as very disappointing but pointed to some criticism of merrill s procedures
within the lengthy judgement. the tribunal upheld ms villalba s claim of
victimisation on certain specific issues including bullying e-mails in connection
with a contract but said it found no evidence of laddish culture at the bank.
we said from the start that this case was about performance not gender merrill
said in a statement. ms villalba was removed by the very same person who had
promoted her into the position and who then replaced her with another woman.
merrill lynch is dedicated to creating a true meritocracy where every employee has
the opportunity to advance based on their skills and hard work. based in london s
financial district ms villalba worked for merrill s global private client business
in europe investing funds for some of merrill s most important customers. but in
2003 her employers told her she had no future after 17 years with the company and
she was made redundant. merrill lynch denied ms villalba s claims and said she was
removed from her post because of the extensive losses the firm was suffering on the
continent. the firm had told the tribunal that ms villalba s division had been
losing about $1m a week. merrill said ms villalba lacked the leadership skills to
turn around the unit.
us box office set for record high ticket sales at the us box office are predicted
to break records this year with figures expected to reach $9.4 billion beating
2002 s all-time high. overall figures could be dampened by the lack of a christmas
hit like last year s oscar-winning lord of the rings. traditionally ticket sales
during the festive season account for 20% of the annual total. although admissions
have actually fallen this year the predicted high is down to increasing ticket
prices. according to exhibitor relations president paul dergarabedian the average
cost of a cinema ticket could be as high as $6.25 in 2004 compared to $5.80 in
2002. this year some of the biggest hits such as the passion of the christ and
fahrenheit 9/11 came from outside the major studios which are usually responsible
for the key blockbusters. many of the films that did well (with audiences) are
not necessarily the films that made a lot of money said mr dergarabedian. he
added that surprise hits had come from some of the more art-house offerings such as
napoleon dynamite and critical hit sideways. sony pictures responsible for hits
like spiderman 2 and the grudge are expected to top domestic market share for the
second time in three years with $1 billion-plus in sales for the third consecutive
year. sony pictures entertainment vice chairman. jeff blake said: we had a really
diverse slate this year and... certainly we pulled off one of the surprises with
grudge. horror movie the grudge cost sony $10 million to make but brought in $110
million. it s the latest in a recent trend for hollywood studios to back the upper
and lower ends of the market whilst ignoring the middle. warner inc are likely to
end the year in second place on market share with around $1.25 billion with disney
at number three.
police chief backs drinking move a chief constable has backed the introduction of
24-drinking saying police had a responsibility to ensure people could benefit from
a law change. however norfolk police chief andy hayman also warned that a great
deal of preparatory work was still needed. i don t subscribe to the views of some
of my colleagues who are coming out and objecting to it he said. his comments
come after the liberal democrats backed tory demands that the government s plans be
put on hold. andy hayman said he did not agree with politicians and senior police
officers who have objected to the plans which come into force on 7 february. i
feel that is a premature position to be taking he said. among those who have
criticised the plans are the uk s top policeman sir john stevens. the metropolitan
police chief said last week that the plans for 24-hour drinking should be re-
examined because of a binge drinking epidemic . however mr hayman said: it would
be totally unacceptable in my view for a chief constable to say i m very sorry .
he said that police should make sure that responsible people who wanted a change
could benefit from more liberal legislation. my view is that i have got a
responsibility to create an environment where that can happen he said. however
he believes a lot of preparatory work is still needed to be done by police local
authorities and the drinks industry before the nation was ready for 24-hour
drinking. but he is confident problems in the early days can be ironed out . he
believed the majority of people favoured this law change and we have to accept
that lifestyles are changing . but aspects such as transport and basic things such
as making sure public toilets are open all night had to be taken into account.
prime minister tony blair has defended the licensing act saying it is wrong to
deny people the relaxed hours enjoyed elsewhere in europe because of a tiny
minority of violent binge drinkers. a six-month transitional period starts on 7
february during which time venues can apply for extended licences. the
conservatives have called for 24-hour drinking to be shelved until the problems of
binge drinking are solved. on monday the lib dems also called for a delay. lib dem
home affairs spokesman mark oaten said: it would clearly be prudent to allow the
police and local authorities more time to prepare for flexible drinking hours.
chief constable mr hayman acknowledged that binge drinking did cause problems. if
you come to norwich on a friday or saturday night you will see things going on that
will you make you feel ashamed. however i want industry to succeed in norwich and
i want norwich to be the recognised nightspot of east anglia. there is no way i
want to say we cannot manage it or police it. we can.
microsoft debuts security tools microsoft is releasing tools that clean up pcs
harbouring viruses and spyware. the virus-fighting program will be updated monthly
and is a precursor to microsoft releasing dedicated anti-virus software. also being
released is a software utility that will help users find and remove any spyware on
their home computer. although initially free it is thought that soon microsoft will
be charging users for the anti-spyware tool. the anti-spyware tool is available
now and the anti-virus utility is expected to be available later this month.
microsoft s windows operating system has long been a favourite of people who write
computer viruses because it is so ubiquitous and has many loopholes that can be
exploited. it has proved such a tempting target that there are now thought to be
more than 100 000 viruses and other malicious programs in existence. latest
research suggests that new variants of viruses are being cranked out at a rate of
up to 200 per week. spyware is surreptitious software that sneaks on to home
computers often without users knowledge. in its most benign form it just bombards
users with pop-up adverts or hijacks web browser settings. the most malicious forms
steal confidential information or log every keystroke that users make. surveys have
shown that most pcs are infested with spyware. research by technology firms
earthlink and webroot revealed that 90% of windows machine have the malicious
software on board and on average each one harbours 28 separate spyware programs.
before now microsoft has left the market for pc security software to specialist
firms such as symantec mcafee trend micro and many others. it said that its virus
cleaning program would not stop machines being infected nor remove the need for
other anti-virus programs. on spyware freely available programs such as ad-aware
and spybot have become widely used by people keen to keep the latest variants at
bay. microsoft s two security tools have emerged as a result of acquisitions the
company has made over the last two years. in 2003 it bought romanian firm gecad
software to get hold of its anti-virus technology. in december 2004 it bought new
york-based anti-spyware firm giant company software. last year microsoft also
released the sp2 upgrade for windows xp that closed many security loopholes in the
software and made it easier for people to manage their anti-virus and firewall
programs.
moore questions captaincy brian moore believes the england captain should not be a
full-back. jason robinson has led the team during their opening three defeats in
the six nations tournament in the absence of fly-half jonny wilkinson. the world
champions have struggled since the retirement of former captain martin johnson a
lock forward. and former england captain moore told the bbc: full-backs are too
far away from the action. that s not a reflection on robinson personally. he
added: i just think the point of influence needs to move closer to the pack -
which is after all where games usually start and finish. moore says a lack of
cohesion in the forwards is one of the reasons why england have lost against wales
france and ireland in this year s tournament. assertiveness in the pack isn t
there we re not getting enough people into the breakdowns he explained. wer e
not getting quick ball which means the backs are being stifled. their creativity
depends on quick ball and we re not getting that. with injuries depriving him of
key players like wilkinson coach andy robinson has given youngsters such as harry
ellis and jamie noon a chance. and moore believes the last two games against italy
and scotland are a good opportunity to experiment further. the problem is the
players that are around to replace the icons which have been lost because of
retirement and injury don t have the requisite experience moore added. you can t
do anything about that but play them. there are players who have been knocking on
the door it s time for them to be looked at in these last two games because there
s nothing on them. we then go into next season with a greater certainty of who can
and cannot handle the pressure of international rugby.
nat insurance to rise say tories national insurance will be raised if labour wins
the next election tory leader michael howard has claimed. tony blair has said he
does not want higher tax rates for top earners but on wednesday said other tax
promises would be left to labour s manifesto. prime minister s questions also saw
mr blair predict that new plans would probably cut net immigration. he attacked
tory plans to process asylum claims abroad - but mr howard said labour had proposed
the idea too. the commons questions session again saw the leaders of the two
biggest parties shape up for the forthcoming election campaign. the tories have
promised £4bn in tax cuts but have yet to say where they will fall. mr howard
pointed to the institute for fiscal studies predictions that labour will need to
increase taxes to cover an £11bn gap in its spending plans. he accused ministers of
wasting money on unsuccessful attempts to curb bad behaviour and truancy in schools
and on slow asylum processing. it was no good mr blair claiming tax pledges were
being left to the manifesto as he had given one to mps on tuesday about the top
rate of income tax argued mr howard. pointing to national insurance he added:
everyone knows tax will go up under labour: isn t it now clear which tax it would
be mr blair instead hailed labour s achievement in using a strong economy to
invest in public services. when we have money not only going into extra teachers
and nurses but equipment in schools and hospitals that money is not wasted he
said. on the tax questions he added: we will make commitments on tax at the time
of the manifesto. home secretary charles clarke this week published plans for a
new points system for economic migrants with only high-skilled workers allowed
into the uk from outside the european union. mr blair said abuses would be weeded
out and chain migration where families automatically get the right to settle with
immigrant workers would end. that would probably create a fall in the migrant
numbers he said. the prime minister ridiculed the tory plans for asylum quotas and
for processing all asylum claims overseas. he challenged the tories on which
country would house their processing centres - what he called a fantasy island .
mr howard read from a letter about the government s own plans at the european
council of ministers for processing asylum seekers outside the eu. but mr blair
said: all the other countries could not agree on the way forward nor could the
un.
mobile games come of age the bbc news website takes a look at how games on mobile
phones are maturing. a brief round-up follows but you can skip straight to the
reviews by clicking on the links below. part two will follow on monday. reviews of
call of duty splinter cell - pandora tomorrow lord of the rings and pocket
kingdom will follow on monday if you think of snake when some mentions mobile
games then you could be in for a bit of a surprise. this is because mobile games
have come a long way in a very short time. even before nokia s n-gage game phone
launched in late 2003 many mobile operators were realising that there was an
audience looking for something to play on their handset. and given that many more
people own handsets than own portable game playing gadgets such as the gameboy it
could be a very lucrative market. that audience includes commuters wanting
something to fill their time on the way home game fans looking for a bit of
variety and hard core gamers who like to play every moment they can. life for all
these types of player has got immeasurably better in the last year as the numbers
of titles you can download to your phone has snowballed. now sites such as wireless
gaming review list more than 200 different titles for some uk networks and the
ranges suit every possible taste. there are ports of pc and arcade classics such as
space invaders lunar lander and bejewelled. there are also versions of titles
such as colin mcrae rally that you typically find on pcs and consoles. there are
shoot-em-ups adventure games strategy titles and many novel games only found on
handsets. rarely now does an action movie launch without a mobile game tie-in.
increasingly such launches are all part of the promotional campaign for a film
understandable when you realise that a good game can rack up millions of downloads.
the returns can be pretty good when you consider that some games cost £5. what has
also helped games on mobiles thrive is the fact that it is easier than ever to get
hold of them thanks to technology known as wap push. by sending a text message to a
game maker you can have the title downloaded to your handset. far better than
having to navigate through the menus of most mobile operator portals. the number of
handsets that can play games has grown hugely too. almost half of all phones now
have java onboard meaning that they can play the increasingly sophisticated games
that are available - even the ones that use 3d graphics. the minimum technology
specifications that phones should adhere to are getting more sophisticated which
means that games are too. now double key presses are possible making familiar
tactics such as moving and strafing a real option. the processing power on handsets
means that physics on mobile games is getting more convincing and the graphics are
improving too. some game makers are also starting to take advantage of the extra
capabilities in a mobile. many titles particularly racing games let you upload
your best time to see how you compare to others. usually you can get hold of their
best time and race against a ghost or shadow to see if you can beat them. a few
games also let you take on people in real time via the network or if you are
sitting close to them via bluetooth short-range radio technology. with so much
going on it is hard to do justice to the sheer diversity of what is happening. but
these two features should help point you in the direction of the game makers and
give you an idea of where to look and how to get playing. too fast too furious
(digital bridges) as soon as i start playing this i remember why i never play
driving games - because i m rubbish at them. no matter if i drive the car via
joystick or keypad i just cannot get the hang of braking for corners or timing a
rush to pass other drivers. the game rewards replay because to advance you have to
complete every section within a time limit. winning gives you cash for upgrades.
graphically the rolling road is a convincing enough evocation of speed as the palm
trees and cactus whip by and the city scrolls past in the background. the cars
handle pretty well despite my uselessness but it was not clear if the different
models of cars were appreciably different on the track. the only niggle was that
the interface was a bit confusing especially when using a joystick rather than the
keypad to play. fatal force (macrospace) a futuristic shooter that lets you
either play various deathmatch modes against your phone or run through a series of
scenarios that involves killing aliens invading earth. graphics are a bit cartoon-
like but only helps to make clear what is going on and levels are well laid out and
encourage you to leap about exploring. both background music and sounds effects
work well. the scenarios are well scripted and you regularly get hints from the
fatal force commanders. weapons include flamethrowers rocket launchers grenades
and at a couple of points you even get chance to use a mech for a short while. with
the right power-up you can go into a matrix-style bullet time to cope with the
onslaught of aliens. the game lets you play via bluetooth if others are in range.
online the game has quite a following with clans player rankings and even new
downloadable maps.
sir paul rocks super bowl crowds sir paul mccartney wowed fans with a live mini-
concert at american football s super bowl - and avoided any janet jackson-style
controversies. the 62-year-old sang hey jude and other beatles songs in a 12-
minute set at half-time during the game in florida. last year jackson exposed a
breast during a dance routine causing outrage among millions of tv viewers and
landing the cbs tv network a fine. sir paul however did nothing more racy than
remove his jacket as he sang. organisers were widely considered to be playing it
safe this year by booking 62-year-old sir paul for his second super bowl show.
three years ago he was invited to perform at the first super bowl after the
september 11 attacks and performed his specially-written song freedom. this time
he started off the show at the alltel stadium in jacksonville florida with the
beatles numbers drive my car and get back. he then performed a mellow version of
live and let die the james bond theme he recorded with the band wings. finally he
closed the show with a rousing version of hey jude. the former beatle resisted any
temptation to refer to janet jackson s headline-grabbing performance last year
instead keeping banter between songs to a minimum in order to squeeze as much music
as he could into his slot. the singer removed his black jacket halfway through the
show - but any fans hoping for a second nipple-gate were to be disappointed as he
kept his red sweatshirt on underneath. earlier the black eyed peas and alicia
keys had provided the night s other high-profile entertainment by performing in a
pre-game show. black eyed peas singer fergie was dressed in a tight orange top and
purple hotpants but nothing in her performance was likely to upset tv watchdogs.
after the controversy last year - which saw cbs fined a record $550 000 (£292 000)
by federal regulators - super bowl organisers had turned to producer don mischer to
oversee this year s half-time show. his previous production credits included
olympic opening and closing ceremonies. the super bowl is watched by an audience of
144.4 million in the us with many of the people watching are said to tune in
specifically to see the entertainment put on around the event. michael jackson
aerosmith diana ross gloria estefan and phil collins are among the stars who have
previously graced the super bowl stage.
petrol duties frozen brown says chancellor gordon brown has announced a freeze on
fuel duty in his pre-budget speech to the commons on thursday. mr brown told the
house that government policy is to raise fuel duty at least in line with inflation
each year to fulfil environmental commitments. but this financial year because of
volatility in the oil market he said the duty would be frozen. during 2000 many
motorists campaigned against the rises but environmentalists believe less duty
means more pollution. he said: it is our policy that each year fuel duties should
rise at least in line with inflation as we seek to meet our targets for reducing
polluting emmissions and fund our public services. but this financial year because
of the sustained volatility in the oil market i propose to match the freeze in car
vehicle licence duty with a continuation on the freeze on the main road fuel
duties. the rac welcomed the news calling it an early christmas present for
motorists. but the organisation urged drivers to continue to shop around to get the
best price for petrol. environmental group transport 2000 said the freeze sends the
wrong message to motorists. we are concerned that although britain leads the world
in rhetoric about climate change it often fails in practical action said a
spokesman. in 2000 the people s fuel lobby caused chaos by blocking roads with
slow-moving convoys after mr brown threatened to raise fuel taxes. the chancellor
did not raise duty that year but despite threats of more protests in 2003 he
added 1.28p per litre.
ferguson rues failure to cut gap boss sir alex ferguson was left ruing manchester
united s failure to close the gap on chelsea everton and arsenal after his side s
1-1 draw with fulham. premiership leaders chelsea and the gunners endured a 2-2
stalemate on sunday giving united the chance to make up some ground in the league.
but ferguson said: i think what makes it so bad is that both our rivals dropped
points at the weekend. it was a great opportunity - and we haven t delivered.
united went ahead through alan smith in the 33rd minute before bouba diop s superb
25-yard strike cancelled out the visitors lead in the 87th minute. ferguson
described the result as an absolute giveaway after united had earlier missed a
host of opportunities to finish off the encounter. he said: it was a good
performance - some of the football was fantastic - but we just didn t finish them
off. in fairness it s a fantastic strike from the fulham player. the result
leaves ferguson s side fourth in the league on 31 points - four points behind
arsenal and a further five back from chelsea.
kennedy criticises unfair taxes gordon brown has failed to tackle the
fundamental unfairness in the tax system in his ninth budget charles kennedy has
said. how was it right that the poorest 20% of society were still paying more as a
proportion of their income than the richest 20% the lib dem leader asked. the new
£200 council tax rebate for pensioners did nothing to fix the unfair tax he
added. the government could not go on patching up the system he added. speaking
in the commons after mr brown had delivered what is widely thought to be the last
budget before the general election mr kennedy acknowledged that the uk was one of
the most successful economies in the world. but he criticised both the chancellor
and the tories for failing to address the ticking bomb of council tax
revaluation. he said the recent experience of wales indicated seven million
households in england would pay significantly more after revaluation. the
chancellor s announcement that he was to offer a £200 council tax rebate paid by
pensioner households was merely a sticking plaster to a much bigger problem. the
lib dem plan for a local income tax would benefit the typical household by more
than £450 a year with half of all pensioners paying no local tax and about three
million being better off. on pensions mr kennedy said it was a scandal that the
system discriminated against women who had missed making national insurance
payments when they were having children. he said a residency criteria would end at
a stroke this fundamental iniquity . mr kennedy added his party s priorities of
free long-term care for the elderly abolishing top-up fees and replacing the
council tax would be funded by charging 50% income tax to those earning more than
£100 000 per annum. he contrasted his approach with mr brown s pledge in 2001 not
to increase income tax. the chancellor went on to put up national insurance
contributions after the election. for most individuals most families most
households it adds up to exactly the same thing said mr kennedy. and they
wonder why people get cynical about their politicians when they give one impression
before an election and do exactly the opposite after that election.
mobile picture power in your pocket how many times have you wanted to have a camera
to hand to catch an unexpected event that would make headlines with a modern
mobile phone that has a camera built in you no longer need to curse you can
capture the action as it happens. already on-the-spot snappers are helping
newspapers add immediacy to their breaking news stories headlines where
professional photographers only arrive in time for the aftermath. celebrities might
not welcome such a change because they may never be free of a new breed of mobile
phone paparazzi making their lives a bit more difficult. already one tabloid
newspaper in la is issuing photographers with camera phones to help them catch
celebrities at play. it could be the start of a trend that only increases as higher
resolution phone cameras become more widespread; as video phones catch on and
millions of people start carrying the gadgets around. only last week the world
media highlighted the killing of the dutch film maker theo van gogh notorious
after making a controversial film about islamic culture. one day later de
telegraaf a daily amsterdam newspaper became news on its own when it published a
picture taken with a mobile phone of mr van gogh s body moments after he was
killed. this picture was the story said de telegraaf s image editor peter
schoonen. other accounts of such picture phone users witnessing news events
include: - a flight from switzerland to the dominican republic which turned
around after someone took a picture of a piece of metal falling from the plane as
it took off from zurich (reported by the swiss daily le matin). - two crooks who
robbed a bank in denmark were snapped before they carried out the crime waiting for
the doors of the building to be opened (reported by the danish regional paper
aarhus stiftstidende). but this is not just about traditional media lending
immediacy to their stories with content from ordinary people it is also about
first-hand journalism in the form of online diaries or weblogs. it has been called
open source news or even moblog journalism and it has flourished in the recent
us election campaign. not many people walk around with their cameras but they
always have their mobile phones with them. if something happens suddenly all these
mobiles sort of appear from nowhere and start taking pictures said digital
artist henry reichhold. he himself uses mobile phone pictures to create huge
panoramic images of events and places. you see it in bars you see it everywhere.
it s a massive thing mr reichhold told the bbc news website. with some picture
agencies already paying for exclusive phone pictures especially of celebrities
there are also fears about the possible downside of this phenomenon. it could
become a nuisance for public figures as higher resolution picture phones hit the
market with five megapixel models already being launched in asia. already on us
photojournal site buzznet there is a public album full of snaps of celebrities
many of which were taken with camera phones. tabloid newspapers in the uk and many
monthly magazines invite readers to send in images of famous people they have seen
and snapped. but there are other positive uses of picture mobile phones that may
balance these uses. for instance in alabama in the us camera phones will be used
to take snaps at crime scenes involving children and help the authorities to
arrest and prosecute paedophiles. and in china s capital beijing courts have
adopted mobile phone photos as formal evidence. for henry reichhold this is
progress: that s the whole thing about the immediacy of the thing. i can see that
happening a lot more.
trial begins of spain s top banker the trial of emilio botin the chairman of spain
s most powerful bank santander central hispano has started in madrid. mr botin
is accused of misusing the bank s funds after he approved the payment of 160m euros
($208m; £111m) in bonus and pension payouts to two former executives. however the
trial was suspended when mr botin s lawyer introduced a new set of documents on the
day testimony was set to begin. a three-judge panel gave prosecution lawyers until
monday to study the documents when the trial will be reconvened. the high-profile
case began after two santander shareholders filed a criminal complaint about the
payments to jose maria amusategui and angel corcostegui who stepped down in 2001.
both executives helped mr botin orchestrate spain s biggest bank merger between
santander and banco central hispano in 1999. as he arrived at spain s high court
earlier on wednesday mr botin greeted the waiting media saying: i have full
faith in justice. santander s board of governors strongly reject the charges
against their chairman saying the payouts were legal and made with their unanimous
support. but if convicted mr botin could face a prison term of up to six years. mr
corcostegui a former ceo at santander also asked the court for new evidence to be
admitted. in spite of the allegations against him mr botin continues to lead
santander and was instrumental in the £8.5bn takeover last november of the british
bank abbey national. since taking over the chairmanship in 1986 he has turned
santander into one of the top ten biggest banks in the world.
film row over pirates cannibals plans to portray dominica s carib indians as
cannibals in the sequel to hit film pirates of the caribbean have been criticised
by the group s chief. carib chief charles williams said talks with disney s
producers revealed there was a strong element of cannibalism in the script which
cannot be removed . the caribbean island s government said disney planned to film
in dominica. the caribs have long denied their ancestors practised cannibalism.
disney was unavailable for comment. our ancestors stood up against early european
conquerors and because they stood up...we were labelled savages and cannibals up to
today said mr williams. this cannot be perpetuated in movies. shooting on the
sequel is expected to begin in april with hundreds of dominicans applying to be
extras in the movie. about 3 000 caribs live on the island of dominica which has
a population of 70 000. many caribs were killed by disease and war during
colonisation up to the 1600s. mr williams said he had received support from
indigenous groups around the world in his efforts to have cannibalism references
removed from the film. but he admitted there were some members of the carib council
who did not support the campaign. he said some did not understand our history
they are weak and are not committed to the cause of the carib people . the first
pirates of the caribbean film took $305m (£162m) at the box office in the us alone.
the cast and crew are to work on two sequels back-to-back with the first to be
released in 2006.
taylor poised for scotland return simon taylor has been named in the scotland squad
for saturday s six nations clash with italy. the 25-year-old number eight made a
scoring return for edinburgh at the weekend - his first game in a year for the
capital side. taylor suffered knee ligament damage playing against ireland in
dublin in the 2004 six nations championship. simon is one of scotland s truly
world class players so it is a huge bonus said team-mate chris paterson. he
brings a whole new dimension to us especially in defence and his ability to slow
the opposition ball down could be key against italy if he is involved. taylor has
turned out for english side saracens in recent weeks during a short-term loan to
improve his fitness. edinburgh were not in action during the first two weeks of
this season s six nations. so taylor played the last 20 minutes of saracens win
over northampton and then 40 minutes in a friendly against south african super 12
side the cats. scotland coach matt williams is due to name his match-day 22 on
thursday. both scotland and italy have lost their opening two six nations games and
just like last season s encounter which italy won this weekend s game could turn
out to be a battle to avoid the wooden spoon. - m blair (edinburgh) a craig
(glasgow) c cusiter (borders) s danielli (borders) m di rollo (edinburgh) a
henderson (glasgow) b hinshelwood (worcester) r lamont (glasgow) s lamont
(glasgow) d parks (glasgow) c paterson (edinburgh) g ross (leeds) h southwell
(edinburgh) s webster (edinburgh) - r beattie (northampton) g bulloch (glasgow
capt) b douglas (borders) j dunbar (leeds) i fullarton (saracens) s grimes
(newcastle) n hines (edinburgh) a hogg (edinburgh) g kerr (leeds) n lloyd
(saracens) s murray (edinburgh) j petrie (glasgow) r russell (london irish) c
smith (edinburgh) t smith (northampton) s taylor (edinburgh) j white (sale).
boateng to step down at election paul boateng chief secretary to the treasury is
to step down as a labour mp at the forthcoming general election. mr boateng 53
is to become the uk s high commissioner to south africa. he was the uk s first
black cabinet minister when appointed to his post in 2002 promoted from the home
office where he had been prisons minister. mr boateng served on the greater london
council before being elected to parliament in 1987 declaring today brent south
tomorrow soweto . he will succeed the previous high commissioner ann grant
shortly after the next election which is widely expected to be held on 5 may. the
appointment is dependent on labour s re-election. prime minister tony blair said:
paul has been both a valued colleague and a trusted friend for many years. he has
made an immense contribution to public life in britain and i am delighted that he
has agreed to continue that service to the people of britain by acting as their
representative in south africa. chancellor gordon brown said: over the past eight
years paul s contribution to the treasury and the government has been exceptional -
and it has been my privilege to have worked closely with him closely at the
treasury. i congratulate paul on his new appointment. he has displayed huge
dedication to the cause of african development for many years and it is fitting
that in this year of challenge and opportunity for the african continent paul has
been given such a pivotal role in our fight against poverty and injustice. i look
forward to continuing to work with paul on this vital agenda. mr boateng said: i
am honoured to be asked to take on this role especially as it comes at such an
integral time for our relationship with south africa and the african continent.
there shall be many new challenges and opportunities ahead and i look forward to
embracing them with great anticipation. asked if he was appointed as the result of
a fair and open competition he replied: i have been appointed as a result of a
process that s been used before by labour and conservative governments to appoint
people of all parties who have relevant experience. mr boateng also laughed off
suggestions that his re-election in brent south seat had been in danger saying it
was one of the safest labour seats in the country . shadow foreign secretary
michael ancram said that if in government he would refuse to approve either mr
boateng s appointment or that of ex-cabinet minister helen liddell as high
commissioner to australia. mr blair s appointment of paul boateng is the latest
example of a worrying trend of failed tony s cronies being appointed to senior
diplomatic posts he said.
egypt to sell off state-owned bank the egyptian government is reportedly planning
to privatise one of the country s big public banks. an investment ministry
official has told the reuters news agency that the bank of alexandria will be sold
sometime in 2005. the move is seen as evidence of a new commitment by the
government to reduce the size of public sector. the official said the government
has not yet decided whether the sale will take the form of a public flotation. the
most important thing to decide now is the method - whether by selling shares to the
public or to a strategic investor from abroad he said. analysts say the public-
sector banks have suited the government s monetary credit and exchange policies.
nevertheless the egyptian government has spoken for years about privatising one of
the big four state banks - banque misr national bank of egypt banque du caire and
bank of alexandria. it had been expected one of the smallest of the four big public
banks - bank of alexandria or banque du caire - would be sold first. the
announcement reinforces the hopes of investors and international financial bodies
for a revival of egypt s privatisation programme. about 190 state-run companies and
facilities were sold off from the early 1990s to 1997. the appointment of mahmoud
mohieldin a reform-minded technocrat to the new post of investment minister in
july was taken as a sign that more sell-offs were on the way. both the imf and
world bank have urged egypt to remove obstacles to the development of the private
sector which they say has a vital role to play in reducing poverty by expanding the
economy.
spam e-mails tempt net shoppers computer users across the world continue to ignore
security warnings about spam e-mails and are being lured into buying goods a
report suggests. more than a quarter have bought software through spam e-mails and
24% have bought clothes or jewellery. as well as profiting from selling goods or
services and driving advertising traffic organised crime rings can use spam to
glean personal information. the business software alliance (bsa) warned that people
should stay alert . many online consumers don t consider the true motives of
spammers said mike newton a spokesperson for the bsa which commissioned the
survey. by selling software that appears to be legitimate in genuine looking
packaging or through sophisticated websites spammers are hiding spyware without
consumers knowledge. once the software is installed on pcs and networks
information that is given over the internet can be obtained and abused. the
results also showed that the proportion of people reading - or admitting to reading
- and taking advantage of adult entertainment spam e-mails is low at one in 10.
the research which covered 6 000 people in six countries and their attitudes
towards junk e-mails revealed that brazilians were the most likely to read spam. a
third of them read unsolicited junk e-mail and 66% buy goods or services after
receiving spam. the french were the second most likely to buy something (48%)
with 44% of britons taking advantage of products and services. this was despite 38%
of people in all countries being worried about their net security because of the
amount of spam they get. more than a third of respondents said they were concerned
that spam e-mails contained viruses or programs that attempted to collect personal
information. both industry and the media have helped to raise awareness of the
issues that surround illegitimate e-mail helping to reduce the potential financial
damage and nuisance from phishing attacks and spoof websites said william plante
director of corporate security and fraud protection at security firm symantec. at
the same time consumers need to continue exercising caution and protect themselves
from harm with a mixture of spam filters spyware detection software and sound
judgement.
broadband set to revolutionise tv bt is starting its push into television with
plans to offer tv over broadband. as a telecoms company bt is moving to a content
distribution strategy andrew burke chief of bt s new entertainment unit told the
iptv world forum. we want to be an entertainment facilitator he said on the
opening day of the london conference. the bbc is also trialling a service to play
programmes over the net and has not ruled out offering it to non-licence fee payers
overseas. the corporation s interactive media player (imp) is its first foray into
broadband tv - known as iptv (internet protocol tv). we see several opportunities
for delivering the type of content that normally broadcasters find it difficult to
get to viewers said bt s andrew burke. with more people on broadband and
connection speeds increasing telcos around the world are looking for new ways to
make money from it. increased competition between net service providers encouraged
by ofcom has eroded bt s position in the market. it is looking for a good return
on its investment in the technology which has made broadband over adsl a reality.
it also sees delivering tv over broadband as a way of getting high-definition (hd)
content to people sooner than they will be able to get it through conventional
regular broadcasts. the bbc s imp has just finished successful technical trials and
is set for much larger consumer trials later in 2005. before it officially launches
the bbc must show the government how it offers value for money. delivering
programmes over broadband offers clear public value says the bbc because it gives
people more control and more choice. iptv is a similar idea to voip services
like skype. both use broadband net connections to carry information like video and
voice in packets of data instead of conventional means. since it uses internet
technology iptv could mean more choice of programmes more more interactivity
tailored programming and more localised content outside of conventional satellite
digital cable and terrestrial broadcasts. it is all part of the larger changing
tv technology landscape and like personal digital video recorders (pvrs) gives
people much more control over tv. broadcasters see iptv and pvrs as both as a
threat and an opportunity. the bbc recognises that tv over broadband is a reality
and aims to innovate with it said rahul chakkara controller of bbci s 24/7
interactive tv services. the imp is based on peer-to-peer technology and lets
people download programmes the bbc owns the rights to for up to seven days after
broadcast. iptv enables us to take back that programme to our audience at
different times said mr chakkara. so we can tell our audience that that
programme they paid for [via the licence fee] they can access it any time they
want. it helps said mr burke that people are more au fait with terms like
digital interactive now that digital tv reaches more than 56% of uk homes.
according to benoit joly from broadband telecoms firm thales 30% of europe cannot
get satellite tv or digital tv. they could get iptv though. analysts say that iptv
will account for 10% of the digital tv market in europe alone by the end of the
decade. what needs to happen now agree analysts is for connection speeds to be
bumped up to handle the service; 20mbps connections would be ideal. bt does not see
itself as a broadcaster of iptv services rather as an enabler said mr burke.
its strategy is a hybrid approach he explained where over-the-air conventional
broadcasts are supplemented with content over broadband. initially appealing to
niche markets like sports fans it will widen out. but iptv could be used for
home-monitoring pet cams localised news services and local authority tv too
says bt. it even suggests that it could target those households in the uk that do
not own a computer 40% of the country. broadband to them would not be about data
and the net - that could come later for them - but about cheap phone calls and more
choice of tv programmes. home choice already offers 10 000 hours of shows and
channels delivered over broadband to homes in london. with a broadband net
subscription you can also get your tv and phone service. through content deals and
partnerships it offers satellite as well as terrestrial channels and bespoke
channels based on what viewers pick and choose from its catalogues. it aims to
expand nationally but is seeing a lot of success with what it offers its 15 000
subscribers now and aims to double uptake as well as reach by the summer. although
still at a very early stage iptv is another application for broadband that
underlines its growing prominence as a backbone network - another utility like
electricity.
can yahoo dominate next decade yahoo has reached the grand old age of 10 and in
internet years that is a long time. for many yahoo remains synonymous with the
internet - a veteran that managed to ride the dot-com wave and the subsequent crash
and maintain itself as one of the web s top brands. but for others there is another
newer net icon threatening to overshadow yahoo in the post dot-com world - google.
the veteran and the upstart have plenty in common - yahoo was the first internet
firm to offer initial public shares and google was arguably the most watched ipo
(initial public offering) of the post-dot-com era. both began life as search
engines although in 2000 when yahoo chose google to power its search facility
while it concentrated on its web portal business it was very much yahoo that
commanded press attention. in recent years the column inches have stacked up in
google s favour as the search engine also diversifies with the launch of services
such as gmail its shopping channel froogle and google news. for jupiter analyst
olivier beauvillain yahoo s initial decision to put its investment on search on
hold was an error. yahoo was busy building a portal and while it was good to
diversify they made a big mistake in outsourcing search to google he said they
thought google would just be a technology provider but it has become a portal in
its own right and a direct competitor he added. he believes yahoo failed to see
how crucial search would become to internet users something it has rediscovered in
recent years. it is interesting that in these last few years it has refocused on
search following the success of google he said. but for allen weiner a research
director at analyst firm gartner and someone who has followed yahoo s progress
since the early years the future of search is not going to be purely about the
technology powering it. search technology is valuable but the next generation of
search is going to be about premium content and the interface that users have to
that content he said. he believes the rivalry between google and yahoo is
overblown and instead thinks the real battle is going to be between yahoo and msn.
it is a battle that yahoo is currently winning he believes. microsoft has amazing
assets including software capability and a global name but it has yet to show me it
can create a rival product to yahoo he said. he is convinced yahoo remains the
single most important brand on the world wide web. i believe yahoo is the seminal
brand on the web. if you are looking for a text book definition of web portal then
yahoo is it he said. it has achieved this dominance mr weiner believes by a
canny combination of acquisitions such as that of inktomi and overture and by
avoiding direct involvement in either content creation or internet access. that is
not to say that yahoo hasn t had its dark days. when the dot-com bubble burst it
lost one-third of its revenue in a single year bore a succession of losses and saw
its market value fall from a peak of $120bn to $4.6bn at one point. crucial to its
survival was the decision to replace chief executive tim koogle with terry semel in
may 2001 thinks mr weiner. his business savvy coupled with the technical genius
of founder jerry yang has proved a winning combination he says. so as the
internet giant emerges from its first decade as a survivor how will it fare as it
enters its teenage years the game is theirs to lose and msn is the only one that
stands in the way of yahoo s domination predicted mr weiner. nick hazel yahoo s
head of consumer services in the uk thinks the fact that yahoo has grown up with
the first wave of the internet generation will stand it in good stead. search will
be a key focus as will making yahoo messenger available on mobiles forging new
broadband partnerships such as that with bt in the uk and continuing to provide a
range of services beyond the desktop he says. mr weiner thinks yahoo s vision of
becoming the ultimate gateway to the web will move increasing towards movies and
television as more and more people get broadband access. it will spread its portal
wings to expand into rich media he predicts.
lib dems target first-time buyers the liberal democrats have unveiled plans to
build 100 000 new affordable homes on publicly owned land. the party s scheme
would allow people to buy a share in a home through a mutual home ownership trust
as a way of getting onto the housing ladder. the lib dems would also encourage the
conversion of existing buildings in an effort to protect greenfield sites. labour
has already announced plans to help first-time buyers and the tories would extend
right-to-buy schemes. all the major parties are focusing on the issue in the run-
up to the election after a survey suggested first-time buyers could not afford a
home in 92% of uk towns. the lib dems say their mutual homes would let people buy
a share of a property usually worth about 5% of the building costs. party leader
charles kennedy said the homes would be affordable because they would be built on
surplus public sector land donated by central or local government. people would
also only have to pay for the cost of the building and not the land he added.
they would spend about 30% of their monthly salary on rent and buying extra shares
in the property. when they moved house they would be able to cash in on any rise
in property prices by selling their share. it would also allow councils to vary
discounts to tenants given the right to buy their council homes so local needs were
taken into account. mr kennedy said: mutual homes will offer people the
opportunity to build up an equity stake in a home gradually investing only as much
as they can afford. there are also plans to prevent high house prices forcing
people out of their local communities. the kind of golden share used by the lib
dems in south shropshire could be rolled out more widely. under the plan councils
secure deals with developers where they keep a 1% share in a property scheme so
properties cannot be sold on the open market. instead they are sold at build cost
to people who the local council decides have local needs. the party says its help
for first-time buyers can be funded at no extra cost to the taxpayer. but the plans
involve changing the vat system which the party says often makes it too expensive
to renovate existing buildings. the conservatives claimed the plans would amount
to an extra tax of up to £11 000 on every new house. this is typical of lib dem
hypocrisy said tory shadow local government secretary caroline spelman. they
claim that they want to help people on to the property ladder but the small print
of their policies reveal how they intend to price even more people out of the
housing market. the flagship tory proposal on housing policy is to give a million
more housing association tenants the right to buy their homes. labour has said it
will allow 300 000 council and housing association tenants to buy a share in their
homes. housing minister keith hill said much of the lib dem plans mimicked the
government s strategy. however as usual the lib dems proposals are completely
uncosted he said. mr hill said he also asked whether the lib dems would match
labour s promise to spend £42bn on making refurbishing and repair council homes by
2010.
french wine gets 70m euro top-up the french government is to hand its struggling
wine industry 70m euros ($91m) in aid to help it battle falling sales and damaging
overproduction. the financial package is aimed at assisting vintners in financial
trouble and improving how its wine is marketed. the french wine industry the world
s second largest has been hit by declining consumption at home and the growing
popularity of new world wines. wine makers however claimed the support did not go
far enough. the package was announced by agriculture minister dominique bussereau
after talks with vintners representatives. the bulk of the money - about 40m
euros - will be offered in the form of preferential loans to heavily indebted
producers to enable them to reschedule their payments. a further 15m euros will be
made available to wine cooperatives which make up the majority of french producers
in low interest loans. efforts to promote french wine abroad are to be boosted by
an extra 3.5m euros in funding. france fell behind the new world producers of
australia chile and the united states for the first time in 2003 in terms of
exports. domestic consumption accounting for 70% of sales has suffered from
strict restrictions on advertising and tough drink-driving laws. the aid package
would create a positive climate around french viticulture mr bussereau said.
however wine makers and farmers said the support was much less than they had been
hoping for. i am afraid the resources are not up to the ambitions jean-michel
lemetayer from the fnsea agricultural union told the associated press news
agency. in an effort to tackle overcapacity the government will agree that vines
can be destroyed in areas where growers give their unanimous consent while 500
vintners will be helped to take early retirement. the government will also seek
european union approval to distil about 250 million litres of excess wine into
alcohol with vintners receiving compensation. production is currently outstripping
demand by about 30%. the support is designed to make french producers more
competitive in the face of increasing global consolidation across the wine
industry. wine makers in france s best-known regions such as burgundy have found
it hard to invest in new technology and to create recognisable brands to appeal to
overseas buyers.
iranian misses israel match iranian striker vahid hashemian will not travel to
israel for bayern munich s champions league match against maccabi tel aviv on
wednesday. the german club said the player had pulled out because of a back
injury. iran refuses to recognise israel s right to exist and does not allow its
citizens to travel to the country. a bayern spokesman said on monday that the
decision not to take hashemian to israel had been motivated only by his physical
condition. he s got back pain and he couldn t train the spokesman said. it
would have made no sense for him to go. iran gave judo world champion arash
miresmaeili a $125 000 reward when he refused to fight an israeli at the athens
olympics. the international judo federation considered taking action against
miresmaeili but concluded he had been overweight for the fight and could not have
taken part.
what the election should really be about a general election is the best chance
most pressure groups get to make a real impact on government policy. here is how
six leading lobbies plan to make sure their cause is being debated ahead of an
expected spring poll. we ve called for the state pension to be increased from
£79.60 to the pensioner credit guarantee level of £105.45. that s what we re
calling for. many pensioners are disadvantaged by the current system. if we ve got
one in five pensioners below the poverty line we ve got to make it more generous
or have these people living in poverty. we ve drawn up a pensioners manifesto.
this will be sent to each of the candidates in the 659 constituencies. they will be
asked which of the top five issues including the pension issue they would
support. once we ve got their responses we will publish the results within the
constituencies and nationally as well. it s our way of putting the politicians on
notice. we are trying to get across the fact that there are 11m voters over 60 in
the country they are more likely to vote than other sections of society and
thirdly they are true swing voters. before 1997 most pensioners voted conservative.
in 1997 and 2001 they voted labour. but there is no guarantee they will vote for a
labour government this time around. they cannot take that vote for granted.
pensions generally will certainly be a big election issue even though the
government has postponed the publication of adair turner s full report into the
issue. he said the uk had one of the least generous pensions systems in the
developed world. that the government takes seriously the impact of aviation on the
environment. we haven t worked out specific plans but i imagine we will lobby
political parties and incumbent mps. various local groups will do that in their
particular areas and we will provide a national briefing. we don t have any large
demonstrations planned but they can t be ruled out. it is hard to say whether we
will be successful. we have got the issue in the public consciousness to an extent
but it is difficult to say whether an election will raise its importance in the
public mind or whether it will be pushed out by big issues like iraq. repealing
the hunting bill. we are challenging the use of the parliament act 1949 in a high
court action. we are hoping to hear in the new year. whichever way the court rules
the other side will appeal so we expect it to fall plumb in electioneering time.
when the ban comes into force on 18 february we will be going to the european court
because no compensation is being paid. so there s a lot of legal territory to go.
we are trying to engage with the ministers by demonstrating and talking. whatever
intelligence we get we will try to turn up and speak to whoever it is. (rural
affairs minister) alun michael has avoided us and cancelled engagements so that
makes it difficult. it is not intimidatory - on the whole it is groups of angry
housewives. of course there is an element of shouting because people are angry but
there is no violence because that does not achieve anything. it will fall plumb in
the run up to the most important general election tony blair will ever face. it s
exactly what the prime minister did not want. he wanted the issue off the table
until after the election. people using live animals as targets for sport both here
and abroad. the reason for including abroad is because of trophy hunting. it is
another sort of form of shooting for sport. the principle is the same whether it s
a tiger or a pheasant. we will widely publicise what s happening in relation to
trophy hunting. we will publicise the darker aspects of the target animal industry
the uk. we will seek to get pledges from individual mps and would-be mps saying
that they are against the use of animals as targets for sports. we would like the
support of political parties but i think a general election is very much to do with
pledges mps make to their electors. with hunting we had many mps who were happy to
say they were against it. i think what we will get is a very real climbing up the
agenda. whether or not we will get a ban i am not sure. but it will mobilise public
opinion. everything we do will reduce animal suffering and in time that will lead
to a ban. the issue that we think is the most important for this election is
choice. the language of consumerism is very commonplace in government and across
the political spectrum. choice as an ideology is beginning to be the privatisation
of this decade. it s become an issue in itself but what s really missing from the
debate is the consumer s choice in that. choice is not choice at all if all you
have to choose from is two failing schools. we have seen so many pensions mis-
selling scandals and in the pensions industry there s a maximum of choice but a
minimum quality in that. we want choice on the consumer s terms - that means clear
and accessible information to operate that choice. firstly we have our website.
it features our campaigns and changes every day. secondly through our 700 000
members who communicate with us. thirdly through the media and also what we will be
doing is holding a pre-election conference. we will invite the opinion formers mps
journalists and others. the idea is that we open up communications between members
of the public and the politicians. i think we will be successful. it s very much
the language being used by the main political parties. politicians on all sides are
very sensitive to this issue they want to be seen to be responding to this issue.
fuel duty is a large part of operational costs for road haulage workers. we have
been hearing about this proposed increase of 1.92p per litre that gordon brown has
been postponing and postponing. tuppence does not sound like a great deal but every
year if you operate one vehicle that s an increase of about £750. if you re running
10 vehicles it s obviously 10 times that. if fuel duty does rise we will be
absolutely horrified. there will be a huge effect throughout the industry and i
would not be surprised if you see widespread demonstrations. what it will mean is
there will be a number of firms going out of business. we will continue to do what
we have always done we keep the issue in the trade press. regrettably it s one of
those stories that it is getting harder to get into the national press. whatever we
do the public don t like lorries - they see us as a complaining minority. but they
don t realise that when you see a car on the road it is probably going to work
when you see a lorry it s already at work.
michael film signals retirement singer george michael has said that a new film
about his life is the start of a retirement from public view. the pop star said it
would be a much more behind the scenes affair and called his own genre of music
dead . i thought i should explain myself before i disappear said michael who
was at the berlin film festival to launch the documentary. the film a different
story chronicles michael s life and career from the 1980s and his personal
struggles. the 41-year-old chart-topper told reporters in the german capital that
he wanted to move his career into a different form but added that he does not
know what it is going to be yet. i m still going to be making music he said
but added that he was not going to be around . he hinted at discontent with the
current state of music industry and said: i don t really think that there is
anyone in the modern pop business who i feel i want to spar with. michael said
that the film directed by southan morris would put his two decades of fame into
context. it s almost as much for me as for my fans in terms of trying to make
sense of the last 22 years and bring it to a close in a proper way he said. the
documentary chronicles the highs and lows of his life in the public gaze from his
meteoric rise as one half of pop duo wham! to his arrest for lewd conduct in a los
angeles toilet in 1998. the film also deals with the loss of michael s partner
anselmo feleppa from an aids-related condition in 1993. a different story which is
being shown at the berlin film festival has been screened by bbc one.
us blogger fired by her airline a us airline attendant suspended over
inappropriate images on her blog - web diary - says she has been fired. ellen
simonetti known as queen of the sky wrote an anonymous semi-fictional account of
her life in the sky. she was suspended by delta in september. in a statement she
said she was initiating legal action against the airline for wrongful
termination . a delta spokesperson confirmed on wednesday that ms simonetti was no
longer an employee. delta has repeatedly declined to elaborate on what it calls
internal employee matters . a spokesperson reiterated this position on wednesday
confirming only that ms simonetti was no longer with the company. the spokesperson
also confirmed that there were very clear rules attached to the unauthorised use
of delta branding including uniforms. ms simonetti announced on her blog she had
been fired on 1 november. she said in an official statement: as a result of my
suspension and subsequent termination without cause by delta airlines i am moving
forward with filing a discrimination complaint with the federal government eeoc [us
equal employment opportunity commission]. she added she had also hired a texas-
based law firm to initiate legal action for wrongful termination defamation of
character and lost future wages. ms simonetti told the bbc news website she had
received no warning or further explanation when she was suspended on 25 september.
queen of the sky has received a lot of support and advice from the global blogging
community since news of her suspension was brought to light on the bbc news website
and others. her story has highlighted concerns amongst the growing blogging
community about conflicts of interest employment law and free speech on personal
websites. the blog which she started in january as a way of getting over her
mother s death contains a mix of fictional and non-fictional accounts. queen of
the sky developed over the months as a character in her own right according to ms
simonetti. in the postings she made up fictional names for cities and other
companies she mentioned to protect anonymity. but some postings contained images of
herself in uniform. of the 10 or so images only one showed ms simonetti s flight
wings . she removed them as soon as she was informed of her suspension. i never
meant it as something to harm my company and don t understand how they think it did
harm them ms simonetti said. a legal expert in the us speculated that delta might
be concerned that the fictional content on the blog may be linked back to the
airline after the images were posted. delta has been hit recently by pressures of
rising fuel costs and fierce competition. it has said it needs to cut between 6 000
and 7 000 jobs and reduce costs by $5bn (£2.7bn) a year. analysts had warned
recently that the airline might have to seek chapter 11 bankruptcy prevention. last
week it struck a $1bn cost-cutting deal with its pilots which could save it from
bankruptcy. the deal would see pilots accept a 32% pay cut in return for the right
to buy 30 million delta shares unions said. and on monday it negotiated a deal to
defer about $135m in debt which was due next year until 2007. the airline also
said it had agreed the terms of a $600m loan from american express.
singer ian brown in gig arrest former stone roses singer ian brown was arrested
after a fight during a concert in san francisco on tuesday his spokesman has said.
a fan jumped on stage and attacked the singer who then became involved in a fracas
with a security guard fiction records spokesman paul smernicki said. he said brown
was arrested at his hotel after the show at the great american music hall but
released without charge. san francisco police said they could find no record of his
arrest. mr smernicki said he had been told a fan rugby-tackled the singer during
the gig which resulted in pushing and shoving . brown then got into a brawl with
another man who tried to restrain him - without realising he was a security guard
mr smernicki added. the star went off for 15 minutes before returning to finish his
set. police took witness statements and apprehended brown at his hotel mr
smernicki said. but he was released without charge and as far as we re aware that
s the end of it mr smernicki added. a spokesperson for the san francisco police
department said he may have been detained but they could find no record of the
incident. brown 42 was lead singer with the stone roses one of the most seminal
bands in british rock until they split in 1996. he has since forged a successful
solo career scoring nine uk top 30 singles since 1998. in 1998 he was sentenced
to four months in jail for using threatening behaviour towards an aeroplane captain
and stewardess.
redknapp s saints face pompey tie new southampton manager harry redknapp faces an
immediate reunion with his old club portsmouth after they were drawn together in
the fa cup fourth round. exeter city face a home tie against middlesbrough if they
can see off holders manchester united in a replay. oldham s reward for beating
manchester city is a home tie with bolton while yeovil will be away to charlton.
chelsea host birmingham tottenham travel to west brom and arsenal will entertain
championship side wolves. saints boss redknapp was upbeat about the draw despite
having to face the club he walked out on just six weeks ago. i ve said before i
can walk away from portsmouth with my head held high i m proud of what i did there
and no one can take that away from me said redknapp. maybe i ll be in for some
stick there s always some of that but we ll get on with it and it s only a game of
football. birmingham manager steve bruce admitted their trip to stamford bridge to
face premiership leaders chelsea was the toughest draw possible. bruce said: i m
still in shock. we ve given good accounts of ourselves against chelsea in the past
and played well when we lost 1-0 at home at the start of the season - but that s
the past. but it s the best competition in the world as far as i am concerned and
we will give it our best shot. brentford boss martin allen remained cautious
despite his side s favourable draw - a home tie with either hartlepool or boston.
the best thing is it s a home game. however we know that whoever we play it is
going to be a really tough game said allen. but it s not about the opposition
it s about us. we all want to get through to the next round and face a massive team
that s the way it is. meanwhile the bbc has confirmed it will be televising
exeter s replay with man utd live on wednesday 19 january from 1930 on bbc one.
derby v watford or fulham man utd or exeter v middlesbrough cardiff or blackburn
v colchester chelsea v birmingham west ham v sheff utd oldham v bolton arsenal
v wolverhampton everton v sunderland nottm forest v peterborough brentford v
hartlepool or boston reading or swansea v leicester or blackpool burnley or
liverpool v bournemouth southampton v portsmouth west brom v tottenham newcastle
v coventry charlton v yeovil
digital guru floats sub-$100 pc nicholas negroponte chairman and founder of mit s
media labs says he is developing a laptop pc that will go on sale for less than
$100 (£53). he told the bbc world service programme go digital he hoped it would
become an education tool in developing countries. he said one laptop per child
could be very important to the development of not just that child but now the
whole family village and neighbourhood . he said the child could use the laptop
like a text book. he described the device as a stripped down laptop which would
run a linux-based operating system we have to get the display down to below $20
to do this we need to rear project the image rather than using an ordinary flat
panel. the second trick is to get rid of the fat if you can skinny it down you
can gain speed and the ability to use smaller processors and slower memory. the
device will probably be exported as a kit of parts to be assembled locally to keep
costs down. mr negroponte said this was a not for profit venture though he
recognised that the manufacturers of the components would be making money. in 1995
mr negroponte published the bestselling being digital now widely seen as
predicting the digital age. the concept is based on experiments in the us state of
maine where children were given laptop computers to take home and do their work
on. while the idea was popular amongst the children it initially received some
resistance from the teachers and there were problems with laptops getting broken.
however mr negroponte has adapted the idea to his own work in cambodia where he
set up two schools together with his wife and gave the children laptops. we put in
25 laptops three years ago only one has been broken the kids cherish these
things it s also a tv a telephone and a games machine not just a textbook. mr
negroponte wants the laptops to become more common than mobile phones but conceded
this was ambitious. nokia make 200 million cell phones a year so for us to claim
we re going to make 200 million laptops is a big number but we re not talking
about doing it in three or five years we re talking about months. he plans to be
distributing them by the end of 2006 and is already in discussion with the chinese
education ministry who are expected to make a large order. in china they spend $17
per child per year on textbooks. that s for five or six years so if we can
distribute and sell laptops in quantities of one million or more to ministries of
education that s cheaper and the marketing overheads go away.
bmw cash to fuel mini production less than four years after the new mini was
launched german car maker bmw has announced £100m of new investment. some 200 new
jobs are to be created at the oxford factory including modernised machinery and a
new body shell production building. the result of the investment could be to raise
output to more than 200 000 cars from 2007. the rise from 189 000 last year is a
response to rapidly-rising demand and could help wipe out waiting lists. before
wednesday s announcement bmw had invested some £280m in mini production. since
its launch during summer 2001 the new mini has gone from strength to strength.
last year almost one in six cars sold by the bmw group was a mini. the company
admits that the success of the brand came despite scepticism from many in the
industry. our decision to produce a new mini was not received well right away
said norbert reithofer a member of the bmw management board. initially bmw said
it would produce 100 000 mini models a year at its vast cowley factory on the
outskirts of oxford but the target was quickly reached then raised time and time
again. not everyone is convinced that the boom can continue. the risk is that
after they ve invested massively in the brand demand tapers off like it did with
the new vw beetle said brad wernle from automotive news europe. the price of
the car has also gone up. when it was launched the cheapest mini cost just more
than £10 000. these days buyers will have to fork out almost £11 500 to own a new
mini one or even more for the cooper s which costs up to £17 730. the mini
convertible which was launched last spring costs up to £15 690 for the top model
and there is even a waiting list. second-hand minis are not cheap either. a mini
one bought when the model was launched should still fetch at least £8 000 for the
cheapest model while a used cooper s is likely to be priced from £12 556
according to the-car buying website parker s. the consumers association which
operates with slightly different numbers yet it confirms that the mini cooper 1.6
depreciates slower than any other car other than the mercedes benz c180 se and the
bmw 1 series 116i se. the cowley factory which initially seemed far too large a
production plant for just 100 000 minis is increasingly being put to good use.
there are plans to tear down old buildings and build new ones and there are rumours
that a new paint shop could be included in the plans. bmw s mini adventure has made
good much of what went wrong during its stewardship of the uk car maker rover which
it sold for £10 five years ago to the phoenix consortium. in 1999 when bmw still
owned rover the oxford factory was producing the award-winning rover 75. during
that year 3 500 people produced 56 000 cars. last year in the same factory
almost four times as many vehicles were produced by just 4 500 mini-workers. the
mini factory s current output is equally impressive when compared with the main
rover factory in longbridge which in 1999 produced 180 000 rover cars. last year
mg rover which employs more than 6 000 people produced just 110 000 cars though
it hopes to land a deal with shanghai automotive industry corporation (saic) that
could help double the number of cars produced at longbridge. indeed mini is not
only producing more cars than mg rover does; it remains ahead even when the current
sales of land rovers and range rovers (which are made by the former rover unit that
bmw sold to ford) are taken into account.
parties plans for council tax anger at council tax rises spilled over into mass
protests in 2003 when the average english bill rose 12.9%. pensioners protests
spread - some marched others simply refused to pay the increase. some such as 83-
year-old elizabeth winkfield said they would rather go to jail. the audit
commission found the whole local government finance system was fundamentally
flawed and all three of the main parties have said the system has to change.
labour says it wants to retain the property-based tax but reform it to make it
fairer and says there is scope for councils to become more efficient. they say they
are already helping pensioners with council tax bills with a £100 lump sum for the
over-70s and last year the government capped some local councils budgets to keep
demands down. deputy prime minister john prescott has said the current system is
not sustainable in the long term and said there would be radical reform . the
party says this year s increases will be the lowest in a decade. a report last year
looked at increasing the number of council tax bands and other forms of local
taxation such as reformed business rates although no decisions have been made. an
independent inquiry into its findings the lyons review is due to report back at
the end of 2005. the tories have promised a reduction on bills for pensioners who
they say have been hardest hit by year-on-year increases in council tax. they say
they can save £4bn on government waste of which £1.3bn could be used to cut
pensioners bills by an average of £340. it would not be means tested say the
tories because that would create more bureaucracy and could discourage people from
saving for their retirement. instead households where council tax payers are over
65 would get a rebate covering half their bill up to a maximum of £500. the tories
also say they are suspicious about any proposals to revalue homes - currently
graded according to their value in 1991 - because they believe seven million of
homes could move up a band. the liberal democrats want to do away with the council
tax altogether and switch to a local income tax of the kind seen in the usa norway
and switzerland. the rate would be set locally but administered by the inland
revenue which they say would save at least £300m. they say the council tax is the
most unpopular and most unfair tax in britain because it puts a ceiling on what
the richest pay. the party says it would aim for a £5 000 tax-free personal
allowance or a £7 000 allowance for the over-65s. after that income would be taxed
up to £100 000. the lib dems say their plan is fairer more efficient has already
been tested abroad and offers more accountability.
france set for new da vinci novel french booksellers are braced for a rush of
interest after another book from the author of the da vinci code is translated into
french. angels and demons by us author dan brown will go on sale on wednesday.
the da vinci code is set in paris - including the louvre - and has sold around one
million copies in france. the main character robert langdon also appears in
angels and demons. the da vinci code is being made into a film starring tom hanks.
angels and demons was written before the da vinci code which has sold more than 20
million copies worldwide and been translated into more than 40 languages since it
was released in 2003. angels and demons is set mainly in rome as symbologist robert
langdon follows a 400-year-old trail to try to uncover a plot by an ancient
brotherhood the illuminati to blow up the vatican. the novel deals with moral
issues such as the debate between science and religion and also seeks to uncover
some of the mysteries surrounding the pope. on his website brown wrote: i think
the reason angels and demons is raising eyebrows right now is that it opens some
vatican closets most people don t even know exist. but i think most people
understand that an organisation as old and powerful as the vatican could not
possibly have risen to power without acquiring a few skeletons in their closets.
such is the success of the da vinci code in france special tours have been
organised to trace langdon s footsteps including the the louvre museum and the
saint sulpice church. the louvre has also given permission for parts of the film
version to be shot in the museum. the film to be directed by a beautiful mind s
ron howard is due to start filming at the paris museum in may and stars hanks
alongside french actress audrey tautou.
commodore finds new lease of life the once-famous commodore computer brand could be
resurrected after being bought by a us-based digital music distributor. new owner
yeahronimo media ventures has not ruled out the possibility of a new breed of
commodore computers. it also plans to develop a worldwide entertainment concept
with the brand although details are not yet known. the groundbreaking commodore 64
computer elicits fond memories for those who owned one back in the 1980s. in the
chronology of home computing commodore was one of the pioneers. the commodore 64
launched in 1982 was one of the first affordable home pcs. it was followed a few
years later by the amiga. the commodore 64 sold more than any other single computer
system even to this day. the brand languished somewhat in the 1990s. commodore
international filed for bankruptcy in 1994 and was sold to dutch firm tulip
computers. in the late 1980s the firm was a great rival to atari which produced
its own range of home computers and is now a brand of video games formerly known
as infogrames. tulip computers sold several products under the commodore name
including portable usb storage devices and digital music players. it had planned to
relaunch the brand following an upsurge of nostalgia for 1980s-era games.
commodore 64 enthusiasts have written emulators for windows pc apple mac and even
pdas so that the original commodore games can be still run. the sale of commodore
is expected to be complete in three weeks in a deal worth over £17m.
election could be terror target terrorists might try to target the uk in the run-
up to the election london s most senior police officer has said. sir ian blair
said terror groups would remember the effect of the madrid bomb on spain s general
election last year. other potential targets were the royal wedding and the uk s
presidency of the european union and g8 he said. he refused to say if there was
specific information about the risk of a pre-poll attack. no 10 was similarly
cautious but said the threat was real. the comments come after tony blair defended
his controversial anti-terror proposals warning that it would be wrong to wait for
an attack before acting. sir ian told a meeting of the metropolitan police
authority it would be unwise to speculate about whether there was specific
information about risks of a pre-election attack. but he said: terrorists have
long memories. they understand what happened in madrid and know what the impact of
that was on the spanish electorate. this year we are responsible for the eu
presidency presidency of the g8 a royal wedding and a general election. there
are obvious and enormous targets which we have to deal with. sir ian said the
debate over anti-terror plans was one for politicians not the police who would
enforce any new powers. home secretary charles clarke has also warned that a
madrid-style pre-election bombing could happen in the uk too. asked about sir ian s
comments the prime minister s official spokesman said: we believe the threat is
real. the spokesman declined to comment on whether the security services had
received specific intelligence relating to a possible attack during the election
campaign. he said no 10 did not disclose any security advice they received. earlier
writing in the daily telegraph the prime minister conceded that plans to detain
suspects under house arrest without trial were difficult issues for any government
. the commons has approved the measures despite considerable opposition with the
government s majority more than halved as 32 labour rebels joined tory and lib dem
opposition. but mr blair insisted: there is no greater civil liberty than to live
free from terrorist attack. tory leader michael howard has accused mr blair of
steamrolling the house arrest plans and of using national security for political
point scoring . liberal democrat leader charles kennedy says that the plan is a
further example of labour s authoritarian response to crises. the prevention of
terrorism bill proposes control orders which as well as house arrest could
impose curfews tagging or bans on telephone and internet use. they would replace
current powers to detain foreign terror suspects without trial which the law lords
have ruled against. but critics are concerned that it would be the home secretary
and not judges who decided to impose control orders. the plans face further commons
scrutiny on monday before passing to the lords.
legendary dutch boss michels dies legendary dutch coach rinus michels the man
credited with developing total football has died aged 77. referred to in the
netherlands as the general michels led the dutch at the 1974 world cup - when
they reached the final only to lose 2-1 to germany. however he guided his side to
the 1988 european championship title with a 2-0 win over the soviet union in the
final. michels played for ajax and coached the side to four national titles between
1965-71 and a european cup in 1971. his 1970s dutch team was built around johan
cruyff and johan neeskens and introduced the concept of total football to the
world. the strategy was to foster team coherence and individual imagination - with
all players possessing the skills to play in any part of the pitch. cruyff was the
on-field organiser of a team whose players rotated in and out of defence at will
and was encouraged to play creative attacking football. michels had recently
undergone heart surgery and dutch football federation (knvb) spokesman frank
huizinga said: he was one of the best coaches we had in history. the no-nonsense
coach also enjoyed spells at barcelona who he took to a spanish title in 1974 fc
cologne and bayer leverkusen. michels named coach of the century by world football
s governing body fifa in 1999 also won five caps for the netherlands as a bruising
centre forward. dutch sports minister clemence ross-van dorp said: he was the man
who together with cruyff made dutch football big.
bekele sets sights on world mark olympic 10 000m champion kenenisa bekele is
determined to add the world indoor two mile record at february s norwich union
grand prix in birmingham. the 22-year-old will again be chasing a record held by
his compatriot and mentor haile gebrselassie who set the mark at the same meeting
in 2003. i am still as hungry to do as much as i can in this sport said bekele.
and aiming for the two mile world record in birmingham is the next of those
targets. gebrselassie s current record stands at eight minutes 04.69 seconds. and
bekele is no stranger to overhauling world marks at the national indoor arena. the
ethiopian broke the world indoor 5 000m record on his debut at the meeting last
year. compatriots mulugeta wondimu abiyote abate and markos geneti the world
indoor bronze medallist over 3000m will race against bekele on 18 february. the
meet has already attracted a crop of olympic talent. britain s 800m and 1500m
champion kelly holmes is taking part in the 1000m. swedish heptathlon gold
medallist carolina kluft will contest the 60m hurdles. while men s 4x100m relay
gold medallists jason gardener and mark lewis-francis will go head-to-head in the
60m.
glazer makes new man utd approach malcolm glazer has made a fresh approach to buy
manchester united which could lead to a bid valuing the premiership club at £800m.
the us tycoon who has been wooing the club for the last 12 months has approached
the united board with detailed proposals it has confirmed. mr glazer who owns
the tampa bay buccaneers team hopes this will lead to a formal bid being accepted.
his new offer is expected to contain substantially less debt. mr glazer has already
had one takeover attempt turned down by the red devils and responded by using his
28.1% shareholding to vote off three board members last november. man united had
turned down the bid because it was based on a high level of borrowing. but
newspapers have speculated recently that the tycoon had gained the support of
leading banks to come up with a stronger and less debt-laden bid. last week
however mr glazer issued a statement to the stock exchange distancing himself from
a new bid. meanwhile united s chief executive david gill said in december that
talks would not resume unless glazer came up with definitive proposals . now the
board has confirmed that the us bidder is back with a statement issued on sunday
reading: the board can confirm it has now received a detailed proposal subject to
various preconditions which may form the basis of an offer. a further announcement
will be made in due course. to succeed malcolm glazer will still need the
approval of major shareholders john magnier and jp mcmanus who own 28.9% of the
club. but the irish duo have cut off talks with glazer over the proposed sale of
their stake and have so far made no comment on his latest approach. united fans
have reacted with anger at the announcement. they have vehemently opposed any
proposed takeover by glazer since he first showed interest in the club in september
2003 and after sunday s announcement they vowed to fight on. we will fight tooth
and nail to stop him whatever his offer says. we do not want him or anybody else
taking over united said mark longden of the independent manchester united
supporters association. the campaign against this proposed takeover will continue
as it has done since glazer first showed interest in the club.
early elvis recordings go on sale some of elvis presley s earliest recordings -
including takes of all shook up - are going under the hammer on sunday at a los
angeles auction. the six unedited reel-to-reel tapes - which were owned by the
engineer who recorded them - are valued at up to $50 000 (£29 000). highlights of
the two hour-long collection will get their public debut at bonhams auction house
on saturday. the rca tapes date from september 1956 to september 1957. the pre-
masters include a take of jailhouse rock religious songs material for his first
christmas album and banter between presley members of his band and engineer
thorne nogar. we ve had them for a lot of years and i think the people should
enjoy them nogar s son stephen 57 said. and frankly we could use the money.
nogar who died in 1994 aged 72 always used to make two tapes of sessions as a
back-up in case rca producers wanted to make late changes to songs. he called them
his ass-saver tapes his son said. the quality is said to be noticeably crisper
than that of a new vinyl record. because the family does not own the copyright to
the music the tapes can only be sold for personal enjoyment and they cannot be
copied for commercial gain.
bmw to recall faulty diesel cars bmw is to recall all cars equipped with a faulty
diesel fuel-injection pump supplied by parts maker robert bosch. the faulty part
does not represent a safety risk and the recall only affects pumps made in december
and january. bmw said that it was too early to say how many cars were affected or
how much the recall would cost. the german company is to extend a planned
production break at one of its plants due to the faulty bosch part. the dingolfing
site will now be closed all next week instead of for just two days. the additional
three-day stoppage will mean a production loss of up to 3 600 vehicles bmw said
adding that it was confident it could make up the numbers later. bosch has stopped
production of the part but expects to restart by 2 february. the faulty component
does not represent a safety risk but causes the motor to stall after a significant
amount of mileage. when asked if bmw would be seeking compensation from bosch the
carmaker s chief executive helmut panke said: we will first solve the problem
before talking about who will pay . audi and mercedes benz were also supplied with
the defective diesel fuel-injection pumps but neither of them have to recall any
vehicles. a spokesman for daimlerchrysler parent company of mercedes benz said it
will however have to halt some production. it is to close the mercedes factory in
sindelfingen on monday and tuesday. audi said it had been hit by production
bottlenecks due to a shortage of unaffected bosch parts.
lufthansa may sue over bush visit german airline lufthansa may sue federal agencies
for damages after the arrival of us president george w bush disrupted flights.
lufthansa said that it may lose millions of euros as a result of air force one
landing at frankfurt airport. flights were affected for an hour on wednesday
morning double the time that had been expected leading to cancellations and
delays. lufthansa accounts for six out of every 10 planes using frankfurt s
airport. we are doing research into the possibilities we have michael lamberty
a lufthansa spokesman told the bbc. we are checking if there is action to be taken
and in which courts it could be taken. mr lamberty explained that the company did
not plan to pursue germany s air traffic controllers organisation or the airport
authority but wanted instead to see if it was possible to sue the german federal
agencies that gave the orders. the company said that it had to cancel 77 short and
medium-distance flights affecting about 5 000 passengers. long-haul travellers
were not disrupted. central to the problem was that instead of half an hour the
arrival of president bush on the german leg of his european tour took the best part
of an hour lufthansa said. during that time restrictions were put on planes
taxiing taking off and landing at frankfurt s rhein-main airport. the extra time
taken by president bush and his entourage meant that there was a knock-on effect
that led to significant delays. mr lamberty said that 92 outgoing flights and 86
income flights were delayed by an average of an hour following president bush s
arrival affecting almost 17 000 passengers. despite the problems mr lamberty said
that it was not certain that lufthansa would take legal action.
nhs waiting time target is cut hospital waiting times for patients in wales are to
be cut but not to the same extent as those in england. welsh health minister jane
hutt said no patient would wait more than 12 months for an outpatient appointment
by march 2006 against a current target of 18 months. but she said the target for
an inpatient appointment would remain at 12 months for march 2006. the announcement
came as new monthly waiting figures showed a drop. this current inpatient target
was set when the assembly government extended its second offer guarantee scheme
which gives patients the option of having their treatment outside wales. details
about funding to resource the new targets are expected in the new year. in england
the current target for inpatients - seeing a consultant to having an operation - is
six months. dr richard lewis welsh secretary of the british medical association
(bma) welcomed the new targets to make further and faster progress on waiting
lists . however much remains to be done on waiting lists and waiting times
because wales still lags a long way behind england he said. capacity must be
built into the system with sustained investment to ensure that welsh patients don t
receive a worse service than patients over the border. health analyst tony beddow
from the welsh institute for health and social care called the new targets
reasonably impressive . on wednesday ms hutt also announced £264m for health
services will be spent reducing waiting times improving key areas and modernising
staff pay structures in wales. ms hutt said major achievements had been made in
cutting unacceptably long waits for treatment over the past year . we are turning
the corner on long waits in wales. now we need to see those reductions in long
waiters being improved again she said. she added the targets intended to ensure
no-one waits more than a year for treatment or to see a consultant. but let us not
forget two thirds of those waiting for treatment now are waiting less than six
months and these targets affect the small minority of patients in wales that are
waiting far too long. rhodri glyn thomas plaid cymru health spokesman said: it s
exactly the same target she set in 1999 with the qualification that it s dependent
on a second offer. it s a failed target from a failed minister..with a failed
policy. for the welsh liberal democrats kirsty williams called the new target
hugely unambitious . it leaves patients in wales still waiting two years before
they re treated. conservative health spokesman jonathan morgan said: we re
spending more money but waiting lists have gone through the roof. the audit
commission has said that the money is not being spent efficiently or effectively
and that s quite a criticism. meanwhile the latest monthly waiting list figures
showed the total number of people waiting more than 18 months as an inpatient in
wales has fallen by 9.8%. statistics to the end of november showed a decline since
october from 785 to 708. the number waiting over 12 months also fell from 7 613 to
6 630 or 12.9%. ms hutt said they were excellent figures . there are 305 775
people on a waiting list of some kind down from 311 764 last month.
dollar slides ahead of new year the us dollar has hit a new record low against the
euro and analysts predict that more declines are likely in 2005. disappointing
economic reports dented the currency which had been rallying after european policy
makers said they were worried about the euro s strength. earlier on thursday the
japanese yen touched its lowest versus the euro on concerns about economic growth
in asia. currency markets have been volatile over the past week because of
technical and automated trading and light demand. this has amplified reactions
analysts said adding that they expect markets to become less jumpy in january.
people want to go into the weekend and the new year positioned for a weaker buck
said tim mazanec director of foreign exchange at investors bank and trust. the
dollar slid to a record $1.3666 versus the euro on thursday before bouncing back
to $1.3636. against the yen the dollar was trading down at $103.05. the yen
meanwhile dropped to 141.60 per euro in afternoon trading. it later strengthened
to 140.55. investors are concerned about the size of the us trade and budget
deficits and are betting that george w bush s administration will allow the dollar
to weaken despite saying they favour a strong currency. also playing on investors
minds are mixed reports about the state of the us economy. on thursday
disappointing business figures from chicago brought a sudden end to a rally in the
value of the dollar. the national association of purchasing management-chicago said
its index dropped to 61.2 more than analysts had expected. german chancellor
gerhard schroeder and italian prime minister silvio berlusconi voiced concerns
about the strength of the euro. mr berlusconi said the euro s strength was
absolutely worrying for italian exports. mr schroeder said in a newspaper article
that stability in foreign exchange markets required a correction of global economic
imbalances.
giving financial gifts to children your child or grandchild may want the latest toy
this christmas but how about giving them a present that will help their financial
future gifts of the financial variety might have a longer lasting impact. it may
encourage children to save or start a fund which could count towards university
costs for example. the government is trying to encourage saving at an early age
through its new child trust fund. the first vouchers worth £250 or £500 for low-
income families will be distributed from january. all children born after 1st
september 2002 will be eligible. parents will need to decide which financial
institution will manage this gift in time for the start of the scheme in april
2005. parents and relatives will be able to top up the fund with up to £1 200 a
year which will grow free of income and capital gains tax. as the child trust fund
will not be in force in time for christmas relatives could invest their gifts in a
higher rate children s deposit account and use this as a feeder fund. there are
accounts designed to start children off in the savings habit and they often pay a
higher rate of interest. some of the best instant-access accounts currently
available include the ladybird account from the saffron walden building society
paying 5.35% for a minimum balance of £1 and the alliance & leicester firstsaver
which pays 5.25% also starting at £1. interest earned by children is subject to
income tax. however children like adults have a personal income tax allowance
(£4 745 for the current tax year). if the account holds money gifted by friends
and relatives - but not parents - any interest earned from the savings account may
be set against the allowance. as long as the total amount of interest falls within
the allowance then no tax will be payable. when the account is opened a form r85
available from the bank or building society should be completed. this confirms
that the account holder is a non-taxpayer and allows interest to be received
without the deduction of income tax. the tax rules are different for parents who
save on behalf of a child. only £100 of interest (per parent) can be tax-free.
where interest exceeds this level the whole of the interest will be taxed on the
parent. this is to prevent parents from holding their own cash savings in their
children s names and taking advantage of the tax allowances. where both parents and
other relatives are saving on behalf of a child consideration should be given to
opening separate accounts - one for parents gifts and one for gifts from other
relatives. therefore it may be preferable for parents to contribute to the child
trust fund which is tax free with any gifts from relatives that take the total
above the annual £1 200 limit being directed to a deposit account. another
favourite solution is premium bonds. with the promise of riches far greater than a
mere deposit account they make great presents. the parent or guardian will be
responsible for the bonds and will receive notification of the purchase. any prizes
will be sent to the parent or child s guardian. the minimum for each purchase is
£100 and bonds are sold in multiples of £10. there are gift opportunities beyond
cash accounts and these should not be ignored. over the longer term stock market
funds have outperformed other types of investment although in the shorter term
they can be volatile. one of the benefits of investing for children is that
investment is generally for the longer term - more than ten years - which helps to
reduce the risks associated with investing in shares. one way to spread the risk is
to invest in the stock market through a unit or investment trust. these are pooled
investment funds which give access to a wide range of shares. these funds may be
actively managed where a fund manager picks individual stocks based on a view of
their future potential or passive where a manager invests in all the shares that
comprise a stock market index for example the ftse 100. exchange traded funds
offer an alternative way to track a stock market. these are single shares that give
the return of an underlying index (so are really another form of tracker). the
difference is that the charges are quite low. the only drawback with all financial
gifts is that the children gain an absolute right to the money at age 18 and
parents will have no control over how it is spent. for larger gifts it may be
worthwhile taking professional advice on the establishment of a suitable trust that
will allow ongoing control over the capital and income.
former ni minister scott dies former northern ireland minister sir nicholas scott
has died at a london hospice his family has announced. the former conservative mp
for kensington and chelsea died after a long illness diagnosed as alzheimer s. the
71-year-old served in northern ireland from 1981 to 1987 during the premiership of
margaret thatcher. as a northern ireland minister he dealt with education and later
security where he rode out the mass ira escape from the maze in 1983. in education
he encountered criticism over school closures and the future of the catholic
training colleges. he also merged the new university of ulster and the ulster
polytechnic to create the university of ulster. sir nicholas was a strong defender
of the anglo-irish agreement and was held in esteem in dublin government and sdlp
circles. but he experienced hostility from unionists some of whom dubbed him
minister of discord . after leaving northern ireland in a reshuffle he became a uk
disability minister. sir nicholas was replaced as the member for kensington and
chelsea by the flamboyant alan clark after being deselected by his constituency in
december 1996. his deselection followed a series of scandals including being found
slumped in the street by police during the tory party conference in bournemouth and
taken back to his hotel. sir nicholas claimed strong painkillers he was taking for
a back problem had reacted badly with a small amount of alcohol. after his sacking
he bitterly said that despite the support of cabinet ministers and tory
backbenchers the eurosceptics in his constituency were absolutely determined to
get rid of me . his colourful career also included a very public disagreement with
daughter victoria over civil rights for the disabled. sir nicholas admitted he
misled mps when he denied his department had been involved in wrecking tactics
designed to kill the disability bill in 1994. victoria a lobbyist for disabled
rights denounced her father s actions and heaped insult on injury when she joined
the calls for him to resign. he joined the backbenches two months later.
t-mobile bets on pocket office t-mobile has launched its latest pocket office
third-generation (3g) device which also has built-in wi-fi - high-speed wireless
net access. unlike other devices where the user has to check which high-speed
network is available to transfer data the device selects the fastest one itself.
the mda iv released in the summer is an upgrade to the company s existing
smartphone the 2.5g/wi-fi mda iii. it reflects the push by mobile firms for
devices that are like mini laptops. the device has a display that can be swivelled
and angled so it can be used like a small computer or as a conventional clamshell
phone. the microsoft mobile phone with two cameras and a qwerty keyboard reflects
the design of similar all-in-one models released this year such as motorola s mpx.
one in five european workers are already mobile - meaning they spend significant
time travelling and out of the office rene obermann t-mobile s chief executive
told a press conference at the 3gsm trade show in cannes. he added: what they need
is their office when they are out of the office. t-mobile said it was seeing
increasing take up for what it calls office in a pocket devices with 100 000
mdas sold in europe already. in response to demand t-mobile also said it would be
adding the latest phone-shaped blackberry to its mobile range. reflecting the
growing need to be connected outside the office it announced it would introduce a
flat-fee £20 ($38) a month wi-fi tariff for people in the uk using its wi-fi
hotspots. it said it would nearly double the number of its hotspots - places where
wi-fi access is available - globally from 12 300 to 20 000. it also announced it
was installing high-speed wi-fi on certain train services such as the uk s london
to brighton service to provide commuters a fast net connection too. the service
which has been developed with southern trains nomad digital (who provide the
technology) begins with a free trial on 16 trains on the route from early march to
the end of april. a full service is set to follow in the summer. wi-fi access
points will be connected to a wimax wireless network - faster than wi-fi - running
alongside the train tracks. brian mcbride managing director of t-mobile in the uk
said: we see a growing trend for business users needing to access e-mail securely
on the move. we are able to offer this by maintaining a constant data session for
the entire journey. he said this was something other similar in-train wi-fi
services such as that offered on gner trains did not offer yet. mr obermann added
that the mobile industry in general was still growing with many more opportunities
for more services which would bear fruit for mobile companies in future. thousands
of mobile industry experts are gathered in cannes france for the 3gsm which runs
from 14 to 17 february.
van gogh festival film withdrawn murdered director theo van gogh s controversial
film submission has been pulled from the rotterdam film festival because of
security fears. it was one of three of his works to be shown as part of a freedom
of expression event in tribute to the late film-maker s life. the film is critical
of the treatment of women under islam. its tv screening is thought to have led to
his murder. the 10-day dutch festival begins on wednesday. submission was made with
liberal somali-dutch politician ayaan hirsi ali and was due to be shown on 30
january. van gogh was shot and stabbed to death in november 2004 several months
after receiving death threats following submission s first broadcast on dutch
television. two of van gogh s other films will be shown as planned including the
theatrical world premiere of his last feature 06/05. festival director sandra den
hamer said: the festival reflects what happens around us and within cinema itself.
the festival opens with the french film the 10th district court moments of trials
made by raymond depardon. the event sees 14 films competing to win three top tiger
awards which aim to introduce promising new talent. new sections added to this year
s festival include cinema of the future and cinema of the world with special focus
on russian and south-east asian productions. there is also an iraqi-german offering
entitled underexposure which looks at life in iraq after saddam hussein.
tories would cut number of mps the conservative party would cut the number of mps
by about one-fifth if they were elected tory leader michael howard has said. the
plan forms part of the party s smaller government bill to be unveiled later this
week. mr howard told the sunday times the party would also reduce the number of
government special advisers. and he said a referendum would be held in wales to
decide whether or not to scrap the welsh assembly. the changes would all take
place within five years of the conservatives winning a general election mr howard
told the paper. the precise number of mps to go would depend on the result of the
welsh referendum but it would probably mean a reduction of around 120 from the
current total of 659. if wales decided to keep its assembly it would stand to lose
more mps. mr howard said as both parties planned to cut the number of civil
servants at whitehall - labour by more than 80 000 and the tories by almost 100 000
- they should accept a similar drop in their own numbers. it is all very well
saying government departments should be reduced but what about ministers
parliament and special advisers he said. shadow leader of the commons oliver
heald said: this will be part of our aim to reduce unnecessary and costly
interference in people s lives by reducing the size and role of the state . mr
howard said the plan would also even out the great unfairness of there being
proportionately more scottish and welsh mps at westminster than those from england.
the average size of an english constituency was 70 000 people mr howard said. in
northern ireland it was just over 66 000 in wales just over 59 000 and in scotland
53 000. the number of welsh mps would be set at an amount that was consistent and
fair in terms of representation with the rest of the united kingdom if the
assembly was scrapped. mr howard said the changes should be carried out quickly and
could even be implemented by the election after next. you have got to have a big
bang. we don t want this like the house of lords reform getting to one stage and
then not having the next stage.
youssou n dour wins music prize senegalese musician youssou n dour has been named a
winner of a bbc radio 3 world music award. his album egypt won the critics award
for album of the year while the best newcomer accolade went to argentine chango
spasiuk. winners were chosen from ten categories to reflect different continents. a
special poll winners concert hosted by eliza carthy and benjamin zephaniah will
take place at the sage in gateshead on 5 march. the concert will be broadcast on
radio 3 s world music day the following evening and will feature performances by
many of the award winners. it will also include the announcement of the audience
award chosen by radio 3 and bbc world service listeners alongside bbc four
viewers. winner in the africa category was malian desert blues band tinariwen
formed from the nomadic people of the southern sahara. cuban pianist bebo valdes
and flamenco singer diego el cigala responsible for critically acclaimed album
lagrimas negrasmusic won an award in the boundary crossing category. each winner
will receive a specially commissioned sculpture entitled planet by anita
sulimanovic who won a competition to design the award. highlights of the poll
winners concert to be held at the sage gateshead will be televised on bbc four
on 11 march.
oasis star fined for german brawl oasis singer liam gallagher has been fined 50 000
euros (£35 000) after a fight in a german hotel two years ago. gallagher was
arrested along with drummer alan white and three other members of the band s
entourage after the brawl in munich in december 2002. the band said they were
victims of an unprovoked attack in a nightclub. but police said gallagher kicked
an officer in the chest and had large amounts of alcohol and drugs - possibly
cocaine - in his blood. gallagher lost two front teeth in the fight which led to
the band abandoning their german tour. his brother and bandmate noel was in bed at
the time. the process has stopped by paying 50 000 euros said anton winkler
spokesman for the munich prosecutor. at the time police said a physical
altercation broke out among the musicians at about 0200 local time. that led to
one of the group being jostled and falling onto the table of five italian guests
- causing the fight they said. the fight continued outside where one of the
officers was kicked in the chest with full force by liam gallagher... and suffered
minor injuries they said.
tsunami to cost sri lanka $1.3bn sri lanka faces a $1.3bn (£691m) bill in 2005 for
reconstruction after the tsunami which killed more than 30 000 of its people its
central bank says. this estimate is preliminary bank governor sunil mendis told
reporters and could rise in 2006. the island state is asking for about $320m from
the international monetary fund to help pay for relief he said. the bank has 5bn
rupees ($50m; £27m) set aside to lend at a lower interest rate to those who lost
property. according to mr mendis half the imf support could come from a freeze on
debt repayments which would free up resources immediately. the rest could come
from a five-year emergency loan. sri lanka is hoping for a wider freeze from other
creditors. the paris club of 19 creditors meets on 12 january to discuss a debt
moratorium for the nations hit by the tsunami which ravaged south and east asia on
26 december. some 150 000 people across the region are feared to be dead and
millions have been left homeless and destitute. a full reckoning of the economic
cost to sri lanka of the tsunami will not be clear for some time to come. but
already it looks likely that growth in the first half of 2005 will slow mr mendis
told reporters although he would not say by how much. one side-effect of the
disaster has been that the value of the rupee has risen as foreign funds have
flooded into the country. the currency has strengthened 4% since late december
coming close to 100 rupees to the us dollar for the first time in more than six
months.
few ready for information act thousands of public bodies are ill-prepared for the
freedom of information act due to come into force next month because of
government failures say mps. from next month anyone will have the power to demand
information from a range of public bodies - from whitehall departments to doctors
surgeries. but an all-party committee said it was not confident many would be
ready. it blamed the department for constitutional affairs for a lack of
consistent leadership . the act comes into effect in england wales and northern
ireland on 1 january while similar measures are being brought in at the same time
in scotland. it provides the public with a right of access to information held by
about 100 000 public bodies subject to various exemptions. but the government
department responsible for implementing the change suffered from an unusually high
turnover of staff within the department which had seriously interfered with its
work said the constitutional affairs select committee. it said despite four years
of preparations some local authorities and parts of the health sector were still
not ready. the dca had failed to provide early guidance on technical matters and
shown a lack of consistent leadership the mps found. committee chairman alan
beith said: the dca has had four years to prepare for freedom of information but
with less than a month to go it appears that some bodies may not be well enough
prepared. our report shows that in the past support and guidance from the dca
which has overall responsibility for guiding the public sector through the process
of implementation for the freedom of information regime has been lacking. a
spokesman for the dca said: the dca has provided - and will continue to provide -
strong clear leadership. it has delivered a simple liberal fees regime guidance
on the act which has been widely praised and expert networks of staff working on
freedom of information implementation.
wenger rules out new keeper arsenal boss arsene wenger says he has no plans to sign
a new goalkeeper during the january transfer window. wenger has brought in manuel
almunia for the last three games for the out-of-form jens lehmann - but the
spaniard himself has been prone to mistakes. there have been suggestions that
wenger will swoop for a high-quality shot-stopper in the new year. but he told the
evening standard: i don t feel it will be necessary to bring in a new goalkeeper
in january. the gunners manager refused to comment on the difficult start that 27-
year-old almunia has made to his career at highbury. and he would not be drawn on
whether lehmann would return for the top-of-the table clash with chelsea on sunday.
almunia was at fault for rosenborg s goal in arsenal s 5-1 champions league win on
tuesday and had some hairy moments in last week s win over birmingham. but wenger
said earlier this week that his indifferent form was down to pressure caused by
being under scrutiny from the media. the debate has gone on too long. everyone has
an opinion and i do not have to add to it wenger added. arsenal have been linked
with middlesbrough keeper mark schwarzer fulham s edwin van der sar and parma s
sebastien frey. and wenger has no immediate plans to recall former england under-21
international stuart taylor from his loan spell at leicester.
labour chooses manchester the labour party will hold its 2006 autumn conference in
manchester and not blackpool it has been confirmed. the much trailed decision was
ratified by labour s ruling national executive committee in a break with the
traditional choice of a seaside venue. it will be the first time since 1917 that
the party has chosen manchester to host the annual event. blackpool will get the
much smaller february spring conference instead in what will be seen as a placatory
move. for years the main political parties have rotated between blackpool
bournemouth and brighton. and the news the much larger annual conference is not to
gather in blackpool will be seen as a blow in the coastal resort. in 1998 the party
said it would not return to blackpool but did so in 2002. the following year
bournemouth hosted the event before the party signed a two year deal for brighton
to host the autumn conference. colin asplin blackpool hotel association said: we
have tried very hard to make sure they come back to blackpool. obviously we have
failed in that. i just hope manchester can handle the crowds. it amazes me that
the labour party which is a working class party doesn t want to come to the main
working class resort in the country. the exact cost to blackpool in terms of lost
revenue for hotel accommodation is not yet known but it is thought that block
bookings will be taken at the major manchester hotels after the official
announcement.
low-budget film wins cesar a film that follows a group of alienated youth in a
paris suburb as they prepare to perform an 18th century play has won france s top
cinema award. l esquive earned a cesar prize for its director tunisian-born
abdellatif kechiche and its young star the 18-year-old actress sara forestier. it
saw off competition from big-budget french epic a very long engagement and the
box-office hit the chorus. us film lost in translation won the award for best
foreign feature. the wistful romantic comedy directed by sofia coppola has already
won several awards including an oscar for best screenplay in 2004. its late
release in france made it a contender for this year s cesars. the low-budget l
esquive depicts the travails of a group of youth getting ready to perform a school
play by the 18th-century dramatist marivaux. the actors are mostly amateurs and
the action is set in the impoverished suburbs of paris home to thousands of
immigrants from north africa and their children. kechiche said he made the film
because he wanted to show people we don t normally see at the cinema . a very long
engagement a world war i drama featuring audrey tautou won five cesar awards. the
chorus a film about a schoolteacher who introduces an unruly classroom to the
pleasures of classical singing won two awards - for best music and best sound. us
actor will smith who won an honorary award at the ceremony thanked his family and
his hero nelson mandela in his speech.
unclear future for striker baros liverpool forward milan baros is uncertain whether
he remains part of boss rafa benitez s plans after being dropped for the carling
cup final. baros who is liverpool s leading scorer this season denied reports of
a row with benitez but claims he is mystified at being left on the bench. he told
czech newspaper daily sport: i don t know why i didn t play on sunday. i didn t
argue with anybody. i was disappointed but i am not thinking of leaving right now.
the czech international came on as a substitute after 74 minutes but could not
prevent his side losing 3-2 to chelsea after extra-time. baros denied suggestions
he wanted to leave the millennium stadium before the match upon learning of his
omission from the starting line-up. but his admission that he guessed something
like this was going to happen on saturday will do little to quell claims of a
falling-out with benitez. and although baros insisted thoughts of quitting anfield
are not in my mind right now he admitted everything is possible .
farrell due to make us tv debut actor colin farrell is to make his debut on us
television in medical sitcom scrubs according to hollywood newspaper daily
variety. the film star who recently played the title role in historical
blockbuster alexander will make a cameo appearance as an unruly irishman. the
episode featuring the 28-year-old will be screened on 25 january. farrell s
appearance is said to be a result of his friendship with zach braff who stars in
the programme. it will be the actor s first appearance on the small screen since he
appeared in bbc series ballykissangel in 1999. the gentle sunday night drama came
to an end in 2001. he has since become one of hollywood s fastest-rising stars
with a string roles in major league films such as minority report phone booth and
daredevil. farrell is pencilled in to play the role of crockett in a film version
of 1980s police drama miami vice. scrubs which appears on the nbc network in the
us and has been shown on channel 4 on british television is an off-beat comedy
about a group of hospital doctors. other film stars to have appeared in scrubs
include heather graham while friends actor matthew perry has guest-starred and
directed an episode of the show. its leading star zach braff has recently been
seen on the big screen in garden state which he also directed.
nuclear dumpsite plan attacked plans to allow foreign nuclear waste to be
permanently stored in the uk have been branded deeply irresponsible by the
liberal democrats. the government has confirmed intermediate level waste (ilw)
that was to have been shipped back to its home countries will now be stored in the
uk. the cash raised will go towards the uk s nuclear clean-up programme. but lib
dem norman baker accused ministers of turning britain into a nuclear dumpsite .
under current contracts british nuclear fuels should return all but low level
waste but none has ever been sent back. in future only highly-radioactive waste
will be sent back to its country of origin normally germany or japan under armed
guard. intermediate waste from countries such as japan germany spain italy
switzerland and sweden will be stored permanently in the uk. at the moment this
waste is stored at sellafield in cumbria in the form of glass bricks untreated
liquid waste or solid material in drums. in a statement the department of trade
and industry said the new policy meant there would be a sixfold reduction in the
number of waste shipments to overseas countries . and it said highly-radioactive
waste would be returned to its home country sooner ensuring there would be no
overall increase in radioactivity. trade secretary patricia hewitt said the new
arrangements revealed in a commons written statement would raise up to £680m for
britain s nuclear clean-up programme under the new nuclear decommissioning agency.
but the move has been criticised by environmental groups and the liberal democrats.
mr baker the lib dem environment spokesman said: i have been warning for months
that this would happen and raised it with government several times. but now our
worst fears have been confirmed. once again britain s environmental and health
needs are being ignored in policies driven by the treasury and dti. this is a
terrible attempt to offload some of the £48bn cost of cleaning up nuclear sites.
the energy act was supposed to help britain clean up but in order to pay for it we
are becoming a nuclear dumpsite. the nuclear industry is an economic social and
environmental millstone that hangs around britain s neck.
x factor show gets second series tv talent show the x factor is to return for a
second series after being recommissioned by itv. judges simon cowell louis walsh
and sharon osbourne are in discussions to sign up for the new series. the final of
the first series will take place on 11 december. last saturday s show was beaten in
the ratings by the bbc s strictly come dancing. working on the x factor has been a
blast... i predict series two will be even better said cowell. i think the
production team have done an amazing job he added. the pop idol-style show votes
off a group or contestant every week - the two that receive the lowest public vote
have to perform a second time before the judges make a final decision. rowetta
satchell steve brookstein tabby callaghan and group g4 are the remaining
finalists. itv s controller of entertainment claudia rosencrantz said she had no
hesitation in recommissioning the show. there s much more to come this series as
we build towards the final next month and it s great to have secured this terrific
format for our viewers for another series she said.
tautou film tops cesar prize nods french film a very long engagement has received
12 nominations for france s cesar film awards despite a recent ruling it was not
french enough . the world war i romantic drama starring audrey tautou was
recently ruled too american by a paris court as it was partially backed by warner
bros. but the cesar organisers modified their rules to allow the film to compete.
the film directed by jean-pierre jeunet received best actress picture and
director nominations. last november a court judged the film was too american to
compete in french film festivals. two associations of french producers challenged
jeunet s right to french government subsidies because warner bros was a backer.
the ruling meant the movie - which was filmed in france and used french actors and
technicians - was not eligible to compete for french prizes. but alain terzian
president of cesar organisers the academie des arts et techniques du cinema said
the changes in eligibility rules which allow films of french expression were
made three months prior to the court decision. other films in the best film
category include police drama 36 quai des orfevres arnaud desplechin s kings and
queen abdellatif kechiche s l esquive and france s number one film at the 2004
box-office the chorus. best actors are daniel auteuil for 36 mathieu amalric for
kings and queen gerard jugnot for the chorus philippe torreton for l equipier and
benoit poelvoorde for podium. tautou will compete against maggie cheung
emmanuelle devos yolande moreau and karin viard for best actress. michael moore s
fahrenheit 9/11 the motorcycle diaries lost in translation eternal sunshine of
the spotless mind and 21 grams are all vying in the best foreign film prize. the
awards ceremony will be held on 26 february. this year will smith star of i
robot independence day and men in black will be given an honorary cesar along
with french singer/actor jacques dutronc.
brit awards for devon music acts devon singer joss stone and rock band muse won
coveted brit awards during the event s 25th anniversary. seventeen-year-old stone
from near cullumpton won two awards: best british female act and best urban act
out of three award nominations. muse whose members met in south devon beat franz
ferdinand jamie cullum kasabian and the libertines for best british live act. the
band has sold about two million records worldwide. after beating amy winehouse
jamelia natasha bedingfield and pj harvey to the best british female prize joss
stone said: i don t know what to say. i don t like doing this at all. i d like to
thank my family for being really supportive and everybody that made my record with
me. i don t even know what to do right now. thank you all you guys for voting for
me i feel sick right now. viewers of digital music tv channel mtv base voted
stone the winner in the best urban act category. ms stone also performed her song
right to be wrong backed by a gospel choir at the 25th award ceremony at london s
earls court. her second album mind body & soul reached number one in the uk charts
last october and went straight into the us charts at number 11. the teenager also
has grammy nominations in the us normally dominated by home-grown acts. born
jocelyn stoker the devon diva started her career in a bbc talent programme and
was then discovered at a new york audition by a us record executive steve
greenberg. indie rock group muse consists of matthew bellamy chris wolstenholme
and dominic howard who met in their early teens in teignmouth south devon. dominic
howard said of winning: we love playing live it s very important for our band. so
to win something like this really feels great. the trio met aged 13 and formed the
band gothic plague changing its name to fixed penalty rocket baby dolls and
finally muse. the band released its first self-titled ep in 1998. the third studio
album absolution was released in 2003 providing the hit singles time is running
out hysteria and butterflies and hurricanes.
asian quake hits european shares shares in europe s leading reinsurers and travel
firms have fallen as the scale of the damage wrought by tsunamis across south asia
has become apparent. more than 23 000 people have been killed following a massive
underwater earthquake and many of the worst hit areas are popular tourist
destinations. reisurance firms such as swiss re and munich re lost value as
investors worried about rebuilding costs. but the disaster has little impact on
stock markets in the us and asia. currencies including the thai baht and
indonesian rupiah weakened as analysts warned that economic growth may slow. it
came at the worst possible time said hans goetti a singapore-based fund manager.
the impact on the tourist industry is pretty devastating especially in thailand.
travel-related shares dropped in europe with companies such as germany s tui and
lufthansa and france s club mediterranne sliding. insurers and reinsurance firms
were also under pressure in europe. shares in munich re and swiss re - the world s
two biggest reinsurers - both fell 1.7% as the market speculated about the cost of
rebuilding in asia. zurich financial allianz and axa also suffered a decline in
value. however their losses were much smaller reflecting the market s view that
reinsurers were likely to pick up the bulk of the costs. worries about the size of
insurance liabilities dragged european shares down although the impact was
exacerbated by light post-christmas trading. germany s benchmark dax index closed
the day 16.29 points lower at 3.817.69 while france s cac index of leading shares
fell 5.07 points to 3.817.69. investors pointed out however that declines
probably would be industry specific with the travel and insurance firms hit
hardest. it s still too early for concrete damage figures swiss re s spokesman
floiran woest told associated press. that also has to do with the fact that the
damage is very widely spread geographically. the unfolding scale of the disaster
in south asia had little immediate impact on us shares however. the dow jones
index had risen 20.54 points or 0.2% to 10 847.66 by late morning as analsyts
were cheered by more encouraging reports from retailers about post-christmas sales.
in asian markets adjustments were made quickly to account for lower earnings and
the cost of repairs. thai airways shed almost 4%. the country relies on tourism for
about 6% of its total economy. singapore airlines dropped 2.6%. about 5% of
singapore s annual gross domestic product (gdp) comes from tourism. malaysia s
budget airline airasia fell 2.9%. resort operator tanco holdings slumped 5%.
travel companies also took a hit with japan s kinki nippon sliding 1.5% and his
dropping 3.3%. however the overall impact on asia s largest stock market japan s
nikkei was slight. shares fell just 0.03%. concerns about the strength of economic
growth going forward weighed on the currency markets. the indonesian rupiah lost as
much as 0.6% against the us dollar before bouncing back slightly to trade at 9
300. the thai baht lost 0.3% against the us currency trading at 39.10. in india
where more than 2 000 people are thought to have died the rupee shed 0.1% against
the dollar analysts said that it was difficult to predict the total cost of the
disaster and warned that share prices and currencies would come under increasing
pressure as the bills mounted.
klinsmann issues lehmann warning germany coach jurgen klinsmann has warned
goalkeeper jens lehmann he may have to quit arsenal to keep his world cup dreams
alive. lehmann is understudy to oliver kahn in the german squad but has lost his
place to manuel alumnia at highbury. klinsmann said: it will be difficult for any
of our players if he is not a first-choice at his club. if jens is not arsenal s
number one keeper that is a problem for me. he must be playing regularly. lehmann
is desperate to keep his place in the germany squad when the country hosts the
world cup in 2006. klinsmann added: if he is not playing regularly he cannot be
germany s number one keeper or even number two keeper. the situation for jens is
that he is currently the number two keeper at arsenal. this could be critical if it
remains the same during next season.
lib dems unveil election slogan the liberal democrats will present themselves as
the real alternative in the forthcoming general election campaign charles kennedy
has said. unveiling the slogan at the party s spring conference he said there was
no glass ceiling to its ambitions. he told delegates that labour had abused the
public s trust and that the tories had failed to oppose them. in response the
conservatives insisted that theirs was the party that understood the forgotten
majority . speaking in harrogate mr kennedy said: people want a credible
principled political party which offers a different vision of what britain can be.
only the liberal democrats stood against the iraq war he said and they had also
provided strong opposition to the government s plans on id cards anti-terror
measures and taxation. he said: if you voted conservative in 2001 ... what good
did it do you your vote was wasted. what people needed was ... a party which was
listening to their concerns; a party which was prepared to stand up and say so; a
party which said no to the prime minister. responding to the claims tory party co-
chairman liam fox said: like labour the lib dems are soft on crime support
higher taxes oppose controlled immigration and support giving europe more control
over our lives. mr kennedy also outlined his party s plan to impose a 50% income
tax rate on earnings over £100 000 a year. the money would be used to help pay for
key policies such as abolishing university tuition fees scrapping council tax in
favour of local income tax and providing free care for the elderly he said.
labour and the tories claim the sums do not add up and that working families would
be hardest hit. mr kennedy said: britain is the fourth-largest economy in the
world. we have world class businesses and a world class workforce. so why are two
million of our pensioners living below the poverty line all the parties are
campaigning hard for an expected election in may although prime minister tony
blair has not confirmed any timing. earlier mr kennedy told radio 4 s today
programme there was no possibility of forming a coalition with labour in the event
of a hung parliament. we go into the election as an independent party and we come
out as an independent party he said. mr kennedy has been under fire in recent
days for missing monday s commons vote on the government s controversial anti-
terrorism laws along with 16 other lib dem mps. on saturday the lib dem chief
executive said it was just a cock-up that mr kennedy and his colleagues missed
the vote which the government won by a majority of only 14. nobody had any idea
that was going to happen lord rennard told reporters at the party conference. he
said he was certain mps would get another chance to vote against the plans.
man city 0-2 man utd manchester united reduced chelsea s premiership lead to nine
points after a scrappy victory over manchester city. wayne rooney met gary neville
s cross to the near post with a low shot which went in via a deflection off
richard dunne to put united ahead. seven minutes later the unfortunate dunne
hooked a volley over david james head and into his own net. steve mcmanaman wasted
city s best chance when he shot wide from three yards in the first half. in the
opening 45 minutes united had looked unlikely to earn the win they needed to
maintain any chance of catching chelsea in the title race. their approach play was
more laboured than patient and they managed to fashion just one chance - a paul
scholes header over the bar. and city seemed to be content to sit back and try and
hit their rivals on the break as the game settled into a tepid pattern. only shaun
wright-phillips appeared capable of interrupting the monotony looking lively down
the right and causing gabriel heinze problems. wes brown also found wright-
phillips to be a difficult opponent when the tricky winger embarrassed him near the
touchline. wright-phillips sublime skill and pace took him past brown and he
delivered a pin-point centre to the feet of mcmanaman. but the former liverpool
player demonstrated why he has never scored against united by side-footing the easy
chance wide. john o shea was forced off after an earlier clash with sylvain distin
and cristiano ronaldo came on to replace him. he immediately caused ben thatcher
some discomfort and looked set to inject some much-needed pace into the united
attack. rooney was being well marshalled by dunne - but that was all about to
change. after the break united poured forward and there was a renewed urgency
about their play. and when neville delivered a cross in a carbon copy of city s
best first-half chance rooney showed mcmanaman how to do it - even if he needed
the help of dunne s leg. worse was to come for dunne who had been having a fine
match. on 75 minutes he scored a horrible own goal when attempting to volley clear
rooney s cross and united seemed home and dry. however city did fight back and
fowler missed another great chance from close range. and united keeper roy carroll
saved well from kiki musampa. but united could have a had a third late on when
substitute ryan giggs hit the post. - manchester city boss kevin keegan: we had a
great chance to take the lead and the first goal was always going to be crucial.
we started off with a good tempo but then we allowed them to dictate the pace a bit
too much. but we still had four good chances two after we d gone 2-0 down the
one mcmanaman missed was very similar to the one wayne rooney scored from. -
manchester united boss sir alex ferguson: it wasn t our best performance of the
last three months but i think we re deserved winners. at times especially in the
first half we didn t play with enough speed. but with (cristiano) ronaldo and
(ryan) giggs on the speed improved. derby games can be like that they can be
scrappy dull horrible and it was maybe like that. man city: james mills
(bradley wright-phillips 83) dunne distin thatcher shaun wright-phillips
barton (macken 68) sibierski mcmanaman musampa fowler. subs not used: weaver
onuoha flood. booked: fowler sibierski. man utd: carroll gary neville ferdinand
brown heinze o shea (ronaldo 33) keane fortune fletcher (giggs 64) rooney
scholes (phil neville 84). subs not used: howard bellion. booked: rooney scholes
keane. goals: rooney 68 dunne 75 og. att: 47 111 ref: s bennett (kent).
aviator wins top globes accolades the aviator has been named best film at the
golden globe awards with its star leonardo dicaprio named best actor. hollywood
veteran clint eastwood took the best director prize for million dollar baby while
its star hilary swank was best actress. quirky comedy sideways was named best
screenplay and best comedy. ray star jamie foxx was best actor in a musical/comedy
while briton clive owen and natalie portman won prizes for best supporting roles in
closer. the aviator in which dicaprio plays millionaire howard hughes edged
ahead of its rivals at the beverly hills ceremony by winning the best original
score prize. this give it a total of three awards while million dollar baby
sideways and closer took two golden globes each. accepting his best dramatic actor
prize dicaprio described director martin scorsese as one of the greatest
contributors to the world of cinema of all time . annette bening won best actress
in a musical/comedy for being julia while spanish movie the sea inside was named
best foreign language film. swank who previously won the golden globe and oscar
for boys don t cry paid tribute to million dollar baby director and co-star clint
eastwood. you guided us so brilliantly while you also in my humble opinion gave
the performance of your career she said. foxx was nominated for three awards but
was beaten to the best supporting actor title by owen and the best actor in a tv
movie prize by geoffrey rush in the life and death of peter sellers. a bbc co-
production the life and death of peter sellers was also named best tv movie. mick
jagger and dave stewart won the best original song award for old habits die hard
from movie re-make alfie while ian mcshane was named best actor in a tv drama for
his lead role in deadwood. other uk hopes kate winslet and imelda staunton went
home empty-handed despite lead actress nominations for eternal sunshine of the
spotless mind and vera drake respectively. winning a golden globe is said to
improve a film or performer s chance of subsequently winning an academy award.
unlike the oscars the golden globes split awards by genre - one prize for dramas
and the other for musicals and comedies. the globes also honour the best in
television with suburban series desperate housewives named best tv comedy show.
actress teri hatcher beat fellow desperate housewives stars marcia cross and
felicity huffman to the best comedy actress prize. hatcher thanked the show s cast
crew and a network who gave me a second chance at a career when i couldn t have
been a bigger has been . cosmetic surgery series nip/tuck beat the sopranos and
deadwood to the best television drama title. arrested development star jason
bateman was named best tv actor in a musical or comedy series. the golden globes
are awarded by the hollywood foreign press association comprising film reporters
based in los angeles and working for overseas outlets. robin williams a five-time
globe winner for such films as the fisher king and good morning vietnam received
the cecil b demille award for career achievement. he dedicated his prize to
superman actor christopher reeve who died last year.
smartphones suffer skulls attack owners of some nokia smartphones are being warned
to watch out for malicious wallpaper. those downloading the software could find
all the icons on their 7610 phone swapped for images of skulls. when installed the
malicious program also locks many of the 7610 s functions making it hard to use and
harder to repair. the program is only the latest in a series of viruses produced to
attack mobile phones. the file nicknamed skulls is thought to have surfaced on
shareware sites where people can pick up free add-ons such as wallpaper games and
ringtones for their phones symbian said that it was not sure if the damage skulls
does was intentional or simply a result of bad programming. soon after being
discovered the file is thought to have been removed from the sites that were
unwittingly harbouring it. the program is masquerading as software that creates new
background images and themes for the main screen of the 7610 phone. the skulls
program is labelled as a file called: 7610.extended.theme.manager.zip. once
installed the program replaces all the icons on the main page with skulls and
replaces all the working applications such as contacts calendar notebook etc
with non-working versions so the phone becomes almost useless. the only thing the
phone can do is make and take calls. a statement by symbian played down the
significance of the malicious program and said few people would fall victim to it
as users have to go through several steps to install it one of which includes
ignoring a security warning. symbian said that the spread of the skulls program was
likely to be limited as the program cannot travel from one phone to another by
itself. despite this finnish anti-virus lab f-secure said it had sporadic reports
of 7610 owners being caught out by it. the firm has produced guidance for users
caught out to help them remove the program and get their phone working again. the
skulls program is thought to have been written by a malicious hacker using the
alias tee-222. symbian phones produced by sony ericsson motorola benq arima and
fujitsu are unaffected by the skulls program.
broadband soars in 2004 if broadband were a jumbo jet then 2003 would have seen it
taxiing down the runway firing up its engines and preparing for take-off. but this
year has seen it soar. in the spring it literally took to the skies as lufthansa
and british airways trialled it on flights. this perhaps said more about how
indispensable people were beginning to perceive the technology rather than how
useful sky-high broadband would actually be. it was flying high and by the autumn
five million britons had signed up for high-speed net access at home. such
enthusiasm is unlikely to dampen any time soon and experts predict that by the end
of next year the numbers will have risen to more than eight million or more than
30% of homes. the two key factors in whetting people s appetite were falling prices
and a huge marketing push. when operators such as bt and telewest offered standard
512k broadband for less than £20 at the beginning of the year it was as if an
invisible barrier had been breached - broadband had truly gone mass market. a
feeding frenzy followed as firms vied for eyeballs in a price war reminiscent of
that following the mass market take-up of dial-up. broadband for less than £10 was
even touted by some firms although such a low price raised eyebrows among more
established companies questioning how they are able to sustain such business
models. for those who became broadbanders in 2004 there was no turning back and
the days of waiting for the modem to kick in began to seem as outdated an idea as a
jungle without celebrities. the rest of the world was also falling in love with the
benefits of fast internet access to the tune of 100 million connections worldwide
by april prompting research firm point topic to declare it one of the fastest
growing technologies ever. by september the number of broadband connections in the
uk finally overtook dial-up and in december bt announced that it was making a new
broadband connection every 10 seconds. broadband was being mentioned on the 10 o
clock news and in the tabloids; the sun even carried a cartoon joke about it. but
two of the most significant pieces of news for broadband were items that did not
make the headlines. in may bt quietly announced that it was shaving 70% off the
cost of allowing other operators access to its telephone exchanges so-called local
loop unbundling. the vital local loop is the crucial link between telephone
exchanges and homes. at the moment bt has a stranglehold on more than 80% of these
lines making it the key voice in deciding what adsl products get into homes. with
cheaper local loop unbundling rivals to bt can offer faster services that will
leave the broadband of today looking positively tortoise-like. it will mean the uk
will finally catch up with countries such as france and the netherlands where
homes are routinely enjoying speeds of up to 15mb (megabits per second). and the
major price fall means that rather than just talk about it companies are actually
starting to get their own equipment into bt s exchanges. it may not seem that
exciting but it is a remarkable transition given that just a few years ago the
arguments over local loop unbundling bore more than a passing resemblance to the
northern ireland peace talks - fraught bitter and with no end in sight. another
big piece of news for broadband users in 2004 was the extension of bt s reach
meaning more than 95% of the population could get broadband regardless of how far
away from the exchange they lived. there was a slight caveat for those wanting to
upgrade to 1mbps broadband they still have to live within six kilometres of a
broadband-enabled exchange. for thousands frustrated by their inability to get the
technology the news meant they could finally join in. broadband is not just about
fast access over the telephone and cable operators ntl and telewest also had a
bumper year. the biggest news for them was increased speeds introducing 2mb and
3mb services for users and offering a free upgrade to those on 512k. the cable
operators are limited in their reach and it is perhaps testament to how big a deal
local loop unbundling could become that even they are considering extending their
range via this route. broadband can seem confusing for consumers with the huge
amount of operators offering so many different products some with capped bandwidth
and different length contracts and set-up fees. it is unlikely to get any less easy
to understand in 2005 but remains a plane worth catching. as it gets faster and
offers extras such as cheap telephone calls online the only real thing to remember
for the coming year is to enjoy the ride.
iran budget seeks state sell-offs iran s president mohammad khatami has unveiled
a budget designed to expand public spending by 30% but loosen the islamic republic
s dependence on oil. the budget for the fiscal year starting on 21 march calls for
the sell-off of 20% of the state s corporate holdings. mr khatami s second term as
president ends on 1 august making this his last budget. but opposition from
members of parliament who have attacked previous privatisations could block his
plans. elections in may 2004 ousted many of mr khatami s supporters in parliament
in favour of more hard-line religious conservatives. late last year they backed a
law which would give parliament a veto over foreign investment. the ruling was a
response to the involvement in telecoms and airport projects by turkish companies
which hardliners accused of doing business with israel. it came not long after the
expediency council - iran s ultimate decision-maker - blessed mr khatami s policy
of selling stakes in sectors protected by the constitution such as energy
transport telecoms and banking. continued obstruction of foreign investment could
get in the way not only of privatisation plans but also of mr khatami s hope of
modestly reducing the government s reliance on oil revenues. in an address to the
majlis mr khatami predicted economic growth of 7.1% in 2005-6 up from 6.7% in the
current year. he said he wanted to increase the 2005-6 budget to 1 546 trillion
rials ($175.6bn; £93.6bn) from the previous year s 1 070 trillion. within that
figure taxation would rise to $14.3bn a rise of over 40% from what is expected
from the current year. in contrast oil revenues were expected to fall to $14.1bn
from $16bn in the year to march 2005. current government expenditure should come
from tax revenues mr khatami said. oil revenues should be used for productive
investment. mr khatami has already been blocked by parliament from reducing the
subsidies on many products including bread and petrol reducing his room to
manoeuvre.
kennedy calls for iraq exit plans tony blair should set out a proper exit strategy
from iraq in the wake of next sunday s elections in the country lib dem leader
charles kennedy has said. in a speech focusing on issues arising from the re-
election of george w bush mr kennedy said iraq had become a crucible of militant
terrorism . he wants to see a phased withdrawal of uk troops as soon as the
situation allows he said in london. any exit strategy must augment and support
the democratic process. there are some who are of the opinion that the mere
presence of british and american troops in iraq feeds the insurgency he said.
there is some truth in that especially after the initial mistakes that were made -
the heavy-handedness of operations like fallujah and the well-publicised instances
of abuse at the hands of coalition forces. mr kennedy pointed out that the
netherlands portugal and the czech republic which all have troops operating in
the southern sector of iraq have announced their imminent withdrawal regardless
of the situation on the ground . he accused mr blair s government of being less
than straightforward over its plans. next week the prime minister should make a
statement regarding the elections in iraq mr kennedy said during his city of
london speech. he should set out a proper exit strategy including the phased
withdrawal of british troops as the security situation allows. mr kennedy also
argued that british troops deployed in iraq should be replaced with forces from
other countries - especially islamic countries .
global release for japan hit film oscar-winning animator hayao miyazaki s latest
film howl s moving castle is to be released in 50 countries around the world its
distributor has said. howl s moving castle set a japanese box office record last
week taking 1.5bn yen (£7.7m) in its first two days. miyazaki won an oscar earlier
this year for spirited away japan s first academy award for nearly 50 years. howl
s moving castle is based on a children s fantasy novel by uk author diana wynne
jones. it tells the story of an 18-year-old woman who ages dramatically after
falling under a witch s spell. she heads to a moving castle kept by howl a wizard
and searches for a way to become normal again. a spokesman for distributor toho
said the film has received strong interest from domestic audiences and foreign
media and viewers alike . we have a good feeling about this film. we saw very good
viewer response he added. the film s worldwide release will start in south korea
on 24 december and france on 12 january.
rover deal may cost 2 000 jobs some 2 000 jobs at mg rover s midlands plant may
be cut if investment in the firm by a chinese car maker goes ahead the financial
times has reported. shanghai automotive industry corp plans to shift production of
the rover 25 to china and export it to the uk sources close to the negotiations
tell the ft. but rover told bbc news that reports of job cuts were speculation . a
tie-up seen as rover s last chance to save its longbridge plant has been pushed
by uk chancellor gordon brown. rover confirmed the tie-up would take place not
very far away from this time . rover bosses have said they are confident the
£1bn ($1.9bn) investment deal would be signed in march or early april. transport &
general worker s union general secretary tony woodley repeated his view on friday
that all mergers led to some job cuts. he said investment in new models was needed
to ensure the future of the birmingham plant. this is a very crucial and delicate
time and our efforts are targeted to securing new models for the company which will
mean jobs for our people he said. saic says none of its money will be paid to the
four owners of rover who have been accused by unions of awarding themselves
exorbitant salaries the ft reports. saic is extremely concerned to ensure that
its money is used to invest in the business rather than be distributed to the
shareholders the newspaper quotes a source close to the chinese firm. meanwhile
according to chinese state press reports small state-owned carmaker nanjing auto
is in negotiations with rover and saic to take a 20% stake in the joint venture.
saic was unavailable for comment on the job cuts when contacted by bbc news. rover
and saic signed a technology-sharing agreement in august.
collins banned in landmark case sprinter michelle collins has received an eight-
year ban for doping offences after a hearing at the north american court of
arbitration for sport (cas). america s former world indoor 200m champion is the
first athlete to be suspended without a positive drugs test or an admission of
drugs use. collins ban is a result of her connection to the federal inquiry into
the balco doping scandal. the 33-year-old was found guilty of using performance-
enhancing drugs. the us anti-doping agency (usada) decided to press charges against
collins in the summer. the sprinter has consistently protested her innocence but
the cas has upheld usada s findings. the usada has proved beyond a reasonable
doubt that collins took epo the testosterone/epitestosterone cream and thg said
a cas statement. collins used these substances to enhance her performance and
elude the drug testing that was available at the time. so far a total of 13
athletes have been sanctioned for violations involving drugs associated with the
balco doping scandal. world record holder tim montgomery is also facing a lifetime
ban after being charged by the usada. his hearing before the csa has been
rescheduled for june next year. drug enforcement chiefs in the us have vowed to
crack down on cheats. usada chief executive officer terry madden said the action
taken against collins was further proof of that. the cas panel s decision confirms
that those who violate the rules will be sanctioned as part of usada s ongoing
efforts to protect the rights of the overwhelming majority of us athletes that
compete drug-free said madden. the usada has built its cases on verbal evidence
given to the federal investigation into balco rather than test results. the san
francisco-based balco laboratory faces steroid distribution and money laundering
charges. the trial is expected to open next march.
mexican in us send $16bn home mexican labourers living in the us sent a record
$16.6bn (£8.82bn) home last year. the bank of mexico said that remittances grew
24% last year and now represent the country s second-biggest source of income after
oil. better records and greater prosperity of mexican expatriates in the us are the
main reasons behind the increase. about 10 million mexicans live in the us where
there are 16 million citizens of mexican origin. remittances now represent more
than 2% of the country s gdp according to the bank of mexico s figures. last year
there were 50.9 million transactions with an average value of $327 per remittance
the bank said. according to standard & poor s which has recently upgraded mexico s
sovereign debt rating the rise in remittances helps protect the mexican economy
against a potential fall in the international oil prices. the growth in
remittances has sparked fierce competition between banks. bank of america announced
last week that it planned to eliminate transfer fees for some customers. remittance
charges are estimated to have dropped by between 50 and 60% reports from the us
treasury and the inter-american development bank have said. the inter-american
development bank estimates that remittances to latin america and the caribbean
reached $45bn in 2004.
kennedy s cautious optimism charles kennedy is far too canny to make any grand
claims about how his party may fare at the general election. in his 22 years in
the commons he has seen his fair share of such claims dashed on the rocks of
bitter experience and he might say the uk s political and electoral system. but
even his caution cannot hide the fact that this is a party and a leader that
believes it may well be on the way to something special in a few months time.
look i have already said i am not going to put any artificial limits on our
ambitions this time around he said. he still seems to accept that the most likely
outcome is another labour victory of some sort. and his general election pitch is
designed around the notion of the lib dems as the real opposition. but doesn t
that lead to the jibe that his is a party actively bidding to come second he is
prepared to go this far: a clear conclusion has been reached including by
conservatives that the conservatives are not going to win this election.
therefore the potential is there for the liberal democrat advance to be one of the
big stories of the election given that we have the capacity to take on labour and
win as well as take on the conservatives and win. this is really going to be the
first modern three party uk election that we have all experienced . but haven t we
been here before with suggestions in the 1980s that labour was finished. won t
voters looking for an alternative to labour still naturally gravitate to the
conservatives the problem is that geographically the conservative party has
melted away in about a third of britain. we have supplanted them as the main
alternative to labour in whole tracts of mainland britain. and they are a party
with an ageing and declining membership base and they just do not look vibrant or
vital or in touch any longer with contemporary britain . mr kennedy is also eager
to dispel any impression his party is the new party of the left and is likely to
attract mostly disillusioned labour voters. he insists his three headline
commitments to be financed from a 1% tax increase on those earning over £100 000 a
year will appeal right across the political spectrum. they are to replace the
council tax with a local income tax provide free long term care for the elderly
and scrap student fees. he also believes being the only major party promising to
increases taxes will not land him in the same trouble a similar policy did to old
labour. i think the tax argument has moved on a lot in british politics
particularly in the context of the forthcoming general election he said. under a
labour government the tax burden would have to rise while the tories plans to
increase spending in some areas while also reducing taxes is just incredible he
claims. we are being straightforward with people saying you know there is likely
to be an increase in the tax burden we are only recommending one specific tax rise
for the top end of income scale earners to fund three specific policies . that is
a clear cut choice for people one i am very comfortable with and i think will
distinguish us from the others . as to his own future he is clear. if as expected
his party increases its showing at the election he intends to go into the next
parliament on the front foot with a view to leading it right through that
parliament into the next election because i see that as the decisive opportunity
for us . that last remark reflects a view gaining ground in westminster that if
the tories do as badly as some fear the election after next might really see that
historic breakthrough by the third party. perhaps then mr kennedy will be ready to
put some of the caution to one side.
lord scarman 93 dies peacefully distinguished lawyer lord scarman who conducted
the inquiry into the 1981 brixton riots has died aged 93. the peer enjoyed a
celebrated judicial career serving as law commission chairman in its first seven
years. he also chaired the 1969 tribunal set up to investigate civil disturbances
in northern ireland. paying tribute the lord chancellor lord falconer said lord
scarman was one of the great advocates of our generation . his legacy from his
decisions in the lords and the court of appeal is substantial. his work in the
wake of the brixton riots and his commitment to the vulnerable and dispossessed was
second to none. a great judge a great lawyer and a great man. lord scarman s
nephew george ritchie said the peer who passed away peacefully on wednesday would
be sadly missed . the lord chief justice lord woolf who is the most senior
judge in england and wales said it was lord scarman s pioneering work which
paved the way for the human rights act 1998. he was a lawyer and a judge who had a
remarkable insight into human nature and an exceptional sensitivity to the needs
of a healthy society he said. he was personally totally charming and he will
be remembered with great affection and admiration by all who came into contact with
him. dame elizabeth butler-sloss the president of the family justice division
said lord scarman was a good and humane judge and one of the greatest figures of
the late 20th century. lord scarman will be remembered for the public inquiry he
led into a string of race riots which began in brixton when racial tensions rose
after a police crackdown on street robbery. during the following three days of
disturbances that spread to the midlands merseyside bristol and leeds nearly 400
people were injured and buildings and vehicles were set alight. the inquiry
famously settled on the so-called rotten apples theory which argued that only a
few police officers were racist saying most were not. it spawned new law
enforcement practices and led to the creation of the police complaints authority.
trevor phillips chair of the commission for racial equality praised lord scarman
s ability to listen . he said: when lord scarman toured the streets of brixton
his presence was electrifying. a community which had been systematically ignored
by everyone else was suddenly embraced by the epitome of the english establishment.
his great quality was the ability to listen to young people of all backgrounds
many of whose language he could barely understand genuinely to hear what they had
to say and to talk to them as human beings. he never lost the special combination
of wisdom humanity and the spark of radicalism that marked his watershed report
into the brixton riots.
soros group warns of kazakh close the open society institute (osi) financed by
billionaire george soros has accused kazakhstan officials of trying to close down
its local office. a demand for unpaid taxes and fines of $600 000 (£425 000) is
politically motivated the osi claimed adding that it paid the money in october.
the organisation has found itself in trouble after being accused of helping to
topple georgia s former president. it denies having any role but offices have had
to close across the region. the osi shut its office in moscow last year and has
withdrawn from uzbekistan and belarus. in the ukraine earlier this year mr soros -
who took on the bank of england in the 1990s - and won was pelted by protestors.
this legal prosecution can be considered an attempt by the government to force
soros foundation-kazakhstan to cease its activities in kazakhstan and shut its
doors for kazakh citizens and organisations the osi said. the osi aims to
promote democratic and open market-based societies. since the break up of the
soviet union in 1991 kazakhstan has been dominated by its president nursultan
abish-uly nazarbayev. he has powers for life while insulting the president and
officials has been made a criminal offence. the government controls the printing
presses and most radio and tv transmission facilities. it operates the country s
national radio and tv networks. recent elections were criticised as flawed and the
opposition claimed there was widespread vote rigging. supporters however say he
brings much needed stability to a region where islamic militancy is on the rise.
they also credit him with promoting inter-ethnic accord and pushing through harsh
reforms.
dogged federer claims dubai crown world number one roger federer added the dubai
championship trophy to his long list of successes - but not before he was given a
test by ivan ljubicic. top seed federer looked to be on course for a easy victory
when he thumped the eighth seed 6-1 in the first set. but ljubicic who beat tim
henman in the last eight dug deep to secure the second set after a tense tiebreak.
swiss star federer was not about to lose his cool though turning on the style to
win the deciding set 6-3. the match was a re-run of last week s final at the world
indoor tournament in rotterdam where federer triumphed but not until ljubicic had
stretched him all the way. i really wanted to get off to a good start this time
and i did and i could really play with confidence while he still looking for his
rhythm federer said. that took me all the way through to 6-1 3-1 0-30 on his
serve and i almost ran away with it. but he came back and that was a good effort
on his side. ljubicic was at a loss to explain his poor showing in the first set.
i didn t start badly but then suddenly i felt like my racket was loose and the
balls were flying a little bit too much. and with roger if you relax for a second
it just goes very quick he said. after those first three games it was no match
at all. i don t know it was really weird. i was playing really well the whole year
and then suddenly i found myself in trouble just to put the ball in the court. but
despite his defeat the world number 14 was pleased with his overall performance.
i had a chance in the third and for me it s really positive to twice in two weeks
have a chance against roger to win the match. it s an absolutely great boost to my
confidence that i m up there and belong with top-class players.
half-life 2 sweeps bafta awards pc first person shooter half-life 2 has won six
bafta awards including best game and best online game. the title developed by
valve was released last year to universal acclaim - receiving special praise for
its immersive plot and physics engine. the game also won baftas for best action
adventure best pc game art direction and animation. burnout 3 won three awards in
the categories for racing technical direction and best playstation 2 game. grant
dean chairman of the bafta games awards said at a ceremony in london on tuesday:
the last year has been a great year for the interactive entertainment industry.
these awards reflect the enormous achievements progress and diversity that we have
seen in that time. halo 2 won the best xbox game category while prince of persia:
warrior within was adjudged the best gamecube title. the sports award went to
konami s pro evolution soccer 4. bafta said the significant feature of this year
s awards was the number of non-traditional games . the originality award was won
by playstation 2 title singstar while the children s award went to gamecube bongo
rhythm game donkey konga. the handheld award went to colin mcrae rally 2005 while
the mobile category was won by blue tooth byplanes. the audio award was won by call
of duty: finest hour and hitman: contracts won the music award.
robotic pods take on car design a new breed of wearable robotic vehicles that
envelop drivers are being developed by japanese car giant toyota. the company s
vision for the single passenger in the 21st century involves the driver cruising by
in a four-wheeled leaf-like device or strolling along encased in an egg-shaped
cocoon that walks upright on two feet. both these prototypes will be demonstrated
along with other concept vehicles and helper robots at the toyota stand at the
expo 2005 in aichi japan in march 2005. the models are being positioned as so-
called personal mobility devices which have few limits. the open leaf-like i-unit
vehicle is the latest version of the concept which the company introduced last
year. built using environmentally friendly plant-based materials the single
passenger unit is equipped with intelligent transport system technologies that
allow for safe autopilot driving in specially equipped lanes. the model allows the
user to make tight on-the-spot turns move upright amongst other people at low
speeds and can be easily switched into a reclining position at higher speeds. body
colours can be customized to suit individual preferences and a personal recognition
system offers both information and music. also on display at the show will be the
egg-shaped i-foot . this is a two-legged mountable robot like device that can be
controlled with a joystick. standing at a height of well over seven feet (2.1
metres) the unit can walk along at a speed of about 1.35km/h (0.83mph) and
navigate staircases into the bargain. mounting and dismounting is accomplished with
the aid of the bird-like legs that bend over backwards. they are clearly what we
call concept vehicles innovative ideas which have yet to be transformed into
potential products and which are a few years away from actual production said dr
david gillingwater from the transport studies group at loughborough university.
they clearly have eye-catching appeal which is in part the name of the game here
and are linked to the imac and ipod-type niche which apple have been responsible
for developing and leading in recent years - new different hi-tech image
conscious products. as always with these concept vehicles it is difficult to see
who they would appeal to and what their role would be in the personal transport
marketplace. the personal transport arena is taking on a new dimension though
with futuristic devices that augment human capabilities. toyota s prototypes
represent the latest incarnation of wearable exoskeletons in a vehicular form that
is specially focused on transport. powered robotic exoskeletons have been the focus
of much us military research over the years and japan seems to have jumped onto the
bandwagon with a wave of products being developed for specific applications. with
an emerging range of devices targeted towards the ageing world population care
giving and the military wearable exoskeletons seem to represent a new line of
future technologies that meet an individual s particular mobility needs. while
toyota s prototypes are geared towards mass transport the company says that the
vehicles will allow the elderly and the disabled to achieve independent mobility.
experts though are a bit sceptical of their acceptance in this area. those with
arguably the greatest needs for this sort of assistance now and certainly in the
future are the elderly and infirm people dr gillingwater told the bbc news
website. you have to ask whether these sorts of vehicles will appeal to these
groups. design considerations also exist. dr erel avineri of the centre for
transport and society at the university of the west of england in bristol said:
the design of the introduced mobility devices is not completely adjusted to the
specific needs of the elderly and the disabled. for example one problem that many
older passengers experience is limited ability to rotate the neck and upper body
making it difficult to look to the side and back when backing up. it looks like
the visual design of the device interior does not consider this need. this and
other human-factors related issues in the design of such devices are not the only
issues that should be considered said dr avineri. in general introducing a new
technology requires the passenger to change behaviour patterns that have served the
older passenger for decades. elderly users might not necessarily accept such
innovation. this may be another barrier to the commercial success of such a
vehicle. such single-person vehicles may find a relatively small market niche and
may be more suited towards specialised applications rather than revolutionising the
face of mass transport. the concept of personal mobility behind these sorts of
innovations is great but they beg a huge number of questions said dr
gillingwater. what s their range how user-friendly will they really be what
infrastructure will be required to allow these vehicles to be used. overall i
think these vehicles pose a number of important questions than provide answers or
solutions.
apple laptop is greatest gadget the apple powerbook 100 has been chosen as the
greatest gadget of all time by us magazine mobile pc. the 1991 laptop was chosen
because it was one of the first lightweight portable computers and helped define
the layout of all future notebook pcs. the magazine has compiled an all-time top
100 list of gadgets which includes the sony walkman at number three and the 1956
zenith remote control at two. gadgets needed moving parts and/or electronics to
warrant inclusion. the magazine staff compiled the list and specified that gadgets
also needed to be a self-contained apparatus that can be used on its own not a
subset of another device . in general we included only items that were
potentially mobile said the magazine. in the end we tried to get to the heart
of what really makes a gadget a gadget it concluded. the oldest gadget in the
top 100 is the abacus which the magazine dates at 190 a.d. and put in 60th place.
other pre-electronic gadgets in the top 100 include the sextant from 1731 (59th
position) the marine chronometer from 1761 (42nd position) and the kodak brownie
camera from 1900 (28th position). the tivo personal video recorder is the newest
device to make the top 10 which also includes the first flash mp3 player (diamond
multimedia) as well as the first successful digital camera (casio qv-10) and
mobile phone (motorola startac). the most popular gadget of the moment the apple
ipod is at number 12 in the list while the first sony transistor radio is at
number 13. sony s third entry in the top 20 is the cdp-101 cd player from 1983.
who can forget the crystalline hiss-free blast of madonna s like a virgin
emanating from their first cd player asked the magazine. karl elsener s knife
the swiss army knife from 1891 is at number 20 in the list. gadgets which could be
said to feature surprisingly low down in the list include the original telephone
(23rd) the nintendo gameboy (25th) and the pulsar quartz digital watch (36th).
the list also contains plenty of oddities: the pez sweet dispenser (98th) 1990s
toy tamagotchi (86th) and the bizarre ronco inside the shell egg scrambler (84th).
almost everyone has a mobile phone how many people own a powerbook or an ipod
the findings of this magazine are not very convincing. what about the magnetic
compass we still use it 1 000 years after it was invented. i am amazed by the
obsession with individual gadgets rather than genre. for example the sony walkman
was the first truly portable way of listening to your own music on the move whereas
minidisc flash mp3 portable cd players etc. are really just improvements in
technology. my favourite true gadgets are probably my portable minidisc player
and the little battery powered whizzy thing i use to froth up my coffee! calm down
it s only in their opinion and any list that includes the taser in the top 100
gadgets has to be suspect.... swiss army knife and no question about it. how many
of the other items are still relatively unchanged from the original idea and still
as useful/popular you don t need a laptop or even a pocket calculator to work that
one out! this list merely illustrates interesting cultural divides between the
american authors and the overwhelmingly british responses. brits see no further
than mobile phones and the over thirties sinclair; whilst the americans focus on
apple tv remotes and tivo (which probably is rather obscure in europe). what
about the soda stream. this gadget changed my pre-teen life. lap tops may enable
you to think different but you cant use them to get busy with the fizzy how
about astro wars one of the pioneers for computer games i remember spending many
an hour playing this and it still works today! however tried it the other day and
it was rubbish still a great gadget of its time. why worry about mobile phones.
soon they will be subsumed into the pda s / laptops etc. what about the marine
chronometer completely revolutionised navigation for boats and was in use for
centuries. for it s time a technological marvel! sony net minidisc! it paved the
way for more mp3 player to explode onto the market. i always used my netmd and
could not go anywhere without it. a laptop computer is not a gadget! it s a
working tool! the sinclair executive was the world s first pocket calculator. i
think this should be there as well. how about the clockwork radio or gps or a
pocket calculator all these things are useful to real people not just pc magazine
editors. are the people who created this list insane surely the most important
gadget of the modern age is the mobile phone it has revolutionised communication
which is more than can be said for a niche market laptop. from outside the modern
age the marine chronometer is the single most important gadget without which
modern transportation systems would not have evolved so quickly. has everyone
forgot about the breville pie maker an interesting list. of the electronic
gadgets thousands of journalists in the early 1980s blessed the original noteboook
pc - the tandy 100. the size of a4 paper and light three weeks on a set of
batteries an excellent keyboard a modem. a pity tandy did not make it dos
compatible. what s an apple powerbook 100 it s out of date - not much of a
gadget . surely it has to be something simple / timeless - the tin opener swiss
army knife safety razor blade wristwatch or the thing for taking stones out of
horses hooves it has to be the mobile phone. no other single device has had such
an effect on our way of living in such a short space of time. the ball point pen
has got to be one of the most used and common gadgets ever. also many might be
grateful for the pocket calculator which was a great improvement over the slide
rule. the casio pocket calculator that played a simple game and made tinny noises
was also a hot gadget in 1980. a true gadget it could be carried around and shown
off. all top 10 are electronic toys so the list is probably a better reflection
of the current high-tech obsession than anything else. i say this as the swiss army
knife only made no 20. sinclair ql a machine far ahead of its time. the first home
machine with a true multi-takings os. shame the marketing was so bad!!! apple.. a
triumph of fashion over... well everything else. utter rubbish. yes the apple
laptop and sony walkman are classic gadgets. but to call the sextant and the marine
chronometer gadgets and rank them as less important than a tv remote control
reveals a quite shocking lack of historical perspective. the former literally
helped change the world by vastly improving navigation at see. the latter is the
seed around which the couch potato culture has developed. no competition. i d also
put apple s newton and the first palm pilot there as the front runners for portable
computing and possibly the toshiba libretto for the same reason. i only wish that
vulcan inc s flipstart wasn t just vapourware otherwise it would be at the top.
how did a laptop ever manage to beat off the challenge of the wristwatch or the
telephone (mobile or otherwise) what about radios and tvs the swiss army knife.
by far the most useful gadget. i got mine 12 years ago. still wearing and using it
a lot! it stood the test of time. psion organiser series 3 should be up there.
had a usable qwerty keyboard removable storage good set of apps and programmable.
case design was good (batteries in the hinge - a first i think). great product
innovation. the first mobile pc was voted best gadget by readers of...err...
mobile pc ! why do you keep putting these obviously biased lists on your site it s
obviously the mobile phone or remote control and readers of a less partisan
publication would tell you that. the motorola startac should be number one. why
there will be mobile phones long after notebook computers and other gadgets are
either gone or integrated in communications devices. the psion series 3c! the
first most practical way to carry all your info around... i too would back the
sinclair spectrum - without this little beauty i would never have moved into the
world of it and earn the living that i do now. i d have put the mobile phone high
up the list. probably a nokia model. sinclair spectrum - 16k. it plugged into the
tv. games were rubbish but it gave me a taste for programming and that s what i do
for a living now. i wish more modern notebooks -- even apple s newest offerings --
were more like the pb100. particularly disheartening is the demise of the trackball
which has given way to the largely useless trackpad which every notebook on the
market today uses. they re invariably inaccurate uncomfortable and cumbersome to
use. congratulations to apple a deserved win!
booming markets shed few tears the market former british government minister
michael heseltine once said has no morality. and indeed stock exchange traders
around asia have wasted little time regretting the victims of this week s disaster.
stock markets in indonesia and india have hit all-time highs this week; even in sri
lanka more comprehensively affected the main index has lost only 5% since the
waves hit. bigger markets further afield have barely twitched. the msci world share
index a measure of global stock market performance hit its highest level this
week since early 2001; the bbc global 30 has risen by 3% in the past week. and this
at a time when - all sentiment aside - insurance costs are already estimated in the
tens of billions of dollars and countries around the region are looking at
trimming their growth forecasts. in fact the markets are being perfectly
rational. for a start the notional insurance cost of the disaster will have
little bearing on corporate bottom lines. the overwhelming majority of the victims
will have had no insurance: according to estimates from india only one-quarter of
those affected there were wealthy enough to afford insurance and only one-quarter
of that group at most will have taken out policies. indonesia is likely to have
even lower take-up rates. and where insurance certainly is in place - in for
example the many tourist complexes affected - the costs will be borne in far-away
corners of the global reinsurance market rather than landing locally. second
stock markets do not trade the sort of companies likely to have been damaged. most
of the biggest companies traded on the soaring jakarta stock exchange are in oil
technology and financial services - none of which have been hit by the flooding.
tourist businesses the most likely sufferers are either foreign-owned or too
small to have their shares listed. those that are listed have suffered: confifi
hotel holdings a small sri lankan tourism firm has halved in value this week. but
there are winners as well as losers. asian stock markets are heavily inclined
towards property and construction companies many of which will be rubbing their
hands over the reconstruction opportunities. in indonesia shares in state
construction companies adhi karya and semen gresik have jumped sharply this week.
more broadly the academic consensus is that major disasters are largely neutral in
their longer-term economic impact. according to the natural hazards research and
applications information center at colorado state university there is little
evidence that disasters are inevitably followed by a depression. the need to find
money to replace lost and damaged property is balanced by the beneficial effect of
reconstruction activity; there is rarely the centre says any sort of rebuilding
boom but in most cases sizeable indirect losses are avoided. a study of the 1993
des moines floods from the disaster research center at the university of delaware*
found that 70% of local businesses were no worse off after the disaster and
another 18% felt themselves better off. although it is commonly assumed on the
basis of anecdotal evidence that disasters result in business failures and
bankruptcies on a large scale our research indicates that most businesses even
those that are especially hard-hit do indeed recover the authors concluded. but
disasters have a vast psychological impact and markets are driven by psychological
factors. in particular many analysts warn of panic spreading unchecked through
the global financial system as investors seek to cover themselves against the
unforeseeable effects of unguessable events. in fact again the risks here are
lower than they seem. even the costliest natural disaster is rendered minuscule by
the global capital market - currently $30 trillion and rising. a series of recent
shocks the colorado centre has argued have demonstrated that this seamless global
contagion hardly ever happens: market tremors rarely translate into economic slumps
and economic woes rarely seriously undermine markets. the trillion-dollar debts of
japan s banks for example have had no effect on stock markets further afield than
tokyo. and the us stock market was on its way down long before 11 september 2001;
it rose by 20% during the six months following the attacks. it is not that the
broking community is indifferent to disasters or feelings one bombay trader said
this week. but the reaction would have been seen if business had been affected.
business sense probably tends to overrule everything else.
falconer rebuts charade claims concessions on a bill which critics claim would
allow euthanasia through the back door were not a political ploy the lord
chancellor has said. ministers have been accused of panic in offering last minute
changes to the mental capacity bill amid chaotic scenes in the commons on tuesday.
lord falconer said it was fair to criticise the late timing of the offer. he said
the changes provided a solution to a very difficult issue but some mps argue the
situation is still unclear. the bill allows people to give somebody the power of
attorney to make decisions on their behalf if they become too ill to decide for
themselves. ministers insist the plans would not change laws on euthanasia and
would improve safeguards. critics fear it could allow killing by omission through
withdrawing treatment including food and fluids. tony blair said he would do
everything he could to meet concerns about the bill. but changes to the bill must
not overturn the law set when a court ruled that doctors could withdraw artificial
feeding and hydration from hillsborough coma victim tony bland. it is important we
don t end up in the situation where doctors and consultants are confused about the
law and may lay themselves open to prosecution in circumstances where no sensible
person would want that to happen he said. on tuesday the government saw off a
backbench attempt to force changes to the bill by 297 votes to 203 despite
rebellion by 34 labour mps. the revolt was also reduced by news that lord falconer
had promised the catholic archbishop of cardiff to strengthen safeguards in the
bill. but that only came after mps bombarded constitutional affairs minister david
lammy with a barrage of requests for him to read the letter as they complained they
had been left in the dark. eventually he was hurriedly handed the letter to read
out five minutes before the crunch votes prompting claims of a shambles. the
deputy speaker later said the debate had not been handled as it should have been.
lord falconer says there will be amendments when the bill goes to the house of
lords. he told bbc news: we have given a commitment to put into the bill a clause
that says that nothing in the bill authorises any act where the motive of the
person authorising the decision is to end life. the motive has got to be to end
suffering. he denied the concessions were a political manoeuvre forced by panic
about the rebellion. it was inevitable that minds became more focused as the bill
went through parliament but the result was a sensible solution he said. i don t
think it is something to be embarrassed about. these issues are not easy to deal
with he went on. bbc political editor andrew marr said mr lammy was waste deep
in quicksand and sinking fast after his performance. but lord falconer praised his
minister for an excellent job . former conservative leader iain duncan smith one
of the chief critics of the plans condemned the debate as a charade and
complained the promises of changes to the bill were vague.
tory backing for id cards the tories are to back controversial government plans to
introduce id cards. the shadow cabinet revealed its support ahead of next week s
commons vote on a bill to introduce compulsory id. the decision follows a tough
meeting where some senior tories argued vociferously against the move party
sources told the bbc. the bill which ministers claim will tackle crime terrorism
and illegal immigration is expected to be opposed by the liberal democrats. they
have said the scheme is deeply flawed and a waste of money. sources within the
conservative party told the bbc michael howard has always been in favour of id
cards and tried to introduce them when he was home secretary. the party has been
agnostic on the issue until now but had now decided to come off the fence the
tory source said. despite giving their backing to id cards the conservatives
insisted they would hold ministers to account over the precise purpose of the
scheme. they said they would also press labour over whether objectives could be
met and whether the home office would deliver them. and they pledged to assess the
cost effectiveness of id cards and whether people s privacy would be properly
protected. it is important to remember that this bill will take a decade to come
into full effect a spokesman said. it will do nothing to solve the immediate
problems of rising crime and uncontrolled immigration. lib dem home affairs
spokesman mark oaten said: this has all the signs of michael howard overruling
colleagues concerns over id cards. the tories should have the courage to try and
change public opinion not follow it. the new chairman of the bar council guy
mansfield qc warned there was a real risk that people on the margins of society
would be driven into the hands of extremists. what is going to happen to young
asian men when there has been a bomb gone off somewhere they are going to be
stopped. if they haven t [id cards] they are going to be detained.
jobs growth still slow in the us the us created fewer jobs than expected in january
but a fall in jobseekers pushed the unemployment rate to its lowest level in three
years. according to labor department figures us firms added only 146 000 jobs in
january. the gain in non-farm payrolls was below market expectations of 190 000 new
jobs. nevertheless it was enough to push down the unemployment rate to 5.2% its
lowest level since september 2001. the job gains mean that president bush can
celebrate - albeit by a very fine margin - a net growth in jobs in the us economy
in his first term in office. he presided over a net fall in jobs up to last
november s presidential election - the first president to do so since herbert
hoover. as a result job creation became a key issue in last year s election.
however when adding december and january s figures the administration s first
term jobs record ended in positive territory. the labor department also said it
had revised down the jobs gains in december 2004 from 157 000 to 133 000.
analysts said the growth in new jobs was not as strong as could be expected given
the favourable economic conditions. it suggests that employment is continuing to
expand at a moderate pace said rick egelton deputy chief economist at bmo
financial group. we are not getting the boost to employment that we would have got
given the low value of the dollar and the still relatively low interest rate
environment. the economy is producing a moderate but not a satisfying amount of
job growth said ken mayland president of clearview economics. that means there
are a limited number of new opportunities for workers.
vickery out of six nations england tight-head prop phil vickery has been ruled out
of the rest of the 2005 rbs six nations after breaking a bone in his right forearm.
vickery was injured as his club side gloucester beat bath 17-16 in the west
country derby on saturday. he could be joined on the sidelines by bath centre olly
barkley who sat out the derby due to a leg injury. barkley will have a scan on
sunday and might miss england s trip to six nations leaders ireland next weekend.
the news is just the latest blow for coach andy robinson who has seen his side
lose their opening two matches in the 2005 six nations. robinson is already without
world cup winners jonny wilkinson will greenwood mike tindall richard hill and
trevor woodman through injury. vickery has broken the radius a large bone in his
forearm. he only returned to the england side last weekend after a long-term back
injury which was followed by a fractured eye socket. and the gloucester prop was
only recalled after leicester tight-head julian white suffered a neck injury which
has already seen him ruled out of the ireland game. bath prop matt stevens is the
only remaining tight-head in england s training squad and could be involved against
ireland. but he has to play second fiddle at club level to duncan bell who
excelled for england a against france and may now be called into the squad. the
extent of barkley s injury is not yet clear but bath boss john connolly rates him
no better than 50-50 to face ireland. barkley played at inside cente in england s
defeat by france and if he is unable to play england s constantly-changing
midfield will once again have to be altered. robinson could choose to recall
mathew tait or henry paul although tait endured a nightmare for newcastle against
leicester on saturday and paul limped off with an ankle injury against bath. in-
form leicester centre ollie smith is the other outstanding candidate and two tries
against newcastle will have boosted his chances. fly-half andy goode is also a
strong contender for the match-day 22 after an immaculate kicking display on
saturday. england fourth in the six nations table with zero points play ireland
top of the table in dublin on 27 february kick-off 1500 gmt.
umaga ready for lions all blacks captain tama umaga has warned the british and
irish lions will be his most fearsome opponents yet ahead of their summer tour.
but umaga in england for saturday s irb rugby aid match also backed new zealand
to win the three-test series against the lions. he told bbc sport: it s
potentially the most fearsome line-up i ve ever come up against. they re awesome.
but i d back us all the way to beat them when they come over. lions boss sir clive
woodward is set to announce his squad for the june-july tour next month. when
woodward was appointed last year it was widely believed he would rely heavily on
his former england players. but umaga said: he d be hard pushed to do that now
considering the shape of the six nations. don t get me wrong england have got a
lot of talented guys and i m sure there are some of them who ll make the lions test
xv. but you can t disguise wales and ireland in particular. some of the tries they
ve scored have been great. i ll admit it ll be fairly awesome lining up against the
likes of brian o driscoll. umaga will meet o driscoll in saturday s rugby aid
match at twickenham with the irish captain leading the northern hemisphere side. o
driscoll is among a host of players in the northern hemisphere squad coached by
woodward that are tipped for lions call-ups. it ll be good for us to get an early
idea of some of these guys although a lot can change between now and june umaga
said. the 31-year-old admitted interest in the lions tour was immense calling it
the biggest thing to hit new zealand since lord of the rings . he added: as
players it s enough for us to be driven by the rarity of playing the lions. in
fact it s not just us all blacks - it s the talk of the country. umaga admitted
the fear of injury weighed on his mind ahead of saturday s charity game which
features a host of big names including george gregan andrew mehrtens and chris
latham. but he admitted the value of the cause - proceeds of the match will go to
aiding victims of the tsunami - easily won him over. the second [southern
hemisphere coach] rod macqueen made the approach i didn t hesitate. it was great
when new zealand rugby then gave me the all clear. thankfully i didn t know anyone
that was involved in the tragedy of the tsunami but you couldn t miss all the
horrific reports on the news. there are so many people that were affected are
still affected and will be affected for a long time. it s just good to know we can
do something minor to help out. - the match will be televised on bbc one at 1400
gmt on saturday.
obituary: dame alicia markova dame alicia markova who has died in bath aged 94
was the uk s first prima ballerina of the modern age and in her heyday the
greatest in the western world. she was born lilian alicia marks in london in 1910.
her parents were comfortably off - her father a mining engineer drove a rolls
royce. when she was eight her mother took a decision which changed her life.
fearing that she had flat feet and weak legs she arranged for her to have ballet
lessons. very quickly it became apparent that she was something special. she was
spotted by the russian artistic impresario sergei diaghilev who wanted her to
dance for his company ballets russes. she became ill with diphtheria but kept in
touch and eventually with a governess in tow joined diaghilev in monte carlo
when she was 14. from here she toured europe playing in all the top venues. it
was diaghilev who changed her name without even consulting her. her life was one of
great excitement. people such as matisse and stravinsky became like uncles to her
the latter put in charge of her musical education. soon after diaghilev s death in
1929 alicia markova returned to england and became britain s first international
ballerina. she helped launch the ballet club at the mercury theatre (later the
ballet rambert) the vic wells ballet and then with anton dolin the markova-
dolin ballet of 1935-37. she also began working with young choreographers such as
anthony tudor and frederick ashton who became huge influences on the direction of
ballet in the west. her version of giselle all lightness and grace is still
considered to be among the finest ever. she was also outstanding in the dying swan.
she was one of the first british ballerinas to take a major part in les sylphides.
she above all helped popularise ballet both in britain and in america. alicia
markova spent world war ii in the united states where in a re-formed ballets
russes she played to huge audiences. she even appeared in hollywood movies. in
1950 back in england she and anton dolin jointly established the festival ballet.
she retired in 1963 an instant decision she said largely because of a leg
injury . created a dame she made a new career for herself as a teacher. she also
travelled the world directing ballet companies and putting on shows. she became
director of ballet for the metropolitan opera ballet in new york and for some
years was full-time professor of ballet and performing arts in the university of
cincinnati. a critic once said of dame alicia markova s dancing: she gave the
illusion of moving as if she had no weight to get off the ground.
fed chief warning on us deficit federal reserve chairman alan greenspan has warned
that allowing huge us budget deficits to continue could have severe consequences.
speaking to the house budget committee he urged congress to take action to cut the
deficit such as increasing taxes. while the us economy is growing at a reasonably
good pace he warned that budget concerns were clouding the economic outlook for
the us. pension and healthcare costs posed the greatest risks to the economy he
said. the government program faces severe financial strains in coming decades as
the massive baby-boom generation retires. i fear that we may have already
committed more physical resources to the baby-boom generation in its retirement
years than our economy has the capacity to deliver. if existing promises need to be
changed those changes should be made sooner rather than later mr greenspan said.
he also warned that unless the nation sees unprecedented rises in productivity
retirement and health programmes would need significant changes. he called on
congress to cut promised benefits for retirees as the promised benefits for the
soon-to-retire baby boom generation were much larger than the government could
afford. meanwhile any move to narrow the deficit gap by raising taxes could pose a
significant risk to the economy by dampening growth and spending he added. he also
urged congress to reinstate lapsed rules that require tax cuts and spending to be
offset elsewhere in the budget in an effort to prevent the us heading further into
the red. despite the dire warnings mr greenspan did offer some good news for the
short term. as us growth gathers steam and incomes rise that should lead to a
narrowing of the deficit. recent increases in defence and homeland security
spending were also not expected to continue indefinitely which should cut some
costs. since president george w bush came to office the federal budget has swung
from a record surplus to a record deficit of $412bn last year.
fa charges liverpool and millwall liverpool and millwall have been charged by the
football association over crowd trouble during their carling cup match on 26
october. millwall who lost the match 3-0 have also been charged over alleged
racist behaviour by their supporters. during the match at millwall s new den
stadium seats were ripped up and four people were ejected from the ground. a
disabled fan was injured at the perimeter of the pitch and riot police were needed
to control the situation. liverpool fans claimed the trouble was sparked by chants
about the hillsborough disaster where 96 supporters were crushed to death in april
1989. but lions chairman theo paphitis has denied the claims. he has said cctv
footage showed the catalyst for the trouble was a liverpool fan attacking a
millwall fan in the west stand. however millwall have been charged with two
breaches of fa rules. they have been charged with failing to ensure that fans
refrained from racist and/or abusive behaviour and for failing to prevent
spectators throwing missiles onto the pitch. liverpool have been charged with one
breach for failing to prevent their fans conducting themselves in threatening
and/or violent and/or provocative behaviour. both clubs have until 23 december to
respond.
gerrard happy at anfield liverpool captain steven gerrard has reiterated his desire
to stay at anfield and win trophies with the club. the 24-year-old england
midfielder is determined to see out his contract despite reported interest from
chelsea. he said: i m signed here for this season and another two so there is no
situation. there s a lot of speculation but that s not down to me. as club captain
all i want to do is help us get back up the table and into the champions league
again. gerrard looked set to move to chelsea during the summer and speculation of
a switch to stamford bridge has again arisen with the january transfer window
approaching. he raised doubts about his reds future when he said he wanted the club
to prove they were title challengers in the very near future or he might leave.
liverpool boss rafael benitez has insisted that gerrard has promised him he wants
to stay at anfield. benitez said: i said to steven that i was sure he wanted to
stay here and he said i do . i then said to him look if you want to win titles
you want medals and you want liverpool to have these things then i am going to need
your help . i really think he wants to stay so now what we must do is make the
squad stronger for him. meanwhile gerrard has urged the anfield board to sign
real madrid striker fernando morientes in the january transfer window. morientes
28 has already expressed a willingness to come to england. gerrard added: he s a
great player. he scores goals in the league in cup competitions and also in the
champions league. i don t think he d be able to play for us in europe this season
but if we are able to get hold of him we d be getting ourselves a great player.
he d have spanish coaches a spanish manager and we have got three or four spanish
players here now so they ll help him settle in. rafael benitez knows what he wants
and he knows how to strengthen the squad he s got and if the right players become
available at the right price i am sure we will strengthen. it would certainly be
nice to see a few new faces in january to freshen things up.
tories attack eu asylum moves david blunkett has been accused of using the
politics of confusion to disguise new eu immigration measures. tory spokesman
david davis told mps the uk was losing its power of veto over who was allowed to
come to britain. the eu has opted to adopt qualified majority voting in this area -
previously measures needed unanimous agreement from all member states. mr blunkett
told mps the uk would still be able to reject proposals on immigration it did not
agree with. he argued closer co-operation with europe over asylum and immigration
was crucial to controlling the flow of people into the uk. if we don t like what
other eu countries do on immigration and nationality we have the right to opt-in or
out to suit the british people he said. the home secretary was responding to an
emergency question from his tory opposite number mr davis. the government is
employing the politics of confusion - i think deliberately argued mr davis. by
confusing the country it hopes no one will notice the disappearance of the asylum
and immigration veto. on monday tony blair insisted closer co-operation did not
mean losing control of british borders. he said an enlarged 25-member eu needs a
streamlined decision making process. mr davis said once britain had opted into
policies then it could not opt out - leaving the uk open to unfavourable
interpretations of what those policies actually meant. he accused the government
of being pathetic when it came to its efforts over immigration and asylum and of
surrendering on the issue. and he asked why the government was agreeing to the
measure on asylum and immigration now when the whole issue was part of the eu
constitution which voters in the uk had been promised a referendum over. mr blair
told his monthly news conference britain had the best of both worlds and would
keep the veto. there is no question of britain giving up our veto on our border
controls he said. with the treaty of amsterdam seven years ago we secured the
absolute right to opt in to any of the asylum and immigration provisions that we
wanted to in europe. mr blunkett met his eu counterparts in luxembourg on monday
to consider proposals aimed at streamlining decision making on the issue. the 25
member-states are expected to scrap the requirement for unanimous agreement on
immigration policy in favour of the qualified majority voting (qmv) system. under
this scheme larger states such as britain are expected to have more power than the
smaller eu states. britain is expected to retain an opt-in right which will allow
it to ignore any measures it disagrees with. liberal democrat spokesman mark oaten
called the change pragmatic and argued it gave a better chance of producing a
european asylum solution. if we don t work together it means some countries can
ignore their responsibilities at the expense of their neighbours said mr oaten.
the liberal democrats have long argued that britain should be a safe haven for
asylum seekers but it s right that we don t do this in isolation.
uk will stand firm on eu rebate britain s £3bn eu rebate is not up for
renegotiation at next week s european council summit jack straw said. the foreign
secretary told mps the rebate secured by margaret thatcher in 1984 was entirely
justified . new european commission president jose manuel barroso has suggested the
cash could be shared out among net contributors to the eu budget. mr straw
acknowledged some countries in the newly enlarged 25 nation eu still had to see
the light on the rebate. but the foreign secretary told the commons foreign
affairs committee: our position is very clear: it is entirely justified and it is
not for negotiation. he added that he did not think there would be a political
price to pay for the uk s stance - britain contributed more and received less than
other eu states. the two-day european council summit in brussels begins on 16
december and is widely expected to mark the beginning of a lengthy negotiating
period over the eu s budget for 2007-13. the wrangling could stretch into 2005
even 2006. the uk france germany austria the netherlands and sweden want the
eu budget to be capped at 1% of member states combined national incomes - the
commission wants it to be 1.26%. mr straw said the eu commission s proposal would
mean a 35% hike in the budget. i don t know of any national government thinking of
increasing its budget by that amount he added. the foreign secretary said he
hoped the talks next week could produce a date in 2005 for the beginning of
negotiations with turkey about possible eu membership although that there would be
no prospect of a date for joining for some time.
pm apology over jailings tony blair has apologised to two families who suffered one
of the uk s biggest miscarriages of justice. the prime minister was commenting on
the wrongful jailing of 11 people for ira bomb attacks on pubs in guildford and
woolwich in 1974. mr blair said: i am very sorry that they were subject to such an
ordeal and injustice. he made the apology to members of the conlon and maguire
families in his private room at westminster. in a statement recorded for television
mr blair said the families deserved to be completely and publicly exonerated .
the families had hoped the apology would be made during prime minister s questions
in the house of commons. however one of the so-called guildford four gerry conlon
- who was wrongly convicted of planting the bombs - said the families were
delighted with the apology. he said mr blair had spoken with such sincerity
adding: he went beyond what we thought he would he took time to listen to
everyone. you could see he was moved by what people were saying. tony blair has
healed rifts he is helping to heal wounds. it s a day i never thought would come.
the move followed a huge campaign in ireland for a public apology after eleven
people were wrongly convicted of making and planting the ira bombs which killed
seven people. mr blair s official spokesman said no-one present at the meeting
would ever forget the strength of feeling of relief that the prime minister s
statement brought to them . most of those convicted were either members or friends
of the two families. all were arrested because of a family connection to gerry
conlon. mr conlon s father giuseppe was arrested when travelling to london from
belfast to help his son. he died while serving his sentence. also arrested were
anne maguire and members of her family. mrs maguire was the relative with whom
giuseppe planned to stay in london as well as two family friends. she said it was
a wonderful feeling to have had the apology and that a weight had been lifted off
her shoulders. the people who were still doubting us should now believe that we
were totally innocent she said. they were all jailed for handling explosives
based on scientific evidence which was later entirely discredited. in october 1989
the court of appeal quashed the sentences of the guildford four and in june 1991
it overturned the sentences on the maguire seven. mr conlon s case was highlighted
in the oscar-nominated film in the name of the father starring daniel day-lewis.
new york rockers top talent poll new york electro-rock group the bravery have come
top of the bbc news website s sound of 2005 poll to find the music scene s most
promising new act. the bravery who have been compared to the cure and new order
were the most heavily-tipped act in the survey of 110 impartial critics and
broadcasters. rock band keane won sound of 2004 while us rapper 50 cent topped
sound of 2003. other new artists in this year s list include london indie group
bloc party at second and uk rapper kano third. the bravery played their first gig
in 2003 and have since supported bands including the libertines interpol and echo
and the bunnymen. they were the subject of a record company bidding war in 2004
and their debut single unconditional caused a huge buzz when it was released in
the uk in november. singer sam endicott said he felt great about coming top of
the sound of 2005 list. anyone that says they don t want a zillion screaming fans
is a jackass a liar he said. one of the experts to tip the bravery was the times
music critic paul connolly who said they were spiky but in love with pop . chris
hawkins host of bbc 6 music s chart show said the band had great guitars and a
mastery of the electro-clash sound . the bravery are proof alone that new york
city is still home to hot new talent he said. alison howe producer of tv show
later... with jools holland booked the group to appear the day after seeing them
at a west london pub. they played like they were headlining the main stage at
glastonbury she said. great songs a good look a touch of attitude and a
cracking live band. q magazine reviews editor ted kessler said they were pretty-
boy new york clothes horses with an unusually nimble ear for concise yearning
pop in the mould of duran duran or the strokes . other pundits to take part in the
survey included bbc radio 1 dj trevor nelson nme editor conor mcnicholas top of
the pops presenter fearne cotton glastonbury organiser emily eavis and bbc radio 2
music editor colin martin. elsewhere on the top 10 second-placed rock band bloc
party began their rise after supporting franz ferdinand and uk garage mc kano in
third is signed to the streets record label. us rapper the game is hip-hop great
dr dre s latest protege while leeds group kaiser chiefs came fifth with a promise
to lead a britpop revival. in last year s survey keane were followed by franz
ferdinand razorlight and joss stone in the top five - all of whom were virtually
unknown outside the music industry at that point. boy band mcfly were sixth while
scissor sisters who had the uk s best-selling album of 2004 were seventh. in the
survey the pundits were asked for tips for three acts they thought were capable of
reaching the top in their chosen genre either in terms of sales or critical
acclaim. the artists could be from any country and any musical genre but must not
have had a uk top 20 single been a contestant on a tv talent show or already be
famous for doing something else such as a soap actor. those tips were then counted
and compiled to make the top 10.
terror detainees win lords appeal detaining foreign terrorist suspects without
trial breaks human rights laws the uk s highest court has ruled. in a blow to the
government s anti-terror measures the house of lords law lords ruled by an eight
to one majority in favour of appeals by nine detainees. most of the men are being
indefinitely held in belmarsh prison south london. the law lords said the measures
were incompatible with european human rights laws. the men will stay behind bars
while ministers decide how to react. the ruling creates a major problem for charles
clarke on his first day as home secretary following david blunkett s resignation.
the liberal democrats say mr clarke should use the fact he is new to the job to
take issue with a law established by his predecessor david blunkett. belmarsh
prison has been dubbed britain s guantanamo bay by civil rights campaigners opposed
to the use of emergency anti-terror laws. the detainees took their case to the
house of lords after the court of appeal backed the home office s powers to hold
them without limit or charge. the government opted out of part of the european
convention on human rights concerning the right to a fair trial in order to bring
in anti-terrorism legislation in response to the 11 september attacks in the us.
any foreign national suspected of links with terrorism can be detained or can opt
to be deported. however those detained cannot be deported if this would mean
persecution in their homeland. on thursday senior law lord lord bingham said the
rules were incompatible with the european convention on human rights as they
allowed detentions in a way that discriminates on the ground of nationality or
immigration status . lord nicholls of birkenhead in his ruling said: indefinite
imprisonment without charge or trial is anathema in any country which observes the
rule of law. it deprives the detained person of the protection a criminal trial is
intended to afford. he said the weakness for the government s case was that it
was trying to justify detention without trial for foreign suspects - but not for
british suspects. lord hoffmann said: the real threat to the life of the nation
in the sense of a people living in accordance with its traditional laws and
political values comes not from terrorism but from laws such as these. but lord
walker of gestingthorpe the one law lord to oppose the appeal said the anti-
terror laws contained important safeguards against oppression. in a statement
detainee a in woodhill prison said: i hope now that the government will act upon
this decision scrap this illegal law and release me and the other internees to
return to our families and loved ones. the case was heard by a panel of nine law
lords rather than the usual five because of the constitutional importance of the
case. ben emmerson qc representing seven of the detainees said the men had
already been in custody for nearly three years. he said they had been given no idea
when if ever they would be released had never been formally interviewed and
there was no prospect they would ever be put on trial. when the men were first held
they took their cases to the special immigration appeals commission (siac). the
commission ruled on 30 july 2002 that the anti-terror act unjustifiably
discriminated against foreign nationals as british people could not be held in the
same way. but that ruling was later overturned by the court of appeal who said
there was a state of emergency threatening the life of the nation.
ford gains from finance not cars ford the us car company reported higher fourth
quarter and full-year profits on thursday boosted by a buoyant period for its car
loans unit. net income for 2004 was $3.5bn (£1.87bn) - up nearly $3bn from 2003 -
while turnover rose $7.2bn to $170.8bn. in the fourth quarter alone ford reported
net income of $104m compared with a loss of $793m a year ago. but its auto unit
made a loss. fourth quarter turnover was $44.7bn compared to $45.9bn a year ago.
though car and truck loan profits saved the day ford s auto unit made a pre-tax
loss of $470m in the fourth quarter (compared to a profit of £13m in the year-ago
period) and its us sales dipped 3.8%. yesterday general motor s results also
showed its finance unit was a strong contributor to profits. however ford is
working hard to revitalise its product portfolio unveiling the fusion and zephyr
models at the international motor show in detroit. it also brought out a number of
new models in the second half of 2004. in 2004 our company gained momentum
delivering...more new products and more innovative breakthroughs such as the
escape hybrid the industry s first full-hybrid sport utility vehicle said
chairman and chief executive officer bill ford. we also confronted operating
challenges with our jaguar brand and high industry marketing costs he added. but
ford declined to provide guidance for first quarter 2005. it will do so at a
presentation in new york on 26 january. in addition the company said 2004 net
income was affected by a fourth-quarter pre-tax charge taken to reduce the value of
a receivable owed to ford by visteon a former subsidiary. recent new models
introduced by ford include the ford five hundred and mercury montego sedans the
ford freestyle crossover the ford mustang the land rover lr3/discovery and volvo
s40 and v50 in north america and europe. total company vehicle unit sales in 2004
were 6 798 000 an increase of 62 000 units from 2003. fourth-quarter vehicle unit
sales totalled 1 751 000 a decline of 133 000 units. for the full year ford s
worldwide automotive division earned a pre-tax profit of $850m a $697m improvement
from $153m a year ago.
security scares spark browser fix microsoft is working on a new version of its
internet explorer web browser. the revamp has been prompted by microsoft s growing
concern with security as well as increased competition from rival browsers.
microsoft said the new version will be far less vulnerable to the bugs that make
its current browser a favourite of tech-savvy criminals. test versions of the new
program called ie 7 are due to be released by the summer. the announcement about
internet explorer was made by bill gates microsoft chairman and chief software
architect during a keynote speech at the rsa security conference currently being
held in san francisco. although details were scant mr gates said ie7 would
include new protections against viruses spyware and phishing scams. this last
category of threats involves criminals setting up spoof websites that look
identical to those of banks and try to trick people into handing over login and
account information. in a bid to shore up the poor security in ie 6 microsoft has
regularly issued updates to patch loopholes exploited by criminals and the makers
of nuisance programs such as spyware. earlier this month it released a security
bulletin that patched eight critical security holes - some of which were found in
the ie browser. microsoft has also made a series of acquisitions of small firms
that specialise in computer security. one of the first fruits of these acquisitions
appeared last month with the release of a microsoft anti-spyware program. an own-
brand anti-virus program is due to follow by the end of 2005. the decision to make
internet explorer 7 is widely seen as a u-turn because before now microsoft said
it had no need to update the browser. typically new versions of its browser appear
with successive versions of the windows operating system. a new version of ie was
widely expected to debut with the next version of windows codenamed longhorn
which is due to appear in 2006. the current version of internet explorer is four
years old and is widely seen as falling behind rivals such as firefox and opera.
there are also persistent rumours that search engine google is poised to produce
its own brand browser based on firefox. in particular the firefox browser has been
winning fans and users since its first full version was released in november 2004.
estimates of how many users firefox has won over vary widely. according to market
statistics gathered by websidestory firefox s market share is now about 5% of all
users. however other browser stat gatherers say the figure is closer to 15%. some
technical websites report that a majority of their visitors use the firefox
browser. internet explorer still dominates with a share of about 90% but this is
down from a peak of almost 96% in mid-2004.
saudi ministry to employ women women will be employed in saudi arabia s foreign
ministry for the first time this year foreign minister prince saud al-faisal has
been reported as saying. the move comes as the conservative country inches open
the door to working women. last year crown prince abdullah the de-facto ruler
told government departments to put plans in place for employing women. but progress
has been slow reports from the country say. earlier this week the local arab
news said labour minister ghazi al-gosaibi had caused uproar when he said his
ministry was having difficulty hiring women because they demanded segregated
offices. the newspaper said many saudi women found his explanation a pitiful
excuse for not employing women . women now make up more than half of all graduates
from saudi universities but only 5% of the workforce. our educational reforms have
created a new generation of highly-educated and professionally trained saudi women
who are acquiring their rightful position in saudi society arab news quoted
prince saud as saying. i am proud to mention here that this year we shall have
women working in the ministry of foreign affairs for the first time.
uk rebate unjustified - chirac french president jacques chirac has called the uk
s £3bn rebate from the european union unjustified . speaking after a summit
meeting he said unless it was put up for discussion the eu would never be able to
reach agreement on its medium term finances. earlier foreign secretary jack straw
said the uk was prepared to veto any bid to reduce the rebate secured by margaret
thatcher in 1984. he said it remained justified because less eu farm money came to
the uk. mr chirac told reporters in brussels: one can only have a reasonable
budgetary balance if we put back on the table the british cheque. it can no longer
be justified. it was from the past. but a uk government official responded: even
with the rebate the uk pays two and a half times more than france contributes to
the eu budget. without it we would pay 14 times as much as france. there can be no
deal on future financing which does not protect the rebate. the 25-member eu is
gearing up for tough negotiations on its budget plans for the period 2007-2013
with the bloc s luxembourg presidency hoping to strike a deal at a june summit.
earlier conservative graham brady said the rebate was a crucial test of how
firmly ministers were prepared to stand up for britain. eu commission president
jose manuel barroso has indicated he wants the rebate to come to an end. mr straw
said that as well as the veto over the rebate the uk wanted to keep a tight rein on
national contributions. the uk france germany austria the netherlands and
sweden want the eu budget to be capped at 1% of member states combined national
incomes - the european commission has urged an increase to 1.26%. mr straw has said
the eu commission s proposal would mean a 35% hike in the budget. shadow europe
minister mr brady said: i believe it is essential that britain keeps the rebate
and i think it s a crucial test of how firmly the british government is prepared to
stand up for britain internationally in europe. the uk is already one of the
biggest net contributors to the eu . the foreign secretary meanwhile said the
justice of the rebate remained. we have one of the lowest net receipts of any eu
country because of the relatively small size of our agriculture sector and its
efficiency. that continues to be the case. uk independence party leader roger
knapman said the rebate was set in stone and there was no reason to negotiate
about it. it is extraordinary to do it at this time just as we are becoming the
biggest contributor to the eu. if we lose our rebate as well the british taxpayer
is going to be bled at such a rate that i think everyone will go off the european
project. eu leaders are holding talks in brussels on how to re-energise the
sluggish european economy. uk prime minister tony blair is meeting his eu
counterparts to finalise a package of measures aimed at stimulating growth and
boosting employment ahead of a series of referendums on the european constitution.
the plans could introduce a free market into everything from computer services to
construction. critics - including germany and france - believe liberalisation could
result in companies shifting staff to cheaper bases in eastern europe undercutting
large eu economies and undermining social protections. there are also concerns
about the number of workers from eastern european countries who will head west
exacerbating the already high unemployment levels in germany. mr straw insisted
there was nothing to fear from the services directorate. european countries
overall have benefited hugely from the free market in goods he said. what we are
now talking about is developing that market into an internal market in services.
britain s low unemployment meant there was less neurosis about people coming from
eastern european countries. in countries like germany and france where frankly
because of a tighter social market they have much higher levels of unemployment
there is increasing anxiety about other people coming in he said.
oscar nominees gear up for lunch leonardo dicaprio jamie foxx and hilary swank are
among those due to attend this year s oscar nominees luncheon on monday. they will
join more than 100 nominees from the 24 oscar categories at the annual event which
will take place at the beverly hilton hotel los angeles. british hopefuls
including kate winslet imelda staunton and sophie okonedo are also expected to
attend. this year s oscar ceremony will be held on sunday 27 february. martin
scorsese s the aviator is leading the field at this year s oscars with 11
nominations while other multiple nominees include million dollar baby and
sideways. oscar nominees swank and foxx were among the winners at the screen actors
guild awards at the weekend one of the many ceremonies held in the run-up to the
oscars. swank won best actress for million dollar baby while foxx triumphed for his
performance as ray charles in the biopic ray. sideways was also among the winners
taking the prize for best cast performance. the next major film award ceremony of
the season is the bafta awards which take place at london s odeon leicester square
on 12 february. many of those nominated for oscars including dicaprio foxx and
staunton - an oscar nominee for her performance in vera drake - have also been
nominated for baftas.
richard and judy choose top books the 10 authors shortlisted for a richard and judy
book award in 2005 are hoping for a boost in sales following the success of this
year s winner. the tv couple s interest in the book world coined the term the
richard & judy effect and created the top two best-selling paperbacks of 2004 so
far. the finalists for 2005 include andrew taylor s the american boy and robbie
williams autobiography feel. this year s winner alice sebold s the lovely bones
sold over one million. joseph o connor s star of the sea came second and saw sales
increase by 350%. the best read award on richard madeley and judy finnigan s
channel 4 show is part of the british book awards. david mitchell s booker-
shortlisted novel cloud atlas makes it into this year s top 10 along with several
lesser known works. there s no doubt that this year s selection of book club
entries is the best yet. if anything the choice is even wider than last time
said madeley. it was very hard to follow last year s extremely successful list
but we think this year s books will do even better said richard and judy
executive producer amanda ross. we were spoiled for choice and it was tough
getting down to only 10 from the 301 submitted.
further rise in uk jobless total the uk s jobless total rose for the second month
in a row in december official figures show. the number of people out of work rose
32 000 to 1.41 million in the last three months of 2004 even as 90 000 more people
were in employment. average earnings rose by 4.3% in the year to december up from
november s 4.2% the office for national statistics (ons) added. meanwhile the
benefit claimant total fell 11 000 to 813 200 last month. throughout 2004 the
number of people in work increased by 296 000 to 28.52 million - the highest figure
since records began in 1971. the apparent discrepancy between rising unemployment
and record numbers in work can be explained by an increase in the working
population and a fall in those who are economically inactive. while the uk s
jobless rate rose to 4.7% from 4.6% in the previous quarter the rate still remains
one of the lowest in the world compared with 12.1% in germany 10.4% in spain and
9.7% in france. but despite more people being in work the manufacturing sector
continued to suffer with 104 000 workers axed during the last quarter of 2004 -
pushing employment in the sector to a record low of 3.24 million by the end of last
year. the figures prompted some analysts to forecast that the bank of england will
almost certainly raise rates this year. marc ostwald a strategist at monument
securities told reuters that while no immediate market impact could be expected
it is enough to underline that they (the boe) will be more hawkish on rates .
classy henman makes winning start tim henman opened his 2005 campaign with a 6-1 7-
5 victory over argentine david nalbandian at the kooyong classic exhibition
tournament on wednesday. the british number one will next play roger federer at
the australian open warm-up event on friday. the world number one beat gaston
gaudio 5-7 6-1 6-4 before andre agassi saw off chilean olympic gold medalist
nicolas massu 6-1 7-6 (7-4). andy roddick beat ivan ljubicic who replaced paradorn
srichaphan 6-1 6-4. henman made an impressive start to the year only faltering
against nalbandian when serving for the match at 5-4. but the briton regained his
composure to win the next two games for only his second win in six matches against
the argentine. it s a great start to the year - just what i was looking for
henman told his website. over the years i ve found david very difficult to play
against. he returns serve very well and he s deceptively effective from the
baseline so sometimes it can be difficult to execute my gameplan well enough
against him to get the right result. beating somebody of his stature is always
good for the confidence and it bodes well at the beginning of the year. henman
also revealed the extent of the back problems he suffered in the off-season. i m
not the most flexible and at the end of the year i was pretty exhausted and wanted
to have a couple of weeks where i didn t do anything said henman. when i started
training again it really really seized up. as much as i enjoyed the two weeks off
i don t think it s so productive. federer dropped a tight first set against 2004
french open champion gaudio but was content with his game. it was about getting
used to the surface he said. the conditions are much quicker than doha my
timing was ok but i could have served better. all in all i m happy with the match
and i won it - that s a good sign. now i have a day off and hopefully play better
the next match. agassi was delighted with victory over massu in his first match
for over two months. i felt pretty good said the american. i liked the way the
match played out and maybe excluding a few second serve returns i felt like i was
doing most things pretty darn well for the first match.
no election tv debate says blair tony blair has said he will not take part in a tv
debate with his political rivals ahead of the next election. we answer this every
election campaign and for the reasons i have given before the answer is no he
said at his monthly news conference. in october tory leader michael howard said mr
blair would be running scared if he refused calls to go head-to-head. in recent
years the leader of the opposition has always called for a debate although it has
never happened. before the 2001 election plans for a debate between mr blair
william hague and charles kennedy collapsed. in 1997 a debate between mr blair and
john major was also cancelled when a format could not be agreed. televised debates
have become the high point of the us presidential election campaigns.
holmes wins 2004 top tv moment sprinter kelly holmes olympic victory has been
named the top television moment of 2004 in a bbc poll. holmes 800m gold medal
victory beat favourite moments from drama comedy and factual programmes as voted
by television viewers. natasha kaplinsky s strictly come dancing win was top
entertainment moment and a little britain breast feeding sketch won the comedy
prize. the 2004 tv moments will be shown on bbc one at 2000 gmt on wednesday.
double gold medal winner holmes topped the best sports moment category beating
maria sharapova s wimbledon triumph and matthew pinsent s rowing victory at the
olympics. she then went on to take the overall prize of golden tv moment. the
sight of former royal correspondent jennie bond with dozens of rats crawling over
her in itv s i m a celebrity get me out of here was named best factual
entertainment moment. michael buerk s return to ethiopia 20 years after originally
reporting its famine topped the factual category for bbc programme this world.
long-running soap eastenders won the best popular drama moment title when character
dot confided in den watts that she was unwell.
hodges announces rugby retirement scarlets and usa eagles forward dave hodges has
ended his playing career to pursue a coaching role in the states. the 36-year-old
who has 54 caps was llanelli s player of the season in 2001/2 but has battled
injury for the last two of his seven years at stradey. he tore a pectoral muscle
against the ospreys on boxing day an injury that would have kept him out for the
season. realising i would be unable to play this season the club and i agreed to
end my contract early said hodges. it allows me to move back to the us and
pursue opportunities there and allows the scarlets to look to the next generation.
the scarlets have begun to rebuild their squad for next season after a
disappointing heineken cup campaign with plenty more signings and departures
expected in the coming weeks. scarlets chief executive stuart gallacher confirmed
that 17 of the current squad would be out of contract in the summer. we have a
deliberate policy whereby around half the squad are coming out of contract and they
know they won t all be re-signed it s a chance to invigorate the squad he said.
i m positive about the future of the scarlets both on and off the field. gallacher
was keen to pay tribute to the role back-five forward hodges has played at stradey
park though. david has been a highly influential member of our squad for seven
years said gallacher. he is a real professional and we thank him for the part he
has played in our success. i am sure he has an enormous contribution to make to
the development of rugby in the us and we wish him and his family well. hodges
described his years at stradey as the best time of my life.
pete doherty misses bail deadline singer pete doherty will have to spend the
weekend in jail because he could not come up with £150 000 bond money for his bail
on time. the former libertines singer had been granted bail with curfew
restrictions at highbury corner magistrates court on charges of robbery and
blackmail. but his lawyer said the money could not be raised on time. mr doherty
25 was arrested following an alleged incident in a london hotel on wednesday
evening. musician alan wass 23 also of north london appeared in court accused of
the same offences. magistrates imposed a range of bail conditions on mr doherty
including a curfew between 2200 and 0700 except when he attends a drug
rehabilitation centre. he was told he would not be able to leave his home without
being accompanied by a security firm. he must also surrender his passport and
report daily to a local police station. mr wass was also given a curfew and told to
surrender his passport. mr doherty left the libertines at the end of june 2004 but
continued performing with his band babyshambles. the singer who has been linked to
supermodel kate moss was arrested after police were called to the islington hotel
in response to claims that a man had been assaulted. a man in his 30s was later
taken to university college hospital london with facial injuries before being
discharged. a lawyer representing mr doherty and mr wass said outside court the
pair strenuously denied the charges.
tories unveil quango blitz plans plans to abolish 162 quangos have been unveiled by
the conservatives as part of their effort to show how government red tape can be
cut. six government units would also be scrapped under proposals which the tories
say would save more than £4.3bn. among the targets are strategic health authorities
and the new fair access regulator for universities. tory frontbencher john redwood
said britain needed a slimmer government and lower taxes to be competitive. the
plans would abolish regional assemblies and other regional bodies such as boards
tackling industrial development and housing. their powers would be returned to
elected local councils or national government. the tories say the strategic health
authorities are not needed as it is better that local people rather than officials
run hospitals and surgeries. announcing the plans mr redwood said: mr blair has
forgotten the interests of taxpayers and has broken the pledges he made. far from
improving public services spending taxpayers money on quangos has led only to
more bureaucrats more regulation and higher taxes. his party leader michael
howard argued a change in direction was needed to get a grip on spending. labour
are creating two britains: the britain of the forgotten majority and bureaucratic
britain he said. in the real world people are working harder just to stand
still. they ve seen their pensions knocked for six. they re being squeezed by
extra taxes. the forgotten majority are paying the price of bureaucratic britain.
the government has announced plans to cut 100 000 civil servants as part of its
efficiency drive. the liberal democrats have said they would cut the number of
whitehall departments to make sure money reaches frontline services.
best person for top legal job the best person for the job should be appointed
lord chancellor and not necessarily a lawyer or mp the courts minister has told
mps. under reforms the post of lord chancellor is to be stripped of its judicial
functions. the lord chancellor...no more needs to be a lawyer than the secretary
of health needs to be a doctor said courts minister christopher leslie. the
constitutional reform bill was entering its second reading on monday. mr leslie
said: the prime minister should be able to appoint the best person for the job
whether they sit in the house of lords or the house of commons. under the reforms
the law lords will also be replaced as the uk s highest legal authority by a
supreme court and judges will be appointed by an independent panel rather than
ministers. in december the lords rejected a plea by current lord chancellor lord
falconer that the holder of the job should not necessarily be a lawyer or a peer.
the peers voted by 229 to 206 to say in law that lord chancellors must also be
peers. the debate was carried over from the last parliamentary session but with an
impending general election time is crucial for the government to get the bill
passed. mr leslie said it was irrelevant whether the post was called secretary of
state for constitutional affairs or lord chancellor. he said: what matters most
is...whether it is reformed so that the post holder no longer has those conflicting
duties. it is no longer appropriate for a government minister to have such
unfettered discretion in the appointment of judges. shadow attorney general
dominic grieve criticised the government on its plans to change what he said was an
exceptional institution providing a champion of the independence of the
judiciary . the government had initially proposed to take this institution and
smash it to pieces mr grieve said. convention should be nurtured and celebrated
but the government distrusted and disliked it instead. he warned that unless
ministers backed down over the lord chancellor remaining a member of the house of
lords the government would have great difficulty in getting the bill through
parliament. former cabinet minister douglas hogg whose father and grandfather
served as lord chancellor said the bill was largely unnecessary bureaucratic and
expensive . but the tory mp for sleaford and north hykeham admitted the lord
chancellor s role and office cannot be frozen in aspic .
jobs go at oracle after takeover oracle has announced it is cutting about 5 000
jobs following the completion of its $10.3bn takeover of its smaller rival
peoplesoft last week. the company said it would retain more than 90% of peoplesoft
product development and product support staff. the cuts will affect about 9% of the
55 000 staff of the combined companies. oracle s 18-month fight to acquire
peoplesoft was one of the most drawn-out and hard-fought us takeover battles of
recent times. the merged companies are set to be a major force in the enterprise
software market second only in size to germany s sap. in a statement oracle said
it began notifying staff of redundancies on friday and the process would continue
over the next 10 days. by retaining the vast majority of peoplesoft technical
staff oracle will have the resources to deliver on the development and support
commitments we have made to peoplesoft customers over the last 18 months oracle s
chief executive larry ellison said in a statement. correspondents say 6 000 job
losses had been expected - and some suggest more cuts may be announced in future.
they say mr ellison may be trying to placate peoplesoft customers riled by oracle s
determined takeover strategy. hours before friday s announcement there was a
funereal air at peoplesoft s headquarters reported ap news agency. a peoplesoft
sign had been turned into shrine to the company with flowers candles and company
memorabilia. we re mourning the passing of a great company the agency quoted
peoplesoft worker david ogden as saying. other employees said they would rather be
sacked than work for oracle. the new company is going to be totally different
said anil aggarwal peoplesoft s director of database markets. peoplesoft had an
easygoing relaxed atmosphere. oracle has an edgy aggressive atmosphere that s not
conducive to innovative production. on the news oracle shares rose 15 cents -
1.1% - on nasdaq. in after-hours trading the shares did not move.
labour faces cold calls inquiry labour is to be investigated by a watchdog over
claims its election campaign has broken the rules on cold calling householders.
the information commissioner is to look into a complaint from the lib dems about
how labour uses its call centres. the lib dems say labour is telephoning people who
have signed up to make sure they do not get marketing calls. labour denies breaking
rules. it says calls are not marketing if they just ask about people s voting
intentions. the party says it would expect the watchdog to take complaints
seriously but it has clear legal advice on the issue. telephone call centres are
expected to be used as never before by all the three major parties in the run-up to
the general election. but seven million telephone numbers are on the telephone
preference service (tps) lists which ban unsolicited sales and marketing calls.
lib dem chairman matthew taylor has written to the watchdog accusing labour of a
flagrant and systematic breach of the laws governing the tps. he says the initial
call may not be marketing but it identifies voters to whom the party can send
promotional material in the future. his letter to the commissioner quotes from a
labour party handbook about identifying target voters . and it quotes a stevenage
labour party members newsletter explaining how voters will be telephoned about
their voting intentions. the voters are put in 24 categories according to their
last known voting intention ranging from labour (firm) to target (conservative)
- those who supported the party in the past but this time will be voting tory. the
newsletter says: using the information we know about people we can send them
direct mailings. for example we could send the target (conservative) people a
letter from someone who had defected from the tories to labour explaining the
reasons why voting tory is a bad idea or we could send labour (weak) people a
letter encouraging them to sign up for a postal vote. mr taylor tells the
commissioner: it is clear beyond peradventure from the above that the labour party
is engaging in a large-scale voter id project for subsequent promotional purposes
through targeted and segmented mailings. insofar as this project is directed at
tps subscribers it is equally clear that it is unlawful. the lib dems raised
worries about labour and conservative calls in february and 680 people have signed
up to the website they set up to help people to complain. a party official said
there was only scattered evidence of the tories breaking the rules but people had
complained every day about labour. a spokeswoman for the information commissioner
s office said it was examining one complaint about political calls - understood to
be mr taylor s. we are investigating one of the complaints where some evidence has
been given to us she said. obviously evidence is needed for us to start
investigations. the commissioner s office will now examine the lib dem evidence.
the guidance is that cold calling can be made as long as no marketing is going on
said the spokeswoman. if labour is judged to have broken the rules it will be
asked stop immediately. if it fails to do so after two or three warning letters
the commissioner can issue an enforcement notice spelling out what the party needs
to do or stop doing. the party could appeal against the decision to an information
tribunal. if the appeal fails and it continues breaking the rules it could be
fined up to £5 000. labour says it avoids those on tps lists when telephoning
people about membership or fundraising but not when making voter identification
calls. asked about the commissioner s inquiry a labour spokesman told bbc news:
we expect the information commissioner to take any complaint seriously. however we
are absolutely clear that we haven t broken any rules. as the information
commissioner himself has said if people are not marketing something if they are
asking them which way they are going to vote they are not in breach of the law.
we always ask everyone we phone up whether they would be happy to be contacted by
the labour party again.
hewitt overcomes wobble in sydney lleyton hewitt gave himself the perfect
preparation for next week s australian open with victory over ivo minar in the
final of the sydney international. the defending champion brushed aside the czech
qualifier 7-5 6-0. the australian world number three strolled to the first five
games of the match but was shocked as minar won the next five. the top seed was
rattled but recovered to close out the set and raced to victory in exactly an hour.
it was a strange match . . . momentum swings said hewitt. i felt like i came out
of the blocks extremely well but then he loosened up a bit. when he got back to
5-5 i had to try to settle down and take it up a notch and i was able to do that.
hewitt has now lifted the sydney title four times in the last six years. it just
keeps getting better and better every year hewitt said. i ve only played this
tournament four times and i ve won it four times. hewitt went into the final as a
short-priced favourite to clinch his 24th career title after dropping only one set
all week. he is set to meet frenchman arnaud clement in the first round of the
australian open. minar ranked 158th in the world was forced to pull out of the
australian open qualifying draw to play in his first atp final. for me this was a
big success said the 20-year-old. i was so nervous last night i couldn t sleep.
i ve never played a top-10 player before. i wanted to play qualifying in melbourne
but it s saturday and i m still here. but this is a main draw and i need the points
and the money. alicia molik takes on samantha stosur in an all-australian women s
final later on saturday.
j-lo and husband plan debut duet singers jennifer lopez and husband marc anthony a
latin pop star are to perform a duet at this month s grammy awards in los angeles.
anthony became lopez s third husband in june 2004. he won a grammy in 1998 and is
nominated for two more this year. the 13 february ceremony will also include a
rendition of the beatles across the universe by bono stevie wonder norah jones
and brian wilson. the song will go on sale online to raise money for the tsunami
aid effort. the awards show will also feature performances from u2 green day
alicia keys and kanye west - but the lopez and anthony duet is likely to be one of
the biggest talking points. anthony born in new york to a puerto rican family is
reported to be the biggest-selling salsa artist of all time. he is nominated this
year for best latin pop album and best salsa/merengue album. the tsunami tribute
song will also feature alicia keys velvet revolver and tim mcgraw. fans will be
able to download it for $0.99 (£0.53) from itunes or purchase the video from the
cbs tv network s site. kanye west the rapper who leads the awards with 10
nominations will perform alongside john legend mavis staples and the blind boys
of alabama. there will also be a tribute to ray charles featuring bonnie raitt and
billy preston and a celebration of southern rock with tim mcgraw gretchen wilson
lynyrd skynyrd dickie betts and elvis bishop. ray charles who died in june 2004
has seven posthumous nominations. alicia keys and usher share eight nominations
each.
usher leads soul train shortlist chart-topping r&b star usher is leading the field
at this year s soul train awards with five nominations. the singer whose album
confessions has sold close to eight million copies in the us alone is already in
the running for eight grammy awards. newcomer ciara - who recently beat elvis
presley to the uk number one spot - has four nominations while alicia keys has
three. the soul train awards ceremony will take place in hollywood on 28 february.
usher has already swept the board at the american music awards with four titles
including two best album awards. his soul train nominations include best male r&b-
soul album and best male r&b-soul single for confessions part ii. usher s work with
rappers ludacris & lil jon won him nominations for best r&b-soul or rap music video
and best r&b-soul or rap dance cut for the song yeah! while his duet with keys my
boo earned the pair a nod for best r&b-soul single. keys album the diary of
alicia keys was also up for best r&b-soul album by a female. her song if i ain t
got you received a best single nomination in the female r&b-soul category. newcomer
ciara s four nominations include best female r&b-soul album and best r&b-soul or
rap by a new artist. beyonce prince destiny s child jill scott and new edition
all received two nominations each. the soul train music awards which started 18
years ago celebrates artists in r&b hip-hop rap and gospel music.
how to make a greener computer the hi-tech industry is starting to get more
environmentally aware. bill thompson thinks it s about time. my first car ran on
four star petrol and pumped vast quantities of lead into the atmosphere as i drove
around cambridge. now you can t buy petrol with lead additives and we re all
better off as a result. chip giant intel recently began shipping computer circuit
boards that are lead free too reflecting a growing awareness on the part of the
technology industry that products have to be designed and built in more
environmentally friendly ways. apart from reducing the use of toxic materials like
arsenic mercury cadmium and other heavy metals in the products themselves the
manufacturing process is also being cleaned up with fewer complex and potentially
damaging organic chemicals used as solvents. and work is going into making power
supplies that are more energy efficient since current transformers are
astonishingly wasteful as they charge our laptops mobiles and music players. one
of the key aspects of the new approach is to design products that are easier to
recycle. if you have got a phone or a computer with toxic chemicals or heavy metals
in it then extracting them can be tricky and expensive. a well-designed electronic
component is able to be recycled at low cost. this is going to be very important to
hardware manufacturers in europe since from august the new waste electronic and
electrical equipment directive will oblige them to accept returned products for
recycling. they will end up paying if they build things that are expensive or
impossible to take apart and will find their profits hit something which is likely
to motivate them where appeals to the wider public interest might fall on deaf
ears. it is as they say about time. we have a long and depressing history of
developing new technologies with complete disregard for their potential impact on
the environment and waiting until there is a crisis looming before we try to
redesign them to cause less damage. the car engine is a case in point: lead
additives helped stop petrol vapour exploding too early in the cylinder a
phenomenon called knocking so they were simply used without any real thought for
the fact that the lead would end up in the atmosphere. redesigning engines and
making petrol slightly different was a lot more work so it took decades before it
was done. we re seeing the same thing in the technology industry and as a result
there are billions of devices from old mobile phones to antique handhelds that
will have to be recycled in years to come. if apple gets its way then a lot of
people are going to be buying a new mac mini and throwing away their old pc
keeping the monitor and other peripherals. even if apple does not get its way
four or five-year-old computers are not good enough to run modern programs and it s
not unreasonable to replace them. but what do we do with the old ones i ve just
looked around my office and i find two monitors an old 386 pc two old handhelds
three ancient laptops four antique mobile phones a collection of rechargeable
batteries and even a sun workstation that is no longer really much use. they are
all old enough to be hazardous waste - the monitors alone will be full of arsenic
and lead - but it s possible that some of the components could be useful. i could
take them up the to the council recycling centre but it s a 10-mile drive away
across town and like many other people my commitment to recycling is shallow at
best. here in cambridge we have green bins for compostable waste a box for glass
cans and paper that can be recycled and a black bin for the rest. there are bottle
banks and clothing banks scattered around town and in supermarket car parks. would
it be too much to ask for an electronics recycling box too i d probably remember
to take my old mobile with me to the supermarket and drop it in a box - at least
eventually. bill thompson is a regular commentator on the bbc world service
programme go digital.
latest opera browser gets vocal net browser opera 8.0 due for official release at
the end of next month will be the most accessible browser on the market
according to its authors. the latest version of the net browser can be controlled
by voice command and will read pages aloud. the voice features based on ibm
technology are currently only available in the windows version. opera can also
magnify text by up to 10 times and users can create style sheets its developers
say. this will enable them to view pages with colours and fonts that they prefer.
but the browser does not yet work well with screen reader software often used by
blind people so its accessibility features are more likely to appeal to those with
some residual vision. our mission was always to provide the best internet
experience for everyone said opera spokeswoman berit hanson. so we would
obviously not want to exclude disabled computer users. another feature likely to
appeal to people with low vision is the ability to make pages fit to the screen
width which eliminates the need for horizontal scrolling. the company points out
that this will also appeal to anyone using opera with a handheld device. the
company says that features like voice activation are not solely aimed at visually
impaired people. our idea was to take a first step in making human-computer
interaction more natural said ms hanson. people are not always in a situation
where they can access a keyboard so this makes the web a more hands-free
experience. unlike commercially available voice recognition software opera does
not have to be trained to recognise an individual voice. around 50 voice commands
are available and users will have to wear a headset which incorporates a
microphone. the voice recognition function is currently only available in english.
opera is free to download but a paid-for version comes without an ad banner in the
top right hand corner and with extra support. opera began life as a research
project - a spin-off from norwegian telecoms company telenor. its browser is used
by an estimated 10 million people on a variety of operating systems and a number of
different platforms.
moving mobile improves golf swing a mobile phone that recognises and responds to
movements has been launched in japan. the motion-sensitive phone - officially
titled the v603sh - was developed by sharp and launched by vodafone s japanese
division. devised mainly for mobile gaming users can also access other phone
functions using a pre-set pattern of arm movements. the phone will allow golf fans
to improve their swing via a golfing game. those who prefer shoot- em-ups will be
able to use the phone like a gun to shoot the zombies in the mobile version of sega
s house of the dead. the phone comes with a tiny motion-control sensor a computer
chip that responds to movement. other features include a display screen that
allows users to watch tv and can rotate 180 degrees. it also doubles up as an
electronic musical instrument. users have to select a sound from a menu that
includes clapping tambourine and maracas and shake their phone to create a beat.
it is being recommended for the karaoke market. the phone will initially be
available in japan only and is due to go on sale in mid-february. the new gadget
could make for interesting people-watching among japanese commuters who are able
to access their mobiles on the subway. fishing afficiandos in south korea are
already using a phone that allows them to simulate the movement of a rod. the ph-
s6500 phone dubbed a sports-leisure gadget was developed by korean phone giant
pantech and can also be used by runners to measure calorie consumption and distance
run.
attack prompts bush site block the official re-election site of president george w
bush is blocking visits from overseas users for security reasons . the blocking
began early on monday so those outside the us and trying to view the site got a
message saying they are not authorised to view it. but keen net users have shown
that the policy is not being very effective. many have found that the site can
still be viewed by overseas browsers via several alternative net addresses. the
policy of trying to stop overseas visitors viewing the site is thought to have been
adopted in response to an attack on the georgewbush.com website. scott stanzel a
spokesman for the bush-cheney campaign said: the measure was taken for security
reasons. he declined to elaborate any further on the blocking policy. the barring
of non-us visitors has led to the campaign being inundated with calls and forced it
to make a statement about why the blocking was taking place. in early october a so-
called denial of service attack was mounted on the site that bombarded it with
data from thousands of pcs. the attack made the site unusable for about five hours.
about the same time the web team of the bush-cheney campaign started using the
services of a company called akamai that helps websites deal with the ebbs and
flows of visitor traffic. akamai uses a web-based tool called edgescape that lets
its customers work out where visitors are based. typically this tool is used to
ensure that webpages video and images load quickly but it can also be used to
block traffic. geographic blocking works because the numerical addresses that the
net uses to organise itself are handed out on a regional basis. readers of the
boingboing weblog have found that viewers can still get at the site by using
alternative forms of the george w bush domain name. ironically one of the working
alternatives is for a supposedly more secure version of the site. there are now at
least three working alternative domains for the bush-cheney campaign that let web
users outside the us visit the site. the site can also be seen using anonymous
proxy services that are based in the us. some web users in canada also report that
they can browse the site. the international exclusion zone around georgewbush.com
was spotted by net monitoring firm netcraft which keeps an eye on traffic patterns
across many different sites. netcraft said that since the early hours of 25
october attempts to view the site through its monitoring stations in london
amsterdam and sydney have failed. by contrast netcraft s four monitoring stations
in the us managed to view the site with no problems. data gathered by netcraft on
the pattern of traffic to the site shows that the blocking is not the result of
another denial of service attack. mike prettejohn netcraft president speculated
that the blocking decision might have been taken to cut costs and traffic in the
run-up to the election on 2 november. he said the site may see no reason to
distribute content to people who will not be voting next week. managing traffic
could also be a good way to ensure that the site stays working in the closing days
of the election campaign. however simply blocking non-us visitors also means that
americans overseas are barred too. most american soldiers stationed overseas will
be able to see the site as they use the us military s own portion of the net.
akamai declined to comment saying it could not talk about customer websites.
blair pledges unity to labour mps tony blair has sought to reassure labour
backbenchers that nothing will stand in the way of the party s bid for a third term
in power. mr blair was speaking to mps amid fresh rumours of a rift with gordon
brown. a new book says the prime minister went back on a pledge to mr brown to
stand down before the next general election. the chancellor has said he is focused
on winning the poll and is due to join election supremo alan milburn for a labour
poster launch this week. mr blair told the parliamentary labour party (plp) on
monday: i know from everyone here in cabinet and government nothing is going to
get in the way of a unified labour party with a unified position and winning the
third term people desperately need. the prime minister and his chancellor arrived
within seconds of each other and seemingly in good spirits at the start of the
meeting which lasted around an hour. a new book brown s britain by sunday
telegraph journalist robert peston says mr blair went back on a pledge to make way
for mr brown after cabinet allies intervened in june 2004. it has caused a new
wave of concern among labour mps gearing up to defend their seats in an election
widely expected to be held in may and several members are understood to have lined
up to express their discontent at the plp meeting. health secretary john reid
earlier warned that labour members would not easily forgive anybody fuelling
damaging speculation. he told bbc news: those who co-operate or inspire these
books in my view have to know that whatever the short-term political or personal
advantage that they think they might secure they always do it by damaging the
record the unity and the re-election chances of the labour party and the
government. mr blair on sunday dismissed claims of broken promises saying: i ve
dealt with this six months ago. i said then you don t do deals over jobs like this
- you don t. in a separate bbc interview mr brown said he and the prime minister
would not be distracted by gossip . it s very important that we all do what we
can in a unified way to ensure the election of a labour government he said. on
monday mr blair s spokesman said: the prime minister is determined that he will
get on with the business of government because he believes that what people want.
mr brown says he discussed the election campaign with mr blair on saturday and
promised to play his part. mr peston said the pair had mutual animosity and
contempt . mr blair had decided in november 2003 he would quit because he felt he
had lost voters trust because of the iraq war. he had then changed his mind in
june 2004 following intervention from cabinet allies and suspicion that the
chancellor was manoeuvring against him. mr brown allegedly said he could no longer
believe anything mr blair told him. conservative co-chairman liam fox likened the
two men to self-obsessed schoolboys . liberal democrat parliamentary chairman
matthew taylor said their personal ambition was getting in the way of good
government . ex-labour leader neil kinnock said mr blair and mr brown could only
deal with the media frenzy by continuing to say they would not allow a row to
damage labour or british interests. he told bbc radio five live that mr brown would
never encourage any kind of insurrection or coup.
gadget market to grow in 2005 the explosion in consumer technology is to continue
into 2005 delegates at the world s largest gadget show in las vegas have been
told. the number of gadgets in the shops is predicted to grow by 11% while
devices which talk to each other will become increasingly important. everything is
going digital kirsten pfeifer from the consumer electronics association told the
bbc news website. the consumer electronics show (ces) featured the pick of 2005 s
products. consumers are controlling what they want and technologies like hdtvs
[high-definition tvs] digital radio and digital cameras will remain strong in
2005. all the products on show really showed the breadth and depth of the
industry. despite showing diversity some delegates attending complained that the
showcase lacked as much wow factor as in previous years. the portable
technologies on show also reflected one of the buzzwords of ces which was the
time and place shifting of multimedia content - being able to watch and listen to
video and music anywhere at any time. at the start of last year s ces the cea
predicted there would be an average growth of 4% in 2004. that figure was surpassed
with the rise in popularity of portable digital music players personal video
recorders and digital cameras. it was clear also that gadgets are becoming a lot
more about lifestyle choice with fashion and personalisation becoming increasingly
key to the way gadgets are designed. part of this has been the rise in spending
power of the generation x-ers who have grown up with technology and who now have
the spending power and desire for more devices that suit them. more than 57% of the
consumer electronics market is made up of female buyers according to cea research.
hybrid devices which combine a number of multimedia functions were also in
evidence on the show floor. a lot of this is driven by just the ability to do it
said stephen baker a consumer electronics analyst with retail research firm npd
group. some of these functions cost next to nothing to add. as well as the show
floor showcasing everything from tiny wearable mp3 players to giant high-definition
tvs several keynote speeches were made by industry leaders such as microsoft
chief bill gates. despite several embarrassing technical glitches during mr gate s
pre-show speech he announced several new partnerships - mainly for the us market.
he unveiled new ways of letting people take tv shows recorded on personal video
recorders and watch them back on portable devices. he disappointed some however
by failing to announce any details of the next generation of the xbox games
console. another disappointment was the lack of exposure sony s new portable games
device the psp had at the show. sony said the much-anticipated gadget would most
likely start shipping in march for the us and europe. it went on sale in japan
before christmas. there were only two psps embedded in glass cabinets at the show
though and no representatives to discuss further details. a sony representative
told the bbc news website this was because sony did not consider it to be part of
their consumer technology offering. elsewhere at the show there was a plethora
of colour and plasma screens including samsung s 102-inch (2.6 metre) plasma - the
largest in the world. industry experts were also excited about high-definition
technologies coming to the fore in 2005 with new formats for dvds coming out which
will hold six times as much data as conventional dvds. with so many devices on the
move there were a lot of products on show offering external storage like seagate s
5gb pocket sized external hard drive which won an innovation for engineering and
design prize. more than 120 000 trade professionals attended ces in las vegas
which officially ran from 6 to 9 january.
us bank in $515m sec settlement five bank of america subsidiaries have agreed to
pay a total of $515m (£277m) to settle an investigation into fraudulent trading
share practices. the us securities and exchange commission announced the
settlements the latest in an industry-wide clean-up of us mutual funds. the sec
also said it had brought fraud charges against two ex-senior executives of columbia
distributor. columbia distributor was part of fleetboston bought by boa last year.
three other ex-columbia executives agreed settlements with the sec. the sec has
set itself the task of stamping out the mutual funds use of market-timing a form
of quick-fire short-term share trading that harms the interests of small investors
with whom mutual funds are particularly popular. in the last two years it has
imposed penalties totalling nearly $2bn on 15 funds. the sec unveiled two separate
settlements one covering boa s direct subsidiaries and another for businesses
that were part of fleetboston at the time. in both cases it said there had been
secret deals to engage in market timing in mutual fund shares. the sec agreed a
deal totalling $375m with banc of america capital management bacap distributors
and banc of america securities. it was made up of $250m to pay back gains from
market timing and $125m in penalties. it is to be paid to the damaged funds and
their shareholders. separately the sec said it had reached a $140m deal - equally
split between penalties and compensation - in its probe into columbia management
advisors (cam) and columbia funds distributor (cfd) and three ex-columbia
executives. these businesses became part of boa when it snapped up rival bank
fleetboston in a $47bn merger last march. the sec filed civil fraud charges in a
boston federal court against james tambone who it says headed cfd s sales
operations and his alleged second in command robert hussey. the sec is pressing
for the highest tier of financial penalties against the pair for multiple
violations repayment of any personal gains and an injunction to prevent future
breaches a spokeswoman for the sec s boston office told the bbc. there was no
immediate comment from the men s lawyers. the sec s settlement with cam and cfd
included agreements with three other ex-managers peter martin erik gustafson and
joseph palombo who paid personal financial penalties of between $50-100 000.
reboot ordered for eu patent law a european parliament committee has ordered a
rewrite of the proposals for controversial new european union rules which govern
computer-based inventions. the legal affairs committee (juri) said the commission
should re-submit the computer implemented inventions directive after meps failed to
back it. it has had vocal critics who say it could favour large over small firms
and impact open-source software innovation. supporters say it would let firms
protect their inventions. the directive is intended to offer patent protection to
inventions that use software to achieve their effect in other words computer
implemented invention . the draft law suffered setbacks when poland one of the
largest eu member states rejected its adoption twice in two months. intense
lobbying on the issue has started to gain momentum in some national parliaments
putting them under immense pressure. only two meps backed the draft law at the juri
meeting with one voting to abstain. opponents of the draft directive welcomed the
decision and said a new first reading of the proposals would give the eu a chance
to have fuller debates about its implications in all member states. in the us the
patenting of computer programs and internet business methods is permitted. this
means that the us-based amazon.com holds a patent for its one-click shopping
service for example. critics are concerned that the directive could lead to a
similar model happening in europe. this they fear could hurt small software
developers because they do not have the legal and financial might of larger
companies if they had to fight patent legal action in court. supporters say current
laws are inefficient and it would serve to even up a playing field without bringing
eu laws in line with the us.
real in talks over gravesen move real madrid are closing in on a £2m deal for
everton s thomas gravesen after the dane s agent travelled to spain to hold talks
about a move. john sivabaek told bbc sport: i m here to listen to what real have
to say. nothing has been agreed but this is a big opportunity for any player. the
28-year-old s contract expires in the summer but real want a quick deal. sivabaek
added: i will be meeting real on wednesday. there is serious interest but it is
everton s hands. everton must decide whether to cash in now on the denmark
midfield man or risk losing him for nothing in the summer. manager david moyes has
defiantly claimed that he expects gravesen to still be at everton when the transfer
window closes at the end of january. moyes said: i speak to tommy regularly and
we know where we are at. there s been no contact. we don t want to lose him. real
madrid general manager arrigo sacchi is the driving force behind the move
convincing vice-president emilio butragueno and new coach wanderley luxemburgo that
gravesen is the right man for the bernabeu. everton must weigh up whether it is
worth taking the money on offer for real and risk their own ambitions for european
football. gravesen has been outstanding as everton have established themselves in
the premiership s top four this season.
wenger shock at newcastle dip arsenal manager arsene wenger has admitted he is at a
loss to explain why newcastle are languishing in the bottom half of the table. the
gunners travel to st james park on wednesday with newcastle 14th in the
premiership after a troubled season. and wenger said: at the beginning of the
season you would expect them to be fighting for the top four. i don t know how
they got to be where they are. it looks to me from the outside that they have many
injuries. arsenal go into the game on the back of a 2-0 victory over fulham on
sunday. and wenger added: the best way to prepare for a game is to win the
previous one. we will go to newcastle in good shape. fatigue won t play too big a
part in the next few weeks as we have players coming back so i can rotate a bit
more. we do not play a season with 11 players and i believe that all of our squad
deserve a chance in the team. striker thierry henry along with robert pires
scored against fulham. and henry afterwards described the display as beautiful to
watch . he said: what matters is winning and the three points of course. that is
the only thing that really matters. but it is more enjoyable when you play like we
did against fulham. we are playing as a team and that is important because there
were some games when we maybe were not there as a team and suffered for that. those
were games we lost.
us actor ossie davis found dead us actor ossie davis has been found dead at the age
of 87. davis who was married to actress ruby dee was found dead on friday in his
hotel room in miami beach florida where he was making a film. davis whose 65-
year career included credits as a producer director actor and writer for stage
and screen was also a civil rights activist. miami beach police spokesman bobby
hernandez said the cause of death appeared to be natural. davis s body was
discovered by his grandson and paramedics at the shore club hotel in miami beach
where the actor had been shooting the film retirement. mr hernandez said: after
gaining entry they found mr davis had passed away. the cause of death appears to
be natural. according to his grandson he was suffering from heart disease. some of
davis s best known roles included the joe louis story and gone are the days - a
film he adapted from his own play purlie victorious. he also appeared in 7 spike
lee movies including school daze do the right thing and jungle fever. his film
debut in 1950 was in the film no way out starring sydney poitier and ruby dee.
davis and dee were married for more than 56 years and together received kennedy
center honours in 2004 for their body of work. the actors equity association
issued a statement calling davis an icon in the american theatre and he and dee
american treasures . davis was also a prominent figure in the civil rights movement
and was a voice for racial equality. he was a featured speaker at the funerals of
both martin luther king jnr and malcolm x. besides dee davis is survived by three
children nora hasna and guy a blues artist and seven grandchildren.
china had role in yukos split-up china lent russia $6bn (£3.2bn) to help the
russian government renationalise the key yuganskneftegas unit of oil group yukos
it has been revealed. the kremlin said on tuesday that the $6bn which russian
state bank veb lent state-owned rosneft to help buy yugansk in turn came from
chinese banks. the revelation came as the russian government said rosneft had
signed a long-term oil supply deal with china. the deal sees rosneft receive $6bn
in credits from china s cnpc. according to russian newspaper vedomosti these
credits would be used to pay off the loans rosneft received to finance the purchase
of yugansk. reports said cnpc had been offered 20% of yugansk in return for
providing finance but the company opted for a long-term oil supply deal instead.
analysts said one factor that might have influenced the chinese decision was the
possibility of litigation from yukos yugansk s former owner if cnpc had become a
shareholder. rosneft and veb declined to comment. the two companies [rosneft and
cnpc] have agreed on the pre-payment for long-term deliveries said russian oil
official sergei oganesyan. there is nothing unusual that the pre-payment is for
five to six years. the announcements help to explain how rosneft a medium-sized
indebted and relatively unknown firm was able to finance its surprise purchase of
yugansk. yugansk was sold for $9.3bn in an auction last year to help yukos pay off
part of a $27bn bill in unpaid taxes and fines. the embattled russian oil giant
had previously filed for bankruptcy protection in a us court in an attempt to
prevent the forced sale of its main production arm. but yugansk was sold to a
little known shell company which in turn was bought by rosneft. yukos claims its
downfall was punishment for the political ambitions of its founder mikhail
khodorkovsky. once the country s richest man mr khodorkovsky is on trial for fraud
and tax evasion. the deal between rosneft and cnpc is seen as part of china s
desire to secure long-term oil supplies to feed its booming economy. china s thirst
for products such as crude oil copper and steel has helped pushed global commodity
prices to record levels. clearly the chinese are trying to get some leverage [in
russia] said dmitry lukashov an analyst at brokerage aton. they understand
property rights in russia are not the most important rights and they are more
interested in guaranteeing supplies. if the price of oil is fixed under the deal
which is unlikely it could be very profitable for the chinese mr lukashov
continued. and rosneft is in desperate need of cash so it s a good deal for them
too.
yahoo celebrates a decade online yahoo one of the net s most iconic companies is
celebrating its 10th anniversary this week. the web portal has undergone
remarkable change since it was set up by stanford university students david filo
and jerry yang in a campus trailer. the students wanted a way of keeping track of
their web-based interests. the categories lists they devised soon became popular to
hundreds of people and the two saw business potential in their idea. originally
dubbed jerry s guide to the world wide web the firm adopted the moniker yahoo
because the founders liked the dictionary definition of a yahoo as a rude
unsophisticated uncouth person. the term was popularised by the 18th century
satirist jonathan swift in his classic novel gulliver s travels. we were
certainly not sophisticated or civilised mr yang told reporters ahead of the
anniversary which will be officially recognised on 2 march. they did have
business brains however and in april 1995 persuaded venture capitalists sequoia
capital which also invested in apple computer and cisco systems to fund yahoo to
the tune of $2m (£1.04m). a second round of funding followed in the autumn and the
company floated in april 1996 with less than 50 employees. now the firm employs 7
600 workers and insists its dot com culture of work hard play hard still
remains. it is one of just a handful of survivors of the dot-com crash although it
now faces intense rivalry from firms such as google msn and aol. jerry yang who
remains the firm s chief yahoo is proud of what the company has achieved. in
just one decade the internet has changed the way consumers do just about
everything - and it s been a remarkable and wonderful experience he said. through
it all we wanted to build products that satisfied our users wants and needs but
it s even more than that - it s to help every one of us to discover get more done
share and interact.
manics in charge of bbc 6 music the manic street preachers are to take over the
helm of bbc digital radio station 6 music for a week in december. the welsh band
whose hits include design for life and if you tolerate this have already chosen
which records to play between 6 and 12 december. their albums of the day include
who s next by the who and u2 s joshua tree. the group will also perform their own
live session. they follow in the footsteps of radiohead who took over the station
for a week last year. bass player nicky wire will join phil jupitus on his morning
show on monday 6 december while vocalist and guitarist james dean bradfield will
appear on andrew collins afternoon show on thursday 9. the group have also chosen
documentaries to air such as the leonard cohen story and guitar greats - jimmy
page. the live concert session tracks they have picked include the specials rat
race recorded at hammersmith odeon in london and public enemy s fight the power and
rebel without a pause. the band will also answer questions e-mailed in by 6 music
listeners.
chinese wine tempts italy s illva italy s illva saronno has agreed to buy 33% of
changyu the largest wine maker in china. changyu said in a statement to the
shenzhen stock exchange that illva will pay 481.42m yuan ($58.16m; £30.7m) once
the government approves the deal. the italian liqueur maker will acquire the shares
from the yantai state asset management bureau. chinese wine sales are growing the
us agriculture department said with wine sales in 2003 up 25% at 61.1bn yuan.
china is encouraging state-owned companies to sell shares to foreign investors.
anheuser-busch heineken and scottish & newcastle have all invested in the chinese
beer industry in the last two years and now illva saronno is betting on the chinese
wine market. yantai state asset management bureau - a government agency in the
north-eastern city of yantai - owns 55% of changyu. the state agency will also sell
10% of its stake in changyu to another overseas company although it didn t say
who. the remaining 12% will be retained by the yantai city government. the
consumption of wine in china is still low at just 0.22 litres per capita said the
us agriculture department. this compares with 59 litres in france 12 litres in the
us and three litres in japan.
ultimate game award for doom 3 sci-fi shooter doom 3 has blasted away the
competition at a major games ceremony the golden joystick awards. it was the only
title to win twice winning ultimate game of the year and best pc game at the
awards presented by little britain star matt lucas. the much-anticipated sci-fi
horror doom 3 shot straight to the top of the uk games charts on its release in
august. other winners included grand theft auto: san andreas which took the most
wanted for christmas prize. only released last week it was closely followed by
halo 2 and half-life 2 which are expected to be big hits when they are unleashed
later this month. but they missed out on the prize for the most wanted game of
2005 which went to the nintendo title the legend of zelda. the original doom
released in 1994 heralded a new era in computer games and introduced 3d graphics.
it helped to establish the concept of the first-person shooter. doom 3 was
developed over four years and is thought to have cost around $15m (£8.3m). the top
honour for the best online game of the year went to battlefield vietnam. the
chronicles of riddick: escape from butcher bay was handed the unsung hero game of
2004. its release was somewhat eclipsed by doom 3 which was released on the same
week. it was however very well received by gamers and was praised for its
storyline which differed from the film released around the same time. electronic
arts was named top publisher of the year taking the crown from nintendo which won
in 2003. the annual awards are voted for by more than 200 000 readers of computer
and video games magazines. games awards like this have grown in importance. over
the last six years the uk market for games grew by 100% and was worth a record £1
152m in 2003 according to a recent report by analysts screen digest.
ferdinand casts doubt over glazer rio ferdinand has said he is unsure of malcolm
glazer s motives after the american billionaire launched a new offer to buy
manchester united. the club have confirmed that the glazer family partnership have
submitted proposals of a third bid. a lot of people want the club s interest to be
with people who have grown up with the club and have got its interests at heart
said ferdinand. no one knows what this guy will be bringing to the table. the
central defender added on bbc radio five live: we will have to wait and see what
glazer comes with. i would like to see the situation resolved either way. i think
people are getting bored with him coming in and out of the news with new proposals.
the other stuff off the pitch takes the shine off what is going on the pitch.
glazer currently owns a 28.1% stake in the club and united s statement to the
stock exchange said: the board has noted the recent press speculation on this
subject. the board can confirm that it has now received a detailed proposal
subject to various pre-conditions which may form the basis of an offer for
manchester united from glazer. a further announcement will be made in due course.
glazer s previous bids for the club which united supporters opposed were rejected
by the board because of the high level of debt they would incur. but it is believed
that glazer has substantially reduced the borrowing required for his latest move.
he will still need the approval of major shareholders john magnier and jp mcmanus
who own 28.9% of the club to succeed. but the irish duo have cut off talks with
glazer over the proposed sale of their stake while fans remain opposed to his
involvement.
creator of first apple mac dies jef raskin head of the team behind the first
macintosh computer has died. mr raskin was one of the first employees at apple
and made many of the design decisions that made the mac so distinctive when it was
first released. he led the team that decided to use a graphical interface and mouse
that let people navigate around the computer by pointing and clicking. the 1984
release of the mac reflected mr raskin s belief that good design should make
computers easy to use. mr raskin joined apple in 1978 as employee number 31
initially to lead the company s publications department. however in 1979 he was
put in charge of a small team to design a computer that lived up to his idea of a
machine that was cheap aimed at consumers rather than computer professionals and
was very easy to use. the result was the 1984 macintosh that did away with the
then common text-based interface in favour of one based around graphics that
resembled a virtual desktop and used folders and documents. users navigated around
the machine using a mouse and by pointing clicking and dragging. although now in
common use in almost all computers these methods were pioneering when first used
in the macintosh. the gui was developed by xerox parc and used in its star
machine. but the acceptance of the interface did not truly begin until the concept
was developed for use by apple in its pioneering lisa computer. his role on the
macintosh was the initiator of the project so it wouldn t be here if it weren t
for him said andy hertzfeld an early macintosh team member. although mr raskin
drove the team that created the macintosh he did not stay at apple to see it
released. in 1981 he was removed from the project following a dispute with apple s
mercurial boss steve jobs. in 1982 mr raskin left apple entirely. the macintosh
was reputedly named after mr raskin s favourite apple though the name was changed
slightly following a trademark dispute with another company. after leaving apple
mr raskin founded another company called information appliance and continued to
work on better ways to interface with computers. he was also an accomplished
musician played three instruments and conducted san francisco s chamber opera
society. mr raskin was diagnosed in december 2004 with pancreatic cancer and died
on 26 february at his home in california.
brookside creator s channel 4 bid the creator of defunct tv soap brookside has
written to the culture minister to offer to buy channel 4. phil redmond now
chairman of mersey tv told tessa jowell he would run it with its current remit
intact for the next 10 years. but media watchdog ofcom has said the the
commercially funded public service broadcaster will not be privatised. a spokesman
for the department for culture media and sport said there were no plans to sell
the channel. he added that primary legislation would be required for the station
to be sold off which the government was not intending to introduce. brookside was
axed in 2003 after its ratings slumped from a peak of seven million to just 1.5
million. redmond also brought teen soap hollyoaks to channel 4 and created grange
hill the school-based drama serial which was first broadcast on bbc one in 1978.
he was awarded the cbe for services to drama earlier this year.
streets have album of the year the streets aka british rapper and songwriter
mike skinner have topped a poll to find the year s best album. a grand don t come
for free beat keane s hope and fears in second place with franz ferdinand s self-
titled album third in the q magazine poll. skinner uses blunt beats under
streetwise lyrics about such things as falling in love and drink and drugs. q
magazine said: a grand don t come for free captured the country s mood in a way no
one could have predicted. a grand don t come for free is the second album from the
streets. it followed original pirate material. q magazine also had praise for the
runners-up in the poll. keane s hopes and fears was described as a revelatory
debut which showed they had songwriting flair to spare . it also said franz
ferdinand s album sounded natural unforced (and) under-produced . rock band u2 s
latest album how to dismantle an atomic bomb came fourth while razorlight s up all
night was in fifth place. others notables on the list included dizzee rascal in at
number 12 and the zutons at 20. estelle came in at 39 joss stone was 40th and
jamelia took the 44th place.
schools to take part in mock poll record numbers of schools across the uk are to
take part in a mock general election backed by the government. some 600 schools
have already signed up for the y vote mock elections 2005 run by the hansard
society and aimed at boosting interest in politics. pupils in the schools taking
part will learn the skills of speech writers canvassers and political candidates.
schools minister stephen twigg said engaging young people s interest was essential
to the future of democracy. he added: said young people who are engaged and
motivated by the political process are essential to the future health of our
democracy. the mock elections initiative provides an opportunity for pupils to
develop their own understanding of how the democratic process works and why it
matters. by experiencing the election process first hand - from running a campaign
to the declaration of the final result - we hope that young people will develop the
enthusiasm to take part in the future. the hansard society the electoral
commission and the department for education and skills are running the programme.
pupils will stand as party candidates speech writers and canvassers. michael
raftery project manager at the hansard society said: the y vote mock elections
for schools mirror the excitement and buzz of a real election raising awareness of
citizenship and the benefits of active democracy. the mock votes will take place
around 5 may widely expected to be the date of the general election. information
packs including ballot papers and manifesto guides with elections happening in
early may were sent out to the 3 000 schools invited to take part.
donor attacks blair-brown feud the reported feud between tony blair and gordon
brown has prompted a labour donor to say he will almost certainly refuse to give
more funds. duncan bannatyne also attacked the government over iraq and its poor
response to the asian tsunami crisis. his broadside came as ex-foreign secretary
robin cook said he hoped mr brown would be premier at some point. mr bannatyne has
previously given labour £50 000. he made his fortune from care homes and health
clubs. the 52-year-old on tuesday said was he was reviewing his donations because
of cabinet disunity and international issues. his spokesman said it was highly
unlikely he would give labour more money although he would remain a supporter and
not fund the conservatives. robert peston s new book has prompted more speculation
about the blair-brown rift with its claims that the prime minister broke a promise
made in 2003 to stand down. mr bannatyne said: disunity in the cabinet has a
corrosive effect on the country. gordon brown is a great chancellor who has
delivered a stable economy but business wants that to continue and not be blown
off course by petty squabbles based on personal ambition. the businessman whose
latest venture is a casino in newcastle also voiced concern about the ongoing
violence in iraq. and he branded the uk government s response to the tsunami as
piecemeal and poor . the people there need practical help not just pledges of
money he said. the us has forces helping on the ground - we can do more.
british navy ships have helped the relief effort and the prime minister has said
the government could ultimately give hundreds of millions of pounds in aid. mr
bannatyne is due to host a new television programme and is also appearing on bbc2
business start-up programme dragon s den. but his spokesman insisted his attack on
labour was not a publicity stunt. in a separate development robin cook gave his
support to mr brown s prime ministerial ambitions but told a lunch for political
journalists winning the election had to be labour s election. but he insisted the
recent squabbles between mr blair and mr brown were not perceived as a problem by
the voters adding there was no impression of governmental incompetence. mr cook
argued that more prominence was given to these matters because there was not an
alternative source of opposition to the government . he warned the abstentions
party was the real challenge to labour - and they would not be motivated by mr
blair s promise to produce an unremittingly new labour election manifesto. his
comments come after dave prentis the leader of britain s biggest union unison
told the daily record newspaper he wants a date to be set for mr blair to be
replaced as labour leader.
bath faced with tindall ultimatum mike tindall s agent has warned bath they have
until next week to improve their contract offer to the england man or risk losing
him to a rival club. dipo alli says he has received an offer for tindall which
dwarfs bath s deal and that two other clubs want to talk. mike does not want to go
into the six nations worrying about where he will be playing his club rugby next
season alli told the guardian newspaper. it is up to (bath owner) andrew
brownsword. he has to make it happen. tindall is out of contract at the end of the
season but it is understood that brownsword is unwilling to break the club s salary
structure to accommodate the 26-year-old s demands. but alli insists the player is
worth more than bath have put on the table. mike has been at bath for eight years
and wants to remain with the club and his demands are anything but excessive the
agent added. but brownsword has to recognise mike s value and we want to resolve
things by the end of next week.
ebbers aware of worldcom fraud former worldcom boss bernie ebbers was directly
involved in the $11bn financial fraud at the firm his closest associate has told a
us court. giving evidence in the criminal trial of mr ebbers ex-finance chief
scott sullivan implicated his colleague in the accounting scandal at the firm. mr
sullivan worldcom s former number two is the government s chief witness in its
case against mr ebbers. mr ebbers has denied multiple charges of conspiracy and
fraud. senior worldcom executives are accused of orchestrating a huge fraud at the
former telecoms company in which they exaggerated revenues and hid the cost of
expenses. the firm was forced into bankruptcy the largest in us history. mr
sullivan 42 pleaded guilty to fraud last year and agreed to assist the government
with its case against mr ebbers. prosecutors have alleged that mr ebbers 63
directed mr sullivan to hide the true state of the company s finances by providing
false information to the firm s accountants. mr ebbers has denied all the charges
saying he was unaware of the fraud. his lawyers claim that their client was
unfamiliar with detailed accounting practices and left that side of the business to
mr sullivan. however on monday mr sullivan named mr ebbers as one of five
executives who participated in the accounting fraud. he [ebbers] has got a hands-
on grasp of financial information mr sullivan told a new york court. on his first
day of questioning mr sullivan admitted to falsifying the company s financial
statements. we did not disclose these adjustments he said. we did not talk
about these adjustments and the information was false. mr sullivan said his former
boss knew more about accounting matters than many chief financial officers and
described him as detail-oriented . he portrayed mr ebbers a charismatic
businessman who built up worldcom from a small regional operator into one of
america s largest telecoms firms as obsessed with costs. he would talk about that
there were more coffee filters than coffee bags and that means employees are taking
coffee home he said. we needed to cut expenses. we needed to cut a lot more than
coffee expenses. mr sullivan is at the centre of the government s case against mr
ebbers. mr ebbers could face a sentence of 85 years if convicted of all the charges
he is facing.
karachi stocks hit historic high the karachi stock exchange (kse) has recorded its
largest single day gain surging 3.5% to a new high. the index rose 225.79 points
in four hours of furious trading with many investors optimistic that political
stability could bring an economic boom. the kse index closed at 6709.93 - an
overall gain of nearly 400 points in the first two trading days of the week. energy
and telecommunication stocks performed particularly well recording an 8%-10% rise
since monday morning. in 2002 the kse was the world s best performing stock
market with the index rising 112%. pakistani investors are expecting the kse to
repeat if not improve on its 2002 performance. jubilant investors danced on the
streets as the market closed for the day on tuesday confident that the boom will
continue at least until the public holiday on 22 january. others however who had
stayed out fearing an imminent collapse because of prices overheating continued to
warn that the bubble may burst any time . that s rubbish kse chairman yaseen
lakhani told the bbc news website. whenever the market reflects pakistan s true
economic reality it is described as a bubble. mr lakhani feels that the market
has risen on the basis of solid economic growth and its current level rests on
sound foundations. market analysts are inclined to agree with mr lakhani arguing
that there are a number of major factors behind the kse s performance. analysts
argue that a steady improvement in pakistan s credit ratings by international
credit rating agencies has finally begun to register in the market. standard & poor
s upgraded pakistan a few weeks ago. there are indications of yet another upgrade
by the end of february. then say analysts there is corporate profitability in
the current fiscal year which has gone up by 27% from last year. coupled with the
7% gdp growth expected by june this year i am least surprised at the market s
performance says mr lakhani. one leading karachi broker said the real reasons may
be political. if you file a $1.3 trillion case against saudi money after 9/11
arab money will not go to the us any more. a lot of arab money he says has
already gone to malaysia and indonesia. pakistanis are now hoping that energy and
telecoms two of the strongest sectors in pakistan draw some of the arab money to
the kse. locally too say analysts recent political developments have worked to
the market s advantage. an anti-musharraf campaign threatened by the mma a
countrywide alliance of religious parties has fizzled out. the release of asif
zardari former prime minister benazir bhutto s husband has eased political
tensions between the military-backed government and the opposition pakistan people
s party. most importantly say analysts the failure of talks between india and
pakistan on the baglihar dam in indian-administered kashmir has not automatically
led to heightened tensions. this they say indicates that neither country is
interested in raising the temperature at this stage irrespective of the state of
their disagreements. the market is abuzz with speculation that substantial
investment may now start to flow in from the us a country seen locally as deeply
interested in defusing tensions between the south asian neighbours. you can call
it a peace dividend smiles one broker. let us see how long one can reap its
benefits.
games deserve a place in class computer games could enhance learning and have a
legitimate place in the classroom say researchers. academics from the institute
of education at london university found that games literacy was a key skill for
youngsters. as well as being used in different areas of the curriculum games are a
legitimate area of study in their own right researchers say. pupils should also be
able to create their own games they say. like all games computer and video
games entertain while promoting social development and playing and talking about
games is an important part of young people s lives said project manager caroline
pelletier. games literacy is a way of investigating how games are means of
expression and representation just like writing or drawing she said. the
researchers conducted two studies into the impact of games on education the first
looking at how they can be used in different curriculum subjects to enhance
learning. researchers found that girls were often excluded from the male-dominated
world of game playing. without first-hand experience of how much fun a game can be
they have little motivation to play and remain disengaged from an engrossing and
sociable activity said research fellow diane carr. the second project looked at
how games can be integrated into media education and concluded that writing games
should be a core part of studying them. sixth-form teacher barney oram already
teaches computer games alongside the more traditional study of film tv and popular
music at the a-level course he runs at long road sixth form college in cambridge.
for parents the idea that computer games could be brought into the classroom
environment could cause controversy. dr andrew burn associate director of the
institute of education s centre for the study of children youth and media moved to
reassure anxious parents. games are a legitimate cultural form that deserve
critical analysis in schools just as film television and literature do he said.
but we also want to argue that full understanding only comes when children have the
tools to create their own games. the games industry welcomed the report saying it
showed how games had a positive impact on children. at a time of hysterical and
inaccurate reporting it is heartening to see the cultural social and educational
value of computer and video games being assessed intelligently said roger bennett
director general of the entertainment and leisure software publishers association.
this report is further evidence if it were needed about the excellence and
imagination that thrives in gaming. they have much to offer to the education of our
children and they have much to offer as a career. the three-year research project
which is being presented at a seminar on tuesday in london was partly funded by
the department of trade and industry.
soul sensation ready for awards south west teenage singing sensation joss stone
has been nominated in three categories in wednesday s brit awards. the 17-year-old
from a small east devon village near cullumpton received nominations for best solo
female best urban act and best breakthrough artist. her second album mind body &
soul reached number one in the uk charts last october and went straight into the us
charts at number 11. ms stone is due to perform at the 25th award ceremony at
london s earls court. the teenager also has grammy nominations in the us normally
dominated by home-grown acts. born jocelyn stoker the devon diva started her
career in a bbc talent programme and was then discovered at a new york audition by
a us record executive steve greenberg. the 17-year-old singer is hoping to tour in
japan australia and the us in 2005.
edgy agassi struggles past dent andre agassi put in an erratic display before
edging into the fourth round of the australian open with victory over taylor dent.
the 34-year-old american seeded eighth made a poor start dropping serve early on
and later needing two chances to serve out the set. having secured the lead agassi
still failed to take control as both players forced a succession of breaks. but
agassi won the tie-break before wrapping up a 7-5 7-6 (7-3) 6-1 win. fourth seed
survived an injury scare as he battled past mario ancic 6-4 3-6 6-3 6-4. the
russian turned his right ankle in the third game of the fourth set and called for
treatment immediately. but he showed no sign of the problem when he returned to the
court to wrap up victory in two hours 45 minutes. ancic wimbledon semi-finalist
in 2004 looked set to push safin all the way when he took the second set but safin
raised his game to sink the croatian. safin said he was trying to keep his temper
under control at this year s tournament. the russian hit himself on the head
repeatedly in one second-set outburst but was otherwise largely calm in his
victory. i try to stay calm because if you go crazy against players like ancic
you might never come back because he s a tough opponent he said. i m a little
bit calmer than i was before because i d had enough. the russian added that he was
not worried by his ankle injury. i have had a lot of problems with that ankle
before - it will be ok he said. s route to the fourth round was made easy when
opponent jarkko nieminen was forced to retire from their match. the top seed and
defending champion was leading 6-3 5-2 when nieminen pulled out with an abdominal
injury. federer had been in patchy form until then - mixing 19 unforced errors with
19 winners. the world number one will play cypriot next after the former world
junior champion beat tommy robredo 7-6 (7-2) 6-4 6-1. federer admitted he was under
extra pressure after extending his winning streak to a career-best 24. they are so
used to me winning but it s not that simple he said. i had a feeling this could
be a tough match. i had a bad start but i bounced back. i always want to play
better than i am but i thought i was pretty ok. french open champion is out of
the tournament after a five-set defeat by dominik hrbaty. hrbaty defeated the 10th
seed 7-6 (7-5) 6-7 (8-10) 6-7 (3-7) 6-1 6-3 in a match lasting four hours and 21
minutes. the pair traded 16 service breaks during an exhausting baseline battle
with hrbaty taking a decisive advantage in the eighth game of the final set. hrbaty
will now play 2002 champion who outlasted american kevin kim 3-6 6-2 6-7 6-2 6-
2.
mcconnell details scots wave toll at least three people from scotland died in the
tsunami disaster and a further three are on the missing list the first minister
has told msps. the figures came out during a statement by jack mcconnell to the
scottish parliament on wednesday. he formally expressed scotland s sympathy for the
victims of the indian ocean tidal wave which killed 150 000. mr mcconnell went on
to promise that scotland would play its part in the reconstruction effort. he said
the provisional figures on the dead and lost had been provided by the police. mr
mcconnell said the tragedy should persuade everyone to step up the fight against
global poverty and change the world for the better. he said he was proud of the
generous response of people in scotland to the disaster appeal which is expected
soon to top £20m. the first minister also praised scottish water for immediately
flying bottled water and five large generators to the disaster zone. the scottish
executive has seconded 11 staff to the aid agencies. but he said scotland was in
it for the long term with help planned for fishing communities for children s
services and for the aid charities. he said 2005 must be the year that scotland
showed clearly it cared for what happened to people elsewhere in the world whether
in asia or in africa. mr mcconnell went on to signal that the executive would play
its part in the make poverty history campaign being mounted by a variety of aid
charities trade unions and churches in the run-up to the g8 summit in gleneagles
in july. edinburgh architect dominic stephenson became the first scot to be
confirmed as a victim of the asian tsunami. the 27-year-old was holidaying on the
thai island of koh phi phi with eileen lee 24. she is still missing.
golden rule boost for chancellor chancellor gordon brown has been given a £2.1bn
boost in his attempts to meet his golden economic rule which allows him to borrow
only for investment. the extra leeway came after the office for national
statistics said it had been measuring road expenditure data wrongly over the past
five years. it comes just weeks ahead of the budget and an expected general
election. shadow chancellor oliver letwin said: at best the timing of these
changes is very convenient for the government. a review by the ons found it had
made a mistake by double counting some spending on roads since 1998/9. correcting
the error would mean reducing current expenditure and increasing net investment
thus helping mr brown to meet his golden rule of borrowing only to invest over
the economic cycle. economists speculated that it might also allow for some vote-
catching measures in the budget. the changes by the ons increase the current
budget measure for the past five years by £2.1bn in total. mr letwin said: this is
a very murky area... there will inevitably be suspicions that the figures are being
fiddled. the conservatives also said mr brown would still be forced to raise taxes
after the general election to fill an annual £10.5bn black hole in the nation s
coffers. but the treasury said there would be no relaxation of economic discipline
and the golden rule would be met even without the data revisions. in january the
independent institute for fiscal studies (ifs) said mr brown would need to raise
taxes to get public finances onto the track predicted in last year s budget. it
also said the government might narrowly miss its golden rule if the current
economic cycle ended in 2005/06. after the ons announcement economists said there
could also be a proportionate boost to the current budget in 2004/05 of about
£400m. none of this changes the big picture of a dramatic deterioration in the
overall fiscal position over the last four or five years said jonathan loynes
chief uk economist at capital economics. accordingly it seems very likely that
some form of fiscal consolidation will be required in due course.
voters flock to blog awards site voting is under way for the annual bloggies which
recognise the best web blogs - online spaces where people publish their thoughts -
of the year. nominations were announced on sunday but traffic to the official
site was so heavy that the website was temporarily closed because of too many
visitors. weblogs have been nominated in 30 categories from the top regional blog
to the best-kept-secret blog. blogs had a huge year with a top us dictionary
naming blog word of 2004. technorati a blog search engine tracks about six
million blogs and says that more than 12 000 are added daily. a blog is created
every 5.8 seconds according to us research think-tank pew internet and american
life but less than 40% of the total are updated at least once every two months.
nikolai nolan who has run the bloggies for the past five years told the bbc news
website he was not too surprised by the amount of voters who crowded the site. the
awards always get a lot of traffic; this was just my first year on a server with a
bandwidth limit so i had to guess how much i d need he said. there were many new
finalists this year he added and a few that had won bloggies before. several
entries reflected specific news events. there are four nominations for the south-
east asia earthquake and tsunami blog which is a pretty timely one for 2005 said
mr nolan. the big bloggies battle will be for the ultimate prize of blog of the
year. the nominated blogs are wide-ranging covering what is in the news to quirky
sites of interest. fighting it out for the coveted award are gawker this fish
needs a bicycle wonkette boing boing and gothamist. in a sign that blogs are
playing an increasingly key part in spreading news and current affairs the south-
east asia earthquake and tsunami blog is also nominated in the best overall
category. greenfairydotcom londonist hicksdesign plasticbag and london
underground tube blog are the nominees in the best british or irish weblog.
included in the other categories is best meme . this is for the top replicating
idea that spread about weblogs . nominations include flickr a web photo album
which lets people upload tag share and publish their images to blogs. podcasting
has also made an appearance in the category. it is an increasingly popular idea
that makes use of rss (really simple syndication) and audio technology to let
people easily make their own radio shows and distribute them automatically onto
portable devices. many are done by those who already have text-based blogs so
they are almost like audio blogs. three new categories have been added to the list
this year including best food best entertainment and best writing of a weblog.
one of the categories that was scrapped though was best music blog. the winners of
the fifth annual bloggies are chosen by the public. public voting closes on 3
february and the winners will be announced sometime between 13 and 15 march.
bookmakers back aviator for oscar the aviator has been tipped by uk bookmakers as
the favourite to win the best film award at this year s oscars. ray star jamie
foxx is clear favourite in the best actor category while million dollar baby s
hilary swank is tipped to win the best actress prize. bookmakers predict cate
blanchett will be named best supporting actress. william hill and ladbrokes have
given the aviator 4/9 and 8/13 odds of winning best film with million dollar baby
in second place at 9/4. bet direct and bet 365 also tip the aviator with the
majority of bookmakers regarding finding neverland as the outsider. the aviator is
also widely tipped to win the best director prize for martin scorsese. british star
clive owen is second favourite at william hill to take the best supporting actor
award for his performance in closer. the favourite in that category is sideways
star thomas hayden church. vera drake star imelda staunton has 5/1 odds of winning
the best actress oscar at bet 365 and william hill ahead of fellow uk star kate
winslet who has odds of 25/1 at william hill. mike leigh is the outsider in the
best director category for vera drake a position he holds jointly with ray s
taylor hackford at bookmakers vc bet. this year s academy awards will be handed out
in hollywood on 27 february. x factor judge sharon osbourne will present sky
television s live coverage of the event. meanwhile clive owen s best supporting
actor nomination has led a bookmaker to shorten his odds of becoming the next james
bond. he has moved from 4/1 to 5/2 favourite to play 007 with hugh jackman and
ewan mcgregor joint second favourite. clive owen s nomination has sparked a
betting frenzy from james bond fans who feel that his heightened global
recognition will have done his chances of becoming the next bond a world of good
said william hill spokesman rupert adams.
howard truanted to play snooker conservative leader michael howard has admitted
he used to play truant to spend time with his school friends at a snooker hall. mr
howard said his time at jack s snooker hall in llanelli in the 1950s had not done
him any lasting damage . but he told the times educational supplement that truancy
was very bad and said firm action was needed. mr howard also called for a
return to o-levels and more classroom discipline. mr howard eventually left
llanelli grammar school - and the snooker hall - to go to cambridge university. he
said: i don t think it s done me any lasting damage. nor has it made me a snooker
world champion. there might have been some occasions when we left early of an
afternoon. i m just being honest. i think truancy is a very bad thing and that
firm action should be taken to deal with it. another player who has failed to win
snooker s world championship - jimmy the whirlwind white - has previously
admitted missing lessons instead spending his days in smoky halls. tony meo
[another player] and me used to spend all of our spare time there mr white said
we loved the game and the atmosphere. school went out of the window. i went for a
while and then started taking time off. mr howard s fellow welshman ray reardon -
known by his fellow professionals as dracula - won the snooker world championship
six times having left school at 14 to work as a miner. and terry griffiths like
mr howard from llanelli won the tournament in 1979. it is not known whether the
two of them ever clashed cues at jack s.
martinez sees off vinci challenge veteran spaniard conchita martinez came from a
set down to beat italian roberta vinci at the qatar open in doha. the 1994
wimbledon champion won 5-7 6-0 6-2 to earn a second round meeting with french open
champion anastasia myskina. fifth seed patty schnyder also had a battle as she
needed three sets to beat china s na li 7-5 3-6 7-5. slovakian daniela hantuchova
beat bulgarian magdaleena maleeva 4-6 6-4 6-3 to set up a second round clash with
russian elena bovina. the veteran martinez found herself in trouble early on
against vinci with the italian clinching the set thanks to breaks in the third and
11th games. but vinci s game fell to pieces after that and martinez swept her aside
with some crisp cross-court returns and deft volleys. in the day s other matches
japan s ai sugiyama defeated australian samantha stosur 6-2 6-3 while australian
nicole pratt beat tunisian selima sfar 7-5 6-2 and will next face compatriot alicia
molik.
alicia keys to open us super bowl r&b star alicia keys is to open february s super
bowl singing a song only previously performed there by ray charles and vicki carr.
keys who will sing america the beautiful will be accompanied by 150 students from
the florida school for the deaf and the blind. charles who died last year
attended the school as a child in 1937. keys said she was very excited
describing charles as an artist i admire miss and respect . i know that this is
going to be a very touching and memorable moment she said. it will be her first
performance at the super bowl which will be watched by millions in the us on 6
february. sir paul mccartney will provide the half-time entertainment in the slot
filled by janet jackson last year. organisers have promised there will be no repeat
of her nipple-baring incident that sparked thousands of complaints on us tv s most-
watched broadcast. a national football league spokesman said they were comfortable
this show would be acceptable to a mass audience. the game and show were watched by
144 million people in the us in 2003. twenty cbs-owned tv stations were fined $550
000 (£300 000) by the country s tv regulatory agency after more than 542 000
complaints were made about janet jackson s wardrobe malfunction . sir paul said:
there s nothing bigger than being asked to perform at the super bowl. we re
looking forward to rocking the millions at home and in the stadium.
blair hails turkey-eu talks deal tony blair has hailed a deal bringing turkey a
step closer to eu membership as important for the world s future peace and
prosperity . mr blair has been a leading advocate of turkish membership despite
controversy surrounding the idea. leaving a brussels summit mr blair said the fact
turkey is a muslim country does not mean it should be barred . the deal to open
formal talks with ankara came despite an eu demand for turkey to recognise cyprus.
it was agreed the issue can be tackled at a later date but turkish premier recep
erdogan had to accept negotiations did not guarantee his country full eu
membership. if it joins turkey may have to accept restrictions to limit migration
by its citizens. mr blair said having turkey in the eu was of importance to the
future peace and prosperity of my country britain and the wider world . we are
stating a fundamental principle that the fact turkey is a muslim country does not
mean it should be barred from europe. on the contrary if it fulfils the same
principles of human rights then muslim and christian can work together. under the
agreement turkey must issue a written statement promising to sign an accord
effectively recognising the greek cypriot government but gives turkey more time to
sell the idea to its people. the internationally recognised southern part of
cyprus is an eu member but turkey which occupies northern cyprus had previously
insisted it would not bow to demands to recognise the country calling the issue a
red line . it could take up to 15 years before turkey is able to join and entry
cannot be guaranteed. the eu has also announced that it will start accession talks
with croatia in april 2005. however talks will begin only if the country co-
operates fully with the un war crimes tribunal for the former yugoslavia.
abortion not a poll issue - blair tony blair does not believe abortion should be an
election issue arguing it is a matter for individual conscience. the prime
minister s spokesman set out mr blair s view after the top catholic in england and
wales backed michael howard s stance on abortions. the tory leader supports a
reduction in the legal limit from 24 weeks to 20 and has said current rules are
tantamount to abortion on demand . the prime minister has made it clear he has no
plans to the change the law. mr blair s spokesman said: the catholic church has a
well-known position on this issue and it was one of many issues the cardinal
mentioned and therefore it should be seen in that context. his words came as
cardinal cormac murphy o connor the archbishop of westminster backed mr howard s
stance and distanced himself from labour. in a statement he said abortion was a
very key issue saying: the policy supported by mr howard is one that we would
commend on the way to a full abandonment of abortion. cardinal o connor claimed
labour had developed the notion that it was the natural party of catholics but
he said: we are not going to suggest people support one particular party. the
family planning association says a reduction would particularly affect young women
who often seek help later. more than 180 000 women in england and wales had
terminations last year of which fewer than 1% were carried out between 22 and 24
weeks. in the cosmopolitan interview mr howard said: i believe abortion should be
available to everyone but the law should be changed. in the past i voted for a
restriction to 22 weeks and i would be prepared to go down to 20. all three main
parties say the issue is one for each mp s conscience rather than one where there
is a party-wide policy. mr howard stressed his views were his personal views.
shadow home secretary david davis said he understood mr howard had been signalling
that a conservative government would allow a commons vote on the issue. mr blair
and liberal democrat leader charles kennedy also gave their views during interviews
conducted as part of the magazine s high heeled vote campaign. mr blair who
last year denied he planned to join his wife and four children in the catholic
faith despite regularly taking communion said abortion was a difficult issue .
however much i dislike the idea of abortion you should not criminalise a woman who
in very difficult circumstances makes that choice. obviously there is a time
beyond which you can t have an abortion and we have no plans to change that
although the debate will continue. mr kennedy said he had previously voted for a
22-week limit but medical advances mean i don t know what i would do now . the
roman catholic archbishop of cardiff the most reverend peter smith told bbc radio
4 s today programme that the church merely wanted people to reflect on issues in
light of the gospel before voting. anne weyman chief executive of the family
planning association asked: what is the benefit to women or to the potential
child of forcing a woman to have a baby anti-abortion group the pro-life
alliance congratulated mr howard on his new stance but said it did not go far
enough.
apple ipod family expands market apple has expanded its ipod family with the
release of its next generation of the digital music players. its latest challenges
to the growing digital music gadget market include an ipod mini model which can
hold 6gb compared to a previous 4gb. the company which hopes to keep its dominant
place in the digital music market also said the gold coloured version of the mini
would be dropped. a 30gb version has also been added to the ipod photo family. the
latest models have a longer battery life and their prices have been cut by an
average of £40. the original ipod took an early lead in the digital music player
market thanks to its large storage capacity and simple design. during 2004 about
25 million portable players were sold 10 million of which were apple ipods. but
analysts agree that the success is also down to its integration with the itunes
online store which has given the company a 70% share of the legal download music
market. mike mcguire a research director at analyst gartner told the bbc news
website that apple had done a good job in sealing off the market from competition
so far. they have created a very seamless package which i think is the idea of the
product - the design function and the software are very impressive he said. he
added that the threat from others was always present however. creative other
microsoft-partnered devices real sony and so on are ratcheting up the marketing
message and advertising he said. creative was very upbeat about how many of its
creative zen players it had shipped by the end of last year he said. its second-
generation models like the creative zen micro photo is due out in the summer. it
will have 5gb of memory on board. digital music players are now the gadget of
choice among young americans according to recent research by the pew internet and
american life project. one in 10 us adults - 22 million people - now owns a digital
music player of some sort. sales of legally downloaded songs also rose more than
tenfold in 2004 according to the record industry with 200 million tracks bought
online in the us and europe in 12 months. the ifpi industry body said that the
popularity of portable music players was behind the growth. analysts say that the
ease of use and growth of music services available on the net will continue to
drive the trend towards portable music players. people are also starting to use
them in novel ways. some are combining automatic syncing functions many of them
have with other net functions to automatically distribute diy radio shows called
podcasts. but 2005 will also see more competition from mobile phone operators who
are keen to offer streaming services on much more powerful and sophisticated
handsets. according to mr mcguire research suggests that people like the idea of
building up huge libraries of music which they can do with high-capacity storage
devices like ipods and creative zens. mobiles do not yet have this capacity though
and there are issues about the ease of portability of mobile music. mr mcguire said
apple was ensuring it kept a foot in the mobile music door with its recent deal
with motorola to produce a version of itunes for motorola phones.
wenger signs new deal arsenal manager arsene wenger has signed a new contract to
stay at the club until may 2008. wenger has ended speculation about his future by
agreeing a long-term contract that takes him beyond the opening of arsenal s new
stadium in two years. he said: signing a new contract just rubber-stamps my desire
to take this club forward and fulfil my ambitions. i still have so much to achieve
and my target is to drive this club on. these are exciting times for arsenal. the
55-year-old frenchman told arsenal s website www.arsenal.com: my intention has
always been clear. i love this club and am very happy here. wenger has won the
title and the fa cup three times each during his reign. chairman peter hill-wood
said: we are absolutely delighted that arsene has signed an extension to his
contract. since his arrival in 1996 he has revolutionised the club both on and
off the pitch. as well as the six major honours he s won during his time here
arsene has been a leading influence behind all the major initiatives at the club
including the construction of our new training centre and also our new stadium.
the club has continued to reap the benefits of arsene s natural eye for unearthing
footballing talent. we currently have a fantastic crop of young players coming
through the ranks together with a number of world-class players who are playing a
wonderful brand of football. meanwhile arsenal director danny fiszman is looking
for wenger to stay beyond 2008. when we come towards the end of his contract we
will both review the situation. i m sure we will want him to stay on and i hope he
will too said fiszman.
pre-poll clash on tax and spend labour and the tories have clashed over tax and
spending plans as the row over gordon brown s budget turned into a full scale pre-
election battle. tony blair claimed a tory government would cut £35bn from
public services hitting schools hospitals and police. tory chairman liam fox
accused labour of at best misrepresentation at worst a downright lie and said the
smear tactics were a sign of desperation. the lib dems accused mr brown of ducking
the issue of council tax rises. appearing together at a labour poster launch the
prime minister hailed his chancellor s brilliant performance. and he claimed the
tories would cut £35bn from public services which was the equivalent of sacking
every doctor and teacher in the uk. the tories said they would not cut spending
but agreed public spending would increase more slowly under their plans - leading
to a total of £33.5bn less spending than that anticipated by labour by 2011. but
they say not a single doctor teacher or nurse will be cut. dr fox said: we have
said we will be spending more year on year over and above inflation. and to call
that a cut is at best a misrepresentation at worst a downright lie. tory shadow
chancellor oliver letwin also predicted mr brown would have to raise taxes by £10bn
or £11bn if labour was re-elected because he was borrowing and spending too much.
for the lib dems vince cable said the chancellor had failed to deal with the
looming problems of revaluation of council tax bands which he argued would result
in massive increases for some. mr brown and mr blair staged a show of unity on
thursday morning the day after the chancellor delivered a record-breaking ninth
budget. mr cable said taxation as a share of the economy would go up under all
three of the main parties. the chancellor meanwhile insisted his spending plans
were affordable . in wednesday s budget mr brown doubled the level at which
homebuyers pay stamp duty unveiled a rise in child tax credit and a £200 council
tax refund for over-65s. defending the plans he told today: i will take no risks
with the stability of the economy. all our spending plans announced yesterday
[wednesday] including what we can do for pensioners as well as for young families
and on stamp duty and inheritance tax all these are costed and affordable. in a
further sign if any were needed that the election is approaching the house of
commons authorities have formally told mps their offices will be deep cleaned
during the three-week poll campaign. mr blair has yet to name the day - but it is
widely expected to be 5 may.
weak dollar hits reuters revenues at media group reuters slipped 11% during 2004
mainly due to the weakness of the dollar the group said. the company said it was
optimistic about growth even as revenues slipped 11% from £3.24bn ($6.13bn) in 2003
to £2.89bn in 2004. reuters beat profit forecasts posting a 52% rise in profits
for the year to £198m from the £130m seen a year earlier. reuters also beat its
savings target for 2004 delivering £234m of cuts. under its three-year fast
forward turnaround plan it had aimed to save £220m during the 12 months to 31
december. reuters also managed to slow a decline in underlying revenues to 5.4%
from 10.2% in 2003 and cut its debt back to £160m from £610m a year earlier. the
news and financial data seller said the year had begun well adding it expected
further gradual improvement in the second quarter of the year after good january
sales. it added it was planning to deliver a further £105m of savings over the
coming year - but said it expects to be hit with an £80m restructuring charge to
pay for the cost of moving from fleet street to new headquarters in london at
canary wharf. improving customer relationships more competitive products and
continued strong cost discipline position us well for 2005 chief executive tom
glocer said adding the company was beginning to look beyond recovery to growth .
blair moves to woo jewish voters tony blair has pledged to never ever ever
attack tory leader michael howard over his jewish beliefs. the prime minister told
the jewish chronicle: if you look at what i do i attack michael howard
politically. mr blair also distanced himself from recent labour campaign posters
featuring mr howard which critics claimed were anti-semitic . these were not
intended to cause any offence to anyone on the jewish community mr blair
insisted. one poster depicted mr howard and his shadow chancellor oliver letwin
who is also jewish as flying pigs. another pictured the tory leader swinging a
pocket watch on a chain which critics said echoed the jewish money lender shylock
in shakespeare s merchant of venice. others compared the image to the character
fagin in charles dickens oliver twist. labour has since taken the designs of its
website saying members had preferred other designs. during his interview with the
jewish chronicle mr blair said: i ve been a very strong supporter of the jewish
community and israel and will always be so. pressed on whether he would draw
attention to mr howard s jewish beliefs in an attempt to attract muslim support he
replied: the idea that i would allow anybody to make such a charge is outrageous.
it s untrue. if you look what i do i attack michael howard politically. i would
never ever ever attack him on that basis. mr blair also defended his party s
attitude towards the jewish community pointing out that it was his government that
had introduced the holocaust memorial day. he added that labour also aggressively
fought all forms of racism. neither the conservatives nor the liberal democrats
wished to comment on mr blair s words. the prime minister was speaking as london s
labour mayor ken livingstone remains embroiled in a row over comments he made to a
jewish reporter from the city s evening standard newspaper. mr blair repeated calls
for the mayor to apologise for likening the reporter oliver finegold to a
concentration camp guard. mr livingstone should have withdrawn the comment
immediately once he realised the journalist was jewish said mr blair. i m sure
that is what in truth he wants to do. well he should do it. mr livingstone has
said he could not sincerely say sorry for the comments he made and claims he has
been targeted by the newspaper. he conceded his comments may have been offensive
but were not racist and said earlier this week he would not apologise even if mr
blair asked.
gervais writing simpsons episode the office s ricky gervais is writing an episode
of hit us cartoon the simpsons following an invitation from its creator matt
groening. gervais has already begun writing the script but is keeping its subject
matter a closely guarded secret. he will also write a part for himself in the
episode. i ve got the rough idea but this is the most intimidating project of my
career. the simpsons is the greatest tv show of all time he said. groening
recently heaped praise on the office saying: everybody on the simpsons is a fan
of the office - it s one of the best shows on tv in the last decade. gervais has
already said he would not guest star in the show as his office character david
having left him behind for good in the christmas specials. the office became a
surprise us success when it was screened on cable channel bbc america. the first
series won two golden globes in 2004 for best comedy and best tv actor for gervais.
in winning it beat the likes of sex and the city and will and grace. an american
version was produced but so far only a pilot has been broadcast - to much
criticism that it failed to live up to the original. at the british comedy awards
on wednesday gervais was handed a special achievement award for writing. but the
office missed out in the best comedy show category to little britain. matt groening
was also at the awards to collect the award for best international comedy for the
simpsons.
iran jails blogger for 14 years an iranian weblogger has been jailed for 14 years
on charges of spying and aiding foreign counter-revolutionaries. arash sigarchi
was arrested last month after using his blog to criticise the arrest of other
online journalists. mr sigarchi who also edits a newspaper in northern iran was
sentenced by a revolutionary court in the gilan area. his sentence criticised by
human rights watchdog reporters without borders comes a day after an online day
of action to secure his release. iranian authorities have recently clamped down on
the growing popularity of weblogs restricting access to major blogging sites from
within iran. a second iranian blogger motjaba saminejad who also used his website
to report on bloggers arrests is still being held. a spokesman for reporters
without borders which tracks press freedom across the globe described mr sigarchi
s sentence as harsh and called on iranian president mohammed khatami to work to
secure his immediate release. the authorities are trying to make an example of him
the organisation said in a statement. by handing down this harsh sentence against
a weblogger their aim is to dissuade journalists and internet-users from
expressing themselves online or contacting foreign media. in the days before his
arrest mr sigarchi gave interviews to the bbc persian service and the us-funded
radio farda. iranian authorities have arrested about 20 online journalists during
the current crackdown. they accused mr sigarchi of a string of crimes against
iranian state including espionage insulting the founder of iran s islamic
republic ayatollah ruhollah khomenei and current supreme leader ayatollah ali
khamenei. mr sigarchi s lawyer labelled the revolutionary court illegal and
incompetent and called for a retrial in a public court. mr sigarchi was sentenced
one day after an online campaign highlighted his case in a day of action in defence
of bloggers around the world. the committee to protect bloggers designated 22
february 2005 as free mojtaba and arash day. around 10 000 people visited the
campaign s website during the day. about 12% of users were based in iran the
campaign s director told the bbc news website. curt hopkins said mr sigarchi s
sentence would not dent the resolve of bloggers joining the campaign to help
highlight the case. the eyes of 8 million bloggers are going to be more focused on
iran since sigarchi s sentence not less. the mullahs won t be able to make a move
without it be spread across the blogosphere.
farrell saga to drag on - lindsay wigan chairman maurice lindsay says he does not
expect a quick solution to the on-going saga of captain andy farrell s possible
switch to rugby union. leicester and saracens are leading the chase for the player
but lindsay told the bbc it was not yet a done deal. as well as the rugby football
union the league the individual club and the england coaching team have a say so
it s not a quick decision he said. he s given us 12 years service so if he wants
to go we d support him. the prospect of farrell switching codes has been the main
talking point of the super league season so far. it came as a bolt out of the blue
to us admitted lindsay. but he s a very loyal friend to the club so there s no
question that he s deserting us. he just fancies a challenge. although the move
would be a lucrative one for both farrell and wigan lindsay said money was not a
motivating factor for the club. the money side of things hasn t been concluded
but it s not the point for wigan he told radio five live. a shortage of money
has never been a problem for us. even if we did have it under the salary cap we
can t spend a penny of it anyway - we d rather have the player. lindsay also said
he understood why rugby union was so interested in signing up farrell. it d be a
great loss for us but a great boost for them said the warriors chief. this guy
is an absolute sporting icon. he s been at the top for so long and has demonstrated
so many attributes that you need to make it in a tough contact sport. athletes
like him - ellery hanley and martin johnson - don t come along very often. you re
very lucky to have them whilst you ve got them.
blair ready to call election tony blair seems certain to end weeks of phoney war on
monday and announce there will be a general election on 5 may. the date has been
pencilled into the diaries of politicians and political journalists for many months
and despite occasional panics that the prime minister was on the verge of calling
a snap poll it has not shifted. over the weeks there have been any number of
signs that 050505 was going to be the day mr blair would go for an historic third
term. and the calling of a special political cabinet meeting has only added to the
belief that the announcement is imminent. the prime minister and his campaign boss
alan milburn have already insisted the election will be fought on the economy and
what they claim is a stark choice between labour s stability and investment against
tory cuts and boom and bust. and chancellor gordon brown has stepped into the
front line of the campaign - to the relief of many of his supporters in westminster
- to underline that economic message. and it is certain one of the big arguments at
the centre of the election battle will be around the big parties tax and spend
policies. during the phoney campaign labour got into trouble over its central
claim that michael howard was planning £35 bn cuts in public services. the prime
minister found himself struggling to explain how a smaller slower increase in
spending planned by the tories compared to labour s plans was a cut. and it looked
like the labour campaign - which was already being criticised for being thrown into
defensive mode by mr howard on issues such as immigration and health - was on the
rocks. then deputy conservative chairman howard flight was reported to have
suggested mr howard was secretly planning even bigger cuts . he was sacked for
his gaffe but the damage had been done and the faltering labour campaign was back
on track. a second central argument will be over taxation with the tories claiming
the chancellor has to fill a black hole at the centre of his finances and will be
forced to raise taxes if labour wins again. mr brown slaps that aside claiming his
forecasts are accurate and that previous claims of looming economic disaster have
proved inaccurate. as usual the liberal democrats will have to fight to get their
voice heard over the sounds of battle between the two big parties. but leader
charles kennedy believes he has set out a distinctive manifesto with plans for a
tax rise for the wealthiest to finance extra spending and the abolition of the
council tax in favour of a local income tax. other issues are certain to play a
part - immigration and asylum the war on iraq law and order and education for
example. but as ever it will be the economy that will almost certainly decide the
outcome. and whatever that outcome 2005 is set to be a far more lively even
bitter campaign than 2001 s non-event.
no charges against tv s cosby us comedian bill cosby will not face charges stemming
from an allegation of sexual misconduct. authorities in philadelphia said they
found insufficient evidence to support the woman s allegations regarding an alleged
incident in january 2004. the woman reported the allegations to canadian
authorities last month. cosby s lawyer walter m phillips jr said the comedian was
pleased with the decision. he looks forward to moving on with his life he said.
district attorney bruce l castor jr who was in charge of the case said that
detectives could find no instance where anyone complained to law enforcement of
conduct which would constitute a criminal offence. he also said that the fact the
woman waited a year before coming forward and she had had further contact with
cosby during that time were also factors in his decision. the unidentified woman s
lawyer dolores m troiani said her client was likely to sue the comedian. i think
that s the only avenue open to her. she felt as we did that it s a very strong
case and she was telling the truth. she also said that the woman supplied further
evidence to prosecutors that she believed strengthened her allegations. cosby
emerged as one of the first black comics to have mainstream success in the us. he
was a successful stand-up before hosting the children s show fat albert and the
cosby kids and starring in the cosby show one of the biggest sitcoms of the
1980s.
downloads enter us singles chart digital music downloads are being included in the
main us singles chart for the first time. billboard s hot 100 chart now
incorporates data from sales of music downloads previously only assigned to a
separate download chart. green day s boulevard of broken dreams is currently number
two in billboard s pop chart and tops its digital chart. download sales are due to
be incorporated into the uk singles chart later this year. digital sales in the us
are already used to compile billboard s hot digital sales chart. they will now be
tallied with sales of physical singles and airplay information to make up its new
hot 100 chart. its second new chart - the pop 100 - also combines airplay digital
and physical sales but confines its airplay information to us radio stations which
play chart music. in addition to green day other artists in the current us digital
sales top 10 include kelly clarkson the game and the killers. sales of legally
downloaded songs shot up more than tenfold in 2004 with 200 million track
purchased online in the us and europe in 12 months the international federation of
the phonographic industry (ifpi) reported last month. in the uk sales of song
downloads overtook those for physical singles for the first time at the end of last
year. the last week of december 2004 saw download sales of 312 000 compared with
282 000 physical singles according to the british phonographic industry. the uk s
first official music download chart was launched last september compiling the most
popular tracks downloaded from legal uk sites - including itunes od2
mycokemusic.com and napster. westlife s flying without wings - a 1999 track
reissued for the occasion - was the first number one of the uk download chart. a
spokesman for the british phonographic industry (bpi) said the first combined uk
download and sales chart was due to be compiled within the first half of this year
. work is going on across the music business right now to make sure the new chart
works to plan he said. the bpi spokesman described the uk music download chart
compiled by the official charts company as having been a great success since its
launch. it has provided a focus for the industry and has really driven interest in
downloads among music fans he said.
survey confirms property slowdown government figures have confirmed a widely
reported slowdown of the uk s housing market in late 2004. house prices were 11.8%
higher on the year in the last quarter of 2004 down from 16.3% in the july-to-
september quarter the land registry said. the average house price in england and
wales was £182 920 down from £187 971 in july-september. the volume of sales
between october and december dropped by nearly a quarter from the same period in
2003. the government figures are the first official confirmation of falls in the
market at the end of 2004. land registry figures are less up to date than those of
banks and building societies since they record completions not mortgage approvals.
however the figures are viewed as the most accurate measure of house prices as
they include all property transactions including cash sales. the cost of buying a
home fell in seven out of 10 regions between the third and fourth quarters of 2004.
the biggest annual gains were made in wales where house prices were up by 23% in
the fourth quarter. house prices rose the slowest in greater london being up by
6%. in the capital the volume of sales fell by 23% from 36 185 in 2003 to 28 041
for the same period in 2004. there was also a decline in the number of million-
pound properties sold in the capital with 436 properties over £1m sold compared to
469 for the same period in 2003. although the figures point to a slowdown in the
market the most recent surveys from nationwide and halifax have indicated the
market may be undergoing a revival. after registering falls at the back end of 2004
halifax said house prices rose by 0.8% in january and nationwide reported a rise of
0.4% in the first month of the year. members of the bank of england s rate-setting
committee will make their latest decision on interest rates on thursday.
fa probes crowd trouble the fa is to take action after trouble marred wednesday s
carling cup tie between chelsea and west ham. police in riot gear were confronted
by a section of the west ham support after the match which the blues won 1-0.
mateja kezman the scorer of chelsea s goal needed treatment on a head injury
during the match after being hit by a missile believed to be a coin. a spokeswoman
for chelsea said the club would await the referee s report before deciding on its
course of action. kezman was forced off the field to receive treatment on a cut
above his eye but was able to continue. chelsea assistant boss steve clarke said:
i would rather talk about the football but we think it was something thrown from
the crowd. he did not require stitches. west ham boss alan pardew said: it s a
shame because i thought there was good english banter in the crowd. there s big
rivalry between the two clubs and it is a shame if that s happened. from where i
was standing i didn t see any trouble. former hammers star joe cole also had a
plastic bottle thrown at him while frank lampard was pelted with coins as he was
preparing to take a penalty. lampard s spot-kick was saved to the delight of the
hammers fans who have still not forgiven him for leaving upton park. the fa will
seek reports from the clubs and the police and will review video evidence and the
referee s report. police in riot gear battled with west ham fans in the matthew
harding stand and at least one supporter required treatment. fans are also thought
to have clashed outside the ground after the game. scotland yard said there had
been 11 arrests for alleged public order drugs and offensive weapon offences. the
fa is already looking into the trouble at tuesday s heated carling cup tie between
millwall and liverpool.
britons fed up with net service a survey conducted by pc pro magazine has revealed
that many britons are unhappy with their internet service. they are fed up with
slow speeds high prices and the level of customer service they receive. 17% of
readers have switched suppliers and a further 16% are considering changing in the
near future. it is particularly bad news for bt the uk s biggest internet supplier
with almost three times as many people trying to leave as joining. a third of the
2 000 broadband users interviewed were fed up with their current providers but this
could be just the tip of the iceberg thinks tim danton editor of pc pro magazine.
we expect these figures to leap in 2005. every month the prices drop and more and
more people are trying to switch he said. the survey found that bt and tiscali
have been actively dissuading customers from leaving by offering them a lower price
when they phone up to cancel their subscription. some readers were offered a price
drop just 25p more expensive than that offered by an alternative operator making
it hardly worth while swapping. other found themselves tied into 12-month
contracts. broadband has become hugely competitive and providers are desperate to
hold on to customers. 12% of those surveyed found themselves unable to swap at all.
we discovered a huge variety of problems but one of the biggest issues is the
current supplier withholding the information that people need to give to their new
supplier said tim danton editor of pc pro. this breaks the code of practice
but because that code is voluntary there s nothing we or ofcom can do to help he
said. there is a vast choice of internet service providers in the uk now and an
often bewildering array of broadband packages. with prices set to drop even further
in coming months mr danton advises everyone to shop around carefully. if you just
stick with your current connection then there s every chance you re being ripped
off he warned.
savvy searchers fail to spot ads internet search engine users are an odd mix of
naive and sophisticated suggests a report into search habits. the report by the
us pew research center reveals that 87% of searchers usually find what they were
looking for when using a search engine. it also shows that few can spot the
difference between paid-for results and organic ones. the report reveals that 84%
of net users say they regularly use google ask jeeves msn and yahoo when online.
almost 50% of those questioned said they would trust search engines much less if
they knew information about who paid for results was being hidden. according to
figures gathered by the pew researchers the average users spends about 43 minutes
per month carrying out 34 separate searches and looks at 1.9 webpages for each
hunt. a significant chunk of net users 36% carry out a search at least weekly and
29% of those asked only look every few weeks. for 44% of those questioned the
information they are looking for is critical to what they are doing and is
information they simply have to find. search engine users also tend to be very
loyal and once they have found a site they feel they can trust tend to stick with
it. according to pew research 44% of searchers use just a single search engine 48%
use two or three and a small number 7% consult more than three sites. tony
macklin spokesman for ask jeeves said the results reflected its own research
which showed that people use different search engines because the way the sites
gather information means they can provide different results for the same query.
despite this liking for search sites half of those questioned said they could get
the same information via other routes. a small number 17% said they wouldn t
really miss search engines if they did not exist. the remaining 33% said they could
not live without search sites. more than two-thirds of those questioned 68% said
they thought that the results they were presented with were a fair and unbiased
selection of the information on a topic that can be found on the net. alongside the
growing sophistication of net users is a lack of awareness about paid-for results
that many search engines provide alongside lists of websites found by indexing the
web. of those asked 62% were unaware that someone has paid for some of the results
they see when they carry out a search. only 18% of all searchers say they can tell
which results are paid for and which are not. said the pew report: this finding is
ironic since nearly half of all users say they would stop using search engines if
they thought engines were not being clear about how they presented paid results.
commenting mr macklin said sponsored results must be clearly marked and though they
might help with some queries user testing showed that people need to be able to
spot the difference.
castaignede fires laporte warning former france fly-half thomas castaignede has
warned the pressure is mounting on coach bernard laporte following their defeat by
wales. france suffered a shock loss against the welsh at the weekend after looking
on course for an easy win. castaignede told bbc sport: the pressure is big on
laporte after a huge loss to new zealand a slim win over scotland and a miracle
against england. but the french have to get behind him and the team at lansdowne
road. following victories over south africa and australia in november france were
deemed by many to be the world s leading side. but they were then trounced 45-6 by
new zealand and only just beat scotland after the scots had a try disallowed in
their six nations opener. it then took some woeful spot kicking from charlie
hodgson and olly barkley to help them to victory against england at twickenham.
< castaignede said: you can t say any of those results have eased the pressure
on laporte. had england s kickers not been so bad the position in the six nations
would be very different now. laporte has been criticised for france s negative
tactics in their wins over scotland and england. but his side played a more free-
flowing style against wales making a mockery of the opposition s defence in the
first half before suffering a shock turnaround in fortunes after the interval. all
the chat in france has been about how france will play against ireland said
castaignede ahead of the 12 march tie. everyone wants to see the sort of play we
saw against wales. but everyone also wants a win. castaignede a veteran of 43
international caps admitted the french would go in as underdogs against ireland.
going to ireland is never easy but the way they re playing right now it s harder
than ever said castaignede. they re very experienced and don t often lose at
home. they ve got some great forwards and some electric runners on the break.
despite praising the irish he claimed the welsh had the upper hand in the six
nations run-in. ireland have such a good pack but wales are something else on the
break he added. at the weekend they were simply awesome. as a frenchman it was
disappointing to see but you had to admire it. their commitment to every cause
can make them win this championship. the 30-year-old also tipped yann delaigue to
start ahead of frederic michalak at number 10 after an impressive display in paris
last weekend. delaigue played really well and admittedly michalak played well too
said castaignede. i m just glad i m not the one who has to make the decision.
singer knight backs anti-gun song r&b star beverley knight said she sang on an
anti-gun single after being haunted by the fatal 2003 shooting of two teenage
girls in birmingham. knight and drum n bass star roni size have released no more
in a bid to reduce gun use among young people. she said she was horrified by the
deaths of charlene ellis 18 and letisha shakespeare 17. size whose new forms
album won the 1997 mercury music prize said gun use was nothing to be
glamorised . there were more than 10 500 firearms offences and 70 gun crime deaths
in england and wales between june 2003 and 2004 according to home office figures.
knight said the scale of the problem became clear to her after the 2003 shootings
in aston near knight s birmingham home. it haunted me to be honest it haunted
my sleep she said. size became involved after two friends donna small and asha
jama were shot in his bristol hometown in october. jama 25 lost her sight in one
eye while 22-year-old small suffered serious head injuries. size said he
collaborated on the single which was released on monday because he has a bird s
eye view of what s going on . over the last 10 years i have seen a lot of things
happen and it is nothing to be glamorised it really isn t he said.
joke e-mail virus tricks users a virus that disguises itself as a joke is spreading
rapidly across the net. anti-virus firms are issuing high-level warnings about the
new version of the bagle e-mail program that seems to be catching a lot of people
out. the windows virus grabs e-mail addresses from microsoft outlook and uses its
own mail sending software to spread itself to new victims. when it infects a
machine the bagle variant turns off security measures that usually protect pcs.
the new variant is called bagle.at bagle.bb and bagle.au and the attachment
bearing the virus code is labelled as either joke or price . the body of the
virus usually contains nothing but a smiley or emoticon. the virus can strike
computers running windows 95 98 me nt 2000 and xp. users will be infected if
they open the attachment that travels with the e-mail. as well as plundering
microsoft outlook for e-mail addresses to send itself to bagle.at also tries to
turn off the firewall and security centre services on windows xp machines. bbc news
online has received five warnings about the virus from security companies. finnish
company f-secure gave the virus its second highest threat level. we ve had several
reports all over the world said mikko hypponen director of anti-virus research
for f-secure. security firm network box said that it stopped more than 30 000
copies an hour of the virus as the outbreak reached a peak. black spider said it
had stopped more than 1 million copies of bagle.at since the outbreak began at 0630
bst (0530 gmt). anti-virus firms urged users to be wary of unexpected e-mail
messages bearing attachments and to update their software to ensure they are
protected against the latest threats.
kilroy launches veritas party ex-bbc chat show host and east midlands mep robert
kilroy-silk said he wanted to change the face of british politics as he launched
his new party. mr kilroy-silk who recently quit the uk independence party said
our country was being stolen from us by mass immigration. he told a london news
conference that veritas - latin for truth - would avoid the old parties lies
and spin . ukip leader roger knapman says he is glad to see the back of mr kilroy-
silk. mr kilroy-silk promised a firm but fair policy on immigration and said
they hoped to contest most seats at the forthcoming general election. he said
veritas would also announce detailed policies on crime tax pensions health and
defence over the next few weeks. labour campaign spokesman fraser kemp said veritas
was joining an already crowded field on the right of british politics . on
thursday mr kilroy-silk is due to announce which constituency he will run in at the
next general election - that will come amid speculation he has his sights set on
defence secretary geoff hoon s ashfield seat. he was joined in the new venture by
one of ukip s two london assembly members damien hockney who is now veritas
deputy leader. ukip s chairman petrina holdsworth has said the group will just be a
parody of the party the men have left. mr kilroy-silk quit ukip last week after
months of tension as he vied unsuccessfully for the leadership of that party. he
said he was ashamed to be a member of a ukip whose leadership had gone awol after
the great opportunity offered by its third place at last june s european elections.
while ukip has turned its back on the british people i shall not he said. i
will be standing at the next general election. i shall be leading a vigorous
campaign for the causes i believe in. and unlike the old parties we shall be
honest open and straight. mr hockney also left ukip saying mr kilroy-silk would
deliver better as the leader of a eurosceptic party. a spokesman for ukip called
on mr hockney to quit the london assembly. the party asserts that mr hockney has a
moral obligation if not a legal one to stand down. its leader roger knapman has
said he is glad to see the back of mr kilroy-silk. he has remarkable ability to
influence people but sadly after the [european] election it became clear that he
was more interested in the robert kilroy-silk party than the uk independence party
so it was nice knowing him now goodbye he said. ukip officials also argue mr
kilroy-silk has not been straightforward in attacking the party he once wanted to
lead. veritas it s the bnp in an expensive suit! it s all well and good robert
kilroy-silk claiming that veritas is a party that doesn t believe in lies and
spin but the truth of the matter is its completely useless due to proportional
representation there is no chance that veritas will have any chance in claiming
power and change the two-horse race trend. in my opinion this is just a publicity
stunt which has just been used as a smoke-screen for his anti-islamism slurs which
got him sacked from the television. i think that his views regarding immigration
are shared by many. it really is time that the uk government ceased to be a paper
tiger on this issue. in addition as an ashfield constituent i would be more than
interested in kilroy -silk opposing geoff hoon!! good to see the parties of the
right splintering in the way the parties of the left have always done. let s hope
kilroy-silk ukip and the euro-sceptic wing of the tory party all fade further into
obscurity so we can have some truth in the debate about europe. we benefit
enormously from our membership of the eu we need to be at the heart of europe
leading it and driving it to where we as a country want to go not running away
from it. all mouth and trousers. a clown. trouble is any votes he collects may
just end up helping new labour into a third term. whatever kilroy-silk and ukip do
none of their anti-european policies have any relevance outside middle england.
this new party might gain support from right-wing england but will have little
impact in wales or scotland. hopefully this all this fighting within euro-sceptic
parties will allow them to slip out of the way and get people voting for real
political parties which address more than one issue. england needs europe to
survive and as soon as people realise this the better we can t rely on the usa
forever! at last an impetus for increasing the likely 40% turn out for the
election. the electorate is disillusioned with british politics. kilroy has one
agenda - the uk - and i ll be voting for him. both ukip and rk-s are
representatives of small-mindedness and a lack of vision for the whole of
humankind. the interests of humanity and the world lie so much beyond the scope of
these people s bickering that who in the overall scheme of things really cares
about their petty tiff many people believe you kilroy. you may even believe
yourself but switching horses midstream and then bad mouthing the steed that got
you halfway seriously diminishes your credibility. the very idea of political
parties born out of such negative feelings as euroscepticism or british supremacy
is nauseating. one can only hope the public recognise these extremists for what
they are and shun them at the polls. i ve always thought that kilroy-silk was a
self-publicising egotist and this news does absolutely nothing to alter my
opinion. brilliant about time this country had a plausible party! having seen
the recent bbc 3 documentary and witnessed the thoroughly disgraceful chauvinistic
behaviour of a number of senior ukip figures i can well understand why kilroy-silk
feels embarrassed to be associated with such people. hopefully the ukip members who
are interested in the political debate will support his action. fantastic news.
pro-europeans now have far less to worry about from the right. the conservatives
are as confused as they have been since the mid-1990s and the extreme anti-
europeans are fracturing themselves into splinter groups that split any votes they
might get in local european and general elections. robert kilroy-silk s ego and
vanity are his own (and his supporters ) worst enemy. as a euro-enthusiast i could
not be more delighted by kilroy-silk s behaviour. he took a party that was just
building up a head of steam and having exposed it to ridicule by attempting a
coup-d etat he is now setting about the serious business of dividing it in two.
the closer to straight-down-the-middle the better as far as i am concerned but in
any eventuality the two sceptic parties will exhaust their energies fighting each
other. if every politician with ambitions to lead their party resorted to forming
their own for that purpose we d have ballot papers a mile long! you ve got to hand
it to kilroy-silk for his sheer arrogance and supreme self-belief. whilst not
being a great fan of kilroy i do agree with his comments about the ukip leadership
and like him i am also leaving ukip. i believe countless opportunities have been
lost to discredit the eu and to show our people what belonging to the eu really
means. the eu s comments last week about michael howard s plans to reform
immigration show how little we govern our own country when they can turn round and
say immigration is a matter for the eu and not individual member states. the sooner
we leave this corrupt super-state the better does anyone else think that it is
ironic that euro-sceptic kilroy-silk has used a latin name for his new party
rather than a good old british name is this indicative of the man -
contradictory vain and pompous i think mr kilroy-silk has got a very good point.
british politics has become too pc and as a result has no straight talking honest
strong politicians. they are all interested in their own careers and not the people
who put them in power. as a result i feel our democracy is being abused and i want
it stopped. if mr kilroy-silk lives up to half his promises he will get my vote.
honestly who really cares man with tan leaves party with no plan to set up party
with no idea. as one of kilroy-silk s east midlands constituents i hope those who
voted for him are proud to have been taken in by such charming vacuity. i feel
insulted by having him represent me in the european parliament. ukip tried hard to
accommodate robert kilroy silk but he made it clear that only control of it would
satisfy him. someone so keen on complete control was bound to fall foul of ukip s
democratic nature. kilroy is an able communicator and a capable politician in
exactly the way those who lead ukip are not. he tried to make it work but they
didn t seem to want to grow up. he was left in the position of having to defend
their gaffes to the media. this new party seems a logical next step for kilroy.
good luck to the man i say. oh please! this is an amusing irrelevance. there is
absolutely no chance of either of these parties communicating a sensible and
constructive eurosceptic argument. they will play a key part in winning the
country round to the idea of a reformed more democratic more dynamic europe
union. future generations will thank him for his ridiculousness. the refreshing
thing about robert is that he is open honest and straight. what other politician
can claim this. i have a suspicion that he talks for a larger part of the
electorate that his critics would like. i shall be voting for him. the electorate
of the east midlands voted not for kilroy-silk but for the ukip. kilroy-silk was
made an mep because of his position on the ukip s party list. he has no mandate to
represent the area and should resign from the european parliament. i wouldn t
write off kilroy-silk. while he s a clown and a one man band at the moment he s a
populist and that s
always dangerous.the man clearly has an enormous ego and looking at our current
political masters that seems to be one of the factors in success. good luck to
kilroy though i think he is doing more harm than good for both his new party and
ukip because their vote base is not strong enough for both parties to be successful
and at the moment ukip have the upper hand while veritas are starting from square
one and fighting a somewhat uphill battle. the man i once found cringe worthy on
day time tv could well turn out to be my country s knight in shining armour. he
expresses views which are now more than common amongst society today - but people
are almost too scared to express them. kilroy silk has secured my vote and many
more like me. what s more i look forward to the day when he claims victory wrecks
the eu and rescues my great nation... without a hair out of place and his tan as
perfect as ever! great stuff. the longer the uk dithers over europe the richer we
in ireland become as the only english-speaking country fully committed to europe.
oh and send us over those hard-working immigrants - our economy needs them. this
is just what the europhiles pray for. as the main eurosceptic party ukip should
try to resolve its differences with kilroy to show a united front and give the uk
public a serious political voice against europe. having multiple parties with the
same view point just splits the vote further. thank goodness that kilroy-silk has
gone - now ukip at least has a chance in the election! it is very sad to see the
cause of britain regaining its proper relationship with europe damaged by this
split within ukip. robert kilroy-silk could have a lot to offer. instead we have a
split party and a damaged cause. under the present electoral system people must
work together and small parties have no hope of representation. last summer ukip
achieved a major advance partly and only partly due to kilroy-silk. it is a great
shame this has been dissipated in in-fighting. ukip has a wide platform of
policies not just withdrawal from the eu. this kilroy-silk conveniently ignores in
the comments surrounding the launch of his own party. neither the english democrats
nor the new party were interested in letting him join them and take over their
leadership speaks volumes. veritas is the beginning of the end for kilroy-silk. if
he believes in truth and democracy then he and the two assembly members should
resign and force a by-elections to stand on their own platform rather than this
backdoor approach to politics of being elected for one party then defecting to
another. so ukip was good enough for him to lead not good enough for him to
follow! interesting that a party committed to plain speaking should have a latin
name! every opinion poll points to an overwhelming anti-europe feeling in this
country. kilroy-silk could be on the verge of something huge if he can broaden his
appeal beyond this one issue. he is an extremely able communicator with years of
political experience. we wants quality schools top hospitals clean and efficient
public transport punishments that fit the crime limited asylum a purge on
bureaucracy and less taxes. it needs courage and honesty two qualities sadly
lacking in our politicians. kilroy-silk may just have those very qualities. recruit
the right colleagues robert and your time may have come! well if you cannot get
enough limelight being an ordinary mp then go out and start up your own party. it s
all flash and no real policy here let s hope this is the start of both ukip and
kilroy-silk slipping into obscurity. veritas the name will doom it. but perhaps i
am wrong for surely all modern schoolchildren will understand it since they do
still learn latin in the classroom do they not the whole essence of what rks
represents is euroscepticism so explain to me how the too-twee label of veritas
symbolises that
sony psp console hits us in march us gamers will be able to buy sony s playstation
portable from 24 march but there is no news of a europe debut. the handheld
console will go on sale for $250 (£132) and the first million sold will come with
spider-man 2 on umd the disc format for the machine. sony has billed the machine
as the walkman of the 21st century and has sold more than 800 000 units in japan.
the console (12cm by 7.4cm) will play games movies and music and also offers
support for wireless gaming. sony is entering a market which has been dominated by
nintendo for many years. it launched its ds handheld in japan and the us last year
and has sold 2.8 million units. sony has said it wanted to launch the psp in europe
at roughly the same time as the us but gamers will now fear that the launch has
been put back. nintendo has said it will release the ds in europe from 11 march.
it has gaming at its core but it s not a gaming device. it s an entertainment
device said kaz hirai president of sony computer entertainment america.
edu describes tunnel fracas arsenal s edu has lifted the lid on the scenes that
followed manchester united s win over the gunners. the brazilian confirmed tempers
had flared but could shed no light on reports that food was thrown at united boss
sir alex ferguson. i saw people being pulled apart people pushing pointing and
shouting he told uefa s official website. the united players were trying to wind
us up about the result but i didn t see any soup being thrown at anyone. however
edu tried to play down the incidents adding: there was nothing that i haven t
seen in brazilian derbies. derby matches in brazil are worse. i like to play in
games like this with this intense rivalry. but edu was highly critical of the
ferocity of some of united s challenges during the game particularly on jose
antonio reyes. i think we were a lot fairer in the tackles than united he said.
reyes was being kicked all over the park - they were beating up the boy and gary
neville was tackling in such a way that he should have been sent off. following
the game the football association said it would look into events in the tunnel. it
also charged ruud van nistelrooy with serious foul play while arsenal boss arsene
wenger has been asked to explain comments he made about the referee.
hunt demo at labour meeting pro-hunt supporters are set to protest at labour s
spring conference. the countryside alliance says it expects up to 4 000 supporters
to demonstrate against the hunting ban. they have agreed to keep to a demonstration
site on the other side of the river tyne from the conference venue in gateshead. a
bid to overturn the law banning hunting with dogs in england and wales has begun in
the court of appeal. the ban comes into force on 18 february. the court of appeal
is expected to rule early next week on whether the alliance s challenge has
succeeded. richard dodd regional director of the countryside alliance said he
expected between 2 000 and 4 000 supporters in tyneside to make their protest with
hunt horns and placards. campaigners have been asked not to bring any animals or
alcohol. mr dodd said he did not believe there would be any repeat of the trouble
which marred the pro-hunt demonstration outside parliament in september. we are
holding a static demonstration just to remind labour that we are not going away
he said. northumbria police said the pedestrian millennium bridge by the
demonstration site will be shut if necessary. but assistant chief constable david
warcup has liaised with several protest groups and said all negotiations had gone
well. fathers 4 justice pensioners rights activists and stop the war campaigners
were also expected to demonstrate during the three-day conference which starts on
friday. pro-hunt campaigners claims the 1949 parliament act - which extends the
right of the house of commons to overrule the house of lords - was itself invalid
because it was never passed by peers. the high court last month ruled the act was
valid and the proposed hunting ban was lawful. pro-hunt supporters formally
launched their second legal challenge to the ban in london s high court on
thursday. the countryside alliance has lodged papers seeking a judicial review on
human rights grounds. animal welfare groups have welcomed the ban many of whom
have campaigned for a ban for decades saying hunting is cruel and unnecessary.
final hunts held as ban looms hunts in england and wales have begun on the last day
that hunting with dogs is legal with more due out later. thousands of supporters
are expected to turn out at more than 250 meets many of which have altered their
normal schedules to be out on a thursday. the ban on hunting with dogs comes into
effect from 0001 gmt on friday. the countryside alliance had its latest legal bid
to block the ban thwarted on wednesday when the appeal court ruled the hunting act
was lawful. but the group says hunting will continue in some form after the ban
comes in with hunts expected to test the new law to its limits. others are
expected to defy the ban by continuing to hunt illegally. anti-hunt organisations
for whom the ban is the culmination of years of campaigning say they hope most
will stay within the law. mike hobday of the league against cruel sports told bbc
news: we ve long urged them to go drag hunting - to follow an artificial scent -
and that is what we hope they do. but if they continue to chase foxes to chase
wild mammals around the countryside that s against the law and we re confident
they ll be brought to justice. at the headquarters of quorn hunt in leicestershire
feelings were running high as hunt enthusiasts prepared for their final legal hunt.
bbc correspondent sarah mukherjee said hunt supporters were in tears. she said
many people did not share the countryside alliance s optimism that hunting would be
able to continue. farmer geoff brooks a senior member of the quorn hunt told bbc
news people s lives revolved around hunting . he described the ban as ridiculous
and badly thought out but said it would be hard for most people to defy it as
they would not want to risk their incomes by getting a criminal record. at the
court of appeal on wednesday the countryside alliance failed in its attempt to
have the hunting act ruled invalid. but it says the ban is unenforceable because
the law is unclear and impossible to police. the alliance says hunt supporters
will go out and test this law to its limits on saturday. the league against cruel
sports and the rspca say they will monitor hunts and assist police in bringing
prosecutions. the association of chief police officers has issued guidance to
forces on how to deal with the new rules. a spokesman said: basically it s not
going to be police officers chasing about in cars across fields it will be based
on intelligence and information received as well. the decision on how to police
individual hunts will be left to local forces with more officers sent to hunts
where disruption is expected. he said police would consider evidence submitted by
anti-hunt organisations on its merits.
a year to remember for irish there used to be one subliminal moment during a year
in irish rugby that stood out more than most. well at least there used to one.
now there is a handful to look back with a mixture of satisfaction and sorrow. it
has been quite a year for the irish and not just with eddie o sullivan s triple
crown winning international outfit either. right down through the ranks irish rugby
is creating waves and upsetting the more established teams in the game. but most of
the kudos will go to o sullivan and his merry band of warriors who not only
collected their first triple crown for 29 years but also finished their autumn
campaign with a 100% record. for the second year in succession they also finished
in the runners-up spot in the rbs six nations. but in the three games in november
which included a victory over tri-nations champions and grand slam chasing south
africa ireland finsihed the year on a high. the 18-12 victory at lansdowne road
was only their second victory over the boks after the initial success back in 1965.
that success was revenge for the consecutive defeats in blomefontein and cape town
in the summer. those two reverses and the 35-17 flop against france were the only
dark patches in an otherwise excellent 12 months. but the big one of course was
the 19-13 defeat of world cup champions england on their precious twickenham turf.
the winning try was conceived in o sullivan s mind perfectly executed by the team
and finished immaculately by girvan dempsey. for me the try of the championship. o
sullivan s career is now in vertical take-off mode. it is no wonder that sir clive
woodward has elevated the galway-based coach to head the lions test side. not only
that but a fair majority of the present ireland side will be wearing red next june
in new zealand. there can be no doubt that ireland s representation will be the
biggest ever albeit in a proposed 44-man squad. in brian o driscoll and paul o
connell ireland have now the two front-runners for the captaincy. gordon d arcy
whose career began as a teenager back in 1999 finally arrived when he was named
the six nations player of the tournament. but it was not only the senior squad that
brought kudos to ireland the youngsters strutted their stuff on the big stage as
well. the under-21 squad confounded the doubters as they went all the way to the
world cup final in scotland only to be beaten by a powerful all black side in the
decider. the young irish boys had stated their intentions earlier in the season
when they finished runners-up to england in the six nations under-21 tournament. on
the provincial front leinster for second year in succession blew it when the
heineken cup looked a good wager. while ulster finished runners-up in their very
tight group for the second season in succession it was munster again flying the
flag for the irish. looking to reach their third final they went down 37-32 to
eventual winners wasps in what many beileve was the most competitive and thunderous
game ever witnessed at lansdowne road. how wasps recovered from that energy-sapping
duel and then go onto to defeat toulouse in the final was anybody s guess. ulster
meanwhile just lost out to adding the inaugural celtic cup in winning the celtic
league when they were pipped at the post by the scarlets in the final game. ulster
however took time to start the new season under new coach mark mccall. the once
famous ravenhill fortress was breached four times as ulster only manged five wins
from their first 12 outings in the celtic league. leinster are again looking the
most potent outfit going into 2005 but whether they can take that final step under
declan kidney is another thing. on the down side irish rugby was hit by a number
of tragedies. teenage star john mccall died while playing for the ireland against
new zealand in the under-19 world cup game in durban. that happened only 10 days
after he led royal armagh to their first ulster schools cup success since 1977.
the death of former ireland coach and lions flanker mike doyle in a car crash in
northern ireland shocked the rugby fraternity a larger than life character doyle
had coached ireland to the triple crown in 1985 the last time that goal had been
achieved before this season. ulster rugby also suffered the sudden deaths of well-
known londonderry ym player jim huey coleraine s jonathan hutchinson and belfast
harlequins lock johnny poole. they all passed away long before the full-time
whistle.
actress roberts takes spider role actress julia roberts will play the part of a
spider in a new film version of children s classic charlotte s web. she will voice
charlotte who teams up with a girl to save their friend wilbur the pig in the
story by eb white. the film - a mix of live action and animation - will be roberts
first project since the birth of her twins hazel and phinnaeus two months ago.
oprah winfrey will voice a goose john cleese will voice a sheep and steve buscemi
a rat in the 2006 film. ten-year-old dakota fanning will play fern the girl at
the centre of the story in the film to be directed by 13 going on 30 film-maker
gary winick. filming is due to begin in melbourne australia later this month.
charlotte s web has sold 45 million copies since it was published in 1952. an
animated version was made in 1973 but this will be the first live action film. the
actor who will voice wilbur the pig has yet to be revealed.
safin cool on wimbledon newly-crowned australian open champion marat safin has
ruled out any chance of winning wimbledon in the future. after losing in round one
last year safin said he had given up on wimbledon and winning his second grand
slam title has not changed his mind. i ll play but with no expectations. i feel
like i can t waste my time my energy on that surface he said. some people they
cannot play on clay. some people they cannot play on a hard court. me i can t
play on grass. however safin is hopeful that winning the australian open will
give him the belief he needs to win more grand slam titles. it s a relief for me.
two grand slams it s already something. but with this one i worked really hard for
it he said. basically i would love to win a couple more. i think i have a
chance if i continue this way. if (coach) peter lundgren will stick around with
me and wants to work with me for a bit longer i think i can make it. the 25-year-
old shocked pete sampras in the 2000 us open final to win his first major title but
then lost in two australian open finals. safin admitted he had begun to doubt
whether he would win another grand slam. i didn t expect that (to win the 2000 us
open) - it was against sampras i wasn t the favourite so i had no pressure
whatsoever he said. after the first final that i didn t win against thomas
johansson (in 2002) i couldn t see myself winning the grand slams anymore. i was
once in the semi-finals of the french open but i didn t believe i can win it. i
just couldn t handle the pressure. you need to believe in yourself and i didn t.
and after losing the first set 6-1 to lleyton hewitt in sunday s final safin said
he began to doubt himself again. i am 25. i m playing against hewitt. at least you
have to have the opportunity to win it at least have a chance he said. it s
like you go there and you lose first set 6-1 then you start to think: this is not
my day. the way i m playing is ridiculous. but then you start to really be a
little bit more selfish and try to find a way out of there. and i found it. i was
like really much i was much happier than in 2000 that s for sure because i get
over it.
blair rejects tory terror offer tony blair has rejected a conservative compromise
offer that could have eased the passage of anti-terror legislation. the tories
wanted a sunset clause inserted in the anti-terrorism bill that would have forced
ministers to revisit it in november. mr blair said the bill which brings in house
arrest for terror suspects had time limiting safeguards already. the tories say
they will vote against it unless changes they want are agreed. the lib dems also
oppose the plans. the government has already given way over the role of judges in
house arrest cases. mr blair s refusal to accept the tories sunset clause
proposals means that the government faces concerted opposition from all sides in
the lords. peers begin three days of detailed deliberation on the bill on thursday.
the bill proposes control orders which as well as placing terrorism suspects
under house arrest could mean curfews tagging or bans on telephone and internet
use. these would replace current powers to detain foreign terror suspects without
trial which the law lords have ruled against as a breach of human rights. the
tories want judicial oversight of all control orders not just house arrest. shadow
home secretary david davis told bbc radio four s the world at one his primary
concern was potential miscarriages of justice. he said if someone was wrongly given
a control order it would act as a recruiting sergeant for terrorists. he went on
to say: if we don t get the amendments we regard as essential including the
sunset clause we will vote against the bill. in the commons mr howard said it
would be far better if the whole of the legislation was subject to a sunset clause
so parliament could consider it all in a proper way instead of it being ramrodded
through . mr blair said the house arrest powers were already going to be subject to
a sunset clause because it was annually renewable. the second less stringent
type of control orders would be subject to a court appeal within 14 days and there
would be a three-monthly report on their use by an eminent and independent
person . i believe (the new powers) are a proper balance between the civil
liberties of the subject and the necessary national security of this country that i
will not put at risk said mr blair. the lib dems plan to oppose the bill in the
lords on thursday. lib dem home affairs spokesman mark oaten said: there s a lot
of talking left. i would be uneasy about supporting a very bad bill even if it was
just for eight months. a spokeswoman for human rights watch said it was a basic
principle that people should only be punished after a fair trial. she added:
having a judge impose those punishments without a trial does not sanitise them
either.
sprinter walker quits athletics former european 200m champion dougie walker is to
retire from athletics after a series of six operations left him struggling for
fitness. walker had hoped to compete in the new year sprint which is staged at
musselburgh racecourse near edinburgh on tuesday and wednesday. the 31-year-old
scot was suspended for two years in 1998 after testing positive for nandrolone. i
had intended to race but i m running like a goon said walker. he told the herald
newspaper: i m not in great shape after missing about a month of training. i
missed a big chunk of speed work over about three weeks and then another week
working in america. if i d had a half-decent mark it might have motivated me more
but i won t be racing. i still enjoy training but feel it s time to move on and
concentrate on a career.
microsoft seeking spyware trojan microsoft is investigating a trojan program that
attempts to switch off the firm s anti-spyware software. the spyware tool was only
released by microsoft in the last few weeks and has been downloaded by six million
people. stephen toulouse a security manager at microsoft said the malicious
program was called bankash-a trojan and was being sent as an e-mail attachment.
microsoft said it did not believe the program was widespread and recommended users
to use an anti-virus program. the program attempts to disable or delete microsoft s
anti-spyware tool and suppress warning messages given to users. it may also try to
steal online banking passwords or other personal information by tracking users
keystrokes. microsoft said in a statement it is investigating what it called a
criminal attack on its software. earlier this week microsoft said it would buy
anti-virus software maker sybari software to improve its security in its windows
and e-mail software. microsoft has said it plans to offer its own paid-for anti-
virus software but it has not yet set a date for its release. the anti-spyware
program being targeted is currently only in beta form and aims to help users find
and remove spyware - programs which monitor internet use causes advert pop-ups and
slow a pc s performance.
scissor sisters triumph at brits us band scissor sisters led the winners at the uk
music industry s brit awards walking off with three prizes. the flamboyant act
scored a hat-trick in the international categories winning the best group best
album and best newcomer awards. glasgow group franz ferdinand won two prizes as
did keane and joss stone who was voted best urban act by digital tv viewers.
robbie williams angels was named the best song of the past 25 years. scissor
sisters frontwoman ana matronic collected the best international album prize from
singer siouxsie sioux. she told the audience: if you told us a year ago we would
be getting these awards today we would have called you crazy. you guys made our
dream come true. the band - whose self-titled lp was 2004 s biggest-selling album
- thanked all the members of the sisterhood adding: we wouldn t be here without
you. the us band who opened the show with take your mama won the best
international act and newcomer awards as well as best international album. franz
ferdinand who were shortlisted in five categories won best rock act and best
british group an award they dedicated to late dj john peel. but they missed out on
best british live act which went to muse. keane won best british album and
breakthrough act. will young won the best single prize for your game. mcfly won the
best pop act prize and gwen stefani picked up the best international female artist
award. eminem won the male prize. best british male artist winner mike skinner -
aka the streets - does not usually attend award ceremonies but the birmingham hip-
hop artist performed his hit dry your eyes at the ceremony. however he did not
collect his prize. a bandmate informed the crowd skinner was in the toilet . after
beating amy winehouse jamelia natasha bedingfield and pj harvey to the best
british female prize joss stone said: i don t know what to say. i don t like
doing this at all. i d like to thank my family for being really supportive and
everybody that made my record with me. i don t even know what to do right now.
thank you all you guys for voting for me i feel sick right now. viewers of
digital music tv channel mtv base voted stone the winner in the best urban act
category. little britain comedy duo matt lucas and david walliams presented the
best song prize to robbie williams dressed as his former take that colleagues gary
barlow and howard donald leading him to quip he was always the talented man of
the band . williams track beat songs by will young queen kate bush and joy
division in a vote by bbc radio 2 listeners to mark 25 years of the uk music
industry ceremony. it is his 15th brit award having already received 10 solo
awards and four with take that. he told the audience: i m just amazed that my
career keeps going. keane frontman tom chaplin thanked fans for enduring rubbish
gigs after they won the british breakthrough act prize. he added: a lot of people
don t think it s cool that we ve had the guts to be ourselves but it s a vital part
of who we are as a band and receiving this is recognition of that. natasha
bedingfield - in the running for best british female and best pop act - performed
with her brother daniel for the first time at wednesday s event. the chart-topping
siblings duetted on the chaka khan hit ain t nobody. meanwhile joss stone
performed right to be wrong backed by a gospel choir while lemar and jamelia
performed the robert palmer track addicted to love. bob geldof won a prize for his
outstanding contribution to music. of the 15 brit awards for achievements in 2004
10 were won by artists tipped in the bbc news website s sound of 2004 list of
artists to watch published at the start of last year. scissor sisters franz
ferdinand keane joss stone and mcfly were all in the sound of 2004 top 10. the
other five brits winners were already established before sound of 2004 was
compiled. the ceremony will be televised on itv1 on thursday. i m speechless.
best song of the last 25 years yeah right. i very much doubt that angels was
even the best song of the week that it came out. like every track robbie has
released as a single it s a blatant but poor facsimile of something that someone
else has done better before. give us a break...!!! best song in 25 years you
must be joking. its good if you like that sort of thing but really! listened to
angels on radio 1 this morning when i was driving into work. had not heard it for a
while. i love robs voice the lyrics and tune. perfection! as usual the public
have short memories when it comes to voting for the greatest . there must be more
than a dozen songs in the last 25 years that deserve this award more. it s not
exactly groundbreaking. presumably the age range that could be bothered to vote is
is pretty low... i m actually embarrassed to be british if that is the best song
we have produced in the last 25 years!! what about the specials - ghost town the
buzzcocks - ever fallen in love with someone... happy mondays - kinky afro
mcalmont & butler - yes joy division - love will tear us apart... angels is
middle-of-the-road rubbish. angels is a awful piece of sentimental claptrap. it s
musically and lyrically inept; and fantastically overrated a bit like mr williams
himself. this result isn t very surprising though the brits has a long history of
celebrating rubbish music! best of the last 25 years maybe. cunning to make the
timescale not include stairway to heaven or bohemian rhapsody but it does kind of
make it a bit of a hollow award really. not much competition in the last 25 years
after all. it s alright for a pop song - but the best song of the last 25 years
there is no way on earth that song should have been voted the best of the last 25
years....it s a travesty. rubbish! who voted it for it to be included in any list
i am a regular listener to radio 2 but i don t recall the invitation to vote for
this bland slushy rubbish which might appeal to the masses who wouldn t know a
good song if it jumped up and bit them on the nose but is certainly not the best
song of the last 25 years. how depressing and just when we thought manufactured
pop was on the way out - where on earth did this dreadful list appear from while
i am biassed in that i thought love will tear us apart should have won in all
seriousness i think that the best song of the last 25 years should not include
songs less than 5 years old as that would exclude songs which are popular because
of novelty. then again well done robbie good show. you ve got to be kidding.
angels is a great song but not the best song of the last 25 years. only the best
song to be up for nomination at the brits. i think angels is a great song and
deserved to be in the run up for this award but i don t think its the best song
from the past 25 years! right enough it is better than some of the others in this
catergory for example what was will young doing being nominated in the first
place - he is alright but the song isn t that good! i m happy for robbie himself
though! best song in the last 25 years what a joke! think of all the great rock
and pop songs released in the 80s and pretty much all of them are better than
angels. phil collins doesn t deserve awards for all the good songs he wrote angels
is an overrated song that got tiresome even before you had finished listening to
it. soppy rubbish at best. hopefully manufactured rubbish will die down soon and
let the real artists who worked hard for there glory receive awards. so boringly
obvious and typical of the bland nature of mainstream music in britain today for
me it s proof that music and democracy just don t mix. still at least it wasn t
will young... oh it s all just a bit of fun. people take these awards too
seriously! robbie has millions of loyal fans while even non-fans know the words to
angels. him winning obviously reflects who votes in these awards. personally i
wanted will young to win but that was not really due to his musical talent! i
hate the song all it brings back is memories of school discos and no-one to slow-
dance with! i agree about angels. i never get fed up hearing it. whenever the song
comes on the radio i turn the radio up smile and sing along (very badly that is
why the radio has to be turned up to drown my voice out). the song makes me calm
and serene and happy. well done robbie. i think that although robbie williams is a
good performer that angels isn t really that good a song. it certainly isn t
anywhere near as good as love will tear us apart by joy division or wuthering
heights by kate bush. angels is a fantastic song. all credit to robbie williams
and guy chambers. it s a song that will be played forever and bridges all age
groups. robbie did in no way deserve that mantle. whenever we have these awards it
is always artists from the past five years that seem to win the best of the
best...we forget about the late 80s and early 90s for example. they weren t cool at
the time but because they are cool again now shows that the songs have greater
longevity than people think. yes angels is the best song since the past 25 years
because it touches the soul as it carries a lot of meaning. i ve always disliked
angels intensely. i believe it to be symbolic of the general capacity of british
pre-teens teens and middle aged women to accept low quality/ low aspirational
music as classic songwriting. it s orrible. it seems obvious to me that people
who like robbie are people who don t particularly like music all that much. folks
without collections; folks who have never engaged in that madness one experiences
when falling under the spell of pop music. angels adds nothing - it is merely an
irritating distraction - a wasp that refuses to go away on a summer s afternoon
picnic. what a dreadful result.
if you voted for it - you should feel ashamed of yourself - you probably only know
a dozen songs or so don t you - so where do get off applying this uninformed filter
and casting this ridiculous vote. booo hisss angels best song you are kidding
right last five years i might be willing to accept but 25 no way. did whoever
voted for this actually have any music knowledge prior to say 1995 really quite
insulting to the british music industry of the past quarter of a century. no
surprise about robbie williams considering the list. where on earth did the
nominations list come from compiled by an eleven year-old girl perhaps i mean
will young come on. what a load of crap best song in the last 25 years - i don t
think so!! what about all the real artists out there over the last 25 years - the
list is endless but robbie williams doesn t even come close. what a joke. that
song has become such a bane to me that i have developed a pavlovian response to the
word angels where i thrash around and scream no no no no no until someone
tells me the radio s off . why a half-baked cheesy ditty like angels which has
become the anthem for millions of romantic sops (think how many times it was sung
on pop idol for example and by whom) should be voted the best song of the past 25
years is beyond me. if this is the song against which all others are judged then
musicians may as well give up. why do we reward mediocrity so highly in this
country the initial list was very weak anyway but angels the best song of the
last 25 years!!!! i think not i didn t realize radio 2 had so many listeners under
the age of 10!! people have such short memories! a great song yes but the best of
the last 25 years not a chance. i think the person as opposed to the song has been
voted for here. the great british public at work again. it s a mediocre
sentimental and safe song. granted it s not too bad either. but can it stand up
against anything by the smiths (in particular how soon is now ) or anything from
the stone roses first album nope. no because i m not female and i m not 10! ok
i like robbie and angels is a decent song. but it is no way the best song of the
past 25 years! the shortlist wasn t great but him winning it is a joke!
predictable and laughable. the success of angels at this years brits reflects
poorly on the state of british music over the last 25 years. the british public are
brainwashed by the corporate pulp that is presneted to them as cutting edge music
and true talent is being sadly missed. whilst angels is a popular song it is not
even the best song in robbie s repertoire never mind best song of the last 25
years. i am a huge robbie fan and love that song. but i think there are a lot more
outstanding songs / music out there that influenced music today unfortunately they
were left out of the list. have radio 2 listeners even heard of joy division a
band who through two albums have had a bigger impact on music and continue to do
so over the last 25 years than robbie williams ever will. no doubt about it.
there s not a song done by anyone with more emotion and feeling. some people will
adopt their slightly snobby stances but angels has hit home with a far larger
audience than any other song. it should have been joy division.those guys have
played an influential part in shaping modern day music while angels remains yet
another pop song. i sincerely do not believe that in 25 years from now the most
influential artists will argue that robbie williams inspired their art in the way
that the byrds the beatles and nick drake have done for music today. yes!! i
think its a brilliantly written song with different meanings to different people.
there were other great songs in the category... but somebody had to win! robbie was
a deserved winner. i am astounded that such a second-rate record has beaten such a
line up of amazing songs! it s a terrible song voted for by the masses who don t
have the brains to appreciate innovative and exciting music. the best song of the
past 25 years really come on this is surely a joke no i think i need a long
lie down... it just goes to show that the british public do not have a clue about
good quality music when they pick robbie williams over the beautifully talented
kate bush and joy division. i suppose it s confirmed one thing - the british public
are consistently dull :- <( no offence robbie but pleeease! there must be a
thousand better songs than a formulated cheesy pop song for kids. no one agrees
with this and quite frankly it is an embarassment to the integrity of british music
and a further nail in the coffin! i think robbie deserves it he has been the most
iconic of any stars we have had in britain since john lennon and is an idol to
millions worldwide. anybody who says he doesn t deserve it is jealous of his
success. the only real challenger was queen but hey another one bites the dust!!
obviously all the karaoke singers in the uk voted for it. if this is the best song
of the last 25 years then the british music industry is in trouble. sure robbie is
talented and produces excellent material but this is not the best record. a sad
day for music it s not the type of music i normally like but even as a diehard
rock fan i recognise that it is a good song and appelas to most people. that s why
it has been voted best song of the last 25 years. it s a good all-rounder. just
like robbie. best song in 25 years since 1980 i m confused. angels isn t a bad
song. it s a nice catchy formulaic anthem that ticks all the boxes. but this is
not great music. if anything it s regressive. bland even. i suppose it s just more
evidence of how redundant the brit awards have become. granted angels is a good
song however it really wasn t up against any other proper competition. the queen s
song was lackluster and apart from kate bush the other choices were pathetic!
also why weren t the stones there david bowie etc there are so many greater
songs than angels...i wonder if it was simply the fact that robbie wasn t getting
more awards so they had to make one up for him! best song of the last 25 years
what a ridiculuous concept and an even more ridiculous winner. sigh. on the upside
at least it wasn t bohemian rhapsody for which we should all be thankful. angels
is without doubt a great song but i really don t think it deserves the title of
best song in 25 years.perhaps the vote had more to do with teenage opinion on
robbies goodlooks than the actual song!!! don t get me wrong i m not disputing
his looks but there are more deserved winners. it would have been a travesty had
angels not won. without angels robbie williams may well not be where he is now
and britain would have been deprived of one of its most charismatic and talented
performing artists. it has to be seen performed live with 125 000 people singing
along to be fully appreciated. well done rob. i find it hard to believe that
angels is the best we have to show for the past 25 years! i m rapidly redifining
best in my own head now to mean most gratuitously played at weddings and funerals
because people think it has deep meaning . what about britpop blur oasis suede
pulp... not only making fantastic songs but also making changes doing something
different. why must best always come down to most commercially popular i ve
nothing against robbie i actually like his music but how can this possibly be the
best song from the last 25year the brits has proved to be nothing more than a
bargaining tool between the pop moguls to boost band profiles and record sales. the
same goes with the scissor sisters i think this is a superb record and thoroughly
deserves the newcomer award but the album comes no where near u2 s new record
neither are they in the same league. once again there have been some baffling
discisions made they are not for artisic reasons but for profit. no surprise
really it s voted for by the general public. since when did they have taste in
music personally i find angels by robbie williams to be one of the most
irritating songs i have ever heard! it absolutely deserved to win. it is a song
that has united the generations and will continue to be played for many years to
come. it s an absolute joke however most of the original 25 were very poor
choices as well. all in all a pretty pointless exercise ! the song is overplayed
and oversentimental. out of the rather poor five choices that were left it should
have gone to either joy division or queen. i suppose we should be thankful that it
didn t end up in the hands of will young though. although it has nostalgia value
there is no way it deserved to win. everybody knows the words to bohemian rhapsody
nothing compares 2 u etc. much better songs and more timeless. give it to someone
with real talent. although angels is a good song i think that anyone with the
slightest musical taste will realise that this is not the best song of the last 25
years. this is just another example of record company manipulation to keep an
artist in the public eye. why not give him an award for the greatest pair of
trousers if that s all it means!
ferguson urges henry punishment sir alex ferguson has called on the football
association to punish arsenal s thierry henry for an incident involving gabriel
heinze. ferguson believes henry deliberately caught heinze on the head with his
knee during united s controversial win. the united boss said it was worse than ruud
van nistelrooy s foul on ashley cole for which he got a three-game ban. we shall
present it to the fa and see what they do. the tackle on heinze was terrible he
said. clubs are permitted to ask the fa to examine specific incidents but
information is expected to be provided within 48 hours of the game. the clash
occurred moments before half-time when a freddie ljungberg challenge left heinze on
the ground on the left touchline. henry following the ball attempted to hurdle
the argentine but his knee collided with the back of heinze s head. the striker
protested his innocence - and referee mike riley deemed the collision accidental.
ferguson was also upset by arsenal s overall discipline during the heated encounter
between the two arch-rivals and praised his own side s behaviour. edu produced a
terrible tackle on scholes that was a potential leg-breaker he said. there were
24 fouls in the game by arsenal seven on heinze five on ronaldo six by vieira -
and it was only his sixth foul that got him booked. phil neville got booked for his
first challenge. i am proud of my players for the way they handled that pressure.
we have always been good at being gracious in defeat. what happened on sunday
overshadowed our achievement but then they do it all the time don t they
uganda bans vagina monologues uganda s authorities have banned the play the vagina
monologues due to open in the capital kampala this weekend. the ugandan media
council said the performance would not be put on as it promoted and glorified acts
such as lesbianism and homosexuality. it said the production could go ahead if the
organisers expunge all the offending parts . but the organisers of the play say it
raises awareness of sexual abuse against women. the play promotes illegal
unnatural sexual acts homosexuality and prostitution it should be and is hereby
banned the council s ruling said. the show which has been a controversial sell-
out around the world explores female sexuality and strength through individual
women telling their stories through monologues. some parliamentarians and church
leaders are also siding with the media council uganda s new vision newspaper
reports. the play is obscene and pornographic although it was under the guise of
women s liberation mp kefa ssempgani told parliament. but the work s author us
playwright eve ensler says it is all about women s empowerment. there is
obviously some fear of the vagina and saying the word vagina ms ensler told the
bbc. it s not a slang word or dirty word it s a biological anatomical word. she
said the play is being produced and performed by ugandan women and it is not being
forced on them. the four ugandan ngos organising the play intended to raise money
to campaign to stop violence against women and to raise funds for the war-torn
north of the country. i m extremely outraged at the hypocrisy the play s
organiser in uganda sarah mukasa told the bbc s focus on africa programme. i m
amazed that this country uganda gives the impression that it is progressive and
supports women s rights and the notions of free speech; yet when women want to
share their stories the government uses the apparatus of state to shut us up.
diageo to buy us wine firm diageo the world s biggest spirits company has agreed
to buy californian wine company chalone for $260m (£134m) in an all-cash deal.
although diageo s best-known brands include smirnoff vodka and guinness stout it
already has a us winemaking arm - diageo chateau & estate wines. diageo said it
expects to get us regulatory approval for the deal during the first quarter of
2005. it said chalone would be integrated into its existing us wine business. the
us wine market represents a growth opportunity for diageo with favourable
demographic and consumption trends said diageo north america president ivan
menezes. in july diageo which is listed on the london stock exchange reported an
annual turnover of £8.89bn down from £9.28bn a year earlier. it blamed a weaker
dollar for its lower turnover. in the year ending 31 december 2003 chalone
reported revenues of $69.4m.
mci shares climb on takeover bid shares in us phone company mci have risen on
speculation that it is in takeover talks. the wall street journal reported on
thursday that qwest has bid $6.3bn (£3.4bn) for mci. other firms have also
expressed an interest in mci the second-largest us long-distance phone firm and
may now table rival bids analysts said. shares in mci which changed its name from
worldcom when it emerged from bankruptcy were up 2.4% at $20.15. press reports
suggest that qwest and mci may reach an agreement as early as next week although
rival bids may muddy the waters. the largest us telephone company verizon has
previously held preliminary merger discussions with mci reuters quoted sources as
saying. consolidation in the us telecommunications industry has picked up in the
past few months as companies look to cut costs and boost client bases. a merger
between mci and qwest would be the fifth billion-dollar telecoms deal since
october. last week sbc communications agreed to buy its former parent and phone
trailblazer at&t for about $16bn. competition has intensified and fixed-line phone
providers such as mci and at&t have seen themselves overtaken by rivals. buying mci
would give qwest a local phone service provider access to mci s global network
and business-based subscribers. mci also offers internet services. mci was renamed
after it emerged from chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in april last year. it hit
the headlines as worldcom in 2002 after admitting it illegally booked expenses and
inflated profits. the scandal was a key factor in a global slide in share prices
and the reverberations are still being felt today. shareholders lost about $180bn
when the company collapsed while 20 000 workers lost their jobs. former worldcom
boss bernie ebbers is currently on trial accused of overseeing an $11bn fraud.
no jail for singer courtney love singer courtney love has been spared jail for
assault and drug offences but must serve three years probation. she had back-to-
back court appearances in two separate cases in los angeles first pleading no
contest to attacking a woman with a whisky bottle. in the second ms love 40
pleaded guilty to possessing a forged prescription and painkiller oxycodone. she
must also do 100 hours community service have drug treatment attend narcotics
anonymous and pay a fine. the ex-hole singer s lawyer howard weitzman said ms love
had turned her life around and she was clean and sober . the assault charge
stemmed from april 2004 when ms love found musician kristin king in her boyfriend
s home. ms king said the singer threw the bottle at the left side of my face in
an angry vicious and erratic attack. ms love was originally charged with the
more serious offence of assault with a deadly weapon but that was reduced to
assault. judge rand rubin said she must: - spend three years on probation - have
one year s anger management counselling - have one year s drug rehabilitation -
do 100 hours community service - pay $1 000 (£535) fine - have random drug
tests - go to three narcotics anonymous meetings per week in the drugs case she
was sentenced to 18 months probation to run concurrently with the probation for
the assault. that offence stemmed from october 2003 when she suffered an overdose
after breaking a window at her boyfriend s home. in a separate case relating to the
same incident ms love was sentenced to 18 months in drug rehabilitation for being
under the influence of cocaine and opiates. in another case last october she
pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct for hitting a man on the head with a
microphone stand at a new york city nightclub. last month her lawyers said she had
won back custody of frances bean her 12-year-old daughter with former nirvana
frontman kurt cobain. the girl was removed from her care following her double
arrest in october 2003. cobain committed suicide in 1994.
bookmakers back aviator for oscar the aviator has been tipped by uk bookmakers as
the favourite to win the best film award at this year s oscars. ray star jamie
foxx is clear favourite in the best actor category while million dollar baby s
hilary swank is tipped to win the best actress prize. bookmakers predict cate
blanchett will be named best supporting actress. william hill and ladbrokes have
given the aviator 4/9 and 8/13 odds of winning best film with million dollar baby
in second place at 9/4. bet direct and bet 365 also tip the aviator with the
majority of bookmakers regarding finding neverland as the outsider. the aviator is
also widely tipped to win the best director prize for martin scorsese. british star
clive owen is second favourite at william hill to take the best supporting actor
award for his performance in closer. the favourite in that category is sideways
star thomas hayden church. vera drake star imelda staunton has 5/1 odds of winning
the best actress oscar at bet 365 and william hill ahead of fellow uk star kate
winslet who has odds of 25/1 at william hill. mike leigh is the outsider in the
best director category for vera drake a position he holds jointly with ray s
taylor hackford at bookmakers vc bet. this year s academy awards will be handed out
in hollywood on 27 february. x factor judge sharon osbourne will present sky
television s live coverage of the event. meanwhile clive owen s best supporting
actor nomination has led a bookmaker to shorten his odds of becoming the next james
bond. he has moved from 4/1 to 5/2 favourite to play 007 with hugh jackman and
ewan mcgregor joint second favourite. clive owen s nomination has sparked a
betting frenzy from james bond fans who feel that his heightened global
recognition will have done his chances of becoming the next bond a world of good
said william hill spokesman rupert adams.
uk world s biggest music buyer uk consumers are the biggest music buyers in the
world according to new figures released on tuesday by the british phonographic
industry (bpi). but global sales of recorded music were flat in 2004 with growing
sales in dvd music videos offset by online and physical piracy in major markets.
the uk music industry recorded an overall 3% increase in volume sales mostly due
to its robust albums market. however world music sales declined by 1.3% to $33.6
billion (£17.7 billion). the uk cd albums market grew by 4.5% in 2004 with a record
174.6 million units sold. on average every briton buys 3.2 cds per person per year.
around 26 000 albums are released in the uk each year making britain second only
to the us in terms of the number of releases. overall sales were driven by new uk-
signed artists such as keane katie melua and scissor sisters whose debut album
sold almost 1.6 million copies in the uk. a slew of great new british artists have
met uk music fans demand for great music said bpi chairman peter jameson. the
best-selling album globally was usher s confessions - one of eight albums to sell
more than five million copies in 2004. the growth in the dvd market and a sharp
increase in sales of digital music ensured a strong market in the us. the total
number of tracks downloaded last year were up more than tenfold on 2003. digital
sales in the us in the first two months of 2005 are already more than double that
of the same period in 2004. however some markets in continental europe and asia -
notably sweden finland france spain and south korea - have been drastically hit
by internet piracy. australia italy and the netherlands also saw a decline. on
the positive side digital sales are booming said john kennedy chief executive of
the international federation of phonographic industries (ifpi). however
commercial piracy and illegal file-sharing are continuing to depress our markets.
the priority in the coming year is to step up the advance of legitimate digital
sales and sustain our anti-piracy efforts. the main choice today s music fan now
has to make is whether to get music legally or illegally added mr jameson.
global blogger action day called the global web blog community is being called into
action to lend support to two imprisoned iranian bloggers. the month-old committee
to protect bloggers is asking those with blogs to dedicate their sites on 22
february to the free mojtaba and arash day . arash sigarchi and mojtaba saminejad
are both in prison in iran. blogs are free sites through which people publish
thoughts and opinions. iranian authorities have been clamping down on prominent
sites for some time. i hope this day will focus people curt hopkins director of
the committee told the bbc news website. the group has a list of actions which it
says bloggers can take including writing to local iranian embassies. the committee
has deemed tuesday free mojtaba and arash day as part of its first campaign. it
is calling on the blogsphere - the name for the worldwide community of bloggers -
to do what it can to help raise awareness of the plight of mojtaba and arash as
well as other cyber-dissidents . if you have a blog the least you could do is
put nothing on that blog except free mojtaba and arash day said mr hopkins.
that would mean you could see that phrase 7.1 million times. that alone will shine
some light on the situation. if you don t have one find one dedicated to that -
it takes about 30 seconds. technorati a blog search engine tracks about six
million blogs and says that more than 12 000 are added daily. a blog is created
every 5.8 seconds according to a us research think-tank. the committee to protect
bloggers was started by us blogger curt hopkins and counts fired flight attendant
blogger ellen simonetti as a deputy director. she has since started the
international bloggers bill of rights a global petition to protect bloggers at
work. although not the only website committed to human rights issues by any means
it aims to be the hub or organisation information and support for bloggers in
particular and their rights to freedom of speech. the committee although only a
month old aims to be the focal point for blogger action on similar issues in the
future and will operate as a non-for-profit organisation. blogging is in this
weird no man s land. people think of it as being one thing or another depending on
their point of view said mr hopkins. some think of themselves as pundits kind
of like journalists and some like me have a private blog which is just a
publishing platform. but they do not have a constituency and are out there in the
cold. it is not just human rights issues in countries which have a track record
of restricting what is published in the media that is of concern to bloggers. the
question of bloggers and what rights they have to say what they want on their sites
is a thorny one and has received much press attention recently. high profile cases
in which employees have been sacked for what they have said on their personal and
often anonymous blogs have highlighted the muddy situation that the blogsphere is
currently in. this is a big messy argument explained mr hopkins. he added: it
is just such a new way of doing business there will be clamp downs. but the way
these issues get tested is through the courts which said mr hopkins is part of
the whole messy conversation. if you haven t already got bloggers in your company
you will have them tomorrow - and if you don t have a blogger policy now you had
better start looking at having one. mr hopkins said that the blogsphere - which is
doubling every five months - was powerful because it takes so little time and
expertise to create a blog. everyone does this - mums radicals conservatives
he said. many companies offer easy-to-use services to create a blog and publish it
in minutes to a global community. that is the essential difference. what i call
templating software gives every single person on earth the chance to have one.
you don t even have to have your own computer.
hewitt fights back to reach final lleyton hewitt kept his dream of an australian
open title alive with a four-set win over andy roddick in friday s second semi-
final. the home favourite will face marat safin in sunday s final after coming
through 3-6 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (7-4) 6-1. hewitt fought back from a set down and trailed
in both tie-breaks but would not be denied thrilling the melbourne crowd with a
typically battling effort. he is aiming to be the first australian winner since
mark edmondson in 1976. hewitt is the first australian to make the final since pat
cash lost to mats wilander in 1988 but faces a huge challenge against safin - the
conqueror of roger federer. after needing five sets in his last two matches there
was reason to think hewitt might struggle for fitness. he certainly made a sluggish
start dropping his opening service game and roddick dominated with his huge serve
as he took the first set. after 12 tense games in the second the key moment came
when hewitt raised his game in the tie-break to overturn an early mini-break. that
energised the crowd but roddick was not finished and raced 4-1 clear in the crucial
third before hewitt pegged him back and forced another tie-break. again roddick
broke first and again hewitt fought back taking the lead with a superb backhand
pass. the australian was not to be denied and a disheartened roddick made little
impact in the fourth set as hewitt raced to victory sending the melbourne crowd
wild and ensuring the final will be a huge occasion. it s awesome said hewitt.
i started preparing for this tournament nine months ago. i ve done a lot of hard
yards to get here. i ve always said i d do anything to get in the first night
final at the australian open. now i ve got my chance. roddick was furious with
himself for failing to take advantage of leads in both tie-breaks. i m usually
pretty money in those said roddick. either one of those would have given me a
distinct advantage. i m mad i felt i was in there with a shot. he put himself in
position to win big points. i donated a little more than i would have wanted. and
the american played down the influence of one spectator who appeared to contribute
to a double fault by shouting during rodick s service action. it just took one
jackass to shout out said roddick adding that the crowd overall was very
respectful .
euronext joins bid battle for lse pan-european stock market euronext has approached
the london stock exchange (lse) about a possible takeover bid. the approach is at
an early stage and therefore does not require a response at this point lse said.
talks with the european stock market and with rival bidder deutsche boerse will
continue the lse said. last week the group rejected a £1.3bn ($2.5bn) takeover
offer from deutsche boerse claiming that it undervalued the business. lse saw its
shares surge 4.9% to a new high of 583p in early trade following the announcement
on monday. the offer follows widespread media speculation that euronext would make
an offer for lse. experts now widely expect a bidding war for europe s biggest
stock market which lists stocks with a total capitalisation of £1.4 trillion to
break out. commentators say that a deal with euronext which owns the liffe
derivatives exchange in london and combines the paris amsterdam and lisbon stock
exchanges could potentially offer the lse more cost savings than a deal with
deutsche boerse. a weekend report in the telegraph had quoted an unnamed executive
at euronext as saying the group would make a cash bid to trump deutsche boerse s
offer. because we already own liffe in london the cost savings available to us
from a merger are far greater than for deutsche boerse the newspaper quoted the
executive as saying. euronext chief executive jean-francois theodore is reported to
have already held private talks with lse s chief executive clara furse. further
reports had suggested that euronext could make an offer in excess of the lse s 533p
a share closing price on friday. however euronext said it could not guarantee at
this stage that a firm offer would be made for lse. there has been extensive
speculation about a possible takeover of the company since an attempted merger with
deutsche boerse failed in 2000.
high fuel prices hit ba s profits british airways has blamed high fuel prices for a
40% drop in profits. reporting its results for the three months to 31 december
2004 the airline made a pre-tax profit of £75m ($141m) compared with £125m a year
earlier. rod eddington ba s chief executive said the results were respectable
in a third quarter when fuel costs rose by £106m or 47.3%. ba s profits were still
better than market expectation of £59m and it expects a rise in full-year
revenues. to help offset the increased price of aviation fuel ba last year
introduced a fuel surcharge for passengers. in october it increased this from £6
to £10 one-way for all long-haul flights while the short-haul surcharge was raised
from £2.50 to £4 a leg. yet aviation analyst mike powell of dresdner kleinwort
wasserstein says ba s estimated annual surcharge revenues - £160m - will still be
way short of its additional fuel costs - a predicted extra £250m. turnover for the
quarter was up 4.3% to £1.97bn further benefiting from a rise in cargo revenue.
looking ahead to its full year results to march 2005 ba warned that yields -
average revenues per passenger - were expected to decline as it continues to lower
prices in the face of competition from low-cost carriers. however it said sales
would be better than previously forecast. for the year to march 2005 the total
revenue outlook is slightly better than previous guidance with a 3% to 3.5%
improvement anticipated ba chairman martin broughton said. ba had previously
forecast a 2% to 3% rise in full-year revenue. it also reported on friday that
passenger numbers rose 8.1% in january. aviation analyst nick van den brul of bnp
paribas described ba s latest quarterly results as pretty modest . it is quite
good on the revenue side and it shows the impact of fuel surcharges and a positive
cargo development however operating margins down and cost impact of fuel are very
strong he said. since the 11 september 2001 attacks in the united states ba has
cut 13 000 jobs as part of a major cost-cutting drive. our focus remains on
reducing controllable costs and debt whilst continuing to invest in our products
mr eddington said. for example we have taken delivery of six airbus a321 aircraft
and next month we will start further improvements to our club world flat beds. ba
s shares closed up four pence at 274.5 pence.
blair s hope for blunkett return the events leading to david blunkett s resignation
must not swept under the carpet the tories have warned. on wednesday tony blair
said he hoped the former home secretary would serve again in government in the
future. mr blunkett quit in december after a probe linked him to the visa
application of his ex-lover s nanny. mr blair said he left without a stain on his
character but tory dominic grieve branded the way mr blunkett s office operated as
scandalous . mr blair told bbc radio 4 s today programme: i know david very well
and i believe him to be a man of real integrity and real ability and i was very sad
for him as to what happened. he said mr blunkett still had an immense amount to
offer the country but he was not making any guarantees or definitive statements
about future jobs. but shadow attorney general mr grieve said: while i don t rule
out the possibility that mr blunkett may return as a minister i don t think it s
something that can simply be brushed under the carpet. senior labour backbencher
martin o neill who chairs the commons trade committee said he believed the prime
minister would want one of his praetorian guard - a reference to the elite body
guard of roman emperors - back alongside him. but colleague ian gibson who chairs
the science and technology committee said there was a question mark as to
whether mr blunkett could serve at cabinet level again.
malik rejects all-black mp lists a call for ethnic minority shortlists to boost the
number of black and asian mps has been rejected by one of labour s most senior
asians. shahid malik who is on labour s ruling nec accepted people s frustration
but said there should be targets not lists to boost representation of minorities.
just 13 of britain s 659 mps are from ethnic minority groups he added. commission
for racial equality chief trevor phillips argued on sunday the time had come for
such shortlists. that came after it emerged that one of britain s most ethnically
diverse constituency west ham was to get a women-only shortlist for the next
election following an nec ruling. mr phillips said changes to the race relations
legislation might allow political parties to reserve seats for under-represented
groups. for example in west ham this might allow only women and minorities to seek
to be candidates. if we get to the other side of the general election and find
that minorities are not represented we have to say that after 20 or 30 years of
talking about this we cannot go on the same way he said. he added: it would be
terribly disappointing if in the least white constituency [west ham] in the whole
of europe we didn t have a minority candidate. appearing on bbc radio 4 s today
programme mr malik who is himself running for the seat of dewsbury acknowledged
that so far women-only shortlists had failed to deliver a boost in the number of
ethnic minority candidates. but he argued: i do think that there currently things
that parties can do and which they aren t doing... for example setting targets to
ensure that existing democratic structures are more reflective. labour mp diane
abbot who backs mr phillips proposal of shortlists said she had been elected
along with three other ethnic minority mps - keith vaz paul boateng and bernie
grant - in 1987 but it took another 10 years before another black woman was able to
win a seat. that was a rate of progress ms abbott described as painful . i am a
little older than shahid and served on the national executive committee in the
1990s - i was the first black person on the nec ... crossing our fingers and hoping
we are going to get more black and asian mp hasn t worked she said. the
shortlist strategy works for women and i believe that it can be made to work for
black and asian people. on tuesday labour chairman ian mccartney said his party
was ambitious to improve black and asian representation. we haven t ruled out
all-black shortlists and welcome a debate in the party about this he said.
wmc says xstrata bid is too low australian mining firm wmc resources has said it is
worth up to 30% more than a hostile 7.4bn australian dollar ($5.8bn; £3bn) bid by
rival xstrata. there is now pressure on swiss-based xstrata to increase its
takeover offer. a report from investment firm grant samuel in wmc defence documents
values wmc shares at a$7.17 to a$8.24 against xstrata s bid of a$6.35 a share.
analysts said the defence documents provided more details on wmc and may trigger a
possible rival bid. if a bid is going to emerge it is probably likely in the next
one to two weeks said daiwa securities analyst mark pervan. he said the valuation
would put increased pressure on xstrata to look at sweetening its offer. marc
gonsalves an executive at xstrata said: we will review the information contained
in the target s statement over the next week or so. he added: while we will
review the assumptions made by grant samuel in detail we are extremely sceptical
of their conclusion and suggest that wmc shareholders take extreme care in
presuming that these optimistic assumptions are capable of being realised. last
month australia s competition watchdog said it would not oppose the purchase of wmc
by zurich and london-based xstrata. on tuesday wmc chairman tommie bergman said in
a statement the directors believed it was in shareholders best interest to reject
the offer. he said wmc would pursue value-creating options provided by a
portfolio of world class assets . and wmc chief executive andrew michelmore
claimed the xstrata offer was aimed at creating value for xstrata s shareholders
and was not being made for the benefit of wmc s shareholders. grant samuel said its
valuation of wmc was based on lower average prices for nickel copper and uranium
than current market levels. any longer term commodity price improvements would
only improve our outlook mr michelmore said. in 2003 xstrata acquired australia
s largest copper miner - mim holdings. wmc resources is the world s third-largest
producer of concentrated nickel and also a miner of copper and uranium. it owns
the olympic dam mine in south australia which contains about one-third of the
world s known uranium resources and is also the world s fourth largest copper mine.
xstrata is a global mining giant with operations in australia south africa spain
germany argentina and the uk. its core products are copper coking coal thermal
coal ferrochrome vanadium and zinc. it also has growing businesses in gold lead
and silver.
ukip mep attacked german empire a uk independence party mep suggested germany saw
the eu as an empire and was cheaper than using tanks a new documentary has
revealed. mike nattrass ukip s deputy leader made the comments to an audience at
a meeting during last september s hartlepool by-election campaign. but challenged
on the remark he denied accusing germany of using the eu as cover for a 4th
german reich . he says he was not german-bashing but saying peace was the eu s
founding aim. the meeting was shown in a bbc 3 film on ex-ukip mep robert kilroy-
silk. the former chat show host quit the party earlier this month calling it a
joke. the documentary showed mr nattrass apparently talking about the eu telling
the meeting: the germans are the big losers here but they don t care because to
them the project is worthwhile. it s like an empire for them spreading in all
directions away from germany into hungary into what they call the sudetenland -
czechoslovakia places like that. so it s cheaper for them to do it this way than
roll the tanks in. on tuesday he told the bbc news website he did not think the
comments were offensive and worked happily with meps of different nationalities in
the european parliament. he argued that peace was the only reason for having the
outdated eu as there was no economic justification. pointing to germany s trade
interests as a country in the centre of europe mr nattrass said: the fact is that
the eu benefits germany but it does not benefit britain. i m not at all german-
bashing. it s the truth. a ukip spokesman said: mike has some passionate beliefs
and sometimes uses excessively colourful language with which to express them. the
documentary showed some of the tensions between mr kilroy-silk and his fellow meps
after ukip took third place in last year s european elections. he denied wanting to
be leader until october 2004 when he told bbc one s breakfast with frost programme
he aspired to the job. asked by the documentary makers why he had lied about his
leadership ambitions mr kilroy-silk said: there was one thing i said that i
shouldn t have said at the time. i was trying to be helpful to the party and it
was the wrong thing to do i should have told the truth. the film also included
footage of a row between mr kilroy-silk mep nigel farage and party leader roger
knapman about rumours that he was about to resign the ukip whip in the european
parliament. mr kilroy-silk told them he had not left the ukip group - a move he
announced shortly after the meeting. he told mr farage: don t tell lies nigel now
you ve told too many. most of the trouble had been caused by you. ukip officials
claim it was in fact mr kilroy-silk not mr farage who briefed newspapers he was
leaving the group of meps. later in unguarded off-air comments in a television
studio mr kilroy-silk was heard saying he was irritated by defending some of
these right-wing fascist nutters . mr kilroy-silk separately said he had argued
against ukip working with such groups which believed homosexuality was a sin. a
ukip spokesman said there were more than 40 meps in the same group in the european
parliament. they were from a broad spectrum - some right-wing some left-wing - but
with a shared belief in the unfeasibility of the eu as it is now . he did not
defend other groups religious beliefs but argued it was their right to hold such
views - just as mr kilroy-silk had a right to criticise arab states. london ukip
mep gerard batten said: robert has made a variety of comments about ukip and its
meps. there are of course two sides to every story. what robert does not say is
that he was offered several positions which would have given him effective control
of the party but not the title of leader. mr kilroy-silk is to launch his own
parry veritas in westminster on wednesday.
elton plays paris charity concert sir elton john has performed at a special concert
in paris to raise money for the victims of the asian tsunami. the british singer
played to a 2 700-strong audience on sunday at the french capital s bastille opera
house. the concert was also part of an attempt to bring a broader range of events
to the famous venue. money raised will go to the fondation pour l enfance
(foundation for childhood) which aims to rebuild a children s shelter in sri lanka.
sir elton played hits from his vast back catalogue to a sell-out crowd which
included former french president valery giscard d estaing and his wife anne-aymone.
the veteran pop star played piano accompaniment throughout the concert which lasted
for three hours without an interval. he told the crowd: throughout the years i
ve done a lot of drugs and alcohol. it s true that i was a nightmare impossible.
for the last 14 years i ve been normal. now my drug is called david - a reference
to david furnish his partner. the crowd who greeted each song with a standing
ovation also included french singer charles aznavour and british ambassador sir
john holmes. sir elton has also teamed up with phil collins to record a version of
eric clapton s 1991 hit tears in heaven to raise money for the relief fund. a
release date has yet to be set for the recording which was organised by sharon
osbourne.
edu blasts arsenal arsenal s brazilian midfielder edu has hit out at the club for
stalling over offering him a new contract. edu s deal expires next summer and he
has been linked with spanish trio real madrid barcelona and valencia. he told bbc
sport: i m not sure if i want to stay or not because the club have let the
situation go on this far. if they had really wanted to sign they should have come
up with an offer six months before indicating they wanted to sign me and that s
made me think. edu s brother and representative amadeo fensao has previously said
that arsenal s current offer to the midfielder was well short of what he was
seeking. and edu 26 added: my brother is due to come to london on thursday.
there is a meeting planned for 6 or 7 january to sort it out with arsenal. now i
have a choice to stay or go. i want to sort it out as soon as possible that s in
the best interests of both the club and myself. i m going to make my decision
after the meeting later this week. edu is now able to begin negotiations with
other clubs because fifa regulations allow players to start talks six months before
their contracts expire. the midfielder who broke in to the brazilian national side
in 2004 admitted he had been flattered to have been linked with the three spanish
giants. edu said: i ve just heard stories from the news that the madrid president
florentino perez the valencia people as well as barcelona are interested. that
s nice but i ve never talked to them so i can t say they want me sign 100%. last
month wenger said he we was hopeful edu would sign a new deal and played down
suggestions that the lure of a club like real madrid would be too strong for edu.
edu added that he had been encouraged by wenger s support for him. i still have a
good relationship with arsene wenger - he s always said he wants me to sign.
call for kenteris to be cleared kostas kenteris lawyer has called for the doping
charges against the greek sprinter to be dropped. gregory ioannidis has submitted
new evidence to a greek athletics tribunal which he claims proves the former
olympic champion has no case to answer. kenteris and compatriot katerina thanou
were given provisional suspensions in december for failing to take drugs tests
before the athens olympics. the greek tribunal is expected to give its verdict
early next week. kenteris and thanou withdrew from the athens olympics last august
after missing drugs tests on the eve of the opening ceremony. they were also
alleged to have avoided tests in tel aviv and chicago before the games. but
ioannidis said: everything overwhelmingly shows that the charges should be
dropped. ioannidis also said he has presented evidence that will throw a different
light on the events leading up to the pair s sensational withdrawal from the athens
games. the lawyer added that he has proof the authorities knew kenteris was in
germany at the time he was alleged to have missed a test in chicago. nick davies
spokesman for athletics ruling body the iaaf which handed out the provisional
bans said: we can t comment because we were not present at the hearing and don t
know what was said behind closed doors. we expect a verdict from the greek
athletics federation before the end of february and will obviously be making a
statement then. kenteris won 200m gold at the 2000 sydney olympics while thanou
won silver in the 100m.
sony psp handheld console hits us the latest handheld gaming gadget sony s
playstation portable goes on sale in the us on thursday. the entertainment device
which also stores images music and video is intended to compete with nintendo s
ds released earlier this month in the uk. gamers have been queuing outside shops
across the us to get their hands on the gadget which costs $250 (about £132). the
first million sold will come with the spider-man 2 film on umd sony s own disc
format for the device. the psp can be linked up with others for multiplayer gaming
via a wireless connection. sony has touted the machine as the walkman of the 21st
century and has sold more than 800 000 units in japan since its launch there last
year. but it faces stiff competition from the nintendo ds which sold more than
the gamecube in its first few days on release in europe. it too allows for
multiplayer gaming over the air. nintendo dominates the handheld market with more
than a 90% share of the market in the us alone. the gizmondo combined media player
phone and gaming gadget also went on sale in the uk last week. it hopes to take a
share of the handheld gaming market too. the story of the psp is it s not a
gaming device as much as it is a portable entertainment device said michael
pachter analyst at wedbush morgan securities. he told the reuters news agency that
he expected sony to sell about 10 million psps in enough time to rival apple s
ipod. there is no date for the psp s release in europe yet. sony has promised to
have a million units ready for its us launch but there are fears demand may not be
met. it also said it expected to ship three million psps worldwide by the end of
its fiscal year ending 31 march. the machine s european launch was put back a few
months last week in order to make sure enough of the devices were ready for its us
launch as well as satisfying the japanese market. the psp has almost as much
processing power in it as the playstation 2 console. hundreds of gamers gathered at
us shops some waiting for more than 36 hours to be the first to get their hands
on the gadget. a spokesman for one us shop said it expected the device to sell out
on its first day. the 24 games for the mini console include ape academy formula
one wipeout pure and fired up. movie studios including lions gate entertainment
and disney have also announced forthcoming film titles that will be made available
on the umd format.
super union merger plan touted two of britain s big trade unions could merge to
form a super union of two million members. the move by amicus and the transport
and general workers union (tgwu) would be a seen as a bid to carry more weight with
ministers and employers. amicus has 1.2 million members and the tgwu has 800 000.
any merger would have to be approved by the unions executives and their
membership. it is understood meetings will be held on wednesday about the proposal.
along with the gmb and unison the tgwu and amicus worked closely together in the
last year to hammer out a 56-point deal with labour s leadership over equality at
work holidays and pensions - the warwick agreement. both unions are remaining
tight-lipped about the merger rumours but one insider pointed out to the bbc news
website that nobody is denying suggestions a merger could be on the agenda when
the two unions executives hold their meetings on wednesday. amicus s executive was
due to meet in any case although the tgwu is holding specially scheduled talks.
iaaf to rule on greek sprint pair greek sprinters kostas kenteris and katerina
thanou are expected to find out on wednesday if they will be banned for missing
drugs tests this summer. the international association of athletics federations
(iaaf) council held a conference call on tuesday and are set to announce their
decision. kenteris and thanou could be suspended for up to two years. the duo
withdrew from the olympics after missing a test but claimed they had suffered a
motorcycle crash. the greek authorities have also brought criminal charges against
the sprinters for avoiding a drugs test and faking an accident. their former coach
christos tzekos is also facing charges and all three are awaiting a trial date.
however the iaaf will determine the sprinters future on the track after carefully
considering all the evidence. the sport s ruling body is expected to direct the
greek federation in what action it should take against the sprinters. kenteris and
thanou can appeal against any decision at the court of arbitration for sport. the
sprinters both sent written explanations to the iaaf which have been taken into
account. the iaaf sent an official warning to the sprinters and coach tzekos after
they were discovered training in qatar rather than in crete where they had said
they would be. but kenteris and thanou then went on to skip tests in tel aviv and
chicago when they decided to fly back to greece early. just before the olympics
the pair dramatically missed another test in athens before withdrawing from the
games. kenteris 31 won gold in the 200m at the sydney olympics in 2000 where
thanou 29 won silver in the 100m.
china aviation seeks rescue deal scandal-hit jet fuel supplier china aviation oil
has offered to repay its creditors $220m (£117m) of the $550m it lost on trading in
oil futures. the firm said it hoped to pay $100m now and another $120m over eight
years. with assets of $200m and liabilities totalling $648m it needs creditors
backing for the offer to avoid going into bankruptcy. the trading scandal is the
biggest to hit singapore since the $1.2bn collapse of barings bank in 1995. chen
jiulin chief executive of china aviation oil (cao) was arrested by at changi
airport by singapore police on 8 december. he was returning from china where he
had headed when cao announced its trading debacle in late-november. the firm had
been betting heavily on a fall in the price of oil during october but prices rose
sharply instead. among the creditors whose backing cao needs for its restructuring
plan are banking giants such as barclay s capital and sumitomo mitsui as well as
south korean firm sk energy. of the immediate payment the firm - china s biggest
jet fuel supplier - said it would be paying $30m out of its own resources. the rest
would come from its parent company china aviation oil holding company in beijing.
the holding company owned by the chinese government holds most of cao s
singapore-listed shares. it cut its holding from 75% to 60% on 20 october.
a november to remember last saturday one newspaper proclaimed that england were
still the number one side in the world. that statement was made to look a little
foolish by events later that afternoon at twickenham. but it illustrated the
wonderful unpredictability of test rugby at the highest level at the end of a
richly entertaining autumn series. the final weekend threw the world pecking order
into renewed confusion with australia s triumph in london followed by france s
capitulation to new zealand. clearly there is no number one side in the world at
the moment declared wallabies coach eddie jones on arrival back in sydney. there
are four five or probably six sides all competing at the same level and on any
given day the difference between one side and another is only about 1%. while
that bodes well for rugby as a whole it also sharpens the sense of excitement
ahead of what could be the most open six nations championship for a decade. while
the wallabies all blacks and springboks hit the beach before turning their
attention to super 12 matters in the new year europe s finest have less than 10
weeks before they return to the international fray. and for the first time in more
than a decade it will not simply be a straightforward choice between england and
france for the six nations title. that owes much to ireland s continued progress
and the belief that wales are on the verge of delivering a major scalp to cement
the promise of their autumn displays. who secured a first triple crown in 19
years last season could go one better and win their first five/six nations title
since 1985. they start with away games against italy and scotland before england
and france come to lansdowne road. their momentous victory over the springboks can
only bolster ireland s self-belief while ronan o gara s late drop goal to deliver
victory over argentina was further proof that eddie o sullivan s side can now close
out tight games. not that england or france who have won nine of the last 10 six
nations titles between them will lay down quietly. dismantling of the springboks
suggested that even after the loss of such influential figures as martin johnson
and lawrence dallaglio they still have the personnel to prosper. the narrow
defeat to australia was a timely reminder that not everything is blooming in the
red rose garden but the fresh shoots of post-world cup recovery have been sown by
new head coach andy robinson. a fresh desire to regain former heights is evident
and if england emerge triumphant from an opening six nations engagement in cardiff
a fourth title in six years is within reach. are in familiar revival territory
but this time it appears there is substance behind the rediscovered style. while
south africa s over-confidence in cardiff made for a closer scoreline than expected
wales could legitimately claim to have had victory within their grasp against the
all blacks in one of the best tests in recent memory. if mike ruddock can coax a
reliable set-piece platform from his pack there is no reason why victories should
not ensue come february. the last fortnight has left in a state of bewilderment
after an autumn series that began with a superb victory over australia. a stunning
defeat to argentina their first loss since the world cup could have been
attributed to trademark french inconsistency. but the manner of new zealand s 45-6
demolition job in paris has coach bernard laporte bemoaning a lack of young talent
coming through to replace the old guard. fortunately for the french the opening
match of the six nations sees them entertaining in paris. after two reasonable
performances against australia the scots humbling by the springboks forced coach
matt williams to reassess his belief that a win over one of the major nations was
imminent. while individuals such as chris cusiter and ali hogg enhanced their
reputations a lack of top-class players will continue to undermine their best
efforts. who start with home games against ireland and wales before travelling
to scotland are also hopeful of registering more than one victory for the first
time in the championship. as autumn gives way to winter and the heineken cup
prepares to resume centre stage meantime the joy of six will keep the home fires
burning until february.
feta cheese battle reaches court a row over whether only greece should be allowed
to label its cheese feta has reached the european court of justice. the danish and
german governments are challenging a european commission ruling which said greece
should have sole rights to use the name. the commission s decision gave the same
legal protection to feta as to italian parma ham and french champagne. but critics
of the judgement say feta is a generic term with the cheese produced widely
outside greece. the commission s controversial 2002 ruling gave protected
designation of origin status to feta cheese made in greece effectively
restricting the use of the feta name to producers there. from 2007 onwards greek
firms will have the exclusive use of the feta label and producers elsewhere in
europe must find another name to describe their products. the german and danish
governments argue that feta does not relate to a specific geographical area and
that their firms have been producing and exporting the cheese for years. in our
opinion it is a generic designation and we do not have any other name or term for
this type of cheese hans arne kristiansen a spokesman for the danish dairy board
told the bbc. denmark is europe s second largest producer of feta after greece -
producing about 30 000 tonnes a year - and exports its products to greece. it is
concerned that the ruling could threaten the production of other cheeses in denmark
such as brie. it would cost millions if we wanted to introduce a new designation
mr kristiansen said. that is just one of the costs. the case will also have a
major impact on britain s sole feta producer yorkshire company shepherds purse
cheeses. judy bell the company s founder said it would cost a huge amount to
rebrand its product. if we lose we will have to go through a massive re-
merchandising process and reorganisation she said. we have never tried to pull
the wool over anyone s eyes - it s very clear from the label that it s yorkshire
feta. the original decision was a victory for greece where feta cheese is
believed to have been produced for about 6 000 years. feta is a soft white cheese
made from sheep or goat s milk and is an essential ingredient in greek cuisine.
greece makes 115 000 tonnes mainly for domestic consumption. the court is expected
to reach a verdict in the case in the autumn.
blog picked as word of the year the term blog has been chosen as the top word of
2004 by a us dictionary publisher. merriam-webster said blog headed the list of
most looked-up terms on its site during the last twelve months. during 2004 blogs
or web logs have become hugely popular and some have started to influence
mainstream media. other words on the merriam-webster list were associated with
major news events such as the us presidential election or natural disasters that
hit the us. merriam-webster defines a blog as: a web site that contains an online
personal journal with reflections comments and often hyperlinks . its list of most
looked-up words is drawn up every year and it discounts terms such as swear words
that everyone likes to look up or those that always cause problems such as
affect and effect . merriam-webster said blog was the word that people have
asked to be defined or explained most often over the last 12 months. the word will
now appear in the 2005 version of merriam-webster s printed dictionary. however
the word is already included in some printed versions of the oxford english
dictionary. a spokesman for the oxford university press said that the word was now
being put into other dictionaries for children and learners reflecting its
mainstream use. i think it was the word of last year rather than this year he
said. now we re getting words that derive from it such as blogosphere and so on
he said. but he added it s a pretty recent thing and in the way that this
happens these days it s got established very quickly. blogs come in many
different forms. many act as news sites for particular groups or subjects some are
written from a particular political slant and others are simply lists of
interesting sites. other terms in the top 10 were related to natural disasters that
have struck the us such as hurricane or were to do with the us election. words
such as incumbent electoral and partisan reflected the scale of interest in
the vote. blogs also proved very useful to both sides in the us election battle
because many pundits who maintain their own journals were able to air opinions that
would never appear in more mainstream media. speculation that president bush was
getting help during debates via a listening device was first aired on web logs.
online journals also raised doubts about documents used by us television news
organisation cbs in a story about president bush s war record. the immediacy of
many blogs also helped some wield influence over topics that made it in to national
press. this is despite the fact that the number of people reading even the most
influential blogs is tiny. statistics by web influence ranking firm hitwise reveal
that the most popular political blog racks up only 0.0051% of all net visits per
day. one of the reasons that blogs and regularly updated online journals have
become popular is because the software used to put them together make it very easy
for people to air their views online. according to blog analysis firm technorati
the number of blogs in existence the blogosphere has doubled every five and a
half months for the last 18 months. technorati now estimates that the number of
blogs in existence has exceeded 4.8 million. some speculate that less than a
quarter of this number are regularly maintained. according to us research firm pew
internet & american life a blog is created every 5.8 seconds. another trend this
year has been the increasing numbers of weblogs that detail the daily lives of many
ordinary workers in jobs that few people know much about. in many repressive
regimes and developing nations blogs have been embraced by millions of people keen
to give their plight a voice.
tulu to appear at caledonian run two-time olympic 10 000 metres champion derartu
tulu has confirmed she will take part in the bupa great caledonian run in edinburgh
on 8 may. the 32-year-old ethiopian is the first star name to enter the event.
tulu has won the boston london and tokyo marathons as well as the world 10 000m
title in 2001. we are delighted to have secured the services of one the most
decorated competitors the sport has ever seen said race director matthew
turnbull. her record speaks for herself and there are few other women distance
runners who would dare compare their pedigree with tulu s he added. she might be
33 next month but that didn t stop her winning the olympic 10 000m bronze medal
last summer. she s an ultra-consistent championships racer.
teenager tait picked for england newcastle s teenage centre mathew tait has been
named as a centre in england s team to face wales in the six nations opener in
cardiff on saturday. the 18-year-old will play alongside falcons team-mate jamie
noon in england s midfield. scrum-half matt dawson is also recalled despite been
left out of the initial squad after a row over clashing tv and training
commitments. bath lock danny grewcock will also start pending a possible citing.
england coach andy robinson has also awarded gloucester flanker andy hazell his
first six nations start. in another change to the side that lost to australia in
november leicester lock ben kay replaces bath second row steve borthwick. robinson
was already without jonny wilkinson mike tindall stuart abbott richard hill and
will greenwood while mike catt had been left out of england s squad. j robinson
(sale sharks capt); m cueto (sale sharks) m tait (newcastle) j noon (newcastle)
j lewsey (wasps); c hodgson (sale sharks) m dawson (wasps); g rowntree (leicester)
s thompson (northampton) j white (leicester) d grewcock (bath) b kay (leicester)
l moody (leicester) a hazell (gloucester) j worsley (wasps). replacements: a
titterrell (sale sharks) p vickery (gloucester) s borthwick (bath) j forrester
(gloucester) h ellis (leicester) o barkley (bath) b cohen (northampton).
us economy still growing says fed most areas of the us saw their economy continue
to expand in december and early january the us federal reserve said in its latest
beige book report. of the 12 us regions it identifies for the study 11 showed
stronger economic growth with only the cleveland area falling behind with a mixed
rating. consumer spending was higher in december than november and festive sales
were also up on 2003. the employment picture also improved the fed said. labour
markets firmed in a number of districts but wage pressures generally remained
modest the beige book said. several districts reported higher prices for
building materials and manufacturing inputs but most reported steady or only
slightly higher overall price levels. the report added that residential real
estate activity remained strong and that commercial real estate activity
strengthened in most districts. office leasing was especially brisk in washington
dc and new york city two of the nation s strongest commercial markets the fed
said.
spirit awards hail sideways the comedy sideways has dominated this year s
independent spirit awards winning all six of the awards for which it was
nominated. it was named best film while alexander payne won best director and best
screenplay along with writing partner jim taylor. it also won acting awards for
stars paul giamatti thomas haden church and virginia madsen. sideways is tipped to
do well at sunday s oscars with five nominations. the awards now in their 20th
year are given to films made outside the traditional studio system and are
traditionally held the day before the oscars. other winners included catalina
sandino moreno who took best actress for her role as a drug smuggler in the
colombian drama maria full of grace. moreno is also nominated for best actress at
the oscars. the best first screenplay award went to joshua marston for maria full
of grace. scrubs star zach braff won the award for best first feature for garden
state which he wrote directed and starred in. oscar-nominated euthanasia film the
sea inside from spain won best foreign film while metallica: some kind of monster
was awarded best documentary. actor rodrigo de la serna took the best debut
performance prize for the motorcycle diaries. the awards are voted for by the 9 000
members of the independent feature project/los angeles which includes actors
directors writers and other industry professionals. last year s big winner lost
in translation went on to win the oscar for best original screenplay for writer-
director sofia coppola.
verdict delay for greek sprinters greek athletics governing body has postponed by
two weeks the judgement on sprinters costas kenteris and katerina thanou for
missing doping tests. the pair are facing lengthy bans for the missed tests
including one on the eve of last year s athens olympics. they were set to learn
their fate by the end of february but late evidence from them has pushed the date
back. a decision is now expected by around mid-march said one of their lawyers
michalis dimitrakopoulos. kenteris 31 who won the men s 200m title at the 2000
sydney games and thanou 30 who won the women s 100m silver medal in sydney face
a maximum two-year ban if found guilty. the athletes who spectacularly withdrew
from the athens olympics have been suspended by the international association of
athletics federations (iaaf) for missing the three tests. the iaaf said the
sprinters had failed to provide samples for tests in tel aviv chicago and athens
and ordered greek athletic s governing body segas to hold a disciplinary inquiry.
the athletes also face a criminal hearing in greece over the missed drugs tests and
have been charged with faking a motorcycle accident on the day of the athens test
which led to them spending four days in hospital. following the final hearing in
late january the athletes sounded confident they would be acquitted. i am
confident and optimistic thanou had said at the time. we presented new evidence
to the committee that they were not aware of. it was not clear what this new
evidence was.
van nistelrooy set to return manchester united striker ruud van nistelrooy may make
his comeback after an achilles tendon injury in the fa cup fifth round tie at
everton on saturday. he has been out of action for nearly three months and had
targeted a return in the champions league tie with ac milan on 23 february. but
manchester united manager sir alex ferguson hinted he may be back early. he said:
there is a chance he could be involved at everton but we ll just have to see how he
comes through training. the 28-year-old has been training in holland and ferguson
said: ruud comes back on tuesday and we need to assess how far on he is. the
training he has been doing in holland has been perfect and i am very satisfied with
it. even without van nistelrooy united made it 13 wins in 15 league games with a
2-0 derby victory at manchester city on sunday. but they will be boosted by the
return of the dutch international who is the club s top scorer this season with 12
goals. he has not played since aggravating the injury in the 3-0 win against west
brom on 27 november. ferguson was unhappy with van nistelrooy for not revealing he
was carrying an injury. united have also been hit by injuries to both alan smith
and louis saha during van nistelrooy s absence meaning wayne rooney has sometimes
had to play in a lone role up front. the teenager has responded with six goals in
nine games including the first goal against city on sunday.
game makers get xbox 2 sneak peek microsoft has given game makers a glimpse of the
new xbox 2 console. some details of the xbox s performance and what gaming will be
like with the device were given at the annual game developers conference in the us.
xbox frontman j. allard said the console looked set to be capable of one trillion
calculations per second. also all titles for the new xbox will have the same
interface to make it easy to play online and buy extras for characters or other
add-ons for games. microsoft is saving the official unveiling of the xbox 2
codenamed xenon for the e3 show in may and the device could be on shop shelves by
november. however during his keynote speech at gdc mr allard who heads
development of game-making tools for the console gave a glimpse into how some of
its core software will work. he said gaming was entering a high-definition era
that demanded detailed and convincing graphics that could adequately compete with
the hdtv people were starting to watch as well as the hd dvds that will soon start
to appear. industry watchers took this to mean that the xbox 2 will push for hdtv
quality graphics as standard as well as multi-channel audio to give gamers an
authentic experience. mr allard said microsoft had to work hard to ensure that it
was easy for game makers to produce titles for the xbox 2 and for players to get
playing. to this end microsoft was building in to xbox hardware systems to support
headset chat buddy list controls and custom soundtracks so developers were free to
concentrate on the games. the xbox would also support well-known industry
specifications such as directx to make it simple for game studios to make titles
for the console. for gamers this emphasis on ease of use would mean every xbox
title uses the same interface to set up online play and get at music stored on the
hardware. this interface will hold details of a player s statistics and skill level
on a gamer card as well as give access to a store where people can spend small
amounts of cash to buy extras for their avatars or add-ons such as new maps or
vehicles for games they possess. this ability to personalise games and in-game
characters would be key in the future said mr allard. only with such consistency
would the xbox be able to support the 10-20 million subscribers that it was aiming
for said mr allard. during his speech mr allard took several swipes at the
playstation and said processors for consoles had to be made with developers not
just engineers in mind. our approach is bruce lee not brute force he said.
prutton poised for lengthy fa ban southampton s david prutton faces a possible
seven-match ban when he goes before the football association. the 23-year-old has
admitted two charges of improper conduct following his dismissal against arsenal.
the first charge relates to his failure to leave the field promptly pushing
referee alan wiley and remonstrating with assistant referee paul norman. and the
second charge is for using threatening words and/or behaviour to a match official
during the 1-1 draw. paolo di canio was given a seven-match suspension when he
pushed referee paul alcock over in a premiership game between sheffield wednesday
and arsenal in 1998. prutton will be joined at wednesday s hearing by saints boss
harry redknapp who believes that the fa will throw the book at his player.
redknapp himself sprinted along the touchline to help physio jim joyce and coach
denis rofe shepherd the enraged prutton away from referee s assistant norman.
david has made a big mistake and he knows it. i can t condone what he s done. he
was out of order but he knows that said redknapp. he s a decent lad. he over-
reacted badly for some reason - he had a rush of blood from somewhere. off the
pitch you couldn t meet a nicer lad. prutton has apologised publicly for his
actions and to arsenal s robert pires who was injured in a wild tackle by the
saints midfield man. he said: it s an horrendous situation. i apologise to the
ref and linesman who were only doing their job. i ve also seen what happened to
pires leg and i m sorry for that as well. i apologise for the people who saw it.
i know you get lots of kids going to the match now and they don t pay money to see
that sort of thing. it s not a cop-out but it was all a bit of a blur. sometimes
you react and it s beyond your control added prutton.
us trade gap ballooned in october the us trade deficit widened by more than
expected in october hitting record levels after higher oil prices raised import
costs figures have shown the trade shortfall was $55.5bn (£29bn) up 9% from
september the commerce department said. that pushed the 10 month deficit to
$500.5bn. imports rose by 3.4% while exports increased by only 0.6%. a weaker
dollar also increased the cost of imports though this should help drive export
demand in coming months. things are getting worse but that s to be expected
said david wyss of standard & poor s in new york. the first thing is that when the
dollar goes down it increases the price of imports. we are seeing improved export
orders. things seem to be going in the right direction. despite this optimism
significant concerns remain as to how the us will fund its trade and budget
deficits should they continue to widen. another problem highlighted by analysts was
the growing trade gap with china which has been accused of keeping its currency
artificially weak in order to boost exports. the us imported almost $20bn worth of
goods from china during october exporting a little under $3bn. it seems the key
worry that has existed in the currency market still remains said anthony
crescenzi a bond strategist at miller tabak in new york. the trade deficit and the
shortfall with china are big issues going forward . the commerce department
figures caused the dollar to weaken further despite widespread expectations that
the federal reserve will raise interest rates for a fifth time this year. borrowing
costs are tipped to rise by a quarter of a percentage point to 2.25% at a fed
meeting later on tuesday.
brown s poll campaign move denied the government has denied reports that gordon
brown is preparing to oust alan milburn as labour s election supremo. work and
pensions minister alan johnson said it was wrong to suggest the chancellor would
usurp mr milburn adding they would work as a team . a report in the sunday
business claimed mr brown has been asked to take charge of media strategy while mr
milburn would move to a behind-the-scenes role. labour has always maintained mr
brown would have a central campaign role. but many labour backbenchers are said to
be dissatisfied with the way election campaigning has gone and have said they
wanted to see the chancellor take a bigger role. some commentators say the tories
have grasped the initiative putting labour on the back foot having to respond to
conservative policy announcements. these claims follow various opinion polls which
suggest the tories have been gaining on labour. party strategists are believed to
want to bring mr brown to centre-stage having seen support rise in private polling
after his budget last week. but another report in the sunday telegraph claims mr
milburn is unwilling to allow any new role for the chancellor to come at his
expense. mr johnson told bbc news: gordon brown will play a central role in any
election campaign. they were wrong when they said milburn was ousting brown and
they re wrong now if they are saying brown is ousting milburn. we work as a team.
mr milburn has repeatedly said the chancellor was key to the campaign and dismissed
claims of a rift. neither downing street nor the labour party would comment
directly on the reports.
german bidder in talks with lse deutsche boerse bosses have held constructive
professional and friendly talks with the london stock exchange (lse) its chief
has said. werner seifert met lse chief executive clara furse amid rumours the
german group may raise its bid to £1.5bn ($2.9bn) from its initial £1.3bn offer.
however rival suitor euronext also upped the ante in the bid battle. ahead of
talks with the lse on friday the pan-european bourse said it may be prepared to
make its offer in cash. the paris-based exchange owner of liffe in london is
reported to be ready to raise £1.4bn to fund a bid. the news came as deutsche
boerse held its third meeting with the lse since its bid approach in december which
was turned down by the london exchange for undervaluing the business. however the
lse did agree to leave the door open for talks to find out whether a
significantly-improved proposal would be in the interests of lse s shareholders
and customers. in the meantime euronext which combines the paris amsterdam and
lisbon stock exchanges also began talks with the lse. in a statement on thursday
euronext said any offer was likely to be solely in cash but added that: there can
be no assurances at this stage that any offer will be made. a deal with either
bidder would create the biggest stock market operator in europe and the second
biggest in the world after the new york stock exchange. however neither side has
made a formal offer for the lse with sources claiming such a step may still be
weeks away. deutsche boerse could also face mounting opposition to a bid at home.
among sweeteners reported to have been discussed by mr seifert with ms furse were
plans to move the management of its cash and eurex derivatives market to london as
well as two members of its executive board. but hans reckers a board member of
germany s central bank the bundesbank said that cash trading should also remain
in frankfurt something deutsche boerse could move to the uk. it is not just the
headquarters of the boerse but also important market segments that must stay
permanently in frankfurt. this has special importance for the business activities
of the banks and the consultants he said. local government officials in frankfurt
s state of hessen have also spoken out against the move. it is our wish that the
headquarters stay here to maintain frankfurt s standing as the number one financial
centre in continental europe alois rhiel its minister for economic affairs
added.
duran duran show set for us tv chart stars duran duran are to appear in a vh1
special in the us including interviews and concert footage. the show airs on
tuesday and will feature a studio performance behind the scenes footage and fan
interviews. they seemed like a perfect fit with our audience said rick krim vh1
s vice president of music and talent. the band recently released a new album
astronaut the first from the original line-up since 1983. they will also tour
japan and the us next year. when we started playing together we didn t try and
make a really sort of mature album. we just really wanted to make a great duran
duran album said keyboard player nick rhodes. it s pretty much in line with a
lot of stuff out there. duran duran are currently promoting the album s second
single what happens tomorrow. simon le bon said earlier this year that the group
were not trying to update their sound too much. we wouldn t want to lose them
[older fans] by trying too hard by trying to connect with a new audience the
singer said. le bon also said the five members were getting on very well. we re
like any people who get very close. sometimes you argue with each other. but the
fact is we inspire each other musically. nobody else does it for me he said. it
s just very special.
file-swappers ready new network legal attacks on websites that help people swap
pirated films have forced the development of a system that could be harder to shut
down. one site behind the success of the bittorrent file-swapping system is
producing its own software that avoids the pitfalls of the earlier program. a test
version of the new exeem program will be released in late january. but doubts
remain about the new networks ability to ensure files being swapped are quality
copies . in late december movie studios launched a legal campaign against websites
that helped people swap pirated movies using the bittorrent network. the legal
campaign worked because of the way that bittorrent is organised. that file-sharing
system relies on links called trackers that point users to others happy to share
the file they are looking for. shutting down sites that listed trackers crippled
the bittorrent network. one of the sites shut down by the legal campaign was
suprnova.org which helped boost the popularity of the bittorrent system by checking
that trackers led to the movies or tv programmes they claimed to. now the man
behind suprnova.org who goes by the nickname sloncek is preparing to release
software for a new file-swapping network dubbed exeem. in an interview with
novastream web radio sloncek said exeem would combine ideas from the bittorrent
and kazaa file-sharing systems. like bittorrent exeem will have trackers that help
point people toward the file they want. like kazaa these trackers will be held by
everyone. there will be no centrally maintained list. this said sloncek should
make the system less vulnerable to legal action aimed at stopping people swapping
pirated movies and music. the exeem software has been under development for a few
months and is currently being tested by a closed group of users. an early public
version of the software should be available before february. sloncek said that
currently only a windows version of the software was in development. there were no
plans for a linux or mac version. he said that costs of writing the software will
be paid for by adverts appearing in the finished version of the program. despite
suprnova administrator sloncek s involvement with exeem the basic technology
appears to have been developed by a firm called swarm systems that is based on
caribbean island saint kitts and nevis. users of the exeem system will be able to
rate files being swapped to help stop the spread of fake files sloncek told
novastream. dr johan pouwelse a researcher at the delft university of technology
who studies peer-to-peer networks said exeem was the next evolution in file-
sharing systems. but he said it would struggle to be as popular as bittorrent and
suprnova because early versions were not taking enough care to make sure good
copies of files were being shared. exeem cannot prevent pollution he said. the
rating system in exeem seems flawed because it is easy to insert both fake files
and fake ratings he said. studies have shown that organisations working for
record labels and movie studios have worked to undermine kazaa by putting in fakes.
by contrast moderators on suprnova made sure files being shared were high quality.
the moderators are the difference between having a system that works and one that s
full of crap like kazaa he said. there is a fundamental tension between
distribution and integrity he said. mr pouwelse said that future versions of
file-sharing systems are likely to incorporate some kind of distributed reputation
system that lets moderators prove who they are to the network and rate which files
are worth downloading. when big files were being shared moderation systems were key
said mr pouwelse. he added that the legal attacks on bittorrent had driven people
away from sites such as suprnova but many users had simply migrated to other
tracker listing sites many of which have seen huge increases in traffic. it s hard
to compete with free he said. no-one from the motion picture association of
america was immediately available for comment on the file-sharing development.
hitch holds on to us box office will smith s first romantic comedy hitch has
topped the north american box office for a second weekend. smith plays a new york
date doctor with love worries of his own in the movie which took $31.8m (£16.8m).
it held off a strong challenge from the new keanu reeves sci-fi thriller
constantine which opened at number two with $30.5m (£16.1m) constantine based on
the hellblazer comics stars reeves as an exorcist who must send satan s minions
back to hell. two family films came next in the chart with wayne wang s comedy
because of winn-dixie about a young girl and an abandoned dog in third position
with $10.85m (£5.73m). comedy adventure son of the mask came in at number four
with $7.7m (£4.1m) just ahead of oscar favourite million dollar baby at five.
smith s comedy will be the first us movie released this year to top the $100m
(£52.7m) mark. it s success continues a strong trend of hollwood movie-going this
year with figures for the popular president s day weekend 13% greater than last
year. oscar contenders the aviator starring leonardo dicaprio as howard hughes and
wine-tasting comedy sideways both held onto positions in the top 10.
retirement age could be scrapped the myth that ageing is a barrier to
contributing to society needs to be exploded the work and pensions minister has
said. this was why the government was considering scrapping the retirement age
entirely alan johnson said. it was also committed to stamping out age
discrimination and would outlaw it he told a conference on ageing. all three
parties have been wooing older voters with both the tories and lib dems pledging
higher pensions. mr johnson told age concern s age agenda in london the government
was seriously considering introducing pensions based on residency rather than
national insurance contributions. this idea has been adopted by the lib dems as
policy while the tories have pledged to boost pensions by restoring the link
between earnings and pensions. mr johnson s speech comes after he last week
unveiled plans to find a consensus on how to reform the country s pension system.
this would be based on a series of principles including tackling pensioner poverty
and fairer pensions for women he said. speaking at the london conference he said:
generalised stereotypes of people past state pension age as dependant incapable
and vulnerable are a particularly pernicious form of age discrimination . the
government wanted to tackle this by moving to a culture where retirement ages were
increasingly consigned to the past . we re sweeping them away entirely for people
under 65 and we re giving those above that age a right to request to work past 65
which their employers will have to engage with seriously. and the review in 2011
which will look at whether it is time to sweep retirement ages away entirely is to
be tied to evidence ... showing that retirement ages are increasingly outmoded . mr
johnson said his department had a long-term aspiration of moving towards an 80%
employment rate. this would involve an extra one million older people joining the
work force he said.
egypt and israel seal trade deal in a sign of a thaw in relations between egypt and
israel the two countries have signed a trade protocol with the us allowing
egyptian goods made in partnership with israeli firms free access to american
markets. the protocol signed in cairo will establish what are called qualified
industrial zones in egypt. products from these zones will enjoy duty free access
to the us provided that 35% of their components are the product of israeli-
egyptian cooperation. the us describes this as the most important economic
agreement between egypt and israel in two decades. the protocol establishing the
zones has been stalled for years. there has been deep sensitivity in egypt about
any form of co-operation with israel as long as its peace process with the
palestinians remains blocked. but in recent weeks an unusual warmth has crept into
relations between the two countries. both exchanged prisoners earlier this month
with egypt handing back an israeli who has served eight years in prison after being
convicted for spying. egyptian president hosni mubarak has described israeli prime
minister ariel sharon as the best chance for the palestinians to achieve peace. the
government in cairo now believes mr sharon is moving towards the centre and away
from the positions of right wing groups. it also believes the us pressed by europe
is now more willing to engage seriously in the search for a settlement. but there
are also pressing economic reasons for egypt s decision to enter into the trade
agreement. it will give a huge boost to egyptian textile exports which are about
to suffer a drop after new regulations come into force in the us at the beginning
of the year.
ray charles studio becomes museum a museum dedicated to the career of the late
legendary singer ray charles is to open in his former recording studio in los
angeles. his longtime publicist jerry digney said the museum would house archive
materials from recordings to awards to ephemera to wardrobe . a tour bus used by
charles and his entourage over the years will also be on permanent display. it is
hoped the museum will be ready for visitors in late 2007. mr digney said the
recording studio and offices had been used by charles for many years and was where
he recorded much of his last album genius loves company. it is hoped the museum
will also house an education centre. the building had been declared a historic
landmark by the city of los angeles just before charles death in june 2004 at the
age of 73. following his death charles won eight grammy awards including album of
the year for genius loves company a collection of duets.
labour pig poster anti-semitic the labour party has been accused of anti-semitism
over a poster depicting michael howard and oliver letwin - who are both jewish - as
flying pigs. prospective tory candidate andrew mennear whose finchley
constituency contains a large jewish community branded it tasteless and
offensive. the poster shows the two men s faces superimposed on winged pigs and
says the day the tory sums add up . labour said the poster was not anti-jewish
but anti-tory . it is one of four designs e-mailed to labour members who were
asked to vote for their favourite. mr mennear who was sent the e-mail by a friend
said he had been shocked by the image and had shown it to friends who were
similarly horrified. he said there was nothing more distasteful for a jewish person
than to be associated with a pig. i am not suggesting there is any deliberate
intent but these sort of things can cause great offence. it clearly wasn t thought
through. it is possible the posters were designed for maximum impact but this one
clearly overstepped the mark and should be withdrawn. the campaign was
particularly insensitive as it had come out at the same time as holocaust day a
difficult time for many jewish people mr mennear added. a labour spokesman denied
the campaign was anti-semitic. as we said at the time the james report (the tory
backed inquiry into possible public spending savings) was published pigs will fly
before the tory s sums will add up. this poster is making a serious point he
said. a conservative party spokesman said: while the conservatives are
concentrating on the issues that matter to people such as lower taxes and
controlled immigration it is clear to see that the labour party is not. people
will not be fooled.
beatles suits sell for $110 000 four suits worn by the beatles on their please
please me album cover have sold for $110 00 (£59 000) at a us auction. but some of
elvis presley s earliest recordings - including takes of all shook up - failed to
sell at the bonhams and butterfields two-day sale. a private collection of six tape
recordings of presley valued at between $30 000 (£16 000) and $50 000 (£27 000) did
not meet their reserve price. a signed presley photograph managed to fetch $2 115
(£1 140). auction spokesman erik simon said the presley tapes were withdrawn
because they did not meet the minimum price set by the owners . he said the
family of sound engineer thorne nogar did not want to divulge the price they had
set or the offers they had received. the rca tapes date from september 1956 to
september 1957. the pre-masters include a take of jailhouse rock religious songs
material for his first christmas album and banter between presley members of his
band and mr nogar. we ve had them for a lot of years and i think the people
should enjoy them. and frankly we could use the money mr nogar s son stephen 57
said before the auction. mr nogar who died in 1994 aged 72 always used to make
two tapes of sessions as a back-up in case rca producers wanted to make late
changes to songs. he called them his ass-saver tapes his son said. the quality
is said to be noticeably crisper than that of a new vinyl record. because the
family does not own the copyright to the music the tapes could only be sold for
personal enjoyment and cannot be copied for commercial gain. the auction made a
total of $1.1m (£600 000).
debate needed on donations cap a cap on donations to political parties should not
be introduced yet the elections watchdog has said. fears that big donors can buy
political favours have sparked calls for a limit. in a new report the electoral
commission says it is worth debating a £10 000 cap for the future but now is not
the right time to introduce it. it also says there should be more state funding for
political parties and candidates should be able to spend more on election
campaigning. there were almost £68m in reported donations to political parties in
2001 2002 and 2003 with nearly £12m of them from individual gifts worth more than
£1m. the rules have already been changed so the public can see who gives how much
to the parties but the report says there are still public suspicions. the
commission says capping donations would mean taxpayers giving parties more cash -
something which would first have to be acceptable to the public and shown to work.
while we are not in principle opposed to the introduction of a donation cap we do
not believe that such a major departure from the existing system now would be
sensible says its report. if there was to be a cap it should be £10 000 - a
small enough amount to make a difference but which would have banned £56m in
donations between 2001 and 2003. even without changes the commission does urge
political parties to seek out more small-scale donations and suggests there should
be income tax relief for gifts under £200. it also suggests increasing state
funding for parties to £3m so help can be extended to all parties with at least two
members in the house of commons european parliament scottish parliament welsh
assembly or northern ireland assembly. and it suggests new ways of boosting
election campaigning seen as a way of improving voter turnout. all local election
candidates should be entitled to a free mailshot for campaign leaflets says the
watchdog. and there should be a shift in the amount of money allowed to be spent at
elections from a national level to a local level to help politicians engage better
with voters. the report suggests doubling the money which can be spent by
candidates while cutting national spending limits from £20m to £15m. the
commission also says the spending limits for general elections should cover the
four months before the poll - as happens with other elections. electoral commission
chairman sam younger said: there is no doubt that political parties have a vital
role to play in maintaining the health of our democracy and for this they need to
be adequately resourced. our research has shown that people want to be more
informed about party politics and that they want politicians to be more visible and
accessible. the public are reluctant for the state to fund parties but at the same
time are unhappy with large private donations. he called for a wider public debate
on party funding to find the consensus needed for radical changes to the current
system.
drink remark acts as diversion the first minister s statement that it was okay to
get drunk once in a while has diverted attention from the real issues it has
been claimed. jack law chief executive of alcohol focus scotland said jack
mcconnell s comment was ill-advised . the media attention had helped to move the
focus from scotland s binge drinking problems mr law said. scotsman journalist
hamish macdonell said he believed the bigger picture had been obscured by the
remark. mr mcconnell was speaking on monday to more than 100 secondary pupils from
schools in the highlands about the problems of binge drinking and drink promotions.
the one-sentence comment was immediately criticised by the scottish national party
which accused him of encouraging young people to get drunk. but the scottish
executive has insisted mr mcconnell was speaking about adults and his comments were
a recognition that people will get drunk . mr macdonell political editor of the
scotsman said: i think we have to say right at the outset that this was a very
stupid and ill-advised remark by the first minister. if you come out with
something like this saying that by all means get drunk then you will be pilloried
for it. however he added that perhaps mr mcconnell could feel rightly aggrieved
about the coverage . mr macdonell said: i think the problem here is that he did
say a lot more things about binge drinking and under age drinking. but that whole
side of things has been lost in the furore over one sentence. i understand why but
i think there is a much bigger message here that has been obscured. mr law from
voluntary body alcohol focus scotland believed damage had been done to scotland s
fight against binge drinking. he said he accepted that young people drank and they
did have problems with drink. mr law added: i think the remark was ill-advised -
but these remarks are blown out of all proportion and they so easily misrepresent
what we are trying to do in scotland. we don t want to preach to young people
but we need to acknowledge that they do drink problematically. this diverts us
from the real issues which are about promoting responsibility and reducing harm and
indeed tackling our drinking culture which is a culture about binge drinking and
drunkenness. he said it was vital that young people were properly informed about
the risks incurred to themselves and others when they got drunk. mr macdonell said
that the first minister should know by now that if he said things which were off
the mark they were bound to come back and bite him . he added: here mr
mcconnell was talking in the highlands to 100 teenagers and every word he said was
put out on a webcast by the scottish executive and then looked at by other
politicians and reporters. i think in this instance he has done a lot of really
good things and he will be regretting this remark. the scottish national party s
holyrood leader nicola sturgeon wrote to mr mcconnell on tuesday accusing him of an
error of judgement and calling for him to apologise for his ill-judged comment
and withdraw it immediately. in a furious response the first minister said his
comments had been distorted and taken out of context. he told ms sturgeon: it is
disappointing that you have contributed to this distortion by saying it is
staggering that i should encourage young people to get drunk . that is completely
untrue. perhaps it would have been wiser for you to find out what was actually said
before you rushed to represent my position undermine the convener of education at
highland council and insult the intelligence of the young people i spoke with - all
for the sake of a simple soundbite.
delta cuts fares in survival plan delta air lines is cutting domestic fares by as
much as 50% as part of a plan to ensure its financial survival. other us carriers
including united have sought bankruptcy protection amid high fuel costs and
competition from discount carriers. delta is restructuring in a bid to fight off
insolvency. this latest move to boost business has prompted speculation other firms
will be forced to match their fares hurting revenues in the sector. delta s new
simplifares were trialled from august last year on tickets from cincinnati its
second-largest hub. the airline says no one-way economy fare will now be priced
higher than $499 (£264) and no first-class fare will be priced higher than $599.
it is also eliminating a saturday-night stay requirement on discount fares and will
give further reductions to customers opting for non-refundable tickets booking in
advance and online. delta which lost $646m in the three months to september was
forced to cut 6 900 jobs worldwide as part of its aim to slash $5bn from its costs.
in october it reached a crucial agreement with pilots on pay and conditions and it
has also issued new shares to staff in return for wage cuts. airline shares closed
lower on the announcement with delta continental and american airlines all
falling by more than 7%. we believe the whole airline industry will now have to
move in this direction; this will likely hurt revenue in the short run but could be
beneficial in the long run said analyst ray neidl at calyon securities.
robben sidelined with broken foot chelsea winger arjen robben has broken two
metatarsal bones in his foot and will be out for at least six weeks. robben had an
mri scan on the injury sustained during the premiership win at blackburn on
monday. six weeks is the average time to heal this injury and then i need a few
more weeks to be completely fit again he told dutch newspaper algemeen dagblad.
i had a feeling it was serious but because of the swelling it was impossible to
make a final diagnosis. the 21-year-old missed the first three months of the
season with a similar injury after a challenge with roma s olivier dacourt. and he
added: it felt different then last summer when i had the same injury on my other
foot. then i could walk already after three days but i stayed sidelined for a long
period. i hope that it will now take me six to eight weeks. chelsea physio mike
banks was hopeful that robben could return at some point in march. the fractures
are tiny and he could be playing next month banks told the club s website. one
is a chip on the side of his foot the other is a small break on the third
metatarsal. but this is not the traditional metatarsal that has become so famous
since the last world cup and which has kept scott parker out for two months.
david beckham suffered a broken metatarsal in the build up to the 2002 world cup in
korea and japan. robben who has been a key part of the blues push for four
trophies claims he knew instantly something was wrong when he was felled by
blackburn midfielder aaron mokoena. i felt my leg go he said. i felt it
straight away after mokoena hit me with a wild kick on my left foot.
blues slam blackburn over savage birmingham have confirmed blackburn made a bid for
robbie savage - but managing director karen brady has called it derisory . rovers
have reportedly offered £500 000 up front for the wales star 30 with the fee
rising to £2.2m. but brady told the sun the bid was a waste of fax paper and my
time . she added: the way things are going all this could affect the relationship
between the clubs. they ve got into robbie s head. but he s not for sale. savage s
future at birmingham has been the source of speculation for several weeks with
some fans criticising his performances for the club earlier in the season. however
good displays against west brom and aston villa have impressed blues fans. the
crowd gave me a massive standing ovation when i came off on saturday which was nice
he said. it was fantastic even though i was criticised by a number of them in
recent weeks and on saturday it showed how much i mean to them. it s not for me to
say (about transfer rumours) it s between the two clubs. i haven t created the
speculation myself i haven t phoned every national newspaper saying blackburn
are trying to buy me . it s not up to me. birmingham manager steve bruce insists
he does not want to sell savage. a lot is said and written about sav but he has
been terrific for birmingham city the last two and a half years he said. the
fans love him because he epitomises them. he works hard they like people like that
and there are not many like him. and why the hell should i sell him to someone
else i am not interested.
hamm bows out for us women s football legend mia hamm has played her final game.
hamm 32 who officially retired after this year s athens olympics took to the
field for the last time to help the us claim a 5-0 win over mexico. hamm ends her
career as the most prolific scorer - male or female - in international football
with 158 goals in 276 games for the us. she was twice fifa women s player of the
year and won the world cup in 1991 and 1999 and two olympic golds. on her
retirement hamm said: there are mixed emotions. there are things in your life
that you have had to put on the back-burner and you can focus more time and energy
on that now. i have to see what is out there and not commit to everything at the
beginning. the friendly also saw the end of julie foudy and joy fawcett s us
careers. hamm will now embark on a new life with husband chicago cubs shortstop
nomar garciaparra who was in the stands to watch her final game. he has just
agreed a new deal with the cubs after joining them in july.
games help you learn and play god games in which players must control virtual
people and societies could be educational says research. a us researcher has
suggested that games such as the sims could be a good way to teach languages. ravi
purushotma believes that the world of the sims can do a better job of teaching
vocabulary and grammar than traditional methods. the inherent fun of game playing
could help to make learning languages much less of a chore said mr purushotma.
there must be few parents or teachers that do not worry that the lure of a video
game on a computer or console is hard to resist by children that really should be
doing their homework. but instead of fearing computer games ravi purushotma
believes that educationalists particularly language teachers should embrace games.
one goal would be to break what i believe to be the false assumption that learning
and play are inherently oppositional he said. he believes that the phenomenal
ability of games such as the sims and others to capture the interest of adolescent
audiences is ripe for exploitation. the hard part of learning any language said mr
purushotma were the basic parts of learning what different words refer to and how
they are used to build up sentences. boring lessons drumming vocabulary into pupils
couched in terms they do not understand has made many languages far harder to learn
than they should be. the way we often teach foreign languages right now is
somewhat akin to learning to ride a bike by formally studying gravity he said.
by contrast said mr purushotma learning via something like the sims may mean
students do not feel like they are studying at all. this was because the sims does
not rely solely on words to get information across to players. instead the actions
of its computer controlled people and how they interact with their world often
makes clear what is going on. the incidental information about what a sim was doing
could reinforce what a player or student was supposed to be learning said mr
purushotma. by contrast many language lessons try to impart information about a
tongue with little context. for instance he said in a version of the sims adapted
to teach german if a player misunderstood what was meant by the word energie the
actions of a tired sim stumbling then falling asleep would illustrate the
meaning. if necessary detailed textual information could be called upon to aid
players or students understanding. one of the drawbacks of the sims said mr
purushotma was the lack of spoken language to help people brush up on
pronunciation. however online versions of the sims in which people have to move
in meet the neighbours and get to know the local town could be adapted to help
this. although not wishing to claim that he is the first to suggest using a game
can help people learn mr purushotma believes that educationalists have missed the
potential they have to help. getting a simulated person to perform everyday
activities in a make-believe world and having them described in a foreign language
could be a powerful learning aid he believes. before now he said educational
software titles suffer by comparison with the slick graphics and rich worlds found
in games. but he said using pre-prepared game worlds such as the sims has never
been easier because tools have been made by its creators and fans that make it easy
to modify almost any part of the game. this could make it easy for teachers to
adapt parts of the game for their own lessons. i m hoping now to re-create a well-
polished german learning mod for the sequel by this summer he told the bbc news
website. i m encouraged to hear that others are thinking of experimenting with
japanese and spanish. earlier work with a colleague on using civilisation iii to
teach students about history showed that it could be a powerful way to get them to
realise that solving a society s problems can not always come from making a single
change. a report on the experiment said: students began asking historical and
geographical questions in the context of game play using geography and history as
tools for their game and drawing inferences about social phenomena based on their
play. mr purushotma s ideas were aired in an article for the journal language
learning and technology.
broadband in the uk gathers pace one person in the uk is joining the internet s
fast lane every 10 seconds according to bt. the telecoms giant said the number of
people on broadband via the telephone line had now surpassed four million.
including those connected via cable almost six million people have a fast always-
on connection. the boom has been fuelled by fierce competition and falling prices
as well as the greater availability of broadband over the phone line. the take-up
rate for broadband is accelerating at a terrific pace said ben verwaayen bt s
chief executive. we will be in a very strong position to hit our five million
target by summer 2006 much earlier than we had previously expected. the last
million connections were made over the past four months with thousands of people
being added to the total every day of the week. those signing up to broadband
include those that get their service direct from bt or via the many companies that
re-sell bt lines under their own name. part of the surge in people signing up was
due to bt stretching the reach of adsl - the uk s most widely used way of getting
broadband - beyond six kilometres. asymmetric digital subscriber line technology
lets ordinary copper phone lines support high data speeds. the standard speed is
512kbps though faster connections are available. according to bt more than 95% of
uk homes and businesses can receive broadband over the phone line. it aims to
extend this figure to 99.4% by next summer. there are also an estimated 1.7 million
cable broadband customers in the uk.
johnson too strong for gb runners britain s kathy butler and hayley yelling were no
match for benita johnson in the 51st cross international zornotza in amorebieta
spain. butler and yelling finished fourth and fifth as australian world champion
johnson romped to a five-second victory in the 6km race ahead of edith masai. masai
s fellow kenyan alice timbilil finished third. johnson said: i ran comfortably for
the first 3km and then i tried to leave the others but it wasn t an easy task.
butler clocked a time of 22 minutes 45 seconds - 22secs behind the winner but four
ahead of yelling who last month succeeded paula radcliffe as european champion.
johnson will be one of the star attractions at the great edinburghinternational
cross country on 15 january.
mps issued with blackberry threat mps will be thrown out of the commons if they use
blackberries in the chamber speaker michael martin has ruled. the £200 handheld
computers can be used as a phone pager or to send e-mails. the devices gained new
prominence this week after alastair campbell used his to accidentally send an
expletive-laden message to a newsnight journalist. mr martin revealed some mps had
been using their blackberries during debates and he also cautioned members against
using hidden earpieces. the use of electronic devices in the commons chamber has
long been frowned on. the sound of a mobile phone or a pager can result in a strong
rebuke from either the speaker or his deputies. the speaker chairs debates in the
commons and is charged with ensuring order in the chamber and enforcing rules and
conventions of the house. he or she is always an mp chosen by colleagues who once
nominated gives up all party political allegiances.
glasgow hosts tsunami benefit gig the top names in scottish music are taking part
in a benefit concert in aid of the victims of the asian tsunami. all 10 000
tickets for saturday s concert featuring franz ferdinand belle and sebastian and
travis at glasgow s secc sold out in 36 hours. mull historical society deacon
blue idlewild texas mogwai and teenage fanclub are among the other acts
performing at the concert. organisers hope to raise at least £250 000 from the
show. it follows a cardiff gig starring eric clapton keane and jools holland
which raised more than £1.25m. and it is taking place on the same night as a
tsunami benefit show in bristol which will see massive attack and portishead share
a stage for the first time. colin macintyre of mull historical society was
playing another gig on the same day but said he was determined to make the glasgow
benefit. he said: i think we were all affected by seeing the reports coming from
the far east. we all know somebody who was there but more than that it was that
we had never seen a wave of destruction a natural disaster like this in my
generation. i m lucky as an artist to be able to perform at something like this.
us cyber security chief resigns the man making sure us computer networks are safe
and secure has resigned after only a year in his post. amit yoran was director of
the national cyber security division within the us department of homeland security
created following the 9/11 attacks. the division was tasked with improving us
defences against malicious hackers viruses and other net-based threats. reports
suggest he left because his division was not given enough clout within the larger
organisation. mr yoran took up his post in september 2003 and his first task was
to get the cyber security division up and running. the organisation had a staff of
about 60 people and a budget of about $80m (£44.54m). the division was charged with
thinking up and carrying out action to make us networks more impervious to attack
and disruption by the viruses worms and hack attacks that have become commonplace.
in the last 12 months mr yoran oversaw the creation of a cyber alert system that
sends out warnings about big hitting viruses and net attacks as they occur. the
warnings also contained information about how firms and organisations could protect
themselves against these attacks. the cyber security division also audited us
government networks to discover exactly what was sitting on which network. the next
step was to be the creation of a scanning system to identify vulnerabilities that
made federal networks and machines susceptible to attack by malicious hackers and
virus writers. mr yoran s division was also doing work to identify the networks and
machines that had been broken into by cyber criminals. despite this success mr
yoran left his post abruptly at the end of last week reportedly only giving one
day s notice to bosses at the department of homeland security. amit yoran has been
a valuable contributor on cyber security issues over the past year and we
appreciate his efforts in starting the department s cybersecurity program said a
department of homeland security spokeswoman. some reports have suggested that mr
yoran felt frustrated by the lack of prominence given to work to protect against
net-based threats in the wider homeland organisation. an attempt by us politicians
to pass a law to promote mr yoran and raise the profile of his department s work is
now mired in congress.
real will finish abandoned match real madrid and real socieded will play the final
six minutes of their match which was abandoned on sunday because of a bomb scare.
the bernabeu was evacuated with the score at 1-1 and two minutes of normal time
remaining in the game. the teams will now play the final two minutes plus four
minutes of injury time on 5 january. brazilian ronaldo and england captain david
beckham had to wait in the street in their kit after the abandonment. real sociedad
president jose luis astiazaran said: we thought the best thing was to play the
time remaining. hundreds of fans streamed across the pitch on their way to the
exits after the game was called off. tourists and fans took advantage of the
opportunity for a photograph between the famous stadium s goalposts. the two clubs
met the spanish fa on monday and astiazaran added: we thought about giving the
game as concluded but after talking with the fa we decided there was no precedent
for that and the best thing was to play the time that was remaining. real madrid
director of sport emilio butragueno praised the spectators inside the ground for
their conduct. i d like to highlight the behaviour of the fans who showed great
maturity and it was an example of good citizenship he said. butragueno confirned
before confirming that tuesday s charity match - which has been billed as ronaldo
s friends against zidane s friends - will go ahead as planned. i d also like to
take the chance to say that tomorrow s game will take place butragueno declared
of the partido contra la pobreza (game against poverty). he added: football is
important for society and we want to show that. we also think that football should
be a fiesta we had programmed and people deserve to enjoy the game.
mogul wilson backing uk rap band tony wilson the music mogul who established the
influential factory records in the 1980s is to launch a new label - convinced he
has discovered his third major band . factory were the label of both joy division
- who became new order after singer ian curtis committed suicide - and the happy
mondays. now wilson believes rap act raw t - signed to his f4 label the fourth
incarnation of factory - will complete the hat-trick . suddenly when raw t came
into my life i realised they are my third major band he told bbc world service s
the music biz programme. the group are set to release their first single on 21
february and follow it up with an album realise and witness in march. wilson
has twice tried to resurrect factory - which lasted for 14 years before folding -
but conceded these efforts had been despondent and dismal experiences . but it has
not put him off. of all the things i do in my life the most exciting thing i ve
ever done and the thing i have most loved is being part of a record company he
added. the idea of working with brilliant young musicians and being close to the
centre of popular culture is just the biggest thrill in my life. wilson explained
how his son persuaded him to go and see raw t but he had initially been reluctant
saying he detested young british people rapping. it s always inauthentic it s
always crass it never really works for me he said. i went to see this group
raw t - which stands for realise and witness talent - and like everyone else in the
room that night we were utterly blown away. wilson believes raw t could be to f4
as joy division were to factory records . the story of factory records - which
also owned the legendary hacienda club in manchester - was told in the michael
winterbottom film 24 hour party people in which wilson was played by steve coogan.
wilson stressed that the independent music scene remained as important as it had
been during the 1980s when labels such as factory and rough trade proliferated. he
pointed out that franz ferdinand and the white stripes - perhaps the two most
important bands since the millennium - were signed to indies. i think that is a
reflection of how useful and how powerful the indie philosophy is and how bands
prefer it he added. they can make more money that way - it s a more generous
relationship and also it s a more understanding relationship. i think
independents are in a wonderful position at this moment in time.
google shares fall as staff sell shares in google have fallen 6.7% after employees
and early investors in the web search took advantage of the first chance to sell
their holdings. restrictions were imposed ahead of its flotation in august to
prevent shares being dumped quickly onto the market. in one of the most closely-
watched initial public offerings in stock market history the us-based company sold
19.6 million shares at $85 each. google shares have risen since but fell $12.33 on
tuesday to close at $172.55. the restriction - known as a lockup - is being eased
piecemeal: in all some 227 million additional shares will become free to trade by
february 2005. selling the shares could turn many of google s workers into
millionaires. there were fears that the potential increase of shares in
circulation from tuesday would ease demand for stock. however analysts say they
expected most shareholders would be holding back from selling all their shares
immediately as google s good performance and future growth potential means demand
will hold. in its first earnings report since floating on the stock market google
said it made a net profit of $52m in the three months ending 30 september. sales
surged to $805.9m in the third quarter up from $393.9m a year earlier. google s
main service - its internet search - is free to users so the firm makes much of
its money from selling advertising space linked to the words for which its users
search. it also sells the use of its technology to companies who need to make
either their websites or their internal information systems searchable.
johnny cash manager holiff dies the former manager of johnny cash saul israel
holiff has died at the age of 79 his family said. mr holiff who was also a
concert promoter managed cash s career between 1960 and 1973 quitting when he
thought the singer s career had peaked. i was guilty for underestimating him
repeatedly he once said. the canadian music manager who also managed tommy
hunter and the statler brothers had been in declining health according to his
family. an entrepreneur from an early age mr holiff served as a rear air gunner in
the royal canadian air force during world war ii afterwards setting up a drive-in
restaurant. he briefly dabbled in acting before setting up offices in nashville
and los angeles for his concert and artist promotion business. in 1970 rpm weekly
magazine presented holiff with a special award as the canadian music industry s man
of the year. mr holiff retired when he was in his late 40s returning to education
as a mature student at the university of victoria where he graduated with a degree
in history. he passed away on 17 march. according to his wishes there will be no
funeral service.
gurkhas to help tsunami victims britain has offered to send a company of 120
gurkhas to assist with the tsunami relief effort in indonesia downing street said.
the deployment would involve troops from the 2nd battalion royal gurkha rifles
based in brunei. discussions have begun with indonesia on the exact timing and
location of the deployment but the government said the offer was aimed at the aceh
province. downing st said a similar offer might be made to the sri lankan
government. however a spokesman pointed out that there were particular logistical
difficulties in indonesia which the gurkhas might be able to help with. the
spokesman said: following this morning s daily coordination meeting on the post-
tsunami relief effort the government has formally offered the indonesian
government the assistance of a company of british army gurkhas from 2nd battalion
royal gurkha rifles around 120 personnel and two helicopters. this is in addition
to the ships and aircraft we have already committed to the relief operation in the
indian ocean. indonesia was by far the country worst affected by the tsunami
with 94 000 of the 140 000 confirmed deaths so far. international development
minister gareth thomas said the assistance offer would most likely focus on the
northern province of aceh. we have offered the gurkhas to help in the process of
scaling up the relief effort particularly in aceh which is undoubtedly the hardest
hit area in the indian ocean at the moment he said. we ve also had raf aircraft
flying in equipment which the un desperately need in order to set up a truly
effective relief operation on the ground in aceh province as well. the offer comes
as the foreign secretary jack straw arrives in indonesia for a special summit
meeting on the disaster.
absa and barclays talks continue south africa biggest retail bank absa has said it
is still in talks with uk bank barclays over the sale of majority stake in the
group. in november absa said it was close to striking a deal with barclays. but
the group said barclays is still waiting for the approval of south africa s banking
and competition authorities to make a formal offer. absa also announced that it
expects to see earnings grow by 20-25% in its current financial year. discussions
with barclays are continuing but shareholders are advised that no agreement has
been reached as to any offer being made by barclays to acquire a majority stake in
absa absa said in a statement. if barclays buys a stake in absa it will be one of
the largest foreign investments in south africa in recent years. absa currently has
a market value of about $8.5bn (£4.4bn). analysts said absa s earnings forecast was
better than expected. however the company warned that headline earnings growth
would be trimmed by about four percentage points because of share options for a
black economic empowerment transaction and a staff share incentive scheme. the
south african group will release its results for the year to 31 march on 30 may.
williams says he will never quit defiant matt williams says he will not quit as
scotland coach even if his side slump to a new low with defeat by italy at
murrayfield. that would leave the scots as favourites to win the wooden spoon for
the second year running. i have never quit anything in my life apart from maybe
painting the kitchen he told bbc sport. the support we have been given from
murrayfield in my whole time here has been 100%. williams has yet to experience an
rbs six nations victory after seven attempts and scotland have lost 12 of their 14
games under his leadership. but he rejected the comparison made in some media
sources with berti vogts recently sacked as scotland football manager after a poor
run of results. how can a german football coach and an australian rugby coach
have anything in common he asked. it is a bizarre analogy. it is so absurd that
it borders on the humorous. williams insists that he is revelling in the pressure
despite the possibility of a second six nations series without a victory. that is
not beyond the realms of possibility he admitted. there s nothing much between
the teams so we could win the next three games or lose them. but i actually
really enjoy seeing how you cope with such pressure as a coach. it helps the team
grow and helps you grow as a coach. we could have won in paris but for the last
five minutes and now we have two defeats but we were confident for those two first
games and we are confident we can beat italy too.
security warning over fbi virus the us federal bureau of investigation is warning
that a computer virus is being spread via e-mails that purport to be from the fbi.
the e-mails show that they have come from an fbi.gov address and tell recipients
that they have accessed illegal websites. the messages warn that their internet use
has been monitored by the fbi s internet fraud complaint center. an attachment in
the e-mail contains the virus the fbi said. the message asks recipients to click
on the attachment and answer some questions about their internet use. but rather
than being a questionnaire the attachment contains a virus that infects the
recipient s computer according to the agency. it is not clear what the virus does
once it has infected a computer. users are warned never to open attachment from
unsolicited e-mails or from people they do not know. recipients of this or
similar solicitations should know that the fbi does not engage in the practice of
sending unsolicited e-mails to the public in this manner the fbi said in a
statement. the bureau is investigating the phoney e-mails. the agency earlier this
month shut down fbi.gov accounts used to communicate with the public because of a
security breach. a spokeswoman said the two incidents appear to be unrelated.
europe asks asia for euro help european leaders say asian states must let their
currencies rise against the us dollar to ease pressure on the euro. the european
single currency has shot up to successive all-time highs against the dollar over
the past few months. tacit approval from the white house for the weaker greenback
which could help counteract huge deficits has helped trigger the move. but now
europe says the euro has had enough and asia must now share some of the burden.
china is seen as the main culprit with exports soaring up 35% in 2004 partly on
the back of a currency pegged to the dollar. asia should engage in greater
currency flexibility said french finance minister herve gaymard after a meeting
with his german counterpart hans eichel. markets responded by pushing the euro
lower in the expectation that the rhetoric - and the pressure - is unlikely to
ease ahead of a meeting of the g7 industrialised countries next week. early on
tuesday morning the dollar had edged higher to 1.3040 euros. the yen meanwhile
had strengthened to 102.975 against the dollar by 0730 gmt.
fuming robinson blasts officials england coach andy robinson said he was livid
after his side were denied two tries in sunday s 19-13 six nations loss to ireland
in dublin. mark cueto s first-half effort was ruled out for offside before the
referee spurned tv replays when england crashed over in the dying minutes. [i m]
absolutely spitting. i m livid. there s two tries we ve been cost robinson told
bbc sport. we ve got to go back to technology. i don t know why we didn t. south
african referee jonathan kaplan ruled that cueto was ahead of charlie hodgson when
the fly-half hoisted his cross-field kick for the sale wing to gather. kaplan then
declined the chance to consult the fourth official when josh lewsey took the ball
over the irish line under a pile of bodies for what could have been the game-
winning try. i think mark cueto scored a perfectly legal try and i think he should
have gone to the video referee on josh lewsey said robinson. it is how we use
the technology. it is there and it should be used. i am still trying to work out
the cueto try. i have looked at both and they both looked tries. we are very
disappointed and this will hurt there is no doubt about that. we are upset now
but the referee is in charge and he has called it his way and we have got to be
able to cope with that. we did everything we could have done to win the game. i
am very proud of my players and with a couple of decisions this could have been a
very famous victory. i thought we dominated. matt stevens had an awesome game at
tighthead prop while the likes of charlie hodgson martin corry and lewis moody
all came through well. josh lewsey was awesome and every one of the forwards
stood up out there. given the pressure we were under credit must go to all the
players. we have done everything but win a game of rugby but ireland are a good
side. they defended magnificently and they ve got every chance of winning this six
nations. england have lost their first three matches in this year s six nations
and four out of their six games since robinson took over from sir clive woodward in
september.
blair rejects iraq advice calls tony blair has rejected calls for the publication
of advice on the legality of the iraq war amid growing calls for an investigation.
the prime minister told his monthly press conference the matter had been dealt with
by the attorney general. earlier conservative mp michael mates joined calls for a
probe into claims lord goldsmith s statement to parliament was drawn up at number
10. mr blair said the statement was a fair summary of lord goldsmith s opinion.
that s what he (lord goldsmith) said and that s what i say. he has dealt with this
time and time and time again mr blair told his monthly news conference in downing
street. he refused to answer further questions on the issue saying it had been
dealt with literally scores of times and the position has not changed . lord
goldsmith has denied being leaned on and says the words written were his. the
government refuses to publish his advice on the legality of the war - saying such
papers have always been kept confidential. mr mates who is a member of the commons
intelligence and security committee and was part of the butler inquiry into pre-war
intelligence told the bbc on friday: that as a general rule is right but it s
not an absolute rule. he said there had been other occasions when advice had been
published most recently regarding prince charles s marriage plans. the government
could not pick and choose when to use the convention he said. mr mates added: we
discovered that there were two or three occasions in the past when law officers
advice to the government has been published. and this may be one of those special
occasions... when it would be in the public interest to see the advice which the
attorney general gave to the prime minister. this is argument was rejected by mr
blair who said: firstly we haven t broken the precedent and secondly peter
goldsmith has made his statement and i have got absolutely nothing to add to it.
in a book published this week philippe sands qc a member of cherie blair s matrix
chambers says lord goldsmith warned tony blair on 7 march 2003 that the iraq war
could be illegal without a second un resolution sanctioning military action. but a
short statement about lord goldsmith s position was presented in a written
parliamentary answer on 17 march 2003 - just before a crucial commons vote on the
military action. mr sands book suggests it was actually written by home office
minister lord falconer and downing street adviser baroness morgan. former minister
clare short who resigned from the government over the iraq war said it was the
same statement that was earlier shown to the cabinet as it discussed military
action. she told the bbc the full advice should have been attached according to
the ministerial code. my view is we need the house of lords to set up a special
committee summon the attorney get all the papers out look at exactly what
happened she said. the conservatives and liberal democrats say they want the
publication of the full legal advice given by the attorney general. on thursday
lord goldsmith said his statement had not been written by or at number 10 . in my
parliamentary answer on march 17 2003 i explained my genuinely held independent
view that military action was lawful under the existing security council
resolutions he said.
five million germans out of work germany s unemployment figure rose above the
psychologically important level of five million last month. on wednesday the
german federal labour agency said the jobless total had reached 5.037 million in
january which takes the jobless rate to 12.1%. yes we have effectively more than
five million people unemployed a government minister said earlier on zdf public
television. unemployment has not been this high in germany since the 1930s.
changes to the way the statistics are compiled partly explain the jump of 572 900
in the numbers. but the figures are embarrassing for the government. with the
figures apparently the worst we ve seen in the post-war period these numbers are
very charged politically said christian jasperneite an economist with mm
warburg. they could well put an end to the recent renaissance we ve seen by the
spd [the ruling social democrats] in the polls and with state elections due in
schleswig-holstein and north rhine-westphalia they may have an adverse effect on
the government s chances there. the opposition also made political capital from
the figures. it said there are a further 1.5 million-2 million people on subsidised
employment schemes who are in fact looking for real jobs. it added that
government reforms including unpopular benefit cuts do not go far enough. under
the government s controversial hartz iv reforms which came into effect at the
beginning of the year both those on unemployment benefits and welfare support and
those who are long-term unemployed are officially classified as looking for work.
the bad winter weather also took its toll as key sectors such as the construction
sector laid off workers. adjusted for the seasonal factors the german jobless
total rose by 227 000 in january from december.
tautou to star in da vinci film french actress audrey tautou star of hit film
amelie will play the female lead in the film adaptation of the da vinci code it
has been reported. the movie version of dan brown s best-selling novel is being
directed by ron howard and also stars tom hanks. tautou will play hanks code-
cracking partner according to various newspapers. she is currently starring in a
very long engagement directed by jean-pierre jeunet. jeunet was also responsible
for directing tautou in amelie in 2001 which launched the actress into the
mainstream. she also starred as the lead role in critically-acclaimed film dirty
pretty things in 2002. oscar-winning director ron howard chose tautou for the part
preferring a french actress to a big name hollywood star. uk actress kate
beckinsale had been widely tipped as a possibility for the role alongside vanessa
paradis and juliette binoche. the thriller upon which the movie is based has sold
more than 17 million copies and is centred on a global conspiracy surrounding the
holy grail mythology. the louvre museum scene of the gruesome murder at the
beginning of the novel recently gave permission for filming to take place there
showbusiness newspaper variety reported. the $100m movie will be produced by
columbia/sony pictures and is due for release on may 19 2006 in the united states
and france.
de niro completes box office coup robert de niro has completed a transatlantic box
office double by topping the uk and us film charts with two different films at the
same time. comedy sequel meet the fockers in which he stars with ben stiller
dustin hoffman and barbra streisand shot to the top of the uk chart at the
weekend. it took £7.2m in three days - eight times more than the number two
closer. assault on precinct 13 was in third. at the same time us audiences were
won over by his new thriller hide and seek. in meet the fockers he picks up the
role of an uptight father and ex-cia agent from 2000 hit comedy meet the parents.
it is a big leap to his role in hide and seek a supernatural horror in which he
plays a widower whose daughter s imaginary friend turns nasty. in the uk box office
chart meet the fockers pushed closer off the top spot while police action movie
assault on precinct 13 starring rapper ja rule made £750 000 in its first
weekend. london underground thriller creep was another new entry at six while
quirky comedy sideways which got five oscar nominations last week entered in
eighth place. the oscar nominations do not seem to have had an impact on fans
choices at cinemas. leading contenders the aviator million dollar baby and ray all
suffered substantial drops in takings compared with the previous weekend.
police praise courageous ozzy rock star ozzy osbourne has been praised by police
for very courageously tackling a burglar who stole jewellery from his house. the
singer grabbed an intruder who then jumped 30ft (10m) from a first floor window as
the star gave chase at his buckinghamshire home on monday. i acted on impulse
osbourne said. in hindsight it could have been a lot worse. it could ve got
really ugly. a £100 000 reward has been offered for information leading to a
conviction. his wife sharon who called the police said her wedding rings were
taken from her bedside table as she slept. the heavy metal star said he could have
met the same fate as late beatle george harrison who was repeatedly stabbed in a
break-in in 1999. i could have been badly injured or shot or anything osbourne
said. i just thank god that no-one got injured. he added he was glad the
intruders were not hurt. i wouldn t want anyone to get injured. the singer did
not want to talk in detail about his actions but when asked whether he would do the
same again replied: is the pope a catholic the incident happened at 0400 gmt on
monday in chalfont st peter. detective inspector paul miller of thames valley
police said it appeared a man used a ladder to get into the house through a first
floor bedroom window. whilst selecting items of jewellery the burglar was
disturbed by ozzy who very courageously tackled this burglar and pursued him from
the house he said. ozzy said he was just coming to grips with what had happened
and his opinion of the uk had been lowered after 12 relatively trouble-free years
in the us. we lived in los angeles where people get shot every day and have been
trailed by lots of different stalkers - and yet we come back to england and i m
very disappointed. at a press conference on tuesday sharon osbourne gave details
of nine stolen items. they included a diamond wedding ring and two handmade wedding
bands ozzy gave her when they renewed their vows two years ago. she said she wished
she had worn them at night. i always take them off and put them beside my bed and
that s where they were right beside me on my bedside table. also taken were a
pearl necklace and a sapphire bought as an investment for their daughters described
by sharon as one of the only 24-carat sapphires that is absolutely pure . a daisy
chain necklace that was a 20th anniversary present and a franck muller watch sharon
said was one of only 10 made were also stolen. she expressed her anger at the
person who hasn t worked and wants to take what s yours . but the thing is we
worked for everything. i came from brixton. ozzy came from not a very nice part of
birmingham and everything we ve got we have worked our arses off for. if i choose
to make an investment for my kids in whatever way i choose to make it that s my
business and i worked for every god damn penny. ozzy also lamented two years in
which the family has been plagued by problems including his critical injury in a
quad bike accident his wife s colon cancer their childrens drug problems and now
the burglary. on sunday night the osbournes had been celebrating the birthday of
singer sir elton john s partner david furnish. police described the intruder as
well-built about 5 10 tall and said he was wearing a ski-mask a light-coloured
jacket and trainers. they believe he may have injured himself when he jumped from
the window. there is no description of his accomplice. police think the pair were
driving a large vehicle possibly a van and are keen to hear from anyone who may
have seen one leaving chalfont st peter at speed. police appealed for public help
to find the perpetrators and stolen items on 0845 8 505 505 or 0800 555 111.
immigration to be election issue immigration and asylum have normally been issues
politicians from the big parties have tiptoed around at election time. but no
longer. both labour and the tories have signalled their intention of making them
central to their election campaigns. they have been struck by the level of concern
amongst voters about the issues with internal surveys showing they have the
potential to swing large numbers of votes. that was also true at the last general
election and the issue did briefly become a campaigning issue. but it sparked the
probably predictable furore with claims politicians were either stoking up
xenophobia or alternatively running scared of addressing the problem. but this
time around it looks set to be one of the core battlegrounds with both the big
parties competing to set out tough policies. the tories are already committed to
imposing annual limits on immigration with a quota for asylum seekers and with
applications processed outside the uk. labour has already branded the proposal
unworkable but party strategists have seen the tories seizing a poll advantage over
the issue. now home secretary charles clarke has come up with alternative
proposals for a points system to ensure only immigrants who can benefit the economy
will be granted entry and to kick out more failed asylum seekers. that has been
attacked by the tories as too little too late and for failing to tackle the key
issue of the numbers entering the uk. the liberal democrats have not been drawn too
deeply into the argument but have called for a europe-wide policy on immigration.
but while all the parties appear to agree the time has come to properly debate and
address the issue there are already signs they will run into precisely the same
problems as before. former union leader sir bill morris has already accused both
the big parties of engaging in a bidding war about who can be nastiest to asylum
seekers . my concern is that whilst the labour party and the conservative party
will take a constructive approach to the debate right-wing political parties
picking up on statements like `burden to britain will exploit this and create a
lot of fear and uncertainty . it is precisely that concern - and the possible
suggestion the issue is playing to the far right s racist agenda - that will
provoke strong reactions from many concerned with this issue. the challenge for the
big parties is to ensure they can engage in the debate during the cut and thrust of
a general election while also avoiding that trap.
singer s film to show at festival a documentary which takes a candid look at the
life of chart-topping singer george michael will be shown at this year s berlin
film festival. a different story will screen in the panorama section of the
festival which runs from 10-20 february. it features the singer talking about both
his career and his personal life from his days in wham! through to more recent
events. michael will attend the festival to introduce the screening on 16 february.
director southan morris and executive producer andy stephens will also attend the
festival. the 93 minute film will see michael discussing his early days in wham!
along with his later career including his legal battles with record label sony and
his stance against the iraq war and american politics. it will also touch upon his
turbulent personal life including his arrest in a beverly hills park toilet in
1998 for lewd behaviour and the death of his boyfriend anselmo feleppa from
aids. the film which includes previously unseen footage of the singer also
features contributions from michael s former wham! partner andrew ridgeley as well
as ex-wham! backing singers pepsi and shirlie. other contributors include sting
mariah carey elton john noel gallagher geri halliwell and simon cowell. this
year s festival will open with man to man a historical epic starring joseph
fiennes and kristin scott-thomas. it will be one of 21 films competing for the
festival s top prize the golden bear. other films in competition will include the
life aquatic a quirky comedy starring bill murray and the biopic kinsey which
features liam neeson. the full programme will be announced on 1 february.
brown shrugs off economy fears gordon brown is to freeze petrol duty increases
fund a £1bn package to avoid big council tax rises and boost childcare and
maternity leave. in an upbeat pre-budget report he slightly increased borrowing
but insisted economic targets would be met. the chancellor also hailed the longest
period of growth in uk industrial history but denied he was gloating . but
oliver letwin for the tories attacked government red tape and debt dubbing mr
brown sir wastealot . the shadow chancellor said mr brown s golden rule had
turned to dross in his hands and said he was borrowing to spend not invest with
predicted debt over the coming years totalling £170bn. mr letwin told mps: the
tide is going out on the chancellor s credibility. he is spending borrowing and
taxing so much because he is not getting value for taxpayer s money. vincent
cable for the liberal democrats accused mr brown of ducking tough choices. he
said: last week the prime minister gave us the politics of fear; this week the
chancellor has offered the economics of complacency. there are serious challenges
ahead from the falling dollar and from the rapid downturn in the uk housing market
and rising personal debt. but they have not been confronted. mr brown rejected the
lib dem s call to open up the government s books to the national audit office
saying decisions on tax and spending should be made by ministers. some economists
say his forecasts on public finances are wishful thinking. bbc economic editor evan
davis said the figures were plausible but also a gamble. mr brown s insistence he
was not gloating was a pointed rebuttal of a warning from new european
commissioner peter mandelson. in his speech he set out a 10-year childcare
strategy for if labour wins the next election. it includes a £285m cash injection
to extend paid maternity leave from six months to nine with parents able to
transfer leave from the mother to the father. he also promised to increase free
nursery education for three and four-year-olds to 15 hours from april 2007. and
funds would be provided to keep schools open from 0800 to 1800gmt to look after
children while their parents were at work. taken together the measures would
create a welfare state that is truly family-friendly for the first time in its
history said mr brown. he also announced a cash hand-out for older pensioners
with payments of £50 for the over-70s as part of the winter fuel allowance. in a
move ministers say should keep council tax rises below 5% next year the chancellor
said he was providing an extra £1bn for local councils. the money is expected to
come from government departments such as health and education. mr brown said he
was set to meet his two fiscal rules - to borrow only to invest and keep debt low
and sustainable - both in this economic cycle and the next. borrowing figures for
2003/4 are £35bn - £2.5bn less than the £37.5bn predicted in march s budget as
already announced by the office for national statistics. borrowing is tipped to
fall to £31bn by 2005/06 - but that is still £2bn more than mr brown predicted in
his march budget. inflation would be 1.75% next year and 2% in the years to follow
mr brown forecast. he also pledged an extra £105m for security and counter-
terrorism. business groups have welcomed efforts to improve competitiveness and
invest more in skills and innovation. but there worries about the costs of more
family-friendly working. simon sweetman from the federation of small businesses
said: the proposals on maternity leave have clearly been made with a general
election in mind and with little thought to the impact on small employers.
rapper 50 cent scores chart first rapper 50 cent has become the first solo artist
to have three singles in the us top five in the same week. his track candy shop
remained at the top of the charts while disco inferno crept up from six to five.
50 cent also appears on rap protege the game s song how we do number four in the
us but now outside the uk top ten. the pair had a recent dispute which saw the game
thrown out of 50 cent s rap collective g-unit accusing him of disloyalty in an
ongoing feud. 50 cent who burst onto the music scene in 2003 has had less
success in the uk charts with three singles making the top ten. his debut album
get rich and die tryin narrowly missed out on becoming a uk chart topper. but in
the us he headed the 2003 end of year charts for the album and r&b and hip hop
artists. newcomer the game s debut reached the top of the charts five weeks ago
while 50 cent s second collection the masscre was released in the us at the end of
last week. last may r&b star usher scored a chart first with three concurrent
singles in the us top 10 a feat which was previously matched only by the bee gees
and the beatles. the hit songs were taken from the 24-year-old s confessions album
which topped the american chart for eight weeks.
moya sidesteps davis cup in 2005 carlos moya has chosen not to help spain try and
defend the davis cup crown they won in seville in november. moya led spain to
victory over the usa but wants to focus on the grand slams in 2005 although
insists he will return to the davis cup in 2006. after two years of total
commitment with the davis cup team... i have taken this difficult decision to
concentrate on the regular circuit said moya. they know that after this season
they can count on me again if they so wish. the 1998 french open champion is
determined to make an impact in the major events after spending much of the last
eight years in the top 10. at the age of 29 i have set some tough goals in my
professional career and this season i need to fix my objectives on specific dates
and tournaments he said. since the davis cup in seville i have been working on
my condition as well as technical and medical aspects of my game which will allow
me to come into the big events of the year in top form. moya began 2005 with
victory in the chennai open on sunday.
adventure tale tops awards young book fans have voted fergus crane a story about a
boy who is taken on an adventure by a flying horse the winner of two smarties book
prizes. paul stewart and chris riddell s book came top in the category for six- to
eight-year-olds and won the award chosen by after-school club members. sally
grindley s spilled water about a chinese girl sold as a servant was top in vote
of readers aged nine to 11. biscuit bear by mini grey took the top award in the
under-five category. winners were voted for by about 6 000 children from a
shortlist picked by an adult panel. the prize which is celebrating its 20th year
is billed as the uk s biggest children s book award . fergus crane includes text
by stewart and illustrations by riddell who also created the edge chronicles
together. as well as the six to eights prize it won the 4children special award
voted for by after-school club members. julia eccleshare chair of the adult
judging panel said children s literature had never looked stronger in the prize
s 20 years. this award counts because the final choice of winners is made by
children who are the toughest critics of all she said. this year s young judges
chose the winners from an exceptionally strong and varied shortlist which showcases
the very best in children s books today. previous winners have included jk rowling
jacqueline wilson and dick king-smith.
robben plays down european return injured chelsea winger arjen robben has insisted
that he only has a 10% chance of making a return against barcelona in the champions
league. the 21-year-old has been sidelined since breaking a foot against blackburn
last month. chelsea face barcelona at home on 8 march having lost 2-1 in the first
leg. and robben told the daily star: it is not impossible that i will play against
barcelona but it is just a very very small chance - about 10%. robben has been
an inspirational player for chelsea this season following a switch from psv
einhoven last summer. he added: my recovery is going better than we expected a few
weeks ago but i think the barcelona game will come too soon. i won t take any
risks and come back too soon.
brown names 16 march for budget chancellor gordon brown will deliver his budget to
the house of commons on 16 march the treasury has announced. the budget likely
to be the last before the general election will be at about 1230 gmt on that
wednesday just after prime minister s question time. the annual event is when the
chancellor outlines the government s taxation and broader economic predictions. the
tories say it is likely the budget will contain measures to attract votes. the
election is expected on 5 may. next month s budget will be mr brown s ninth since
labour came to power in 1997. if a may election is called there could be as little
as 18 days between the budget and the announcement of a date for the election. a
shortened finance bill would have to be rushed through parliament with all-party
support to allow the government to continue collecting revenue. the full finance
bill with the budget measures in it would then be returned to the commons after
the election if labour secures another term in office. tory shadow chancellor
oliver letwin said: we can be sure of two things: the budget will contain measures
to attract votes and it will not contain the £8 billion of tax rises which
independent experts say are inevitable if labour wins the election. as mr brown
announced the budget date in a short ministerial statement accountancy firm ernst
& young urged him to put politics aside and focus on the long-term requirements of
the economy. in the budgets that were given immediately before the last six
elections taxes were cut by the incumbent chancellor and in many cases taxes
were increased soon after the election result said aidan o carroll e&y s uk head
of tax.
new yob targets to be unveiled fifty new areas getting special help to fight
anti-social behaviour in england and wales will be named on thursday. ten areas
have already had access to special prosecutors and local experts and the government
is now expanding the crackdown to more towns and cities. details of how many anti-
social behaviour orders (asbos) were used in the last year are also being
published. labour sees nuisance behaviour as a key election issue but critics claim
the record is at best patchy. a year ago ministers launched their anti-social
behaviour plan and thursday s figures offer a progress check. they will say that in
the past year more than 2 600 anti-social behaviour orders were issued by the
courts - more than double the total used in the previous four years. police have
also closed 150 crack houses and issued more than 400 dispersal orders breaking up
groups of youths in public places. the 50 new pilot areas to get special attention
will also receive extra government funding. exeter and cardiff are among cities who
have voiced interest in being involved. prime minister tony blair is also expected
to announce new measures to strengthen the use of asbos and fixed penalty notices.
there are still concerns that some areas of the country are not using the powers
properly. he is expected to say that the new figures were heartening but he would
not rest until similar action was taken in all areas of the country where it was
needed. we have not defeated this problem by any means but shown together what
can be done he will say. mr blair this week defended the shake-up of the
licensing laws saying it was right to focus on troublemakers rather than treating
everybody as a potential drunken nuisance. ministers also boast of record police
numbers and are speeding up plans to put in place 25 000 community support officers
(csos). but researchers from leeds university warned that csos could undermine
traditional bonds between police officers and communities. more work needed to be
done on clarifying the role of different agencies and how they linked together
before csos they argued in a the study. critics of the government say it has
announced more than 20 initiatives to tackle nuisance behaviour when the real focus
should be on good policing. home office minister hazel blears also revealed this
week that about a third of asbos were breached - with some people jailed and
others not.
us airways staff agree to pay cut a union representing 5 200 flight attendants at
bankrupt us airways have agreed to a new contract that cuts pay by nearly 10%. the
deal will help the carrier trying to survive by cutting costs by nearly $1bn
(£530m) a year save about $94m. more than two thirds of its 28 000 staff have now
accepted wage cuts. but talks are still continuing with a union representing
mechanics baggage handlers and cleaners which has so far failed to negotiate a
new contract. the seventh largest carrier in the us sought bankruptcy protection
for a second time in two years last september. it had been one of the quickest to
deal with difficulties faced by the aviation industry after the 9/11 attacks in
2001. but it emerged from chapter 11 bankruptcy in march 2003 to face competition
from low-cost carriers and higher fuel costs. us airways management has said it may
need to start liquidating assets if it does not receive concessions from all staff
by the middle of this month.
army chiefs in regiments decision military chiefs are expected to meet to make a
final decision on the future of scotland s army regiments. a committee of the army
board which is made up of the most senior defence figures will discuss plans for
restructuring regiments on monday. the proposals include cutting scotland s six
single-battalion regiments to five and merging these into a super regiment. the
plans have faced stiff opposition from campaigners and politicians alike. the
committee s decision must be ratified by defence secretary geoff hoon and prime
minister tony blair. it is expected that it will be made public next week. when
ministers announced a reorganisation of the army it drew a question mark over the
futures of the black watch the kings own scottish borderers the royal scots the
royal highland fusiliers and the argyll and sutherland highlanders. in october the
council of scottish colonels proposed the merger of the royal scots and the king s
own scottish borderers into a single battalion. under their vision it would be
one of five in the new super regiment. the proposals to either merge or amalgamate
the six regiments into a super regiment sparked a political outcry with labour
backbenchers and opposition politicians opposing the plan. they felt the timing was
insensitive because the black watch was in the frontline in iraq suffering
casualties. the save the scottish regiments campaigners were so angered they
threatened to stand against labour at the next general election. speaking ahead of
the expected army board meeting a spokesman said: the government and the army
board have spent the past four months attempting to trick serving soldiers and the
public into thinking their planned changes for the scottish regiments are for the
good of the army and for that of the serving soldier. they are very much not for
the good and will destroy scotland s regiments by moulding them into a single super
regiment which will lead to severe recruitment problems a loss of local
connections to those regiments and a loss to scotland of an important part of her
heritage and most importantly her future - the regiments are the envy of armies
around the world. an alternative blueprint had been put forward by labour mp eric
joyce who proposed going ahead with the merger while preserving the other
regiments. for a brief time there was speculation the prime minister might
consider the plan but that now seems unlikely. speaking in scotland last week mr
blair said the aim was to preserve tradition but introduce a more effective
structure and hinted that a super regiment was likely. he said: they don t want to
get rid of the history or the traditions of the regiment or the local connections -
far from it all they want to do is make sure they can transfer people easily
across regiments and deploy them more flexibly. the prime minister said he hoped
campaigners concerns would be taken into account but the need for effective change
had to be paramount.
chip maker backs net phone calls rich templeton the head of giant chip maker texas
instruments has given his backing to the growing sector of voice over internet
telephony (voip) voip allows pc users and in some cases those with just a
broadband connection to make telephone calls via the net. mr templeton said voip
would be the next major application to drive broadband connections into homes.
internet service provider wanadoo has announced it is launching its own broadband
telephony service in the uk. subscribers to wanadoo s broadband service will be
able to use the service to make free evening and weekend calls to any uk landline
and free calls at any time to other wanadoo users. the service will cost an extra
£4 a month and will come with a free livebox the broadband hub which wanadoo plans
will be used in future to provide video-on-demand and home security services. the
secondary phone line will mean customers can have an extra home phone number and
will also provide wireless internet access around the home. eventually the service
will replace existing landline services as wanadoo goes head to head with bt.
voice-over broadband is a key trend across europe and is set to have a dramatic
impact on the telecommunications industry eric abensur wanadoo s chief
executive told the bbc news website. mr templeton said he agreed. voice-over-
packet is going to be the second killer application after broadband internet access
he said. the world s largest maker of chips for mobile phones believes the
technology will grow rapidly from the relatively small user base it has currently.
almost 83 million people have downloaded the software that powers the skype voip
service according to the net telephony firm s website. skype lets people make free
calls to other skype users and also make low-cost calls to ordinary phone numbers.
us firm vonage also offers a voip service but one which lets people plug an
ordinary phone into a broadband router to make calls. bill simmelink general
manager of ti s voip business said the technology would only take off when people
were making net calls with the ease of making a normal call. it s not about the
pipe if you will or the silicon per se it s about the application he said.
we want to communicate freely effortlessly and economically wherever we are. in a
sign that voip is seeping into the mainstream giant isp aol announced on tuesday
that it had plans to launch a net-based phone service for some of its members
within the month. customers will continue to use their traditional phones but they
will plug them into adapters connected to their broadband source rather than the
jack provided by the telephone company. calls are received and placed just like on
the old telephone network. we can help mass-market adoption of voip said aol
chief executive jonathan miller. we can utilise our national footprint. we can
help the entire industry become well known.
record fails to lift lacklustre meet yelena isinbayeva may have produced another
world pole vault record but her achievement could not hide the fact it was not the
best meet we have ever seen in birmingham. and hey there are not many meets that
go by without the russian breaking a world record. apparently isinbayeva has
cleared five metres in training and i would just love her to put us out of our
misery and have a go at it rather than extending the indoor record by one
centimetre at a time. athletics to me is all about pushing the barriers and being
the best you can and i would like to see her have a go at 5m in competition. mind
you every time she breaks the record she gets $30 000 so she can afford to be
deliberate about it. world records aside i thought it was a very encouraging
evening s work for kelly holmes. she looked good and was very positive. agnes
samaria who came second is in very good shape and is in the world s top three
800m runners this season. yes samaria let kelly get away but there was no coming
back over the last 200m as kelly dominated the race so beating samaria is a bit of
a benchmark for kelly. my gut feeling is that kelly would like to run in the
european indoor championships but she just hasn t convinced herself she is fit
enough to do so. on the other hand i think jason gardener is struggling to come
near what is going to be required to win the men s 60m in madrid. he started well
in the final but still could not stay with the front-runners. jason has a lot of
experience indoors but for some reason he is struggling to maintain his pace
through to the finish. it would have been nice to see what mark lewis-francis
could have done in the final if only he hadn t got himself disqualified. he was
blatantly playing the false-start game to his advantage but it tripped him up and
made him look a bit silly. my view is you re meant to go when the gun goes and not
before. and if you try to unsettle your rivals by employing the false-start tactic
you have to remember not to false start yourself again. having said that mark is
looking in much better shape. but i haven t seen anything from mark or jason yet
which suggests france s ronald pognon - who has run 6.45 seconds - will be under
threat at the europeans. from a british point of view sarah claxton s victory in
the 60m hurdles was the best thing to come out of the meet. something else that
probably went unnoticed was melanie purkiss winning the women s national 400m race
in a new personal best of 52.98 seconds. aaas champion kim wall came second in
another lifetime best so we have a very strong 4x400m squad going to the european
championships. scotland s lee mcconnell is probably going to run too so we have a
real prospect of a medal. from an international perspective i thought meseret
defar was disappointing in the 3 000m but i don t think the pace-making was great.
canadian heather hennigar set a fast early pace but could not maintain it and if jo
pavey had been in last year s shape she would have given defar a real run for her
money. she had a go but just could not hang in there. we were also expecting a bit
more from bernard lagat in the men s 1500m. but he has only just come over from the
usa so he may not be that sharp and i still think he is in great shape. as for
kenenisa bekele he was well beaten by markos geneti. but we only had half
expectations for bekele as he has been struggling this season. it was very hot in
the national indoor arena and i felt uncomfortable in the commentary box. i think
those conditions affected the distance runners and in fact defar complained to her
coach after the race that she could not get her breath properly.
california sets fines for spyware the makers of computer programs that secretly spy
on what people do with their home pcs could face hefty fines in california. from 1
january a new law is being introduced to protect computer users from software
known as spyware. the legislation which was approved by governor arnold
schwarzenegger is designed to safeguard people from hackers and help protect their
personal information. spyware is considered by computer experts to be one of the
biggest nuisance and security threats facing pc users in the coming year. the
software buries itself in computers and can collect a wide range of information. at
its worst it has the ability to hijack personal data like passwords login
details and credit card numbers. the programs are so sophisticated they change
frequently and become impossible to eradicate. one form of spyware called adware
has the ability to collect information on a computer user s web-surfing. it can
result in people being bombarded with pop-up ads that are hard to close. in
washington congress has been debating four anti-spyware bills but california is a
step ahead. the state s consumer protection against spyware act bans the
installation of software that takes control of another computer. it also requires
companies and websites to disclose whether their systems will install spyware.
consumers are able to seek up to $1 000 in damages if they think they have fallen
victim to the intrusive software. the new law marks a continuing trend in
california towards tougher privacy rights. a recent survey by earthlink and webroot
found that 90% of pcs are infested with the surreptitious software and that on
average each one is harbouring 28 separate spyware programs. currently users
wanting protection from spyware have turned to free programs such as spybot and ad-
aware.
benitez to launch morientes bid liverpool may launch an £8m january bid for long-
time target fernando morientes according to reports. the real madrid striker has
been linked with a move to anfield since the summer and is currently behind raul
ronaldo and michael owen at the bernabeu. liverpool boss rafael benitez is keen to
bolster his forward options with djibril cisse out until next season. if there is
an attractive propostition it could be i would be keen to leave admitted the 28-
year-old morientes. he added: unfortunately i m not in control of the situation.
i m under contract to real and they will make any decisions. the fee could put
liverpool off a prospective deal but real are keen to net the cash as they are
reported to be preparing a massive summer bid for inter milan striker adriano. the
reds are currently sixth in the premiership 15 points behind leaders chelsea.
call to overhaul uk state pension the uk pension system has been branded inadequate
and too complex by a leading retirement think-tank. the pensions policy institute
(ppi) said replacing the state pension with a citizen s pension would help tackle
inequality and complexity. the change would see pensions being calculated on length
of residency in the uk rather than national insurance (ni) contributions. reform
could reduce poverty by aiding people with broken employment records. the ppi
added that once the state system was reformed the government should look at options
to overhaul private and workplace pensions. the think tank s proposals were made in
response to the recent publication of the pensions commission s initial report into
uk retirement savings. according to the pensions commission s report 12 million
working people are not saving enough for their retirement. as a result living
standards could fall for the next generation of uk pensioners. the report added
that a combination of higher taxes higher savings and/or a higher average
retirement age was needed to solve the uk pension crisis.
sport betting rules in spotlight a group of mps and peers has called for a
tightening of regulations controlling betting on sport. the parliamentary group on
betting and gaming held a substantial inquiry into betting last year. it followed
fears that a massive increase in betting on sport such as that done using the
internet and mobile phones has led to more cheating. the all-party group
recommended 15 ways to protect punters and improve the integrity of sports betting.
they include a proposal for raising the maximum jail sentence for gambling cheats
above the current two years. lord condon head of the international cricket council
s anti-corruption unit who originally made the call for longer prison sentences
said the two-year penalty was derisory . you could get a bigger sentence for
failing to pay your hotel bill criminally than you could for corruption in major
sports. symbolically a higher penalty perhaps as the bill passes through the two
houses might be appropriate. the report recommended the governing bodies of
sports have a say in the type of bets offered to punters and for bookmakers to set
up audit trails - something the new betting exchanges already do - to allow
suspicious betting patterns to be traced. lord faulkner of worcester who chaired
the inquiry said: whilst we accept that the greater part of sports betting is
neither corrupt nor unfair to punters the evidence convinces us that the growth of
betting exchanges - because of the facility they provide to bet against a result -
has increased the potential for corruption. it is important that the government
works with sporting administrators to review the difficulties faced by governing
bodies in convicting the guilty and penalising them appropriately. the panel s aim
was to try to define what constitutes cheating assess how much might be going on
and suggest what the government might do to put it right. as well as the growth of
internet and mobile phone betting there has been the creation of betting exchanges
which allow punters to fix odds between themselves. betting exchanges allow punters
to back (to win) but also lay (to lose) a horse. this means they can control their
odds at winning by placing their money both ways.
brainwave cap controls computer a team of us researchers has shown that
controlling devices with the brain is a step closer. four people two of them
partly paralysed wheelchair users successfully moved a computer cursor while
wearing a cap with 64 electrodes. previous research has shown that monkeys can
control a computer with electrodes implanted into their brain. the new york team
reported their findings in the proceedings of the national academy of sciences.
the results show that people can learn to use scalp-recorded electroencephalogram
rhythms to control rapid and accurate movement of a cursor in two directions said
jonathan wolpaw and dennis mcfarlane. the research team from new york state
department of health and state university of new york in albany said the research
was another step towards people controlling wheelchairs or other electronic devices
by thought. the four people faced a large video screen wearing a special cap which
meant no surgery or implantation was needed. brain activity produces electrical
signals that can be read by electrodes. complex algorithms then translate those
signals into instructions to direct the computer. such brain activity does not
require the use of any nerves of muscles so people with stroke or spinal cord
injuries could use the cap effectively. the impressive non-invasive
multidimensional control achieved in the present study suggests that a non-invasive
brain control interface could support clinically useful operation of a robotic arm
a motorised wheelchair or a neuroprosthesis said the researchers. the four
volunteers also showed that they could get better at controlling the cursor the
more times they tried. although the two partially-paralysed people performed better
overall the researchers said this could be because their brains were more used to
adapting or that they were simply more motivated. it is not the first time
researchers have had this sort of success in brain-control experiments. some teams
have used eye motion and other recording techniques. earlier this year a team at
the mit media labs europe demonstrated a wireless cap which read brain waves to
control a computer character.
elvis set for chart hat-trick the late us legend elvis presley is likely to score
his third uk number one single in three weeks on sunday according to early sales
figures. the king of rock n roll has already had consecutive chart-toppers with
jailhouse rock and one night. a fool such as i the next in a series of 18 reissues
is on course to beat the chemical brothers to the top. but his next single it s
now or never will face a challenge from tsunami charity single grief never grows
old. sir cliff richard russell watson boy george bill wyman and members of the
bee gees the beach boys america and the eagles are expected to feature on the
charity song. bookmakers have offered odds of 10/1 for all presley s 18 hits to go
back to number one. a fool such as i would become the 1 001st number one single in
uk chart history after one night took the 1 000th place on sunday. the latest
release is currently outselling the chemical brothers comeback single galvanize
plus other new releases from athlete ciara and feeder. presley s 18 original
number ones are being reissued as limited release singles with fans eager to buy
the set to fill a collector s box that went on sale in the first week. record
company sony bmg is now manufacturing 5 000 more copies of each single than
originally planned to meet demand taking the total number of copies of each song
on sale to about 28 000.
rem concerts blighted by illness us rock band rem have been forced to cancel
concerts after bass player mike mills was taken to hospital suffering from severe
flu-like symptoms . the band were forced to cut short monday night s show in
sheffield and have cancelled tuesday s glasgow date. mills could hardly stand up
let alone play said an rem spokesman who added he is now resting in hospital.
the remainder of the band played a short acoustic set on monday. tuesday s gig has
been rescheduled for 15 june. those who had a ticket for the show in glasgow are
being advised to retain their ticket stub so they can attend the new date. the band
s spokesman said that they would review their remaining dates on a day-to-day
basis based on doctors advice to mills. obviously we all want mike to get
better and clearly we all want to play the shows. rest assured we will do so as
soon as possible he said. the band were still hopeful they would be able to make
their wednesday date added the spokesman. rem played accoustic versions of their
hits losing my religion i ve been high leaving new york and the one i love to the
sheffield arena audience on monday. the band had originally been scheduled to play
four dates in the uk as part of a world tour. in 1995 former drummer bill berry
collapsed in switzerland while the band was on tour having suffered a ruptured
aneurysm. he made a full recovery only to leave the band two years later.
kilroy-silk quits shameful ukip ex-chat show host robert kilroy-silk has quit the
uk independence party and accused it of betraying its supporters. the mep said he
was ashamed to have joined the party which he labelled as a joke . he plans to
stand in the next general election but refused to confirm he is setting up a new
political party called veritas - latin for truth. ukip leader roger knapman said he
would break open the champagne adding: it was nice knowing him now goodbye .
however he did say the ex-chat show host had been quite useful initially . he
has remarkable ability to influence people but sadly after the (european)
election it became clear that he was more interested in the robert kilroy-silk
party than the uk independence party so it was nice knowing him now goodbye mr
knapman told bbc radio 4 s today programme. mr knapman rejected the idea mr kilroy-
silk posed a threat to ukip and queried why he had failed to confirm rumours he was
starting a new political party. mr kilroy-silk explained his reasons to his east
midlands constituents at a meeting in hinckley leicestershire. his decision came
as ukip officials began a process which could have triggered mr kilroy-silk s
expulsion. it marks the end of his membership of ukip after just nine months. it
began with a flood of publicity which helped ukip into third place in last june s
european elections but became dominated by rancour as he tried to take over the
party leadership. mr kilroy-silk accused his fellow ukip meps of being content
with growing fat sitting on their backsides in brussels. he told bbc news 24: i
tried to change the party i nagged all the way through the summer to do things to
get moving because i thought it was criminal what they were doing it was a
betrayal. mr kilroy-silk also told sky news there was masses of support for him
to form a new party - something he has yet to confirm will happen. ukip won 12
seats and 16.1% of the vote at the european elections on the back of its call for
the uk to leave the european union in his speech mr kilroy-silk says the result
offered ukip an amazing opportunity but the party s leadership had done nothing
and gone awol . there were no policies no energy no vision and no spokespeople
he said. the party is going nowhere and i m embarrassed with its allies in europe
and i m ashamed to be a member of the party said mr kilroy-silk. he said his
conviction in britain s right to govern itself had not changed. he would continue
that campaign outside ukip when he contested the general election in an east
midlands constituency. reports of his new party plans have prompted a formal
complaint to ukip s disciplinary committee for bringing the party into disrepute .
on thursday the party challenged mr kilroy-silk to stand down as an mep so voters
can get a genuine ukip candidate.
hundreds vie for best film oscar a total of 267 films are eligible for the best
film oscar but only five will be chosen to go forward as nominees. the academy of
motion picture arts and sciences has sent out the first ballot papers with the
full list of films vying for recognition. among those expected to receive
nominations are the aviator million dollar baby and sideways. academy members will
now vote for their favourites before the final nominees are announced on 25
january. to be eligible for nomination a film must have been shown in a commercial
theatre for seven consecutive days before the deadline of 31 december. director
martin scorsese s the aviator starring leonardo dicaprio went on general release
on christmas day in the us ensuring it just made the deadline. studios have
already begun lobbying voters taking out full page adverts in trade publications
such as variety urging them to remember particular films when it comes to choosing
what to back. other movies tipped for possible success include closer starring
jude law and julia roberts finding neverland with johnny depp as author jm barry
and kinsey starring liam neeson as the famed sex scientist alfred kinsey. meanwhile
design engineer takuo miyagishima will be awarded an oscar at the scientific and
technical awards dinner on 12 february 2005. miyagishima is the 18th recipient of
the sawyer award which is presented to an individual in the motion picture
industry whose technological contributions have brought credit to the industry.
the main oscar ceremony will be held in los angeles on 27 february.
assembly ballot papers missing hundreds of ballot papers for the regional
assembly referendum in the north east have disappeared . royal mail says it is
investigating the situation which has meant about 300 homes in county durham are
not receiving voting packs. officials at darlington council are now in a race
against time to try and rectify the situation. the all-postal votes of about two
million electors are due to be handed in by 4 november. a spokesman for darlington
council said: we have sent out the ballot papers the problem is with royal mail.
somewhere along the line something has gone wrong and these ballot papers have not
been delivered. the royal mail is investigating to see if they can find out what
the problem is. a spokeswoman for royal mail said: we are investigating a
problem with the delivery route in the mowden area of darlington. this is
affecting several hundred properties which have failed to receive ballot papers.
we are working closely with the council and will do all we can to help rectify the
problem. no-one will not receive their ballot paper as special hand deliveries
will take place where necessary. we are unaware of any other problems of this kind
to do with the regional assembly vote. the darlington council spokesman added:
initially we had complaints from a couple of residents in mowden to say they
thought they should have had their ballot papers by now. we then made further
investigations and it became clear this was a bigger issue. a spokeswoman for the
electoral commission told bbc news online that letters were being sent out to those
homes affected. she said the commission was satisfied that measures had been put in
place to ensure all voters received ballot papers in time. so far a total of 569
072 ballot envelopes have been scanned by bar code at counting offices across the
north east.
stevens named in england line-up england have named bath prop matt stevens in the
starting line-up for their six nations match against ireland at lansdowne road on
sunday. fellow bath prop duncan bell will start on the bench as coach andy
robinson makes just one change to the team that was beaten by france. it will be
stevens first start after two caps as a replacement against the all blacks last
year. leicester duo ollie smith and andy goode have been drafted onto the bench.
stevens takes over from phil vickery who suffered a broken arm playing for
gloucester last weekend. i m confident matt will grasp this opportunity and make
his mark against ireland said robinson. all three players have shown
outstanding form of late most recently in the england a win against france a and
for their club added robinson. selection beckons when players demonstrate such
consistent ability. this game against ireland will be massive. we recognise it s a
must-win game for us this season. england confirmed that sale sharks prop andrew
sheridan was not considered for selection because of an injury he picked up to the
back of his ankle during last friday s match against leeds. j robinson (sale
sharks capt); m cueto (sale sharks) j noon (newcastle) o barkley (bath) j
lewsey (wasps); c hodgson (sale sharks) h ellis (leicester); g rowntree
(leicester) s thompson (northampton) m stevens (bath) d grewcock (bath) b kay
(leicester) j worsley (wasps) l moody (leicester) m corry (leicester). a
titterrell (sale sharks) d bell (bath) s borthwick (bath) a hazell (gloucester)
m dawson (wasps) a goode (leicester) o smith (leicester).
souness backs smith for scotland graeme souness believes walter smith would be the
perfect choice to succeed berti vogts as scotland manager. souness s former
assistant at rangers is hot favourite to take over from vogts who resigned on
monday. walter is most definitely the ideal candidate for that job. he d be
perfect for it souness told bbc sport. the scottish football association has
appointed tommy burns as provisional caretaker-boss for the friendly against sweden
on 17 november. he fits the bill because of his knowledge and understanding of the
scotland team and football. he is experienced and has been successful. souness
added: walter is a real football person as i know from working with him at ibrox.
on top of all that he is a proper human being who would command the instant respect
of the players and everyone involved in scottish football. souness joined sir alex
ferguson in backing smith s claims. the scottish football association is about to
embark on the search for vogts successor after appointing tommy burns in a
caretaker capacity. ferguson said: he (smith) would be the outstanding candidate
as far as i m concerned. you need somebody who knows what they re doing and walter
would bring a wealth of experience to the job. the man utd boss continued: i don
t know what credentials are needed to do the job but it s a job that needs a lot of
experience. he was my assistant with scotland and here at manchester united and he
has also managed glasgow rangers. he would need to change the whole shape of
scottish football and radical changes are needed. smith was assistant to ferguson
at the world cup in mexico in 1986. the former everton and rangers boss has been
out of the game since a spell as manchester united assistant last term. bbc sport
understands that smith would be willing to discuss taking over if he was approached
by the scottish fa. if he is tempted to take over it seems almost certain smith s
long-time right-hand man archie knox would also play a part in the national team
set-up. smith already has the backing of many pundits and fans including former
scotland manager craig brown. brown said: walter is an outstanding candidate
without doubt. he would be admirable choice. i spoke to him on sunday and i got
the impression he would take it. he was asking me about it and i was positive.
other candidates for the job include former scotland midfielders gordon strachan
and gary mcallister and vogts assistant tommy burns.
mps demand budget leak answers ministers have been asked to explain how budget
details were printed in a london newspaper half an hour before gordon brown made
his speech. the tories said a large chunk of the budget appeared to have been
leaked in what they describe as a serious breach of treasury confidentiality . the
lib dems called for commons leader peter hain to make a statement and said
chancellors had resigned over leaks. they were told it would be brought to speaker
michael martin s attention. in the commons tory frontbencher andrew tyrie mp
demanded an immediate ministerial statement about how measures had been clearly
or at least apparently leaked to the evening standard . raising a point of order
he said it was the latest in a long line of discourtesies to this house as well
as a breach of confidentiality. he said: i can only hope it is unintentional. if
it were planned it would be a very grave matter indeed. a previous labour
chancellor resigned after he leaked the budget. hugh dalton resigned after leaking
details of his 1947 budget to journalist john carvel who published them in a
london newspaper just minutes before they were announced to the house of commons.
liberal democrat david laws said it was a very serious matter and said mr hain
should make a statement on thursday. deputy speaker sylvia heal agreed it was of
concern but said nothing could be done immediately but the issue would be brought
to mr martin s attention.
bmw drives record sales in asia bmw has forecast sales growth of at least 10% in
asia this year after registering record sales there in 2004. the luxury carmaker
saw strong sales of its three marques - bmw mini and rolls-royce - in asia last
year after the launch of three new models. the company which is vying with
mercedes-benz for the title of leading premium carmaker is confident about its
prospects for the region in 2005. it is launching a revamped version of its 3-
series saloon class next month. bmw sold nearly 95 000 cars in asia last year up
2.6% on 2003. bmw-brand sales rose 2.3% to 80 600 while sales of mini models rose
3.6% to 14 800. there was also a significant increase in sales of rolls-royces on
the continent. bmw sold more than 100 of the iconic models compared with just ten
the previous year. the german carmaker is aiming to boost annual sales in asia to
150 000 by 2008. here in asia we consider a double-digit increase in retail on
the order of 10 to 15% to be realistic on the basis of current features said
helmut panke bmw s group chief executive. china remains the main area of concern
for bmw after sales there fell 16% last year. however bmw is hopeful of a much
better year in 2005 as its direct investment in china begins to pay dividends. the
company only began assembling luxury high-powered sedans in china in 2003. 2004 was
generally a good year for bmw which saw revenues from its core car-making
operations rise 11%.
ultra fast wi-fi nears completion ultra high speed wi-fi connections moved closer
to reality on thursday when intel said it would list standards for the technology
later this year. intel is developing ultra-wideband technology (uwb) which would
allow fast data transfer but with low power needs. uwb is tipped to be used for
wireless transfer of video in the home or office and for use in wireless usb
devices which need low power consumption. a rival uwb standard is being developed
by motorola and chip firm freescale. at the mobile phone conference 3gsm in cannes
last month samsung demonstrated a phone using uwb technology from freescale. at a
press conference on thursday intel announced that two uwb groups wimedia alliance
and multi-band ofdm alliance had merged to support the technology. uwb makes it
possible to stream huge amounts of data through the air over short distances. one
of the more likely uses of uwb is to make it possible to send dvd quality video
images wirelessly to tv screens or to let people beam music to media players around
their home. the technology has the potential to transmit hundreds of megabits of
data per second. consumer electronics companies want uwb to replace cables and
simplify set-up jeff ravencraft technology strategist at intel and chairman of
the wireless usb promoter group told technology site zdnet. thirty percent of
consumer electronics returns are because the consumer couldn t set up the
equipment. the first products using uwb technology from intel are due to hit the
market later this year. initially they will be products using wireless usb 2.0
connections. uwb could also be used to create so-called personal area networks that
let a person s gadgets quickly and easily swap data amongst themselves. the
technology works over a range up to 10 metres and uses billions of short radio
pulses every second to carry data. intel says the benefit of uwb is that it does
not interfere with other wi-fi technologies already in use such as wi-fi wimax and
mobile phone networks.
roddick to face saulnier in final andy roddick will play cyril saulnier in the
final of the sap open in san jose on sunday. the american top seed and defending
champion overcame germany s tommy haas the third seed 7-6 (7-3) 6-3. i was
feeling horrible earlier in the week roddick said. i thought tonight was a step
in the right direction. saulnier battled to a 6-7 (3-7) 6-3 6-3 win over seventh
seed jurgen melzer who twisted his ankle early in the second set. roddick won the
last four points of the first-set tie-break before being broken at the start of the
second set. but he broke straight back and then broke haas again to lead 4-2. it s
extremely frustrating when you have chances against a top-five player and don t do
anything with them admitted haas. i rushed a few backhands and he took
advantage. saulnier will move into the world s top 50 for the first time after his
passage through to the final. it s taken a lot of work and a lot of fighting in my
mind he revealed. sometimes i didn t believe i could get to a final and now i am
here. i ve stayed mentally strong. i m on the way. i ll keep fighting and work a
lot and i ll be up there.
regiments group in poll move a regiments campaign group is to target nine
marginal labour seats at the general election. save the scottish regiments will
also field a candidate against armed forces minister adam ingram in east kilbride.
the group which is unhappy at defence merger plans is endorsing opposition
candidates in nine seats. the marginals are aberdeen south dumfriesshire dundee
east and west south west edinburgh ochil stirling east renfrewshire and western
isles. the campaigners unveiled a huge poster featuring black watch soldiers
fighting the war in iraq before they announced their election plans. former scots
guardsman allan hendry will challenge mr ingram. the group said it is well
organised with 350 volunteers and will be announcing at least one other candidate
later. it added that it can only be stopped from inflicting serious damage on
labour if the government reverses its plan to merge the six scottish regiments.
scotland s only conservative mp peter duncan said the save the scottish regiments
had done a superb job in fighting against defence cuts. he added: their actions
have reflected the pride that most people in this country have in our troops and
have shown a steely determination to make labour pay for their betrayal. i have
been honoured to speak at their rallies throughout scotland. scottish national
party leader alex salmond said it had received a big boost from the campaign s
decision to endorse snp candidates in four marginal seats. labour s arrogance has
been their undoing. in trying to get rid of scotland s historic regiments labour
mps will end up being scrapped themselves he said. however labour mp george
foulkes said the campaigners would not make any difference to the outcome of the
election and would not win the argument. a serving soldier knows that what labour
is proposing is right he said. as well as their election move save the scottish
regiments will join other campaigners at a rally in london in the spring. defence
secretary geoff hoon announced last year that scotland s regiments would be
combined into a single unit. the move was part of overall army reforms.
borders rail link campaign rally campaigners are to stage a rally calling for a
borders rail link which was closed in 1969 to be reopened. they will mark the 36th
anniversary of the line closure which ran from edinburgh through the borders and
on to carlisle with a walk at tweedbank. anne borthwick of campaign for borders
rail said reopening the waverley line would restore the area s prosperity. msps
are considering the reintroduction of passenger rail services through midlothian to
the borders. campaigners have said that reopening the waverley line which could
cost up to £100m would be a huge economic boost for the borders. in 2000 borders
council said the area s economy had suffered since the closure. ms borthwick said
the lobby group was determined to keep the pressure on the scottish executive. we
are hoping that many people will join us in a march to mark the 36th anniversary of
the closure of the waverley line she said. campaign for borders rail is the
biggest independent lobby group in scotland and we have been lobbying tirelessly
for the reinstatement of rail services to the borders and eventually to carlisle.
we believe that it is time for the scottish executive to commit to the first phase
of the project by pledging to fund the line between edinburgh and tweedbank in the
first instance and then investigate extending the line in the future. ms borthwick
said reopening the line would be a prosperous move and protect the character of the
scottish borders. a study in 2000 which was commissioned by the executive
scottish borders council midlothian council and scottish borders enterprise found
that a half-hourly service from tweedbank to edinburgh could cover its operating
costs. it also found that a half-hourly service from gorebridge to edinburgh could
cover operating costs and that a freight railway joining the west coast main line
at longtown could also be reinstated.
famed music director viotti dies conductor marcello viotti director of venice s
famous la fenice theatre has died in germany at 50. viotti director of la fenice
since 2002 conducted at renowned opera houses worldwide including milan s la scala
and the vienna state opera. his time at la fenice coincided with its reopening in
2003 after it was destroyed by fire in 1996. he fell into a coma after suffering a
stroke during rehearsals for jules massenet s manon last week. he conducted some
of the best orchestras in the world including the berlin philharmonic and the
english chamber orchestra. viotti was born in switzerland and studied the piano
cello and singing at the lausanne conservatory. his career breakthrough came in
1982 when he won first prize at the gino marinuzzi conducting competition in italy.
viotti established himself as chief conductor of the turin opera and went on to
become chief conductor of munich s radio orchestra. at la fenice viotti was widely
acclaimed for his production of the french composer massenet s thais and some of
his other productions included giuseppe verdi s la traviata and richard strauss s
ariadne auf naxos. the last opera he directed at la fenice was massenet s le roi
de lahore. viotti s debut at the new york s metropolitan opera came in 2000 with
giacomo puccini s madame butterfly followed by la boheme la traviata and
fromental halevy s la juive. giampaolo vianello superintendent of the fenice
theatre foundation said: i am filled with extreme sadness because other than a
great artist he is missed as a friend - a main character in the latest joyous
times during the rebirth of our theatre. viotti s last public performance was on
5 february when he conducted vincenzo bellini s norma at the vienna state opera.
o sullivan commits to dublin race sonia o sullivan will seek to regain her title at
the bupa great ireland run on 9 april in dublin. the 35-year-old was beaten into
fourth at last year s event having won it a year earlier. i understand she s had
a solid winter s training down in australia after recovering from a minor injury
said race director matthew turnbull. mark carroll irish record holder at 3km 5km
and 10km will make his debut in the mass participation 10km race. carroll has
stepped up his form in recent weeks and in late january scored an impressive 3 000m
victory over leading american alan webb in boston. carroll will be facing stiff
competition from australian craig mottram winner in dublin for the last two years.
mandelson warning to bbc the bbc should steer away from demonising ex-downing
street media chief alastair campbell peter mandelson has said. the european
commissioner and former labour minister was speaking amid claims that mr campbell
is part of a labour dirty tricks campaign. that charge was denied by mr mandelson
who said the tories were afraid of mr campbell s campaigning skills. he warned the
bbc that attacking mr campbell had brought it trouble before. that was a reference
to the hutton inquiry following a bbc story claiming downing street sexed up iraq
s weapons of mass destruction dossier. the affair prompted the resignation of bbc
chairman gavyn davies director-general greg dyke and reporter andrew gilligan.
labour has attracted media criticism for using new freedom of information laws to
dig up information about tory leader michael howard s past. mr mandelson a former
labour communications director told bbc radio 4 s today programme: i understand
why the tories will be gunning for alastair campbell because they fear his
campaigning skills. what i understand less is why the bbc should be joining with
the tories in driving that agenda. in my experience of these things parties which
shout about dirty tricks and the like tend to do so because they fear a direct hit
in some vulnerable part of their political anatomy. i suggest the bbc concentrates
on the issues and helps the public to understand the policies and the choices that
are at stake in the election rather than engages in the process politics the
trivialisation of the campaign. i think the bbc would be much better advised to
leave all this stuff well alone concentrate on the issues as i say not resume
their demonisation of alastair campbell - we all know where that led before. mr
campbell is acting as an adviser for labour which denies engaging in personal
campaigning. conservative co-chairman liam fox said mr campbell s return and labour
poster plans attacking mr howard - recently withdrawn from the party s website -
were a sign of abusive politics . the government despite the fact that they
would say want to go forward not back seem intent on talking about history rather
than their own record or even more importantly about the future he said on
sunday. labour peer baroness kennedy who is chairing the power inquiry into
political disengagement said people already thought politicians engaged in dirty
tricks. this feeling of distrust is going to be enlarged if this campaigning on
all sides is conducted in the way that it looks as if it just might she said.
tory leader quits legal position david mcletchie has resigned from his post as a
partner in a legal firm following criticism over his dual role. the scottish
conservative leader had insisted that his legal work with tods murray did not
influence the causes he supports. but on friday he said: i have tendered my
resignation as a partner with immediate effect. mr mcletchie had received advice
from holyrood officials about what details he needed to declare. labour said he had
cleverly not asked about paid advocacy. a tory spokesman totally refuted any
wrongdoing. mr mcletchie received advice from the clerk to the standards committee
after concern over him signing a parliamentary motion questioning expansion plans
for edinburgh airport. the msp had been a partner for tods murray which has a
client opposing the development. mr mcletchie did not have a complaint made against
him but when concerns were raised he sought guidance from the standards committee
to clarify his position. he was advised to exercise judgement to avoid the
perception of a conflict and said he had done nothing wrong. explaining his reason
for quitting the post mr mcletchie said: i have been greatly concerned by the
recent publicity surrounding my association with tods murray. however i have no
wish to see a similar situation arise again. to avoid any misconceptions in the
future and be mindful of the good name of tods murray and the confidentiality to
which its clients are entitled i have brought forward the date of my retirement
from the firm which would otherwise have happened later this year. i am proud to
have been a part of tods murray for the last 29 years and wish it well in the
future. labour msp christine may had said mr mcletchie was very clever to ask
the clerk to consider his conduct in respect of section 5 of the code. he was
almost bound to get the answer he wanted from this enquiry since he stands accused
of breaching section 6 the section on paid advocacy she said. section 5 of the
members interest order legally obliges msps to declare registrable interests before
taking part in related parliamentary proceedings where the interest would
prejudice or give the appearance of prejudicing their ability to participate in a
disinterested manner . however msps code of conduct recognises a wider
definition of parliamentary proceedings including a non-statutory requirement to
make a declaration in relation to written notices such as motions. but a letter
from holyrood s chamber office chief ken hughes also made clear that mr mcletchie
did not need to list any of the clients for whom he worked as a solicitor.
commenting on mr mcletchie s decision to stand down a scottish labour party
spokesman said: this should mean mr mcletchie doesn t breach the paid advocacy
rules in future. however it doesn t change the fact that there should be a full
investigation into whether he has done this in the past. scottish national party
holyrood leader nicola sturgeon accused mr mcletchie of failing to properly serve
his constituents. ms sturgeon said: i think this whole episode has been very
damaging for mr mcletchie and i m sure he will be reflecting on it. she added that
she thought that the tories were an irrelevant party so she would not lose any
sleep over it . peter misselbrook executive partner of tods murray said mr
mcletchie had been considering retirement later in the year. he added: david has
decided that this announcement should be made now and we fully understand and
appreciate his reasons for doing so.
$1m payoff for former shell boss shell is to pay $1m (£522 000) to the ex-finance
chief who stepped down from her post in april 2004 after the firm over-stated its
reserves. judy boynton finally left the firm on 31 december having spent the
intervening time as a special advisor to chief executive jeroen van der veer. in
january 2004 shell told shocked investors that its reserves were 20% smaller than
previously thought. shell said the pay-off was in line with ms boynton s contract.
she was leaving by mutual agreement to pursue other career opportunities the
firm said in a statement. the severance package means she keeps long-term share
options but fails to collect on a 2003 incentive plan since the firm has failed to
meet the targets included in it. the revelation that shell had inflated its
reserves led to the resignation of its chairman sir phil watts and production
chief walter van der vijver. an investigation commissioned by shell found that ms
boynton had to share responsibility for the company s behaviour. despite receiving
an email from mr van de vijver which said the firm had fooled the market about
its reserves the investigation said she did nothing to inquire further. in all
shell restated its reserves four times during 2003. in september it paid £82.7m in
fines to regulators on both sides of the atlantic for violating market rules in its
reporting of its reserves.
pc photo printers challenge pros home printed pictures can be cheaper and higher
quality than those from high street developers tests shows. a survey carried out
by pc pro magazine looked at which of 100 home photo printers offered a better deal
than handing your snaps to a photo lab. the tests found that images from top pc
printers kept their colour longer than professionally produced photographs. but
using the wrong printer cartridge could means snaps fade in months warned the
magazine. the group test of 100 home photo printers for pcs discovered how much it
costs to create images using the devices compared to online developers as well as
high street names such as jessops boots and snappy snaps. the comprehensive test
also revealed how quickly different printers produced images the quality of the
finished image and how resistant finished pictures were to smudging or water
damage. it found that although some ink for printers now costs more than £2 per
millilitre it can still be cheaper to produce prints from photographs at home than
it is to send them off to a high street store. if you really like your photos
then it s definitely worth printing at home instead of going to the high street
but only if you choose the right printer said nick ross top tester at pc pro.
mr ross said that a new generation of printers produced images with brighter
colours and that were less likely to fade than many high street developers or even
some professional wedding photographers. some high street photo shops can be the
cheapest when it came to developing prints that were 6x4in said mr ross but the
test revealed that images 7x5in and 8x10in in size were cheaper to produce at home.
according to pc pro producing a print 8x10in on an epson r800 printer using top
quality paper costs £1.87. at jessops the same image would cost £2.50 and at snappy
snaps £9.99. a 10x7in snap at boots would cost £4.99. considering how inconvenient
it can be to go to the high street and how silver-halide prints can fade in the sun
we re adamant that it s now better cheaper and more convenient to print at home
he said. ann simpson marketing manager at snappy snaps believes the convenience of
high street printing will continue to attract customers. some people will want to
do their own thing on their computer but the feedback to us is that customers often
have to print two or three pictures at home in order to get a good one she said.
many people are not skilled at getting the colour contrast and cropping right and
they don t want the hassle she added. the magazine test found that which ink
consumers use determined how long their prints lasted before they started fading.
it recommended avoiding so-called third-party inks not produced by printer makers
because they tended to produce prints that fade the quickest.
players sought for $1m prize uk gamers are getting a chance to take part in a $1m
tournament thanks to one of the country s top teams. the four-kings clan is
staging a pop idol type competition to find new members who can take on the world s
best in the lucrative tournament. four-kings hopes the open qualifiers will turn up
gamers good enough to beat all comers at the painkiller game. top players also get
a contract with the four-kings team which will pay travelling expenses for the
contest. uk gamers have until 12 november to register their interest in taking
part and can sign up via the four-kings jolt.co.uk and painkiller tournament
websites. philip wride who co-manages the four-kings team said online qualifiers
will be held from 16-28 november to find the best eight players of the painkiller
game. he said the clan was running the contest because four-kings does not
currently have any players that excel at painkiller. these eight players will be
brought together in london on 3-5 december for the bloodline tournament that will
find the best two players. the event will be filmed and the final cut made
available online for others to watch. the movie is being put together by simon
bysshe who has shot many other films about pro-gaming that have been widely shared
online. said mr bysshe: painkiller is a new game and the opportunity is there for
a new player to step up. painkiller has been described as a game that adds a few
modern touches such as improved graphics to the old-fashioned first-person
shooter. these two players will be put forward as the uk s entrants to the
cyberathlete professional league $1m painkiller contest that will take place
throughout 2005. the event is being billed as the cpl world tour and will be
arranged around ten separate tournaments at different locations around the world.
travel expenses to all the stops on the tour will be paid by four-kings for the two
uk players who make the grade. the top prize at each stop on the world tour will be
$15 000. a further $150 000 will be given to the winner of the grand final due to
be held in december 2005. mr wride said any gamer that wins a few tour stop
tournaments and the grand final will have a very good year. the first stop on the
world tour will be istanbul turkey from 10-13 february. a total of $50 000 in cash
prizes is on offer. the cpl has said that it picked a one-on-one game such as
painkiller to make it easier for spectators to follow the action. counter-strike
by far the most popular online game pits teams against each other and can be
confusing to follow if those watching are not familiar with the layout of the maps
on which it is played. the decision to pick painkiller was greeted with surprise by
many gamers as it was widely expected that doom 3 would be chosen as the one-one-
one title.
gaming firm to sell uk dog tracks six uk greyhound tracks have been put up for sale
by gaming group wembley as part of a move which will lead to the break-up of the
group. wembley announced the planned sale as it revealed it was to offload its us
gaming division to blb investors. us gaming consortium blb will pay $339m (£182.5m)
for the us unit although the deal is subject to certain conditions. blb holds a
22% stake in wembley and last year came close to buying the whole firm in a £308m
takeover deal. shares in wembley were up 56 pence or 7.6% at 797p by mid-morning.
the sale of the us gaming unit will leave wembley with its uk business. this
includes greyhound tracks at wimbledon in london belle vue in manchester perry
barr and hall green in birmingham oxford and portsmouth. analysts have valued the
six tracks at between £40m-£50m. the us business accounts for about 90% of wembley
s operating profit and consists of operations in rhode island and colorado. blb s
purchase of the us unit is subject to the agreement of a revenue-sharing deal being
struck with rhode island authorities. wembley said that once the deal was
completed it anticipated returning surplus cash to shareholders. whilst the
completion of the sale of the us gaming division remains subject to a number of
conditions we believe this development is a positive step towards the maximisation
of value for shareholders said wembley chairman claes hultman. wembley sold the
english national football stadium in 1999 to concentrate on its gaming operations.
computer grid to help the world your computer can now help solve the world s most
difficult health and social problems. launched this week the world community grid
will use idle computer time to test solutions to these problems. the donated
processor cycles will help the wcg create virtual supercomputers via the net. the
idea follows the success of other similar projects that have used the untapped
processing power of millions of desktop pcs. one of the most successful
collaboration projects was seti@home run by the search for extra terrestrial life
project which sorted through radio signals looking for signs of alien
communication. anyone can volunteer to donate the spare time of their computers by
downloading a special screensaver from the wgc website. once installed the virtual
terminal gets a chunk of the computational task to process and reports back after
completing that task. the first wcg problem being tackled will be the human
proteome folding project which hopes to identify the ways that the proteins in our
body fold. the subjects of study are being selected by an international advisory
board of experts specializing in health sciences and technology. the body will
evaluate proposals from leading research public and not-for-profit organizations
and is expected to oversee up to six projects a year. organisations also
represented on the board include the united nations development programme and the
world health organisation. the world community grid will enable researchers
around the globe to gather and analyze unprecedented quantities of data to help
address important global issues said elain gallin program director for medical
research at the doris duke charitable foundation. [it] will inspire us to look
beyond the technological limitations that have historically restricted us from
addressing some of our most intractable problems she added. ibm has donated the
hardware software technical services and expertise to build the basic
infrastructure for the grid. the computer company working with united devices
previously developed the smallpox research grid which linked together more than
two million volunteers from 226 countries to speed the analysis of some 35 million
drug molecules in the search for a treatment for smallpox.
serena ends sania mirza s dream sania mirza the first indian woman to reach the
third round of a grand slam tennis event has lost to women s favourite serena
williams. the 18-year-old mirza who got a wild card entry into the australian
open in melbourne lost to williams 1-6 4-6 in the third round. williams took just
56 minutes to defeat mirza and sail into the fourth round. the only other indian
woman to win a match at a grand slam is nirupama vaidyanathan. vaidyanathan made it
to the second round of the australian open in 1998. playing the biggest match of
her life mirza made little impact on williams in the early stages of the game. but
the teenager showed more confidence in the second set and engaged the seventh-
seeded williams in some well contested rallies. mirza a junior wimbledon doubles
title winner became the first indian woman to reach the third round of a grand
slam tennis event when she beat hungarian petra mandula on wednesday. i m really
excited. i was confident but i didn t think it was going to be that easy mirza
said after her second round win. my aim was to win a round here. when i did that i
was so relieved there was no pressure. tennis is not a particularly popular sport
in india but a number of indians watched the live telecast of the match between
mirza and williams. mirza who lives in the southern indian city of hyderabad known
for producing a host of top indian cricketers turned professional two years ago.
she says she was considered too small when she went for her first tennis classes as
a six-year-old girl. then finally [the coach] called my parents up and said the
way she hits the ball i ve never seen a six-year-old hit a ball like that mirza
told the associated press.
wales make two changes for france wales coach mike ruddock has made two changes
from the team that beat italy 38-8 for saturday s trip to france. kevin morgan
takes over from his injured newport-gwent dragons colleague hal luscombe on the
right wing. and in the pack neath-swansea ospreys forward ryan jones is preferred
at blindside flanker to jonathan thomas. thomas a try-scorer in rome drops down
to the bench instead of ian gough while cardiff back rhys williams steps up in
place of morgan. luscombe is sidelined by a hamstring problem sustained during the
six nations game against italy last weekend. however the experienced and in-form
morgan was already pushing hard for a start at stade de france. due to his
impressive performances from the bench kevin was very much in the selection mix
anyway and the unfortunate injury to hal gives him the chance to start said
ruddock. now that ryan jones has recovered from injury we have increased the
options in the back row. jonathan thomas is unlucky to lose his spot after
performing well against italy and scoring a try but such is the competition for
places that every position is debated in detail. for this particular game we felt
we might not always be afforded the open spaces out wide we were able to exploit
against italy so an extra big ball-carrier in the back-row is thought to be
necessary on this occasion. obviously it s a 22-man game these days and there is
every chance that jonathan will be making an impact from the bench. wales have
beaten france on two of their last three visits to paris and another victory this
time around would keep them firmly on course for a first five or six nations title
triumph since 1994. graham henry (former wales coach) said a couple of years ago
that we should be bold when going to france and he was proved right said
ruddock. that is a great way to approach the game and something we will further
endorse with the players this week. g thomas (toulouse capt); k morgan (newport-
gwent) t shanklin (cardiff) g henson (neath-swansea) s williams (neath-swansea);
s jones (clermont auvergne) d peel (llanelli); g jenkins (cardiff) m davies
(gloucester) a jones; (neath-swansea) b cockbain (neath-swansea) r sidoli
(cardiff); r jones (neath-swansea) m williams (cardiff) m owen (newport-gwent).
replacements: r mcbryde (llanelli) j yapp (cardiff) j thomas (neath-swansea) r
sowden-taylor (cardiff) g cooper (newport-gwent) c sweeney newport-gwent) r
williams (cardiff).
us prepares for hybrid onslaught sales of hybrid cars in the us are set to double
in 2005 research suggests. research group jd power estimates sales will hit 200
000 in 2005 despite higher prices and customer scepticism. carmakers are starting
to build hybrid sports utility vehicles (suvs) the four-wheel-drive vehicles which
now dominate the us car market. hybrids cut both petrol consumption and emissions
by combining a petrol engine with an electric motor constantly kept charged by
extra engine power. several jurisdictions notably the state of california mandate
low emissions for new cars. equally the rise in oil prices over the past year has
sparked hopes that consumers may be tempted by potential savings of a few hundred
dollars a year on fuel. at the detroit motor show a range of manufacturers are
prominently displaying their hybrid credentials. toyota has led the market to date
with the prius popularised by a number of celebrities keen to burnish their green
credentials. in april it will launch a hybrid version of its highlander suv with
an suv from its luxury lexus marque due later in the year. honda has three hybrids
on the market and between them the two japanese carmakers sold more than 80 000
units last year. ford which has sold 4 000 of its first hybrid since its launch in
august is bringing a hybrid suv - the mariner - to market a year ahead of schedule
with plans for three more models by 2008. gm has a hybrid pickup on the market and
is showing two concept suvs in detroit. even sports car maker porsche may join the
race although it insists it is still considering whether to hybridise its cayenne
suv. others remain more sceptical. nissan has bought toyota s hybrid technology
but plans to bring out its first model only in 2006. we want to make sure we are
not concentrating on one technology nissan chief executive carlos ghosn said. we
will not be surprised by any acceleration or deceleration in the hybrid market.
volkswagen meanwhile says it will focus on clean-burning diesel engines instead.
and some watchers point out that the price tag on a hybrid - upwards of $3 000
above that of an equivalent normal-engined car and suspicion of the technology -
may still cool its attraction. the average consumers aren t willing to pay that
premium for a car they won t drive more than six years said anthony pratt from jd
power.
guantanamo pair s passport ban the government has written to two of the british men
freed from guantanamo bay telling them they will not be allowed passports. a
letter sent to martin mubanga said his british passport would not be issued in the
light of evidence gathered against him by the us. this suggested he was likely to
take part in action against uk or allied targets if he left britain it said. an
identical letter has been sent to feroz abbasi the men s solicitor says. it is
not known whether the other two men released from the cuba detention camp in
january - richard belmar and moazzam begg - have also received letters. the
government is implementing the rarely used royal prerogative in order to withdraw
the men s passports. it is only the 13th time the power has been used since 1947 -
the last time was in 1976. the letter from the home office says: i am writing to
inform you that on the basis of the information which has come to light during your
detention by the united states the home secretary considered that there are strong
grounds for believing that on leaving the united kingdom you would take part in
activities against the united kingdom or allied targets. the home office said it
could not comment on individual cases. the liberal democrats say they suspect the
move is part of a package of security measures agreed with the us in order for the
men to be allowed home from guantanamo bay. home affairs spokesman mark oaten also
demanded assurances that the evidence against the men was not gained under torture.
he added: the power should only be used in absolute extreme circumstances and i
find it hard to believe that these conditions have been met this time. he said the
move also raised complex questions about the use of the royal prerogative. the
liberal democrats have promised to raise the issue in parliament. amnesty
international uk also questioned whether the decisions had been based on torture
evidence obtained at guantanamo bay. furthermore we believe there should be an
investigation into the role played by the uk in the detention of uk residents and
nationals and possibly many others at guantanamo bay said director kate allen.
the men s solicitor louise christian has raised questions about whether the
evidence was gathered through torture. but the pentagon told bbc news us policy
condemns and prohibits torture and said there was no evidence that any british
detainee was tortured or abused. mr abbasi 23 from croydon south london was
taken to guantanamo bay after being captured in afghanistan in 2001. mr mubanga 29
from north london was originally detained in zambia.
crossrail link to get go-ahead the £10bn crossrail transport plan backed by
business groups is to get the go-ahead this month according to the mail on
sunday. it says the uk treasury has allocated £7.5bn ($13.99bn) for the project
and that talks with business groups on raising the rest will begin shortly. the
much delayed crossrail link bill would provide for a fast cross-london rail link.
the paper says it will go before the house of commons on 23 february. a second
reading could follow on 16 or 17 march. we ve always said we are going to
introduce a hybrid bill for crossrail in the spring and this remains the case the
department for transport said on sunday. jeremy de souza a spokesman for crossrail
said on sunday he could not confirm whether the treasury was planning to invest
£7.5bn or when the bill would go before parliament. however he said some impetus
may have been provided by the proximity of an election. the new line would go out
as far as maidenhead berkshire to the west of london and link heathrow to canary
wharf via the city. heathrow to the city would take 40 minutes dramatically
cutting journey times for business travellers and reducing overcrowding on the
tube. the line has the support of the mayor of london ken livingstone business
groups and the government but there have been three years of arguments over how it
should be funded. the mail on sunday s financial mail said the £7.5bn of treasury
money was earmarked for spending in £2.5bn instalments in 2010 2011 and 2012.
mobiles not media players yet mobiles are not yet ready to be all-singing all-
dancing multimedia devices which will replace portable media players say two
reports. despite moves to bring music download services to mobiles people do not
want to trade multimedia services with size and battery life said jupiter. a
separate study by gartner has also said real-time tv broadcasts to mobiles is
unlikely in europe until 2007. technical issues and standards must be resolved
first said the report. batteries already have to cope with other services that
operators offer like video playback video messaging megapixel cameras and games
amongst others. bringing music download services based on the success of computer-
based download services will put more demands on battery life. fifty percent of
europeans said the size of a mobile was the most important factor when it came to
choosing their phone but more power demands tend to mean larger handsets. mobile
phone music services must not be positioned to compete with the pc music experience
as the handsets are not yet ready said thomas husson mobile analyst at jupiter
research. mobile music services should be new and different and enable operators
to differentiate their brands and support third generation network launches. other
problems facing mobile music include limited storage on phones compared to
portable players which can hold up to 40gb of music. the mobile industry is keen to
get into music downloading after the success of apple s itunes napster and other
net music download services. with phones getting smarter and more powerful there
are also demands to be able to watch tv on the move. in the us services like tivo
to go let people transfer pre-recorded tv content onto their phones. but the
gartner report on mobile tv broadcasting in europe suggests direct broadcasting
will have to wait. currently tv-like services where clips are downloaded are
offered by several european operators like italy s tim and 3. mobile tv will have
to overcome several barriers before it is widely taken up though said the report.
various standards and ways of getting tv signals to mobiles are being worked on
globally. in europe trials in berlin and helsinki are making use of terrestrial tv
masts to broadcast compressed signals to handsets with extra receivers. a service
from the norwegian broadcasting corporation lets people watch tv programmes on
their mobiles 24 hours a day. the service uses 3gp technology one of the standards
for mobile tv. but at the end of 2004 the european telecommunications institute
(etsi) formally adopted digital video broadcasting handheld (dvb-h) as the mobile
tv broadcasting standard for europe. operators will be working on the standard as a
way to bring real-time broadcasts to mobiles as well as trying to overcome several
other barriers. the cost and infrastructure needs to set up the services will need
to be addressed. handsets also need to be able to work with the dvb-h standard. tv
services will have to live up to the expectations of the digital tv generation too
which expects good quality images at low prices according to analysts. people are
also likely to be put off watching tv on such small screens said gartner. digital
video recorders like europe s sky+ box and video-on-demand services mean people
have much more control over what tv they watch. as a result people may see
broadcasting straight to mobiles as taking away that control. more powerful
smartphones like the xda ii nokia 6600 sonyericsson p900 and the orange e200
offering web access text and multimedia messaging e-mail calendar and gaming are
becoming increasingly common. a report by analysts instat/mdr has predicted that
smartphone shipments will grow by 44% over the next five years. it says that
smartphones will make up 117 million out of 833 million handsets shipped globally
by 2009.
borders 19-20 ulster ulster clung on for a morale-boosting celtic league win over
bottom club borders at netherdale on friday night. a late try by borders
substitute jonny weston had set up a dramatic finish but the scottish side could
not complete the fightback. ulster had led 20-6 with tries from paul steinmetz and
bryn cunningham. but the irish province failed to add to the tally in the second
half and ended up relieved to get the win to lift them to eighth place in the
table. borders had edged ahead with a sixth-minute penalty by charlie hore - only
to hand the visitors the initiative via a gift try. calum macrae surrendered
possession before centre steinmetz sent a chip into the danger zone. substitute joe
pattison - who had come on for the injured gareth morton - wrongly thought the ball
was trickling out of play and eased up on the chase. the speedy steinmetz had
other ideas and he raced up to get the vital touch in the nick of time giving adam
larkin an easy conversion. ally warnock clawed back three points for borders but
they were soon hit by another double-blow. first mark blair was yellow carded for
killing the ball on the ground and then full-back cunningham bagged the second
touchdown in the wake of fine work by skipper andy ward. larkin again added the
extras. even worse was to come for borders when larkin kicked two more penalties
just before the break the second of which also led to kelly brown being sin-
binned. the hosts gave themselves a glimmer of hope immediately after the restart
however when warnock struck a penalty at the other end. and he repeated the feat
to set up the tense finale. ulster coach mark mccall said he was delighted to get
the victory. borders are a tougher proposition this year in spite of the fact that
they have not had a victory in some time said mccall. in the first 20 minutes we
were edgy but in the second 20 minutes we played some of our best rugby this season
and scored two good tries. morton moffat macrae hore berthinussen warnock
moore thomson ford douglas blair stewart gray brown mcentee. kay parr
mcgee rennick weston millar pattison. cunningham maxwell bell steinmetz
howe larkin campbell s. best shields moore frost mccullough ward feather
n. best. brady mccormick longwell browne doak s. young bowe. phil fear
(wru)
disney backs sony dvd technology a next generation dvd technology backed by sony
has received a major boost. film giant disney says it will produce its future dvds
using sony s blu-ray disc technology but has not ruled out a rival format
developed by toshiba. the two competing dvd formats blu-ray developed by sony and
others and toshiba s hd-dvd have been courting top film studios for several
months. the next generation of dvds promise very high quality pictures and sound
as well as a lot of data. both technologies use a blue laser to write information.
it has a shorter wavelength so more data can be stored. disney is the latest studio
to announce which technology it is backing in a format battle which mirrors the
1980s betamax versus vhs war. sony lost out to jvc in that fight. the current
battle for hollywood s hearts and minds is a crucial one because high-definition
films will bring in billions of revenue and the studios would prefer to use one
standard. last month paramount universal and warner brothers said they were
opting for the toshiba and nec-backed format hd-dvd high-definition discs. those
studios currently produce about 45% of dvd content. sony pictures entertainment and
mgm studios have already staked their allegiance with the blu-ray disc association
whose members also include technology companies dell samsung and matsushita.
twentieth century fox is still to announce which technology it will be supporting.
if fox decided to go with blu-ray too it would mean the format would have a 47%
share of dvd content. disney said its films would be available on the blu-ray
format when dvd players for the standard went on sale on north america and japan
expected in 2006. universal is to start producing films on the hd-dvd format in
2005 and paramount will start releasing titles using the standard in 2006. toshiba
expects sales of hd-dvds to reach 300bn yen ($2.9bn £1.5bn) by 2010.
brown calls for £5.5bn aids fund gordon brown has called on rich nations to fund a
£5.5bn ($10bn) plan to fight the aids epidemic and find a vaccine. on the fourth
day of his six-day tour of africa the uk chancellor predicted a vaccine could be
found by 2012 if the world stepped up its funding pledges. doubling the £400m being
spent yearly on finding such a vaccine could advance it by three years and save six
million lives mr brown said on thursday. he hopes to use the uk s g8 presidency to
push the issue forward. i believe that the generation that provided the finance
to combat cure and eradicate the world s deadliest disease of today - and today
the world s least curable disease - hiv/aids - will rightly earn the title the
great generation mr brown said in a speech during his african tour. the problems
of hiv/aids were inseparable from poverty he added. at least $10 billion per
annum (£5.5bn) is needed to address the hiv/aids crisis in low and middle income
countries. existing financial commitments on their own will not stop the pandemic.
the uk s proposal for an international finance facility is so important -
increasing world aid flows by over $50 billion (£27bn). a doubling of world aid to
halve world poverty. mr brown also said he had agreed with the italian finance
minister domenico siniscalco to push forward with plans for the world-wide sharing
and co-ordination of research into the disease. currently the private sector was
only spending £60m a year on seeking an inoculation and the market needed boosting
mr brown said. he called on industrialised nations to commit themselves to buying
the first 300m vaccines at a cost of $20 each thereby boosting the market for
inoculations. this would be a large enough inducement to create much stronger
interest from both large and small pharmaceutical firms mr brown added. more
must also be done to finance the treatment and care of those living with hiv/aids
and their families he said. but aid charity actionaid criticised mr brown s
preoccupation with finding a vaccine and called on g8 nations to fund hiv/aids
treatments. the charity s head of hiv/aids in britain simon wright said: while
encouraging the pharmaceutical industry to discover an hiv vaccine is important a
failure to provide any funding for hiv treatments condemns a generation of people
to death. hiv is decimating african countries killing the most productive adults
who should be working caring for children and building the economy. an hiv vaccine
is probably at least 10 years away. treatments are needed now. on wednesday mr
brown visited slums in the kenyan capital nairobi . he will visit an hiv/aids
orphanage in tanzania and a women s credit union in mozambique before chairing a
meeting of the commission for africa in cape town. the chancellor has already
unveiled proposals for a g8 aid package which he has likened to the marshall plan
used by the united states to rebuild europe after world war two.
us show sued for rat-eating stunt a us tv network is being sued for $2.5m (£1.3m)
by a viewer who says he was disgusted by watching contestants eat dead rats in a
stunt show. austin aitken is taking action against nbc over its programme fear
factor. he said watching the show caused his blood pressure to rise so high that he
became dizzy and light-headed. the legal assistant said nbc was sending the wrong
message to viewers that cash can make or have people do just about anything beyond
reasoning . the hand-written four-page lawsuit said: to have the individuals on
the show eat and drink dead rats was crazy and from a viewer s point of view made
me throw-up as well as another in the house at the same time. mr aitken who lives
in cleveland said that after becoming light-headed he ran towards the bedroom and
knocked his head in a doorway. a spokesman for nbc said it had no comment on the
lawsuit but confirmed the stunt show did feature a rat-eating scene in new york s
times square on 8 november. past shows have featured viewers eating spiders and
live worms. the programme has been screened in the uk on sky one.
campbell to be lions consultant former government communications chief alastair
campbell will act as a media consultant to sir clive woodward s 2005 lions on their
tour to new zealand. campbell who left downing street earlier this year will
advise on media strategy before and during the tour. i hope i can contribute to
the planning and preparation and to ensuring the media and public get the most out
of the tour itself he said. i am also looking forward to going out for the later
stages of the tour. woodward s decision to call in prime minister tony blair s
former spin doctor springs from the deterioration in media relations on the last
lions tour of australia in 2001 when new zealander graham henry was the head
coach. the furore surrounding the newspaper diaries of matt dawson and austin
healey was compounded by other disillusioned players venting their frustration
through the media. the lions is a massive media event said woodward who will be
the head coach. there will be a huge level of interest from the travelling media
the fans that will go out in their thousands and the new zealand public. we need
to have the strategy and processes in place to deal with the pressures that will
bring. [alastair] will act as an advisor both in the build up to and on the tour
itself. his role is to work closely with not only myself but (tour manager) bill
beaumont (media manager) louisa cheetham and (team manager) louise ramsay.
campbell is due to resume working for the government in the new year in the build-
up to an anticipated may general election. the lions leave for new zealand on 24
may with the first test match against the all blacks in christchurch on 25 june.
golden economic period to end ten years of golden economic performance may come
to an end in 2005 with growth slowing markedly city consultancy deloitte has
warned. the uk economy could suffer a backlash from the slowdown in the housing
market triggering a fall in consumer spending and a rise in unemployment. deloitte
is forecasting economic growth of 2% this year below chancellor gordon brown s
forecast of 3% to 3.5%. it also believes that interest rates will fall to 4% by the
end of the year. in its quarterly economic review deloitte said the uk economy
had enjoyed a golden period during the past decade with unemployment falling to a
near 30 year low and inflation at its lowest since the 1960s. but it warned that
this growth had been achieved at the expense of creating major imbalances in the
economy. deloitte s chief economic advisor roger bootle said: the biggest hit of
all is set to come from the housing market which has already embarked on a major
slowdown. whereas the main driver of the economy in recent years has been robust
household spending growth this is likely to suffer as the housing market slowdown
gathers pace. economic growth is likely to be constrained during the next few
years by increased pressure on household budgets and rising taxes deloitte
believes. gordon brown will need to raise about $10bn a year in order to sustain
the public finances in the short term the firm claims. this will result in a
marked slowdown in growth in 2005 and 2006 compared to last year when the economy
expanded by 3.25%. however deloitte stressed that the slowdown was unlikely to
have any major impact on retail prices while it expected the bank of england to
respond quickly to signs of the economy faltering. it expects a series of
aggressive interest rate cuts over the next two years with the cost of borrowing
falling from its current 4.75% mark to 3.5% by the end of 2006. although 2005 may
not be the year when things go completely wrong it will probably mark the start of
a more difficult period for the uk economy mr bootle.
collins to compete in birmingham world and commonwealth 100m champion kim collins
will compete in the 60m at the norwich union grand prix in birmingham on 18
february. the st kitts and nevis star joins british olympic relay gold medallists
jason gardener and mark lewis-francis. sydney olympic 100m champion and world
indoor record holder maurice greene and athens olympic 100m silver medallist
francis obikwelu will also take part. collins ran in birmingham at the 2003 world
indoor championships. i m looking forward to competing against such a strong field
he said. i got a great reception form the crowd at the nia when i won my 60m world
indoor silver medal in 2003 and it will be really exciting to return to this venue.
the world champion says he s in good shape but he isn t underestimating the home
competition. jason gardener and mark lewis-francis are olympic gold medallists now
and i m sure they ll be aiming to win in front of their home supporters. i m
looking forward to competing against britain s best sprinters and i m sure the 60
metres will be one of the most exciting races of the evening. collins was sixth in
the olympic final in athens but is hoping for a better result at the world
championships in finland this summer. this will be a big year for me and i plan to
defend my 100m world title in helsinki in august. before then i want to perform
well over 60m indoors and start my year in winning form.
elvis set to top uk singles chart rock n roll legend elvis is set to top the uk
singles chart on sunday 27 years after his death. the re-release of hit song
jailhouse rock was out-selling x factor winner steve brockstein s cover of against
all odds by 2 000 copies on tuesday. if the record does make the top spot it will
be elvis 19th uk number one. the last time he topped the charts was with the remix
of the little-known song a little less conversation which was number one in june
2002. if jailhouse rock does reach number one on sunday it will be the 999th in
the history of the uk pop charts. the song first topped the charts in 1958. chart
analysts say elvis could score the 1000th number one as well. his record one night
will be released the following week followed the week after by a fool such as i
as part of his record company sonybmg s new elvis campaign. it has called it the
most ambitious singles release campaign in the history of the uk record industry .
us state acts to stop spammers us state texas has filed a lawsuit against two men
believed to be among the world s top five spammers. it is seeking millions of
dollars in damages in a civil lawsuit filed earlier this week. the texas attorney
general said it started the legal action as messages sent by the alleged spammers
broke three laws governing e-mail marketing. the company named in the lawsuit
denied any wrongdoing and said it complied with all relevant laws. the texas
lawsuit was filed against ryan samuel pitylak a university oftexas student and
mark stephen trotter of california. both are thought to be the top executives in
three companies - payperaction llc. leadplex llc. and leadplex inc - that are
suspected of sending out many millions of unwanted e-mail messages. illegal spam
must be stopped said greg abbott texas attorney general announcing the legal
action. spam is one of the most aggravating and pervasive problems facing
consumers today. the attorney general alleges that messages sent by mr pitylak and
mr trotter s companies broke the 2003 controlling the assault of non-solicited
pornography and marketing act (can-spam) as well as the texas electronic mail and
solicitation act and texas deceptive trade practices act. all three acts confer
cash penalties for each violation of their terms. if the men are found guilty and
all penalties are applied the two men could face a damages bill running into
millions. mr abbott said the messages sent by the pair broke laws by using
misleading subject lines not identifying themselves as adverts and offering
services for which they had no licence to do so in texas. lawyers for the alleged
spammers said the lawsuit was groundless and the two men would defend themselves
strongly against the accusations. leadplex and payperaction are legitimate
internet marketing companies that are in complete compliance with the federal can-
spam act said lin hughes speaking on behalf of mr pitylak and mr trotter. in a
similar move the us federal trade commission (ftc) has won a court order that stops
an international group of spammers sending sexually explicit e-mail. the ftc took
the action because the messages being sent violated several parts of the can-spam
act. in particular the pornographic messages did not identify themselves as being
sexually explicit had deceptive subject headings did not have working opt-out
mechanisms failed to mention they were adverts and did not give the sender s real
world address. the court order stops the spammers sending e-mail and freezes assets
prior to a hearing on a permanent injunction.
technology gets the creative bug the hi-tech and the arts worlds have for some time
danced around each other and offered creative and technical help when required.
often this help has come in the form of corporate art sponsorship or infrastructure
provision. but that dance is growing more intimate as hi-tech firms look to the
creative industries for inspiration. and vice versa. uk telco bt is serious about
the idea and has launched its connected world initiative. the idea says bt is to
shape a 21st century model which will help cement the art technology and
business worlds together. we are hoping to understand the creative industry that
has a natural thirst for broadband technology said frank stone head of the bt s
business sector programmes. he looks after several centres of excellence which
the telco has set up with other institutions and organisations one of which is
focused on creative industries. to mark the initiative s launch a major
international art installation is to open on 15 april in brussels with a further
exhibit in madrid later in the summer. they have both been created using the telco
s technology that it has been incubating at its research and development arm
including a sophisticated graphics rendering program. using a 3d graphics engine
the type commonly used in gaming bafta-winning artists langlands & bell have
created a virtual story-based 3d model of brussels coudenberg cellars. they
have recently been excavated and are thought to be the remnants of coudenberg
palace an historical seat of european power. the 3d world can be navigated using a
joystick and offers an immersive experience of a landscape that historically had a
river running through it until it was bricked up in the 19th century. the river
was integral to the city s survival for hundreds of years and it was equally
essential to the city that it disappeared said the artists. we hope that by
uncovering the river we can greater understand the connections between the past
and the present and appreciate the flow of modernity once concealing but now
revealing the river senne. in their previous works they used the quake game
graphics engine. the game engine is the core component of a video game because it
handles graphics rendering game ai and how objects behave and relate to each
other in a game. they are so time-consuming and expensive to create the engines
can be licensed out to handle other graphics-intensive games. bt s own engine tara
(total abstract rendering architecture) has been in development since 2001 and has
been used to recreate virtual interactive models of buildings for planners. it was
also used in 2003 in encounter an urban-based pervasive game that combined both
virtual play in conjunction with physical on-the-street action. because the
artists wanted video and interactive elements in their worlds new features were
added to tara in order to handle the complex data sets. but collaboration between
art and digital technology is by no means new and many keen coders designers
games makers and animators argue that what they create is art itself. as more
tools for self-expression are given to the person on the street enabling people to
take photos with a phone and upload them to the web for instance creativity will
become an integral part of technology. the orange expressionist exhibition last
year for example displayed thousands of picture messages from people all over the
uk to create an interactive installation. technology as a way of unleashing
creativity has massive potential not least because it gives people something to do
with their technology. big businesses know it is good for them to get in on the
creative vein too. the art world is fantastically rich said mr stone with
creative people and ideas which means traditional companies like bt want to get in
with them. between 1997 and 2002 the creative industry brought £21 billion to
london alone. it is an industry that is growing by 6% a year too. the partnership
between artists and technologists is part of trying to understand the creative
potential of technologies like broadband net according to mr stone. this is not
just about putting art galleries and museums online he said. it is about how can
everyone have the best seat in house and asking if technology has a role in solving
that problem. with broadband penetration reaching 100% in the uk businesses with
a stake in the technology want to give people reasons to want and use it. the
creative drive is not purely altruistic obviously. it is about both industries
borrowing strategies and creative ideas together which can result in better
business practices for creative industries or more patent ideas for tech
companies. what we are trying to do is have outside-in thinking. we are creating
a future cultural drive for the economy said mr stone.
kenya lift chepkemei s suspension kenya s athletics body has reversed a ban on
marathon runner susan chepkemei after she made an official apology. athletics
kenya (ak) had suspended the two-time london marathon runner-up for failing to turn
up to a cross-country team training camp in embu. we have withdrawn the ban.
chepkemei has given a reason for her absence said ak chief isaiah kiplagat. she
explained she had a contract with the organisers of the race in puerto rice and we
have accepted her apology. the kenyan coaching team will now decide whether
chepkemei can be included in the team for this month s world cross country
championships. the 29-year-old would be a strong contender at the event in france
and is hopeful she will be granted a place in the 32-strong squad. i am satisfied
that the whole saga has been brought to an end chepkemei said. i am ready and
prepared to represent my country. i will be disappointed if i am not given a
chance to compete at the world cross country championships. ak had insisted it was
making an example of chepkemei by banning her from competition until the end of
2005. but the organisation came under intense international and domestic pressure
to reverse its decision. the 29-year-old took part in the 2002 and 2003 london
marathons and was edged out by radcliffe in an epic new york marathon contest last
year. the two-time world half-marathon silver medallist will be back to challenge
radcliffe at this year s london event in april. ak also dropped its harsh stance on
three-time world cross country 4km champion edith masai. masai missed kenya s world
cross country trials because of an ankle problem but ak insisted it would take
disciplinary action unless she could prove she was really injured. subject to our
doctor s confirmation we have decided to clear masai added kiplagat.
brown to outline presidency goals next year will be make or break for development
in poorer countries gordon brown will say as he sets out uk goals for its eu and g8
presidencies. the chancellor is due to outline a series of key targets the
government will be judged on in 2005. they will include doubling aid from donor
countries and eliminating debt owed by the poorest nations. mr brown also wants
other g8 nations to match his target for overseas aid - spending 0.7% of national
income. he also wants the richer countries to do more to help the development of
vaccines for aids and malaria. the chancellor is travelling to america next week as
part of his persuasion drive over the issue. he told bbc radio 4 s today programme:
we need more resources allied to progress on trade and progress on debt relief if
we are going to make an impact on the problems of ill health of illiteracy of
poverty particularly in africa but right through the developing countries. his
proposals were effectively a new marshall plan for the world including an
international finance facility which would issue bonds in an attempt to double
global aid cash to $100bn a year. agreement in the doha development talks could
also give developing nations the trading ability they needed he argued. the
european union s common agricultural policy had caused aggravated trade problems
he said but there was now an agreement to end export subsidies. mr brown said
much had been achieved on issues such as debt relief in the last seven years. but
with 30 000 children were dying unnecessarily every day more was needed including
100% debt relief multilaterally. that is why next year is a test he said. if
after five years of making promises the world is not prepared to honour them then
people will be justified in saying they promised but they did not produce results.
the catholic aid agency cafod will host mr brown s speech on wednesday. cafod
wants britain to use its influence to pressure countries like the us to make firm
commitments to tackle global poverty. mr brown said america too needed to take more
action but defended president george bush for guaranteeing resources to countries
which introduced reforms to tackle corruption. oxfam s paying the price report this
week said 45 million children will die needlessly before 2015 and aid budgets are
half their 1960 levels. the charity s director barbara stocking said: 2005
offers the chance for an historic breakthrough but unless world leaders act now
the year will end in shameful failure. the report said the g8 of top
industrialised nations had agreed in 1970 to spend 0.7% of their incomes on aid.
but 34 years later none of the organisations members had reached this target and
many had not yet set a timetable. mr blair who has described africa as a scar on
the world s conscience has already said tackling world poverty would be one his g8
priorities along with climate change and the aids epidemic. but band aid founder
bob geldof in july said he was sick of hearing guff about scars on the world. it
was pathetic that britain was the 4th richest country in the world but only the
11th most generous aid donor he added. conservative shadow international
development secretary alan duncan accused mr brown of missing his target on
providing anti-retroviral drug treatment to three million africans by 2005. instead
only 500 000 people would benefit he said. there s no point in him demanding
praise and adulation for setting a whole new raft of targets when he has so
woefully failed to meet the ones he already has added mr duncan.
federer forced to dig deep top seed roger federer had to save two match points
before squeezing past juan carlos ferrero at the dubai open. the world number one
took two hours 15 minutes to earn his 4-6 6-3 7-6 victory saving match points at
6-4 in the tiebreak before claiming it 8-6. federer made a number of unforced
errors early on allowing ferrero to take advantage and claim the first set. but
the swiss star hit back to reach the quarter-finals where he will face seventh
seed russian mikhail youzhny. the russian beat germany s rainer schuettler 7-5 6-4.
federer was not unduly worried despite being taken to three sets for the third
consecutive match. the world number one was forced to go the distance against ivan
ljubicic in the rotterdam final and against ivo minar in the first round in dubai.
i definitely had a slow start again and to come back every time is quite an effort
he said. i haven t been playing well but i ve been coming through. i m winning
the crucial points and that shows i m on top of my game when i have to be.
french consumer spending rising french consumers increased their spending by 1.5%
in january a figure which bodes well for the country s economic growth figures
revealed. the national statistic institute (insee) added that consumer spending in
january rose 3.8% on a year-on-year basis. rising sales of household equipment were
behind the increase. the insee also said that french consumer prices fell 0.6% in
january but were up 1.6% on an annual basis. despite the general increase in
spending in january french households bought fewer cars in january. according to
the insee car sales fell 2.8% in january following a fall of 0.6% in december.
but on a year-on-year basis the sector still saw a sales increase of 6.5%.
consumer spending fuelled france s economic growth in the last quarter of 2004 and
analysts expect that it will continue to support the economy. it s a growth that
will remain fragile and vulnerable to risks like a strong rise in long-term
interest rates tension in the oil price emmanuel ferry from exane bnp paribas
told reuters news agency. meanwhile in italy consumer confidence rose to its
highest level since october 2004. economic research group isae has said that
italian consumer confidence rose to 104.4 from 103.3 despite a slight
deterioration in short-term sentiment.
running around the olympics it was back to official duties last week in my role as
an ambassador to london s 2012 olympic bid. but i still managed to do all my
marathon training. all the sporting people on the capital s bid team think i m mad
to be taking part in the london marathon. the bid chairman lord coe admitted he
would never dream of running a marathon even though he was an olympic middle-
distance runner. kelly holmes former hurdler alan pascoe and former sprinter
frankie fredericks - who is now an ioc member - all wanted to know why anyone would
want to run that far. you d have thought all these athletes who have been running
for most of their lives wouldn t think it would be that bad. but the only person
who was positive about my intentions was tanni grey thompson who has won the
london marathon wheelchair race six times. even though it was a very busy week
entertaining the international olympic committee s (ioc) evaluation commission i
actually found my running schedule easier to follow. when i m at home i get
distracted by all sorts of things but for the five days i was in london i was in a
pressurised situation but i found it easy to relax by running. on wednesday the
presentations to the ioc team did not finish until the early evening so i just
managed to squeeze in a 45-minute run. we had an early start on thursday because we
had to visit all the olympic sites around london that was pretty shattering but
when we got back to the hotel i got back on the treadmill. on friday evening i
went along to the special dinner at buckingham palace which was a nice occasion. i
never feel guilty about eating especially when i m exercising. and because it was
a rest day i didn t have to feel bad about missing my training either. anyway i
managed to do another quick run on saturday ahead of the final ioc presentations
before heading home for my daughter s birthday. when i was in london i did all of
my runs on the treadmill which isn t the same as exercising outdoors. one of the
ioc s technical staff from australia ran alongside me one day. we talked about the
sydney olympics and that made the time go past more quickly. i do find it quite
comfortable running in the gym because there is more cushioning. but when you re
gearing up to running on the road you need your body to get used to that jarring
feeling when your feet hit the pavement. it was good to get out on the road for my
long run on sunday. after the week i d had i was a bit concerned i wouldn t be able
to complete it. but i coped with it very well and even though it was bitterly cold
i put in 15-and-a-half miles - only another 11 to go then. - this year steve will
donate all the proceeds from his london marathon efforts to victims of the
tsunami.steve will be writing a regular column on the ups and downs of his marathon
training for the bbc sport website.he will be raising money through the steve
redgrave trust which supports the association of children s hospices the children
with leukaemia charity and the trust s own project which aims to provide inner-
city schools with rowing equipment.
id theft surge hits us consumers almost a quarter of a million us consumers
complained of being targeted for identity theft in 2004 official figures suggest.
the federal trade commission said two in five of the 635 173 reports it had from
consumers concerned id fraud. id theft occurs when criminals use someone else s
personal information to steal credit or commit other crimes. internet auctions were
the second biggest source of fraud complaints comprising 16% of the total. the
total cost of fraud reported by consumers was $546m (£290m). the report marks the
fifth year in a row in which identity fraud has topped the table. the biggest slice
of the 246 570 id fraud cases reported - almost 30% - concerned abuses of people s
credit. misusing someone s identity to claim new credit cards or loans comprised
16.5% of the total with almost 12% coming from false claims on existing credit.
another 18% came from attempts to rip off people s bank accounts while 13% of
cases concerned attempts to defraud employers by abusing someone else s identity.
outside the field of id theft 53% of the near-400 000 complaints were internet-
related. among the 100 000 internet auction complaints the failure of sellers to
deliver or the supply of sub-standard goods were the most common woes reported.
catalogue and home-shopping frauds were next in line accounting for 8% of total
complaints while concerns about internet services and computers - including
spyware found on people s pcs and undisclosed charges for websites - amounted to 6%
of complaints.
clijsters hope on aussie open kim clijsters has denied reports that she has pulled
out of january s australian open because of her persistent wrist injury. open
chief paul mcnamee had said: kim s wrist obviously isn t going to be
rehabilitated. but her spokesman insisted she had simply delayed submitting her
entry. the doctors are assessing her injury on a weekly basis and if there is no
risk she could play. but if there s the least risk she will stay away. despite
being absent from the wta entry list for the tournament which begins on 17 january
clijsters would be certain to get a wild card if she requested one. clijsters is
still ranked 22nd in the world despite only playing a handful of matches last
season. the belgian had an operation on her left wrist early in the season but
injured it again on her return to the tour. meanwhile jelena dokic who used to
compete for australia has opted out of the first grand slam of the season. dokic
has not played in the australian open since 2001 when she lost in the first round.
but the 21-year-old would have had to rely on a wild card next season because her
ranking has tumbled to 127th. four-time champion monica seles who has not played
since last year s french open is another absentee because of an injured left foot.
connors rallying cry for british tennis do you have it in your heart how much
guts do you have how much do you hate to lose these are the questions jimmy
connors will be asking of britain s brightest tennis hopes in the months and
possibly years to come. the american legend swept into london on thursday to
announce a long-term relationship with the lawn tennis association after spending
three days at the elite performance winter camp in la manga. and the man who
epitomised the phrase will to win before lleyton hewitt was even born is clear
about the qualities he hopes to convey. you know everybody hits the ball well and
there s a very fine line between number one and number 100 said connors. i was
that fine line for a long time. but if i can help i want to be part of teaching
kids how to win. connors is not the first great name to offer his services to the
lta - his long-time rival john mcenroe has repeatedly done the same. but connors is
at pains to point out that his interest goes well beyond any publicity stunt and
he gave a glowing recommendation to the work of lta performance director david
felgate and his team. britain has a different attitude the right attitude in
taking the game forward and finding the next wimbledon champion said connors.
that s something you don t find every day. everybody talks a good game but not
everybody puts that into effect. the impression i came away with after just seeing
david and the other coaches for three days was one like i ve never seen before
especially over here. this is not going to happen overnight there are no miracle
workers but you re going in the right direction. the 52-year-old s enthusiasm for
the work going on in this country is in marked contrast to his relationship with
tennis officials back in america. i ve had discussions with the usta (united
states tennis association) over a number of years he said. that s where it (my
input) ended. connors is a straight-talker and will be equally blunt and honest in
his dealings with the lta and the cream of britain s young players. if they re
chosen they ve got to produce he said. if not someone will come and take
their place. there s only one number one spot and it s lonely up there but it s
got the best view. in the year that has seen andrew murray emerge as britain s
great new hope connors rejected suggestions that the scot might be put under too
much pressure too soon. tim henman has a whole country on his shoulder said
connors. i don t know that pressure but if you like that it can be a certain push
to get on to the next level. someone s going to have to come and take over from
him (henman). if i was andrew murray i d embrace that. that s what we play for.
despite the emphasis on hard work training and preparation connors does admit
that the desire required of a champion has to come from within. the passion i had
i don t know if you can find that he admitted. i was also nuts. i say that
because there was nothing better for me than to compete on the tennis court. it
was the most important thing in the world for me and to do that something s got to
be not right with you. there was nothing better for me ever than to play tennis in
front of 25 000 people. what i had when i played tennis is what i am. you have to
have that you can t be moulded.
foxx and swank win us awards jamie foxx and hilary swank have won the screen actors
guild awards for best male and female film actors boosting their oscars hopes this
month. foxx s portrayal of late soul-singer ray charles in ray had already earned
him a prestigious golden globe award. swank triumphed for playing a gutsy female
boxer in million dollar baby. modest wine country comedy sideways knocked out
favourites million dollar baby and the aviator by taking the top prize for best
cast performance. the screen actors guild (sag) represents us film and tv actors.
its winners often go on to win oscars. in other nominations cate blanchett
triumphed as the best supporting actress for her role as katharine hepburn in the
aviator. veteran actor morgan freeman took the best supporting actor award for
playing a prize-fighter turned gym manager in million dollar baby. thank you for
ray charles for just living so complex and so interesting and making us all just
come together said foxx accepting his award in los angeles on saturday. he also
praised the film director: thank you for taylor hackford for taking a chance with
an african-american film. taylor you re my director of the year. swank too was
full of praise for her director and co-star clint eastwood. i bow down to you
swank said to the 74-year-old eastwood. you are a talent beyond compare. if i m
half the person you are and half the talent you are when i m 74 i will know that i
ve accomplished something great. both foxx and swank are now considered to be
among the favourites to get oscars - the hollywood s ultimate prize. however swank
has to overcome a strong challenge from annette bening a nominee for the theatre
farce being julia. meanwhile ballots for oscars - the hollywood s top honours -
were mailed earlier this week to members of the academy of motion picture arts and
sciences. the voting is due to end on 22 february - five days before the ceremony.
abba reunite for musical premiere the original stars of swedish pop quartet abba
have reunited for the home premiere of hit musical mamma mia! which is based on the
band s songs. it is the first time in almost 20 years that the four bjorn ulvaeus
benny andersson agnetha faltskog and anni-frid lyngstad have met publicly.
faltskog has been a virtual recluse since the band split up in 1982. the musical
which has become a global phenomenon will be performed in swedish for the first
time. fans camped outside stockholm s cirkus theatre in the snow for a glimpse of
the stars. the premiere marks abba s first public reunion since the legendary band
s acrimonious break-up in the early 1980s. it was thought that faltskog would
appear in london for the musical s fifth anniversary celebrations in april 2004 but
she stayed away due to her fear of flying. original abba member bjorn ulvaeus set
about translating the musical into the band s mother tongue for the celebrated
homecoming alongside swedish artist niklas stromstedt. almost all of abba s
original songs which have sold more than 350 million records worldwide were
written and recorded in english. the musical set on a small greek island tells of
the story of a young woman and her fiercely independent single mother. the show
will include such classics as super trouper sos and dancing queen. there are
currently 14 productions being staged worldwide including new york and london
with road shows in toronto south korea and madrid. more than 20 million people
around the world have seen the show.
wembley firm won t make a profit shares in multiplex group which is building the
new wembley stadium fell as much as 19% after it said it would not make any money
on the project. the australian firm said it would only break even on the 1.2bn
australian dollars (£458m; $874m) rebuild after a rise in costs on the work. any
profits would depend on the outcome of legal cases resulting from a change in steel
contractor it added. it cut a$68m from profit targets for wembley and another uk
project. investors were shaken by the news and the firm s shares fell to a four
month low of a$4.50 before recovering to close 16% down at a$4.67. the decline
came despite multiplex reporting an 11% rise in pre-tax profits to a$67.7m for 2004
and reaffirming its 2005 profit forecasts. increased costs at wembley and a
separate development in london s docklands saw multiplex s construction division
report profits of a$35.1m. the firm said the result was below expectations but
stressed that the majority of its uk projects - which also include the white city
redevelopment scheme in west london - were performing strongly. to recoup any
profit from wembley where the firm changed its steel contractor due to a legal
dispute multiplex will have to win legal claims against subcontractors. these
claims could take up to two years to resolve. multiplex believes its claim are
sound and ultimately will exceed the level needed to support the break even
position it said. it is expected that profits will be possible in future periods
as the claims are finalised. wembley stadium is to due to be completed in january
and will officially open for the 2006 fa cup final. analysts expressed concern at
the unexpected paring back in profit. such a big writeback on the wembley project
in such a short period has impacted on management credibility simon wheatley
from goldman sachs told reuters.
home phones face unclear future the fixed line phone in your home could soon be an
endangered species. research by handset maker nokia shows that more and more
people are using their mobile phone for every call they make or take. according to
the study more than 45 million people in the uk germany us and south korea now
only use a mobile. it showed that people keep their fixed line phone because call
charges are lower but most of those questioned said the future was definitely
mobile. the nokia-sponsored research showed that mobiles and fixed phones were
used for different purposes. home phones were used for longer calls but
conversations on mobiles tended to be shorter between mobiles and to friends. in
the uk 69% of those questioned said they turned to their fixed phone because it was
still cheaper to use than a mobile. however when pressed few could say with
accuracy how tariffs on fixed and mobile phones compared. in the us and germany
many of those interviewed said they used the fixed phone because it was more
reliable than a mobile handset and let them get access to the net at relatively
high speeds. in all the countries where interviews were carried out older people
were more likely to use a fixed line phone more than a mobile. women aged 50 or
above almost never use a mobile phone the research found. the move to mobile was
most pronounced in south korea where 65% of those questioned said they already make
most of their calls from a mobile. 18% said they would not get a landline if they
moved house. many of those questioned said they had an emotional connection to
their fixed phone that drew on its position in the home and the cosiness of
making a call there. nokia said these findings had implications for mobile
operators who must work hard to ensure that mobiles are seen as cheap reliable and
providing good call quality. the survey also showed that it is not just voice calls
that are going wireless. some of those questioned said they were looking to use a
mobile or wireless service to get net access within the next couple of years.
polling firm mori interviewed more than 6 000 people in the uk us germany and
south korea for the survey.
2d metal slug offers retro fun like some drill sergeant from the past metal slug 3
is a wake-up call to today s gamers molly-coddled with slick visuals and fancy
trimmings. with its hand-animated sprites and 2d side-scrolling this was even
considered retro when released in arcades four years ago. but a more frantic
shooter you will not find at the end of your joypad this year. and yes that
includes halo 2. simply choose your grunt and wade through five 2d side-scrolling
levels of the most hectic video game blasting you will ever encounter. it is also
the toughest game you are likely to play as hordes of enemies and few lives pile
the pressure on. players must battle soldiers snowmen zombies giant crabs and
aliens not to mention the huge screen-filling bosses that guard each of the five
levels. the shoot-anything-that-moves gameplay is peppered with moments of old-
school genius. fans of robotic gastropods should note the title refers instead to
the vast array of vehicles on offer in a game stuffed with bizarre hardware. tanks
jets and submarines can be commandeered as well as cannon-toting camels elephants
and ostriches - more weaponry on offer than in an acre of iraq. doling out justice
is a joy thanks to ultra responsive controls and while this is a tough nut to
crack it is addictive enough to have you gagging for that one last go. and at a
mere £20 metal slug 3 is as cheap as sliced fried spuds as the man says. of
course most of you will ignore this lacking as it does the visual fireworks of
modern blasters. but at a time when blockbuster titles offer only a fresh lick of
paint in favour of real innovation metal slug 3 is a fresh gasp of air from an era
when the xbox was not even a twinkle in bill gates eye.
laura ashley chief stepping down laura ashley is parting company with its chief
executive ainum mohd-saaid. the clothing and home furnishing retailer said ms
mohd-saaid had resigned for personal reasons. her departure will come into effect
on 1 february and follows the departure of co-chief executive rebecca navarednam on
1 january. ms mohd-saaid is to be replaced by lillian tan presently a non-
executive director of the company and head of a malaysian retailer. in a statement
issued on thursday laura ashley thanked ms mohd-saaid for her services to the
company. its shares were down 8.51% to 10.75p in late thursday morning trading on
the london stock exchange. since 2002 ms tan has been managing director and chief
executive of metrojaya one of the largest retail groups in malaysia. laura ashley
which is due to issue its next trading statement in the next few weeks has in
recent months been hit by reports of poor sales. in october last year it announced
the closure of one of its two welsh factories. in september the company had said
that its half-year clothing sales had been below expectations . in recent times
it has put renewed focus on home furnishings rather than clothing but last
september it reported that interim six month losses had risen from £1m to £1.2m
while sales had fallen from £138m to £118m. laura ashley which floated on the
london stock exchange for £200m ($376m) in 1995 is majority-owned by malaysia
entrepreneur dr khoo kay peng. in 1996 its share price was more than 200p. it has
long been reported that dr khoo intends to take the company private but he has
always denied this. laura ashley is a bit of a shrivelled husk of a company said
retail analyst nick bubb of evolution securities. it is all pretty odd with its
malaysian owners seemingly just shuffling the deckchairs. laura ashley was founded
by its late namesake in kent in 1955 before moving to mid wales in 1961 where it
still has its main uk factory.
nuclear body seeks new tech the computer systems used to monitor the world s
nuclear power installations are so outdated that they are hampering the work of
inspectors. a spokesman for the international atomic energy agency (iaea) said its
current technology could allow key information to be overlooked as it was more than
20 years old. such systems are the only method of tracking nuclear material
worldwide. the agency has appealed for more funds to update its hardware and
software. a major overhaul of the system is needed to allow inspectors immediate
secure online access to information said project manager livio costantini. iaea
inspectors make around 3 000 visits a year to more than 900 nuclear facilities
worldwide. they are there to verify official reports of activities in the plants
to carry out environmental checks and also to look for any signs that nuclear
material is being smuggled in or out of the facility. the computer system
inspectors currently use for comparing data from earlier visits for instance was
built in the 1970s and largely paper based. an iaea spokesman said this was
extremely inefficient and makes searching for anomalies like searching for a needle
in a haystack. the organisation is aiming to start a system upgrade in november
aiming to provide inspectors in the field with secure online access to previous
inspection data design blueprints of nuclear facilities even satellite images of
the plant. where possible it hopes to link the system with national records of the
import and export of nuclear materials. further analysis of these could help spot
potential smuggling activities or illicit technology transfers between countries
according to a spokesman. computer specialist at the iaea peter smith would like
to be able to incorporate state of the art visualisation techniques more familiar
to video games players into the inspector s toolkit. the commercials you now see
have people are moving around in a virtual world he said. if we could have that
on our laptops we could be walking through the plant seeing on the laptop how
the plant should look. and if there s a door in the wall that is not on our laptop
then we have a problem. the iaea estimates the total cost of the four-year project
to upgrade its technology will be $40m. so far it has only received $11m from the
us and the uk. failure to replace the hardware and software and to integrate
fully all the information system components will carry large risks said an agency
statement.
india s deccan seals $1.8bn deal air deccan has ordered 30 airbus a320 planes in a
$1.8bn (£931m) deal as india s first low-cost airline expands in the fast-growing
domestic market. air deccan was set up last year and wants to lure travellers away
from the railway network and pricier rivals. the potential of the indian market has
attracted attention at home and abroad. beer magnate vijay mallya recently set up
kingfisher airlines while uk entrepreneur richard branson has said he is keen to
start a local operation. the country has a population of more than a billion
people and many observers feel that it is underserved by airlines. recently however
the booming economy has boosted personal spending power and helped swell the middle
classes and the corporate sector. india s government has given its backing to
cheaper and more accessible air travel. the days of flying being a symbol of only
maharajas or the rich are over the minister for civil aviation praful patel said
earlier. infrastructure is being built to handle the expected increase in demand
and on tuesday agence france presse reported that a group led by germany s siemens
won the contract to build a private airport near bangalore. india s airports
authority and the state government will own 13% each of the finished transport hub.
for its part air deccan set up by army officer and silk farmer gorur gopinath
plans to increase its fleet to 60 aircraft within five years. to help finance the
expansion the company may sell a 25% stake to an investor for about $50m. when it
was set up the firm offered tickets that were 50% cheaper than other indian
airlines. it said it was basing its business model on european firms such as
ireland s ryanair.
jarvis sells tube stake to spain shares in engineering group jarvis have soared
more than 16% on news that it is offloading its stake in london underground
consortium tube lines. the sale of the 33% stake to spain s ferrovial for £146m
($281m) is a lifeline to jarvis which was weighed down by debts of more than
£230m. the company recently warned it could go under if it did not secure a
refinancing deal by mid-january 2005. but now its banks have agreed to extend its
credit facilities until march 2006. the company also said it had agreed terms over
the completion of 14 of its biggest construction projects under the government s
private finance initiative (pfi). jarvis wants to scale back the division which
has proved too costly and has been blamed for many of its problems. instead it
plans to focus on uk rail renewal roads and plant hire work. madrid-based
ferrovial already holds a 33% stake in tube lines which maintains the jubilee
northern and piccadilly lines. the spanish group has been keen to snap up more uk
infrastructure assets having bought amey in 2003. jarvis said the sale which
raked in more than the £100m analysts had expected would substantially enhance
its financial position. i am now confident that we can now move forward in 2005
towards rebuilding jarvis and return it to growth as a profitable business said
chief executive alan lovell. shares in jarvis were up more than 16% to 18 pence by
the close of trade on friday.
mcclaren hails boro s uefa spirit middlesbrough boss steve mcclaren has praised the
way his side have got to grips with european football after the 2-0 uefa cup win
against lazio. boro who are playing in europe for the first time in their 128-
year history are top of group e with maximum points. i think we have taken to
europe really well said mcclaren. we got about lazio didn t let them settle or
play. and in possession we controlled it and looked threatening every time we went
forward. before the match mcclaren had said that a win over the italian giants
would put boro firmly on the european footballing map. and after they did just that
he said: it was a perfect european night. for the team to give the fans a
performance like that was the icing on the cake. there have been many good
performances but this was something special. you can see that the experience we
have in the squad is showing. to win in europe you need to defend well and we have
done that because we have conceded only one goal in four games. we can also score
goals and again that is something you can see from the performances we have had
so we have good balance. mcclaren s only criticism of his side was that their
dominance should have been resulted in more goals. it should have been more
convincing said mcclaren. but i had watched lazio in recent weeks and i saw them
score a late equaliser against inter milan on saturday so i knew we needed a second
goal. no matter what anybody says lazio are favourites to win this competition.
middlesbrough forward boudewijn zenden said he did not expect such a comfortable
match after he scored both goals. we didn t expect it to be that one-sided said
zenden. we did quite well in the first half we pressured them and they didn t
cope with that. i think we played quite well and it was a very good game
especially in the first half. the holland international said boro are confident of
progressing in the competition after winning their first two group games. we ve
got a very good feeling there is a good spirit all the lads work hard for each
other and it s a squad of friendly players which i think you can see on the pitch
he added.
campese berates whingeing england former australian wing david campese has told
england to stop whingeing in the wake of their defeat to ireland. england coach
andy robinson lambasted referee jonathan kaplan for costing them the game after
disallowing tries from mark cueto and josh lewsey. but campese told bbc sport:
robinson is living up to england s reputation as whingeing poms. stop going on
about it as who really cares they re acting like they re the first team to be
cheated of a win. england are contemplating a complaint to the international
rugby board after potential tries by cueto in the first half and lewsey late on
were ruled out without recourse to the video referee. but campese added: scotland
could have beaten france in the same way but do you see them whingeing basically
things didn t go england s way and in typical fashion they make more of it when
they believe they ve lost unfairly. england are second bottom in the six nations
table following defeats by wales france and ireland. but although campese admitted
he was surprised about their current predicament he insisted england were no
longer world class . england are beginning to realise that being world champions
doesn t mean you deserve to win every game he said. they lost a few key players
and suddenly everyone s realised the ones on the fringes were not all that good in
the first place. added to that the senior players aren t standing up and they can
t do anything when the pressure mounts. campese a veteran of 101 international
caps said full-back jason robinson would now be the sole englishman in his world
xv. robinson has been blamed for poor leadership in the tournament while his coach
has been castigated for appointing a full-back captain. i agree that you can t
captain from full-back said campese. you need someone in the thick of the action
and it s very hard to give orders from all the way back there. some people are
leaders and some aren t. he s not but there s no one who stands out in england s
pack - no clear-cut leaders. campese though defended coach andy robinson who he
believes was the only choice after sir clive woodward s resignation. but he
blamed a lack of talent in the england camp for making the current coach look
poor. england face a potential wooden spoon match against italy on 12 march. and
the ex-wallaby added: if england lost that they d be in bloody turmoil. that said
i don t think they will. campese has tipped wales to win both the six nations and
grand slam come the end of the tournament. it s been a surprising tournament he
said and maybe ireland have a little bit more talent overall. but playing at
home is a major boost. and the possible grand slam decider at the millennium
stadium will be just too much for the irish.
mps quiz aides over royal income senior officials at the two bodies generating
private income for the queen and prince of wales are to be questioned by mps.
aides from the duchy of lancaster and duchy of cornwall will appear before the
commons public accounts committee. it has been reported they could be questioned
about prince charles spending on camilla parker bowles. but bbc correspondent
peter hunt said they are not responsible for how money is spent and may be unable
to answer. duchy officials who will appear before the committee on monday are
only responsible for generating money. the duchy of lancaster provides the queen s
private income while the duchy of cornwall provides prince charles annual income.
the duchy of cornwall is a 140 000-acre estate across 25 counties and also
includes residential properties shops offices stocks and shares. it was set up
in 1337 by king edward iii to provide income for successive heirs to the throne. it
covers the cost of the prince s public and private life - neither charles nor
william and harry receive taxpayers money from the civil list. however the
prince of wales did receive over £4m from government departments and grants-in-aid
in 2003-4. the duchy last year generated almost £12m. the prince has voluntarily
paid income tax - currently 40% - since 1993.
mourinho to escape fa charge chelsea boss jose mourinho will not face any football
association action over the comments he made after their carling cup tie with
manchester united. mourinho intimated that united boss sir alex ferguson
influenced referee neale barry after the duo walked down the tunnel together at
half-time. but an fa spokesman told bbc sport: we are not taking action over
mourinho. we have looked at the comments and we have decided that no further
action is required. that is the end of it. mourinho was concerned that ferguson s
conversation with barry was followed by an inconsistent display by the official. i
see one referee in the first half and another in the second said mourinho. if
the fa ask me what happened i will tell them. what i saw and felt made it easier
to understand a few things. maybe when i turn 60 and have been managing in the
same league for 20 years and have the respect of everybody i will have the power to
speak to people and make them tremble a little bit. the referee controlled the
game in one way during the first half but in the second they had dozens of free-
kicks. it was fault after fault dive after dive. but i know the referee did not
walk to the dressing rooms alone at half-time. he should only have had his two
assistants and the fourth official with him but there was also someone else.
referees chief keith hackett believes mourinho should retract his comments about
ferguson and barry as he believes the blues boss has questioned their integrity. i
m hoping he might reconsider his comments unfortunately this is the nature of the
game said hackett. i don t want referees or myself getting in the psychological
warfare between two managers. for the second leg we have an experienced referee
and we should be talking about the quality of that game rather than the refereeing.
sometimes managers have grounds for comments and i note that but a referees
integrity has been questioned that is offensive and should be avoided. mr mourinho
should look at the facts. mourinho added that the match was entertaining for a
goalless draw and insisted his team could still reach the final. it s 0-0 so if
we win we go through and if we get a draw we go to extra time he said. we have
exactly the same chance we had before this game. we are confident of getting a
result but we know what manchester united is a footballing power. it ll be
difficult for us but also for them.
nintendo ds aims to touch gamers the mobile gaming industry is set to explode in
2005 with a number of high-profile devices offering a range of gaming and other
features such as movie and music playback. market leader nintendo however is
releasing a handheld console that it says will revolutionise the way games are
played. the first striking thing about the ds is how retro it looks. far from
looking like a mould-breaking handheld it looks more like nintendo dug out a mould
from a 1980s handheld prototype. the lightweight clam shell device opens up to
reveal two screens and when switched on it instantly reveals its pedigree. both
screens are crisp and clear while the bottom of the two is touch sensitive.
nintendo has given developers free rein to utilise the dual screens and ability to
control the action by simply touching the screen. the japanese gaming giant hopes
the ds will maintain the firm s pre-eminence in an increasingly-competitive mobile
gaming market. nintendo first launched its gameboy console in 1989 and has
dominated the market ever since. but its lead can no longer be taken for granted.
sony will enter the market later this year with its playstation portable while
start-up companies gizmondo and tapwave zodiac are also offering hybrid devices.
we believe the ds will appeal to all ages both genders and gamers of any skill
said david yarnton nintendo europe s general manager said at the recent press
launch for the handheld. with its two screens wireless connectivity and backwards
compatibility with the gameboy advance the ds certainly has a number of unique
selling points. it went on sale in the us in mid-november priced $150 and nintendo
says sales have exceeded expectations without giving detailed figures. japan and
europe will have to wait until the first quarter of 2005 to get the device. with
more than two million pre-orders for the device in japan nintendo is confident it
will keep its number one spot. but will the device prove to be as revolutionary as
claimed the game ships with a demo of metroid hunters - a 3d action title which
can be played alone or with a group of friends using the machine s wireless
capabilities. it certainly looks impressive on the small machine and plays smoothly
even with a group of people. the game can be controlled by using the supplied
stylus to aim. the top screen is used to navigate the action while the bottom
screen offers a top-down map and the ability to switch weapons. it is certainly a
unique control method and while it makes aiming more controlled it can be a little
disorientating. super mario 64 ds is a faithful re-creation of the nintendo 64
classic with a host of new mini-games and new levels. the game looks stunning on
the portable machine and the sound too is impressive for such a small machine. one
thing is for certain. hardened gamers will have to learn to adapt to a new way of
playing while it could prove to be an accessible way in to gaming for novices
ultimately the success or failure of the device lies in the hands of developers. if
they manage to create titles which use the nintendo ds s key features then a whole
new market of gamers could open up. the fear is that the touch screen and voice
recognition are treated as little more than gimmicks.
vickery upbeat about arm injury england prop phil vickery is staying positive
despite a broken arm ruling him out of the rbs six nations. the 28-year-old
fractured the radius in his right forearm during gloucester s 17-16 win over bath
on saturday. he will undergo an operation on monday and is expected to be out for
at least six weeks. he said: this isn t an injury that will stop me from working
hard on the fitness elements and being around the lads. he added: i ve got the
operation this afternoon and i could be back doing fitness work after a week. as
frustrating as it is i ve got to be positive. after the game vickery spoke with
bath prop david barnes who also broke his arm recently. i had a chat with david
barnes and it looks like a similar injury to him he said. he said he had the
operation and he was back running after a week. there s no doubt that i m going to
get involved and be around this place as soon as i can after the operation.
gloucester director of rugby nigel melville said: phil has broken his radius
which is the large bone in his forearm. i don t really know how it happened but
phil will definitely be out of action for at least six weeks. i feel very sorry
for him as he has been in great shape. he really needed 80 minutes of rugby this
weekend and then this happened. mentally it must be very hard for him.
china to overtake us net use the chinese net-using population looks set to exceed
that of the us in less than three years says a report. china s net users number
100m but this represents less than 8% of the country s 1.3 billion people. market
analysts panlogic predicts that net users in china will exceed the 137 million us
users of the net by 2008. the report says that the country s culture will mean that
chinese people will use the net for very different ends than in many other nations.
already net use in china has a very different character than in many western
nations said william makower chief executive of panlogic. in many western nations
desktop computers that can access the net are hard to escape at work. by contrast
in china workplace machines are relatively rare. this combined with the relatively
high cost of pcs in china and the time it takes to get phone lines installed helps
to explains the huge number of net cafes in china. only 36% of chinese homes have
telephones according to reports. net usage tends to happen in the evening said
mr makower they get access only when they go home and go off to the internet
café. its fundamentally different usage to what we have here he said. net
use in china was still very much an urban phenomenon with most users living on the
country s eastern seaboard or in its three biggest cities. the net is key to
helping chinese people keep in touch with friends said mr makower. many people use
it in preference to the phone or arrange to meet up with friends at net cafes. what
people can do on the net is also limited by aspects of chinese life. for instance
said mr makower credit cards are rare in china partly because of fears people have
about getting in to debt. the most popular way to pay is cash-on-delivery he
said and that s quite a brake to the development of e-commerce. the arrival of
foreign banks in china due in 2006 could mean greater use of credit cards but for
the moment they are rare said mr makower. but if chinese people are not spending
cash online they are interested in the news they can get via the net and the view
it gives them on western ways of living. a large part of the attraction of the
internet is that it goes below the radar he said. generally it s more difficult
for the government to be able to control it. its real value is as an open window
onto what s happening elsewhere in the world he said. government restrictions on
how much advertising can appear on television means that the net is a source of
many commercial messages chinese people would not see anywhere else. familiarity
with the net also has a certain social cachet. it s a sign of them having made it
that they can use the internet and navigate around it said mr makower.
downing injury mars uefa victory middlesbrough boss steve mcclaren hopes that
stewart downing did not seriously damage his hamstring during the 2-1 uefa cup win
over graz ak. the winger was carried off on a stretcher in the closing stages as
boro booked their place in the last 16. mcclaren said: stewart has tweaked a
hamstring which is a blow for us. we will assess it in the morning. but i m
delighted with the match result. they say in sport you can win ugly - and we
certainly did. mcclaren was relieved to make it through after a tough encounter at
the riverside. to be fair to graz they had a gameplan - they knocked the ball
forward especially in the first half and we struggled to deal with it. in the
second half we were better but it was frustrating because we got the goal - but one
slip and they were back in it. boro face sporting lisbon for a place in the
quarter-finals after the portuguese side saw off feyenoord on thursday. and
mcclaren added: sporting are technically very good - portuguese sides always are.
but the journey goes on for us and we will now go to their magnificent stadium -
after the first game here - we ll look forward to it. goalscorer jimmy floyd
hasselbaink added: it wasn t a particularly beautiful match to watch - but they
made it difficult for us. we didn t play well at all. but you need a little bit of
luck and i think we got that when my shot went through the legs of their
goalkeeper. i would have liked to play in holland - that would have been a little
bit special to me. but so is going back to portugal - i ll be playing against some
lads i played with at boavista.
curbishley delight for johansson charlton manager alan curbishley paid tribute to
two-goal striker jonatan johansson after beating norwich. curbishley said after
the 4-0 win: there was talk about norwich being interested in the summer but i
have a lot of faith in jonatan. when there was talk of other clubs i just told him
he was going nowhere. he s part of our squad and he got us a couple of important
goals early on. i m sure he s happy here but i was delighted with all the players.
curbishley was subjected to criticism from charlton fans recently and he said:
the thing about this club is that we have got where we are by all pulling in the
same direction. that s happened for however long i ve been here and we don t want
people taking sides.
eu ministers to mull jet fuel tax european union finance ministers are meeting on
thursday in brussels where they are to discuss a controversial jet fuel tax. a
levy on jet fuel has been suggested as a way to raise funds to finance aid for the
world s poorest nations. airlines and aviation bodies have reacted strongly against
the plans saying they would hurt companies at a time when earnings are under
pressure. the eu said a tax would only be passed after full consultation with
airlines. it was keen to point out earlier this week that any new tax on jet fuel
should not hurt the competitiveness of the airlines . ministers will also be
discussing reforms to regulations governing european public spending. global
leaders have focused attention on poverty reduction and development at recent
meetings of the g7 group and world economic forum. the world s richest countries
have said they want to boost the amount of aid they give to 0.7% of their annual
gross national income by 2015. many eu ministers are thought to support the plan to
tax jet fuel - tabled by france and germany following the recent g7 meeting. at
present the fuel used by airlines enjoys either a very low tax rate or is untaxed
in eu member states.
astrazeneca hit by drug failure shares in anglo-swedish drug have closed down 8% in
uk trade after the failure of its iressa drug in a major clinical trial. the lung
cancer drug did not significantly prolong survival in patients with the disease.
this setback for the group follows the rejection by the us in october of its anti-
coagulant pill exanta. meanwhile another of its major money spinners - cholesterol
drug crestor - is facing mounting safety concerns. this would be two of the three
blockbuster drugs that were meant to power the company forward failing... and we ve
got risks on crestor said nick turner analyst at brokers jefferies. astrazeneca
had hoped to pitch its iressa drug against rival medicine tarceva. but iressa
proved no better than a placebo in extending lives in the trial involving 1 692
patients. tarceva - made by osi pharmaceuticals genentech and roche - has already
proved to be successful in helping prolong the life of lung cancer patients.
aztrazeneca has now appointed a new executive director to the board. john patterson
will be in charge of drug development. the company said mr patterson would make
substantial changes to the clinical organisation and its processes . i am
determined to improve our development and regulatory performance restore
confidence in the company and value to shareholders said chief executive tom
mckillop.
apple laptop is greatest gadget the apple powerbook 100 has been chosen as the
greatest gadget of all time by us magazine mobile pc. the 1991 laptop was chosen
because it was one of the first lightweight portable computers and helped define
the layout of all future notebook pcs. the magazine has compiled an all-time top
100 list of gadgets which includes the sony walkman at number three and the 1956
zenith remote control at two. gadgets needed moving parts and/or electronics to
warrant inclusion. the magazine specified that gadgets also needed to be a self-
contained apparatus that can be used on its own not a subset of another device .
in general we included only items that were potentially mobile said the magazine.
in the end we tried to get to the heart of what really makes a gadget a gadget
it concluded. the oldest gadget in the top 100 is the abacus which the magazine
dates at 190 a.d. and put in 60th place. other pre-electronic gadgets in the top
100 include the sextant from 1731 (59th position) the marine chronometer from 1761
(42nd position) and the kodak brownie camera from 1900 (28th position). the tivo
personal video recorder is the newest device to make the top 10 which also
includes the first flash mp3 player (diamound multimedia) as well as the first
successful digital camera (casio qv-10) and mobile phone (motorola startac). the
most popular gadget of the moment the apple ipod is at number 12 in the list
while the first sony transistor radio is at number 13. sony s third entry in the
top 20 is the cdp-101 cd player from 1983. who can forget the crystalline hiss-
free blast of madonna s like a virgin emenating from their first cd player asked
the magazine. karl elsener s knife the swiss army knife from 1891 is at number 20
in the list. gadgets which could be said to feature surprisngly low down in the
list include the original telephone (23rd) the nintendo gameboy (25th) and the
pulsar quartz digital watch (36th). the list also contains plenty of oddities: the
pez sweet dispenser (98th) 1980s toy tamagotchi (86th) and the bizarre ronco
inside the shell egg scrambler (84th). why worry about mobile phones. soon they
will be subsumed into the pda s / laptops etc. what about the marine chronometer
completely revolutionised navigation for boats and was in use for centuries. for it
s time a technological marvel! sony net minidisc! it paved the way for more mp3
player to explode onto the market. i always used my netmd and could not go
anywhere without it. a laptop computer is not a gadget! it s a working tool! the
sinclair executive was the world s first pocket calculator. i think this should be
there as well. how about the clockwork radio or gps or a pocket calculator all
these things are useful to real people not just pc magazine editors. are the
people who created this list insane surely the most important gadget of the
modern age is the mobile phone it has revolutionalised communication which is
more than can be said for a niche market laptop. from outside the modern age the
marine chronometer is the single most important gadget without which modern
transportation systems would not have evolved so quickly. has everyone forgot
about the breville pie maker an interesting list. of the electronic gadgets
thousands of journalists in the early 1980s blessed the original noteboook pc - the
tandy 100. the size of a4 paper and light three weeks on a set of batteries an
excellent keyboard a modem. a pity tandy did not make it dos compatible. what s
an apple powerbook 100 it s out of date - not much of a gadget . surely it has
to be something simple / timeless - the tin opener swiss army knife safety razor
blade wristwatch or the thing for taking stones out of horses hooves it has to
be the mobile phone. no other single device has had such an effect on our way of
living in such a short space of time. the ball point pen has got to be one of the
most used and common gadgets ever. also many might be grateful for the pocket
calculator which was a great improvement over the slide rule. the casio pocket
calculator that played a simple game and made tinny noises was also a hot gadget in
1980. a true gadget it could be carried around and shown off. all top 10 are
electronic toys so the list is probably a better reflection of the current high-
tech obsession than anyhting else. i say this as the swiss army knife only made no
20. sinclair ql a machine far ahead of its time. the first home machine with a
true multi-takings os. shame the marketing was so bad!!! apple.. a triumph of
fashion over... well everything else. utter rubbish. yes the apple laptop and
sony walkman are classic gadgets. but to call the sextant and the marine
chronometer gadgets and rank them as less important than a tv remote control
reveals a quite shocking lack of historical perspective. the former literally
helped change the world by vastly improving navigation at see. the latter is the
seed around which the couch potato culture has developed. no competition. i d also
put apple s newton and the first palm pilot there as the front runners for portable
computing and possibly the toshiba libretto for the same reason. i only wish that
vulcan inc s flipstart wasn t just vapourware otherwise it would be at the top.
how did a laptop ever manage to beat off the challenge of the wristwatch or the
telephone (mobile or otherwise) what about radios and tvs the swiss army knife.
by far the most useful gadget. i got mine 12 years ago. still wearing and using it
a lot! it stood the test of time. psion organiser series 3 should be up there.
had a usable qwerty keyboard removable storage good set of apps and programmable.
case design was good (batteries in the hinge - a first i think). great product
innovation. the first mobile pc was voted best gadget by readers of...err...
mobile pc ! why do you keep putting these obviously biased lists on your site it s
obviously the mobile phone or remote control and readers of a less partisan
publication would tell you that. the motorola startac should be number one. why
there will be mobile phones long after notebook computers and other gadgets are
either gone or integrated in communications devices. the psion series 3c! the
first most practical way to carry all your info around... i too would back the
sinclair spectrum - without this little beauty i would never have moved into the
world of it and earn the living that i do now. i d have put the mobile phone high
up the list. probably a nokia model. sinclair spectrum - 16k. it plugged into the
tv. games were rubbish but it gave me a taste for programming and that s what i do
for a living now. i wish more modern notebooks -- even apple s newest offerings --
were more like the pb100. particularly disheartening is the demise of the trackball
which has given way to the largely useless trackpad which every notebook on the
market today uses. they re invariably inaccurate uncomfortable and cumbersome to
use. congratulations to apple a deserved win!
athens memories soar above lows well it s goodbye to another olympic year and as
usual there were plenty of highs and lows in athens. obviously there s no getting
away from the differing fortunes of kelly holmes and paula radcliffe. but i want to
remind you of a few more events that made 2004 another year to remember - or forget
- for athletics. one of my favourite olympic moments was kelly s success in
the 800m. winning that race was the key to her success because if she won that
then the 1500m would be a bit of a formality. kelly had been full of should i
shouldn t i thoughts about going for the double in athens. i thought why wouldn t
you do the 800m it s your best event it was such good fun to commentate on her
1500m and it was nice to be able to be part of her athens story. the victory
for the british men s 4x100m relay team was a bit of a surprise but a great climax
to the games. i think the four of them - jason gardener darren campbell marlon
devonish and mark lewis-francis - knew deep down that it was their best chance of a
medal. the lads had run poorly in the individual sprints so maybe they did lift
their game when they knew something was really at stake. hicham el guerrouj s
olympic double is a much bigger achievement than kelly s on a global scale. he was
the first man since for 80 years to win both the 1500m and 5 000m titles. as soon
as he had added the 5 000m crown and i had finished commentating i jumped up ran
down the stairs pushed everyone out the way and just gave him a big hug. he is one
of the few african runners who has embraced the tradition of the mile and he loves
to hear all the roger bannister stories. hicham is someone i enjoy having a bit of
time with even though my french and his english are not very good. what
happened to paula in athens this year is the obvious low on a personal level and
for the expectations of the nation as well. there were a set of circumstances
around athens that conspired to produce a very dramatic ending which i think has
been greatly misunderstood. dropping out of the marathon was the right thing to do
but starting in the 10 000m five days later was not wise. that was her heart and
not her head reacting. paula had a lot of little things going wrong in her
preparation and on the day. things like niggling injuries not being able to do
all her running sessions and feeling the pressure of the race looming ahead of her.
i think she came to the start line in athens physically and emotionally drained.
and if even the smallest thing doesn t feel right when you are preparing to race a
marathon 10 miles down the road it will hit you like a brick wall. the positive
thing to take from paula s olympics it that she will have learned a lot from it and
so will a lot of people - including me. purely as a race paula s victory in
the new york marathon has to go down as one of the most thrilling. it was so nip-
and-tuck between her and kenya s susan chepkemei and you don t usually get that
kind of excitement in marathons. it was also a real delight for all athletics fans
because to use one of my favourite words paula showed real bouncebackability .
and it was a bit of a rarity for me too because i genuinely did not have an inkling
how the race was going to pan out. kelly and the 4x100m boys victories
papered over the cracks in the general performance of the british team. we should
be concerned that we re not producing enough people who are capable of reaching
finals at senior level. the only individual men s finalist on the track was
michael east in the 1500m. i am beginning to look down and wonder where are the new
breed and that s where things begin to look even gloomier for british athletics as
we did not win any medals at the world junior championships in italy. dani barnes
came fourth in the 1500m and she was the highest finisher for team gb. the thing is
if we don t have athletes getting into the finals at junior level then it really
doesn t look good for the beijing olympics and beyond. i tell you what i
really enjoyed this year benita johnson winning the world cross country
championships back in march. in the absence of paula we tend to think of the event
as something of an african preserve. so to have an australian come up and deliver
such a surprise was something special. to be honest i m getting bored with
all the drug scandals especially balco. i just wish the whole thing would come to
a head so we can move on. having said that i m always pleased when drugs cheats
are caught because it shows the sport is standing up to it and not turning a blind
eye anymore. and one of the positive things to come out of balco is people are
starting to blow the whistle. we need more people to come forward and help the
authorities kick out the cheats. as regards the case against greek sprinters kostas
kenteris and katerina thanou well suspicions have been hanging over kenteris for a
while. the bottom line is we cannot keep letting drugs damage the sport because if
we do then it stops everyone enjoying it.
hyundai to build new india plant south korea s hyundai motor has announced that it
plans to build a second plant in india to meet the country s growing demand for
cars. the company didn t give details of its investment but it said the new plant
would produce 150 000 cars a year. this will boost the annual production capacity
of the company - india s second-largest car manufacturer - to 400 000 units.
hyundai expects its sales in india to grow 16% to 250 000 in 2005. by 2010 it
expects to nearly double sales to 400 000 cars. the new plant will be built close
to the existing one in chennai in the southern province of tamil nadu. south
korea s top car maker estimates that the indian market will grow 15% this year to
920 000 vehicles reaching 1.6 million vehicles by 2010. demand in india has been
driven by the poor state of public transport and the very low level of car
ownership analysts said. figures show that currently only eight people per
thousand are car owners. we desperately need to expand our production in order to
meet growing demand in the indian auto market which is growing over 12 percent
every year and to top our competitors chairman chung mong-koo said in the
statement. he said the company plans to use india as a base for exports to europe
latin america and the middle east. the company - which controls half of the south
korean s market - aims to become a global top five auto maker by 2010.
warning over tsunami aid website net users are being told to avoid a scam website
that claims to collect cash on behalf of tsunami victims. the site looks plausible
because it uses an old version of the official disasters emergency committee
webpage. however dec has no connection with the fake site and says it has
contacted the police about it. the site is just the latest in a long list of scams
that try to cash in on the goodwill generated by the tsunami disaster. the link to
the website is contained in a spam e-mail that is currently circulating. the
message s subject line reads urgent tsunami earthquake appeal and its text bears
all the poor grammar and bad spelling that characterises many other phishing
attempts. the web address of the fake site is decuk.org which could be close enough
to the official www.dec.org.uk address to confuse some people keen to donate.
patricia sanders spokeswoman for the disaster emergency committee said it was
aware of the site and had contacted the computer crime unit at scotland yard to
help get it shut down. she said the spam e-mails directing people to the site
started circulating two days ago shortly after the domain name of the site was
registered. it is thought that the fake site is being run from romania. ms sanders
said dec had contacted us net registrars who handle domain ownership and the net
hosting firm that is keeping the site on the web. dec was going to push for all
cash donated via the site to be handed over to the official organisation. bt and
dec s hosting company were also making efforts to get the site shut down she said.
ms sanders said sending out spam e-mail to solicit donations was not dec s style
and that it would never canvass support in this way. she said that dec hoped to get
the fake site shut down as soon as possible. all attempts by the bbc news website
to contact the people behind the site have failed. none of the e-mail addresses
supplied on the site work and the real owner of the domain is obscured in publicly
available net records. this is not the first attempt to cash in on the outpouring
of goodwill that has accompanied appeals for tsunami aid. one e-mail sent out in
early january came from someone who claimed that he had lost his parents in the
disaster and was asking for help moving an inheritance from a bank account in the
netherlands. the con was very similar to the familiar nigerian forward fee fraud e-
mails that milk money out of people by promising them a cut of a much larger cash
pile. other scam e-mails included a link to a website that supposedly let people
donate money but instead loaded spyware on their computers that grabbed
confidential information. in a monthly report anti-virus firm sophos said that two
e-mail messages about the tsunami made it to the top 10 hoax list during january.
another tsunami-related e-mail is also circulating that carries the zar worm which
tries to spread via the familiar route of microsoft s outlook e-mail program.
anyone opening the attachment of the mail will have their contact list plundered by
the worm keen to find new addresses to send itself to.
china blocks google news site china has been accused of blocking access to google
news by the media watchdog reporters without borders. the paris-based pressure
group said the english-language news site had been unavailable for the past 10
days. it said the aim was to force people to use a chinese edition of the site
which according to the watchdog does not include critical reports. google told
the bbc news website it was aware of the problems and was investigating the causes.
china is believed to extend greater censorship over the net than any other country
in the world. a net police force monitors websites and e-mails and controls on
gateways connecting the country to the global internet are designed to prevent
access to critical information. popular chinese portals such as sina.com and
sohu.com maintain a close eye on content and delete politically sensitive comments.
and all 110 000 net cafes in the country have to use software to control access to
websites considered harmful or subversive. china is censoring google news to
force internet users to use the chinese version of the site which has been purged
of the most critical news reports said the group in a statement. by agreeing to
launch a news service that excludes publications disliked by the government google
has let itself be used by beijing it said. for its part the search giant said it
was looking into the issue. it appears that many users in china are having
difficulty accessing google news sites in china and we are working to understand
and resolve the issue said a google spokesperson. google news gathers information
from some 4 500 news sources. headlines are selected for display entirely by a
computer algorithm with no human editorial intervention. it offers 15 editions of
the service including one tailored for china and one for hong kong. google
launched a version in simplified chinese in september. the site does not filter
news results to remove politically sensitive information. but google does not link
to news sources which are inaccessible from within china as this would result in
broken links.
labour accused of eu propaganda a taxpayer subsidised propaganda exercise on
the eu is being used to lull the british public into a false sense of security say
the tories. shadow foreign secretary michael ancram told mps a new white paper was
part of trying to soften up opinion ahead of the referendum on the eu constitution.
his claims were denied by foreign secretary jack straw who accused the tories of
running scared of debate. eu cooperation would help get better uk immigration
controls he argued. mr straw used thursday s commons debate to launch the new
white paper on the prospects for the eu in 2005. security stability and prosperity
would be the key themes when the uk took over the chairmanship of the eu in july
said mr straw. africa and climate change would also feature highly. he said the uk
was trying to ensure future eu budgets were limited to 1% of europe s economic
output and were spent where it adds most value . mr straw promised to continue to
ensure the uk s budget rebate secured in 1984 by margaret thatcher was fully
justified . we like all other countries have a veto on any changes proposed in
this area he said. mr ancram condemned the document which the foreign office
says has cost about £2 500 to design print and deliver. isn t the reason that the
government is now involved in a taxpayer subsidised propaganda exercise to try to
sell the new eu to the country in advance of the forthcoming referendum and general
election he asked. the tory spokesman also criticised the government for
claiming the eu constitution would make europe easier to understand. the
government last week had to publish a commentary of 500 pages to try and explain
this easy and simple constitution to the british people he said. who are they
trying to kid the proposed question for the constitution referendum is: should
the united kingdom approve the treaty establishing a constitution for the european
union the electoral commission on thursday said it was satisfied the question was
easy to understand. the government has suggested the referendum on the constitution
could take place in spring 2006 with the tories set to campaign for a no vote.
mr ancram said ministers were prolonging uncertainty by putting the vote off until
the latest date possible. the foreign secretary hit back by saying tory attitudes
to europe had helped keep the party out of power for more than a decade. mr straw
argued cooperation with european partners could bring a level playing field on
immigration and asylum controls. you are setting your face against all of these
things he added. for the liberal democrats sir menzies campbell said the uk
should not ignore the need to reform the eu common agricultural policy. change was
particularly important for developing countries wanting access to markets he
argued. sir menzies was among those worried about plans backed by the uk to lift
the arms embargo imposed on china after the tiananmen square massacre. mr straw
said no decisions had been taken - chinese human rights had improved but not by
enough.
tevez - an argentine in brazil some 65 years ago bernardo gandulla left boca
juniors in his native argentina and headed for brazil. he arrived at the vasco da
gama club with considerable prestige - which he failed to live up to. he left an
impression but not for reasons he would have wanted. the only thing of note he did
was to throw the ball back when it went out of play. even today gandula is the
term used in brazil for ballboy. brazilians delighted in the failure of gandulla
then and many will delight now if history is repeated. another boca juniors player
is coming to brazil. the new maradona - carlos tevez - is joining corinthians for
nearly $20m in a strong candidate for the strangest move of the year. corinthians -
or the london-based company who have just entered into partnership with them -
appear to have paid well above the odds for tevez. it is particularly strange as -
until last week - tevez was not even an especially big name in brazil where the
argentine championship is not shown. presumably there is some financial logic
behind the move. what is harder to work out is why tevez should be interested in
heading north rather than across the atlantic. argentina s brightest new star hit
top form in august as he spearheaded the charge towards the olympic gold medal. but
the subsequent months have not been easy for tevez. boca re-signed martin palermo
forcing tevez to vacate his favoured centre forward role. and off the pitch he gave
the press plenty to report - atletico madrid gave up on him after declaring his
private life to be disorganized. hounded by the press tevez grew tired of his
life in buenos aires. so now he says that he is heading for corinthians in search
of tranquillity. anyone acquainted with the city of são paulo will relish
the nonsense of this declaration. brazil s biggest city is a sprawling ugly
restless metropolis. once it shared with buenos aires the same melancholy air of a
city of italian immigrants. but that world now lies buried under skyscrapers. the
most turbulent place in this frenetic city is sport club corinthians. it is the
most passionately supported club in brazil. pelé scored reams of goals against
them reasoning that unless he did something special the corinthians fans were
capable of winning the game on their own. that passion can also be turned against
the team - especially nowadays when the level of urban violence gives a hysterical
edge to life in brazil s big cities. corinthians fans have invaded the dressing
room or ambushed the team coach to attack the players. tevez then can kiss
tranquillity goodbye. he can also say farewell to the copa libertadores south
america s champions league. corinthians have not qualified. indeed he will have a
long wait for a worthwhile match. next year s brazilian championship only gets
underway at the end of april. until then he will have to make do with the foolish
são paulo state championship an appalling waste of his talent. there will be
matches in small towns on poor pitches with plenty of defenders keen to kick him
all the way back to argentina. like so many of the top south american players
tevez has the gift of being able to surprise - to feint right and go left to pass
when he was expected to dribble to shoot and catch the goalkeeper unawares. but
his choice of destination is the biggest surprise of all.
water firm suez in argentina row a conflict between the argentine state and water
firm aguas argentinas controlled by france s suez is casting doubt on the firm s
future. the firm which serves the province of buenos aires wants a tariff rise
of 60% to fund water-supply improvements. the government has rejected the 60% rise
and wants aguas argentinas to make an annual investment of 400m pesos ($136m;
£72.3m) in improvements. planning minister julio de vido has offered state help but
not for free . mr de vido said that the argentine state would not make a
contribution in the form of a subsidy . he has said a contribution could be made
in return for a seat on the company s board. he added that the government is in
discussions with aguas argentinas about what role it might take in the event that a
state contribution is agreed. however aguas argentinas told the argentine
newspaper clarin it would not accept any change to its legal structure and in
practice this rules out state participation on its board. the planning minister
didn t rule out the possibility of cancelling aguas argentinas water concession.
yet he added that he didn t like to do futurology . but last week argentine
economic minister roberto lavagna told the french media in paris that the
government was considering allowing a 16% increase in tariffs and the possibility
of a state contribution to aguas argentinas infrastructure investments. speaking in
buenos aires mr de vido later denied the possibility of any tariff increase and
insisted that the annual investment in water infrastructure was at the centre of
the discussions. he added that in the coming weeks the future of aguas argentinas
would be decided. suez owns 40% of aguas argentinas (39.9%) while spain s aguas de
barcelona is its second biggest shareholder with 25.01%. recently suez lost a
water concession in bolivia after mass protests in the city of el alto (the poorest
in the country) with citizens complaining of unfair water charges. this forced the
government to cancel the contract. in argentina suez s subsidiary which has been
fined for cutting the supply of water during a recent heat wave and allegedly
failing to keep up investment to meet the demand for water has maintained a tense
relationship with the argentine government. during the last financial crisis in
argentina the firm sued the state alleging that converting its tariffs from us
dollars to pesos and then freezing them during devaluation had affected the
company and made it difficult for it to meet its contractual obligations. when
president nestor kirchner of argentina arrived in power he began to negotiate a
solution to the disagreements with international utilities operating in argentina.
but he has rejected any tariff increases alleging this will impoverish citizens
further. he has also asked for more investments to meet the growing demand for
water. on may 2004 aguas argentinas and the government signed an agreement to
renegotiate its buenos aires water-concession contract. the firm agreed to invest
242m pesos. the issue has attracted european interest. last week in paris
president kirchner discussed this problem and other issues with french president
jacques chirac. the argentine government is also under pressure from european union
countries and the international monetary fund (imf) to raise utilities tariffs
because most of the utilities operating in argentina are european.
tv presenter deeley drops cd:uk cat deeley has resigned as host of itv1 s saturday
morning children s music show cd:uk after six years. the 28-year-old host who also
presents stars in their eyes said she wanted to concentrate on new television
projects. i ve had a great few years met some really incredible people and been
given some wonderful opportunities the presenter said. deeley will host her last
show on 5 march and guest presenters will stand in until a replacement is found.
the long-running presenter said: i would like to take this opportunity to thank
the cd:uk team and all the viewers that have watched supported the show and let me
gate crash their saturday morning. whilst obviously i am really sad to say goodbye
i m immensely excited about the future. deeley formerly co-hosted sm:tv the
children s show which airs before cd:uk on a saturday morning alongside hit
presenters ant and dec. she won a children s bafta award for best presenter in
december 2001 and also fronted bbc one s fame academy series.
hobbit picture four years away lord of the rings director peter jackson has said
that it will be up to four years before he starts work on a film version of the
hobbit. the oscar winner said on a visit to sydney there was a desire to make it
but not before lengthy negotiations. i think it s gonna be a lot of lawyers
sitting in a room trying to thrash out a deal before it will ever happen said the
new zealander. the rights to jrr tolkien s book are split between two major film
studios. jackson who is currently filming a remake of hollywood classic king kong
said he thought that the sale of mgm studios to the sony corporation would cast
further uncertainty on the project. the 43-year-old was in the australian city to
visit a lord of the rings exhibition which has attracted 140 000 visitors since it
opened in december. the film-maker recently sued film company new line cinema for
undisclosed damages over alleged withheld profits and lost revenue from the first
part of the middle earth trilogy. the fellowship of the ring from 2001 went on to
make worldwide profits of $291 million (£152 million). jackson is thought to have
secured the most lucrative film directing deal in history to remake king kong
which is currently in production in wellington. the picture which stars naomi
watts and oscar winner adrien brody is due to be released in december. jackson has
also committed to making a film version of lovely bones based on the best-selling
book by alice sebold.
game firm holds cast auditions video game firm bioware is to hold open auditions
for people to become cast members for future games. the company which makes role
playing games such as knights of the old republic and neverwinter nights is
seeking people aged 18 to 99. the canada-based company says it was looking for a
wide variety of people to use as face models for characters . everyone chosen to
appear in a video game will receive a performer s fee for the use of their image.
the company is inviting people to come along to a shopping mall in west edmonton
alberta on friday and saturday bringing along a piece of photo identification.
there are hundreds and hundreds of characters in a typical bioware game said
shauna perry bioware s audio and external resources producer. those people live
in any city and village and so we need ordinary people people with interesting
faces. she added: not everyone is a model in the world so we don t want just
models in our games. people chosen to appear in a game will have their head
scanned in three dimensions. hundreds of photos of the person s head are taken so
that a model of the head can be generated in 3d. the 3d model will look exactly
like the person - it s really quite incredible how detailed they are said ms
perry. she said chosen participants will have no control over how the image is used
in a computer game. we cannot give people any control over how the images are
used. but their face could be used in multiple games - so they could be the hero
in one the villain in another and just a merchant in a third.
clarke plans migrant point scheme anyone planning to move to the uk will have to
pass a test to prove they can contribute to the country home secretary charles
clarke has said. he is proposing a points system similar to australia s but would
avoid the quota system planned by the tories. mr clarke who will unveil his plans
on monday said economic migration helped the uk but needed proper policing . the
lib dems say they will look at his plans but tory liam fox said his party offered
a clear choice on the issue. the conservative party co-chairman said the british
electorate had a choice between a labour government that had done nothing for
eight years and will not set a limit on immigration and a tory one that would
impose quotas. the home secretary said by 2008 he wanted everyone given a visa
and entering the uk to have their fingerprints taken to ensure we can know
everybody who is in the country . speaking on bbc one s breakfast with frost he
said economic migrants are of great value to this country but stressed that
proper policing was needed to ensure that they do not become a burden on society .
he said: we will establish a system ... which looks at the skills talents and
abilities of people seeking to come and work in this country and ensures that when
they come here they have a job and can contribute to the economy of the country.
the home secretary whose five-year blueprint for immigration and asylum is
expected to be published on monday also rejected claims that the immigration
debate encouraged bigotry. the issue of who does come into this country and
whether they are entitled to be in this country who does settle here how we have
border controls is a perfectly legitimate aspect of public debate he said.
liberal democrat home affairs spokesman mark oaten said: whilst it is good that
labour has rejected the tory idea of quotas on asylum the jury is still out on the
home office s ability to deliver a fair and efficient asylum system. mr howard
has said britain should take its fair share of the world s genuine refugees . but
he claims the current asylum system is being abused - and with it britain s
generosity. trevor phillips chairman of the commission for racial equality called
on mr clarke to denounce the suggestion britain s hospitality was being tested by
immigration. tell that to the 44 000 doctors in the nhs and the 70 000 nurses
without whom we would really see what pressure on the health service means he
said. ditto the teachers from south africa australia jamaica who are reducing
the sizes of our classes and schools. the refugee council said mr howard s
proposals would mean there would be no safe haven in the uk.
radcliffe will compete in london paula radcliffe will compete in the flora london
marathon this year after deciding her schedule for 2005. the 31-year-old won the
race in 2002 on her marathon debut defended her title 12 months later and will now
seek a third title in the 17 april race. it doesn t get any better than this for
the 25th anniversary said race director david bedford. after announcing the
greatest men s field ever we now have the greatest women s distance runner ever.
three years ago radcliffe smashed the women s world record in two hours 18 minutes
15 seconds. the bedford star returned to london 12 months later lowering her
mixed-race world record of 2:17:18 which she set in chicago in october 2003 by
one minute 53 secs. radcliffe s career took a setback when she failed to complete
the olympic marathon and later dropped out of the athens 10 000m last august. but
the 31-year-old bounced back to win the new york marathon in november. radcliffe
however passed up the chance to go for the big city marathon grand slam. with
wins in chicago london and new york only the boston marathon remains to be
conquered but that takes place a day after london. boston is definitely a race i
want to do at some point but london is very special to me said radcliffe. i don
t pick races thinking about things like pressure. i pick the ones in my heart i
really want to do. i love the atmosphere crowds and course and know it will
always be a great quality race. it is also the 25th anniversary this year which
adds to the occasion.
serena becomes world number two serena williams has moved up five places to second
in the world rankings after her australian open win. williams won her first grand
slam title since 2003 with victory over lindsay davenport the world number one.
men s champion marat safin remains fourth in the atp rankings while beaten finalist
lleyton hewitt replaces andy roddick as world number two. roger federer retains top
spot but safin has overtaken hewitt to become the new leader of the champions
race. alicia molik who lost a three-set thriller against davenport in the quarter-
finals is in the women s top 10 for the first time in her career. her rise means
australia have a player in the top 10 of the men s and women s rankings for the
first time in 21 years. and britain s elena baltacha who qualified and then
reached the third round has risen to 120 in the world - a leap of 65 places and
her highest ranking yet.
ultimate game award for doom 3 sci-fi shooter doom 3 has blasted away the
competition at a major games ceremony the golden joystick awards. it was the only
title to win twice winning ultimate game of the year and best pc game at the
awards presented by little britain star matt lucas. the much-anticipated sci-fi
horror doom 3 shot straight to the top of the uk games charts on its release in
august. other winners included grand theft auto: san andreas which took the most
wanted for christmas prize. only released last week it was closely followed by
halo 2 and half-life 2 which are expected to be big hits when they are unleashed
later this month. but they missed out on the prize for the most wanted game of
2005 which went to the nintendo title the legend of zelda. the original doom
released in 1994 heralded a new era in computer games and introduced 3d graphics.
it helped to establish the concept of the first-person shooter. doom 3 was
developed over four years and is thought to have cost around $15m (£8.3m). the top
honour for the best online game of the year went to battlefield vietnam. the
chronicles of riddick: escape from butcher bay was handed the unsung hero game of
2004. its release was somewhat eclipsed by doom 3 which was released on the same
week. it was however very well received by gamers and was praised for its
storyline which differed from the film released around the same time. electronic
arts was named top publisher of the year taking the crown from nintendo which won
in 2003. the annual awards are voted for by more than 200 000 readers of computer
and video games magazines. games awards like this have grown in importance. over
the last six years the uk market for games grew by 100% and was worth a record £1
152m in 2003 according to a recent report by analysts screen digest.
algeria hit by further gas riots algeria suffered a weekend of violent protests
against government plans to raise gas prices local press reports. demonstrators
in a number of regions blocked roads attacked public buildings and overturned
vehicles newspapers including el watan reported. the price of butane gas a vital
fuel for cooking has risen to 200 dinars ($2.77) per canister from 170 dinars.
even before the hike failing economic conditions had been fanning resentment in
some of algeria s poorest regions. demonstrators took to the streets last week
when the cost change was first announced but police seemed to have restored order.
according to local press reports trouble flared up again on saturday and carried
on into sunday. el watan said that a number of hot spots centred on the villages
and towns close to bouira about 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of the capital
algiers. among the other main areas affected were the western tiaret region and
sidi ammar in the east of the country agence france presse (afp) reported. riots
also flared up in the maghnia region close to the border with morocco in the west
afp said. butane gas and fuel oil are used as the main source of fuel to heat homes
and cook food in algeria s remote mountain areas.
fast lifts rise into record books two high-speed lifts at the world s tallest
building have been officially recognised as the planet s fastest. the lifts take
only 30 seconds to whisk passengers to the top of the 508m tall tfc 101 tower in
taipei taiwan. the guinness book of records has declared the 17m per second speed
of the two lifts the swiftest on earth. the lifts also have a pressure control
system to stop passengers ears popping as they ascend and descend at high speed.
in total the tfc tower has 61 lifts 34 of them double-deckers and 50 escalators
to shuttle people around its 106 floors. the tfc 101 tower is due to be officially
opened on 31 december. the super-fast lifts can speed up to 24 passengers to the
tip of the tower in about 30 seconds while ascending their 382m track. the 17m/s
top speed of the lifts translates to about 38mph (61km/h). curiously the lifts take
longer to descend and spend almost a whole minute returning to ground level from
the top of the tfc tower. the key new technologies applied in the world s fastest
elevators include: - a pressure control system which adjusts the atmospheric
pressure inside a car by using suction and discharge blowers preventing ear
popping - an active control system which tries to balance the lift more finely
and remove the sources of vibrations - streamlined cars to reduce the whistling
noise produced by running the lifts at a high speed inside a narrow shaft the
certification of our elevators as world record-holders by the authoritative
guinness world records is a great honour for us said masayuki shimono president
of manufacturer toshiba elevator and building systems which installed the lifts.
the first record for the world s fastest passenger elevators was published in the
first edition of the guinness book of records in 1955. as such it is an
interesting indicator of how technology has advanced in the 50 years since that
first edition when the record was 426m per minute or 25.6 km/h less than half
the speed of the new record said hein le roux specialist researcher at the
guinness world records. taipei s tfc 101 tower is more than 50m taller than the
petronas towers in kuala lumpur malaysia - formerly the world s tallest
skyscraper.
muslim group attacks tv drama 24 a british muslim group has criticised the new
series of us drama 24 which is about to be aired on sky one claiming it portrays
islam unfairly. the muslim council of britain has complained to broadcasting
watchdog ofcom. it says the programme breaches editorial guidelines. the group s
members met with sky executives on tuesday after viewing previews of the first five
episodes. the drama now in its fourth series begins on sunday evening. the new
series portrays a muslim family as a sleeper terrorist cell. the muslim council of
britain said in a statement: we are greatly concerned by the unremittingly hostile
and unbalanced portrayal of muslims in this series of 24 based upon a preview of
the first five episodes that we have seen. there is not a single positive muslim
character in the storyline to date. at a time when negative stereotypes of muslims
are on the increase we feel that sky - as a major uk broadcaster - has a
responsibility to challenge these insidious views not help to reinforce them. but
sky denied the programme breached broadcasting guidelines. a spokesperson said:
during a useful meeting yesterday sky listened to the concerns raised by
representatives of the council. sky does not believe that the episodes that it has
reviewed to date breach ofcom s programme code. fox tv which shows the series in
the us is broadcasting public service announcements showing muslims in a positive
light after complaints about the series.
us tv special for tsunami relief a us television network will screen a celebrity tv
special to benefit the tsunami relief effort in south asia. nbc will encourage
viewer donations during an hour-long show featuring musical performances on 15
january. actress sandra bullock has donated $1m (£525 000) to the american red
cross and actor leonardo dicaprio pledged a sizable aid contribution to unicef.
meanwhile 70 hong kong music and movie stars re-recorded we are the world in
mandarin and cantonese to raise funds. the song will not be released as a single
but will be played regularly during a chinese telethon on friday in aid of victims
of the boxing day disaster. around 140 000 people were killed and five million left
homeless or without food and water after an earthquake below the indian ocean sent
waves crashing into coastal communities in 11 countries. the united nations warned
that the number killed in the disaster could rise sharply with aid yet to reach
some remote areas. performers have yet to be confirmed for nbc s aid relief benefit
later this month. it follows a two-hour telethon carried by all four major us
television networks 10 days after the 11 september terror attacks in 2001. america:
a tribute to heroes raised more than $150m (£79m) to help victims of the suicide
attacks on the world trade center and pentagon.
brown names 16 march for budget chancellor gordon brown will deliver his budget to
the house of commons on 16 march the treasury has announced. the budget likely
to be the last before the general election will be at 1230 gmt on that wednesday
just after prime minister s question time. the annual event is when the chancellor
outlines the government s taxation and broader economic predictions. it is likely
to set out much of the tax and spending battleground for the election widely
expected on 5 may. next month s budget will be mr brown s eighth since labour came
to power in 1997. if a may election is called there could be as little as 18 days
between the budget and the announcement of a date for the election. a shortened
finance bill would have to be rushed through parliament with all-party support to
allow the government to continue collecting revenue. the full finance bill with
the budget measures in it would then be returned to the commons after the election
if labour secures another term in office. as mr brown announced the budget date in
a short ministerial statement accountancy firm ernst & young urged him to put
politics aside and focus on the long-term requirements of the economy. in the
budgets that were given immediately before the last six elections taxes were cut
by the incumbent chancellor and in many cases taxes were increased soon after the
election result said aidan o carroll e&y s uk head of tax.
choose hope over fear - kennedy voters will have a clear choice between the
politics of fear and the politics of hope in the next general election said
charles kennedy. in his new year message the liberal democrat leader said labour
and the conservatives were united in relying on fear and populist scares . he said
his party was the one of hope and was ready for a 2005 poll. on the asian tsunami
he said it had been very heartening to learn of the generosity being shown by
britons. mr kennedy said his thoughts were with all those caught up in the disaster
which had dominated the christmas and new year period. at home he said many people
were turning to the liberal democrats as they became disheartened with the politics
of the other two main parties. the general election would be a three-party
struggle as the conservative party fades away as a national force and the
liberal democrats challenge labour in its heartlands he said. a clear division is
emerging in british politics - the politics of fear versus the politics of hope.
labour is counting on the politics of fear ratcheting up talk of threats crime
and insecurity. while the conservatives are re-working their populist scares about
asylum and the european menace he said. he said the government was using this
climate of fear to try to strip away civil liberties. it was already using
detention without trial at belmarsh prison ignoring a recent law lords judgement
that this contravenes basic human rights he said. he also criticised attempts to
bring in trial without jury plans to lower the burden of proof in some criminal
trials curbing of rights to protest increased stop and search powers and id card
plans. he said while everyone had the right to be secure they also had the right to
be protected against unfair discrimination. but at the same time an overmighty
state is a dangerous one he said. his party instinctively understood the new
liberal britain which is no longer a nation with one family structure and one
colour he said. we are less deferential; more inclined to think for ourselves;
more open about sexuality and equality. our national institutions are changing
too. we are no longer a nation of one church; we are a nation of many faiths. in
our attitudes and the way we live our lives this is in many ways a liberal
britain.
worldcom bosses $54m payout ten former directors at worldcom have agreed to pay
$54m (£28.85m) including $18m from their own pockets to settle a class action
lawsuit reports say. james wareham a lawyer representing one of the directors
told reuters the 10 had agreed to pay those who lost billions when the firm
collapsed. the remaining $36m will be paid by the directors insurers. but a
spokesman for the prosecutor new york state comptroller alan hevesi said no
formal agreement had been made. corporate governance experts said that if the
directors do dip into their own pockets for the settlement it will set a new
standard for the accountability of bosses when the firms they oversee face
problems. directors very rarely pay said charles elson chairman of the center
for corporate governance at the university of delaware. he added that the
settlement sends a pretty strong shockwave through the director world . a formal
agreement on the payout is expected to be signed on thursday in a us district court
in manhattan. earlier the new york times had reported that the personal payments
were required as part of any deal at the start of negotiations. the ten former
outside directors are james allen judith areen carl aycock max bobbitt clifford
alexander stiles kellett gordon macklin john porter lawrence tucker and the
estate of john sidgmore who died last year. it has not yet been determined how
much each director will have to pay. none of the 10 former directors was a direct
participant in the accounting machinations of the worldcom fraud said the wall
street journal (wsj). two other outside former directors bert roberts and
francesco galesi remain defendants in the lawsuit said the newspaper. according
to the wsj which cites people familiar to the case the settling directors are
expected to deny wrongdoing and state they are settling the case to eliminate the
uncertainties and expense of further litigations. the second-largest us long-
distance telecoms operator filed for bankruptcy in 2002 when an $11bn accounting
scandal was unearthed. the company emerged from chapter 11 protection last year and
changed its name to mci inc. former worldcom chief executive bernard ebbers is to
face trial this month on criminal charges that he oversaw the fraud.
de niro film leads us box office film star robert de niro has returned to the top
of the north american box office with his film hide and seek. the thriller shot
straight to the number one spot after taking $22m (£11.7m) at the box office. de
niro recently spent three weeks at the top with comedy meet the fockers which was
at number five this week. oscar hopefuls the aviator million dollar baby and
sideways all cashed in on their multiple nominations with stronger ticket sales.
in hide and seek de niro plays a widower whose daughter has a creepy imaginary
friend. despite lukewarm reviews from critics the film took more than the expected
$18m (£9.5m). the element of a real actor in a psychological thriller certainly
elevated it said bruce snyder president of domestic distribution at 20th century
fox. clint eastwood s million dollar baby led the oscar hopefuls with $11.8m
(£6.3m) coming in at number three during its first weekend of wide release. the
aviator a film biography of howard hughes that leads the oscar field with 11
nominations was at number six for the weekend with $7.5m (£4m). oscar best-picture
nominee sideways entered the top ten for the first time in its 15th week of
release. it came in seventh $6.3 (£3.35m). last week s top film ice cube s road-
trip comedy are we there yet slipped to second place with $17m (£9m) while coach
carter fell two places to number four taking $8m (£4.25m) in its third week.
rounding out the top ten were in good company - starring dennis quaid and scarlett
johansson - racing stripes and assault on precinct 13.
robinson ready for difficult task england coach andy robinson faces the first major
test of his tenure as he tries to get back to winning ways after the six nations
defeat by wales. robinson is likely to make changes in the back row and centre
after the 11-9 loss as he contemplates sunday s set-to with france at twickenham.
lewis moody and martin corry could both return after missing the game with
hamstring and shoulder problems. and the midfield pairing of mathew tait and jamie
noon is also under threat. olly barkley immediately allowed england to generate
better field position with his kicking game after replacing debutant tait just
before the hour. the bath fly-half-cum-centre is likely to start against france
with either tait or noon dropping out. tait given little opportunity to shine in
attack received praise from robinson afterwards even if the coach admitted
cardiff was an unforgiving place for the teenage prodigy. robinson now has a
tricky decision over whether to withdraw from the firing line after just one
outing a player he regards as central to england s future. tait himself at least
outwardly appeared unaffected by the punishing treatment dished out to him by
gavin henson in particular. i want more of that definitely he said. hopefully i
can train hard this week and get selected for next week but we ll have to look at
the video and wait and see. we were playing on our own 22 for a lot of the first
half so it was quite difficult. i thought we defended reasonably well but we ve
just got to pick it up for france. his newcastle team-mate noon hardly covered
himself in glory in his first major test. he missed a tackle on michael owen in the
build-up to wales try conceded a penalty at the breakdown was turned over in
another tackle and fumbled gavin henson s cross-kick into touch all inside the
first quarter. his contribution improved in the second half but england clearly
need more of a playmaker in the inside centre role. up front the line-out remains
fallible despite a superb performance from chris jones whose athleticism came to
the fore after stepping into the side for moody. it is more likely the leicester
flanker will return on the open side for the more physical challenge posed by the
french forwards with andy hazell likely to make way. lock ben kay also justified
his recall with an impressive all-round display on his return to the side but
elsewhere england positives were thin on the ground.
us tv cuts nudity from bbc film a us tv network is editing bbc films dirty war to
avoid showing the front of a nude woman being scrubbed down after a fictional
chemical attack. it is not worth showing non-essential nude scenes when
indecency complaints are aggressively pursued by us tv watchdogs said pbs
jacoba atlas. dirty war - screened uncut on bbc one last september - depicts a
dirty bomb attack on the city of london. it is also being screened uncut on us
cable channel hbo on 24 january. pbs said it will use extra footage for its
broadcast showing the woman from a more discreet angle instead. the us federal
communications commission fined cbs $550 000 (£306 814) last autumn for singer
janet jackson s wardrobe malfunction during which her breast was exposed during
a dance routine with justin timberlake. many us networks and broadcasters are now
more nervous about airing nudity violence or bad language. ms atlas said pbs could
put itself financially at risk if it showed the uncut version of dirty war and it
could also deter many of its 170 individual stations from airing an important film
. you want to pick your battles she said. she added that pbs which is a private
non-profit media enterprise owned and operated by the nation s 349 public
television stations is bolder about screening non-fiction or historical
programming. pbs is seen in virtually all us homes with tv and describes itself as
a trusted community resource serving nearly 100 million people each week.
french honour for director parker british film director sir alan parker has been
made an officer in the order of arts and letters one of france s highest cultural
honours. sir alan received his decoration in paris on wednesday from french
culture minister renaud donnedieu de vabres. you have explored the possibilities
of film with an immense talent mr de vabres said as he presented the award.
parker praised french films saying: hollywood which created modern cinema uses
it only as a commodity. he told the minister: i am honoured to be thus
distinguished by france the flag carrier of cinema throughout the world. sir alan
s films include oscar-winning fame plus midnight express and the commitments. a
founding member of the director s guild of great britain he is a former chairman
of the uk film council and on the board of the british film institute. through
your work and your campaigns you have shown us how the artist occupies an
essential place in our contemporary society mr de vabres said. through your
dreams which you show us through the links that you weave you question the world
through the mirror of your work. he also cited the director s 2003 film the life
of david gale in which kevin spacey played a man on death row as proof of his
veritable artistic commitment against the death sentence .
standoff on deutsche s lse bid deutsche boerse investors unhappy with its london
stock exchange bid will have no chance to throw out the exchange s management until
may reuters says. the sunday times reported that hedge funds tci and atticus were
planning to demand the removal of the group s chairman and chief executive. but
deutsche boerse told news agency reuters such a move would have to wait until may s
annual general meeting. investors want deutsche to return cash to shareholders
rather than bid. we are long-term investors and are experienced in removing
management. we are not scared to take this to its conclusion this time atticus
david slager told the sunday times. however deutsche boerse told reuters: tci s
request for the removal of the supervisory board will be considered at the annual
general meeting on may 25. the sunday times reported that tci had been drawing up
a list of heavyweight executives to replace deutsche s chairman rolf breuer and
chief executive werner seifert. the group owns more than 5% of deutsche - more than
enough to demand an extraordinary general meeting to call on shareholders to oust
the german exchange s management. under german law deutsche does not need investor
backing to make a takeover bid. tci and atticus have opposed the lse bid for some
time saying it would destroy shareholder value and would be better spent on a
share buyback. deutsche is in competition with pan-european bourse euronext to take
over the london exchange. many commentators have suggested a bidding war between
the two could break out. however any such move would have to wait until march when
the office of fair trading completes an investigation into the competition aspects
of the pair s takeover proposals.
chepkemei hit by big ban kenya s athletics body has suspended two-time london
marathon runner-up susan chepkemei from all competition until the end of the year.
athletics kenya (ak) issued the ban after chepkemei failed to turn up for a cross
country training camp in embu. we have banned her from all local and international
competitions said ak chief isaiah kiplagat. we shall communicate this decision
to the iaaf and all meet directors all over the world. the 29-year-old finished
second to paula radcliffe in the 2002 and 2003 london races and was also edged out
in an epic new york marathon contest last year. but the ban will prevent the two-
time world half-marathon silver medallist from challenging radcliffe at this year s
london event in april. global sports communications chepkemei s management company
said she had wanted to run in the world cross country championships in march. but
ak maintained it was making an example of chepkemei as a warning to other kenyan
athletes. we are taking this action in order to salvage our pride said kiplagat.
we have been accused of having no teeth to bite with and that agents are ruling
over us. ka has also threatened three-time women s short-course champion edith
masai with a similar ban if reports that she feigned injury to avoid running at the
cross country world championships are true. masai missed the national trials in
early february but was included in the provisional team on the proviso that she
ran in a regional competition. she failed to run in the event citing a leg injury.
peace demo appeal rejected peace protestors have lost a landmark appeal over police
actions in stopping an anti-war demonstration days after the start of the iraq war.
they had appealed against a high court decision that it was not unlawful for police
to forcibly turn protestors away near raf fairford glos in 2003. the police had
also sought to overturn a breach of human rights ruling arising from the same case.
sitting on wednesday three appeal court judges dismissed both appeals. they were
challenging decisions by two judges in the high court in february this year. it
followed action by police when three coachloads of people were searched and
detained on the way to raf fairford and forced to return to london under police
escort. the demonstrators appealed against a finding by lord justice may and mr
justice harrison that it was not unlawful for the police to turn the passengers
away. the police were urging lord chief justice and lord justices clarke and rix
to overturn the ruling that they had breached the protestors human rights by
detaining them in the coaches. craig mackey assistant chief constable of
gloucestershire police said: we have always considered that our responses were
proportionate and all our decisions on the day were based on intelligence. he said
no one on the coaches accepted responsibility for items found on the coaches
including body armour a smoke bomb and five shields. given these circumstances
and the fact that raf fairford and other military installations in the uk had
been the scene of increasingly destructive disorder in the weeks preceding this
incident the police commander on the ground made the decision to turn back the
coaches. from day one we have vigorously defended this decision which was made
out of a genuine concern that if the coaches were allowed to proceed it would have
resulted in disorder and criminal damage at raf fairford. fairford coach action
representing more than 80 people who appealed against the police actions say they
are prepared to take their case to the european court of human rights. their action
is supported by amnesty international and liberty.
microsoft makes anti-piracy move microsoft says it is clamping down on people
running pirated versions of its windows operating system by restricting their
access to security features. the windows genuine advantage scheme means people
will have to prove their software is genuine from mid-2005. it will still allow
those with unauthorised copies to get some crucial security fixes via automatic
updates but their options would be limited . microsoft releases regular security
updates to its software to protect pcs. either pcs detect updates automatically or
users manually download fixes through microsoft s site. those running pirated
windows programs would not have access to other downloads and add-ons that the
software giant offers. people who try to manually download security patches will
have to let microsoft run an automated checking procedure on their computer or give
an identification number. microsoft s regular patches which it releases for newly-
found security flaws are important because they stop worms viruses and other
threats penetrating pcs. some security experts are concerned that restricting
access to such patches could mean a rise in such attacks and threats with more pcs
left unprotected. but graham cluley senior consultant at security firm sophos
told the bbc news website that it was a positive decision. it sounds like their
decision to allow critical security patches to remain available to both legitimate
and illegitimate users of windows is good news for everyone who uses the net he
said. windows genuine advantage was first introduced as a pilot scheme in september
2004 for english-language versions of windows. microsoft s windows operating
system is heavily exploited by virus writers because it is so widespread and they
are constantly seeking out new security loopholes to take advantage of. the company
is trying to tackle security threats whilst cracking down on pirated software at
the same time. software piracy has cost the company billions it says. the company
announced earlier in january that it was releasing security tools to clean up pcs
harbouring viruses and spyware which 90% of pcs are infected with. the virus-
fighting program updated monthly is a precursor to microsoft s dedicated anti-
virus software. last year it introduced the windows xp counterfeit project a uk-
based pilot scheme which ran from november to december. the scheme meant that
anyone with pre-installed copies of the operating system in pcs bought before
november could replace counterfeit versions of windows xp with legal ones for free.
it is also increasing efforts to squash software piracy in china norway and the
czech republic where pirated software is a huge problem by offering discounts on
legitimate software to users of pirated copies windows. china in particular is a
problem with piracy estimated at 92% said mr cluley.
continental may run out of cash shares in continental airlines have tumbled after
the firm warned it could run out of cash. in a filing to us regulators the airline
warned of inadequate liquidity if it fails to reduce wage costs by $500m by the
end of february. continental also said that if it did not make any cuts it
expects to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in 2005 in current market
conditions. failure to make cutbacks may also push it to reduce its fleet the
group said. shares in the fifth biggest us carrier had fallen 6.87% on the news to
$10.44 by 1830 gmt. without the reduction in wage and benefit costs and a
reasonable prospect of future profitability we believe that our ability to raise
additional money through financings would be uncertain continental said in its
filing to the us securities and exchange commission (sec). airlines have faced
tough conditions in recent years amid terrorism fears since the 11 september world
trade centre attack in 2001. but despite passengers returning to the skies record-
high fuel costs and fare wars prompted by competition from low cost carriers have
taken their toll. houston-based continental now has debt and pension payments of
nearly $984m which it must pay off this year. the company has been working to
streamline its operations - and has managed to save $1.1bn in costs without cutting
jobs. two weeks ago the group also announced it would be able to shave a further
$48m a year from its costs with changes to wage and benefits for most of its us-
based management and clerical staff.
souness eyes summer move for owen newcastle boss graeme souness is lining up a
summer move for england and real madrid striker michael owen. he sees owen as the
ideal replacement for alan shearer who is due to retire in the summer although he
hopes to persuade shearer to carry on. michael is in the category of players who
would excite the fans and we re monitoring him he told bbc newcastle. he is a
great centre-forward and only 25 but i don t think we re the only ones monitoring
the situation at real. souness has also hinted he thinks shearer may carry on
despite his stated intent to retire at the end of the season. he believes the
prospect of breaking jackie milburn s club scoring record may influence the striker
s decision. milburn scored 200 league and cup goals between 1946 and 1957 while
shearer currently has 187 goals to his name. without giving too much away i am
confident he will be here next season said souness. i can t imagine him leaving
without breaking jackie milburn s scoring record. souness also revealed he tried
to bring back nolberto solano during the january transfer window. the peruvian
international was sold to aston villa a year ago but in the phone-in for bbc
newcastle souness said tried to re-sign him but villa were not interested in
selling. the former rangers and liverpool boss is also looking to bring in a
number of new acquisitions once the current campaign has been completed. i m after
three four or five new players in the summer - we have got lots of targets he
said. don t think we will wait to the last day of the season to say: `who are we
going to target now
super size me wins writers award super size me director morgan spurlock has won
the writers guild of america s award for documentary feature writing. the oscar-
nominated film followed spurlock as he ate only mcdonald s fast food for an entire
month. spurlock was given the award at a special ceremony at the roosevelt hotel in
hollywood on tuesday. organisers said the rising popularity of documentary films
led them to honour a writer for a documentary screenplay for the first time.
producer brian grazer presented the award to spurlock and the film s backers
roadside attractions samuel goldwyn films and showtime independent films. spurlock
set out to discover the effect of living on nothing but mcdonald s for a month
upgrading to supersize portions when offered. the film followed his 25lb weight
gain and the health effects on his body including his liver and cholesterol
levels. mcdonald s announced it was to scrap its supersized meals last year but
denied the move was as a result of the negative publicity created by spurlock s
film. spurlock was given his award on the same day the european court of human
rights ruled that two uk activists should have been given legal aid in their long
fight against a mcdonald s libel action. helen steel and david morris from north
london dubbed the mclibel two were found guilty in a 1990s trial of libelling
the company in a leaflet they had been handing out at the end of the case the high
court in london ruled mcdonald s had been libelled and awarded the company £60 000
in damages later reduced to £40 000 on appeal. but he found the leaflet was true
in some aspects.
dublin hi-tech labs to shut down dublin s hi-tech research laboratory media labs
europe is to shut down. the research centre which was started by the irish
government and the massachusetts institute of technology was a hotbed for
technology concepts. since its opening in 2000 the centre has developed ideas
such as implants for teeth and also aimed to be a digital hub for start-ups in the
area. the centre was supposed to be self-funded but has failed to attract the
private cash injection it needs. in a statement media labs europe said the
decision to close was taken because neither the irish government nor the
prestigious us-based massachusetts institute of technology (mit) was willing to
fund it. prime minister bertie ahern had wanted to the centre to become a big draw
for smaller hi-tech companies in an attempt to regenerate the area. about three
dozen small firms were attracted to the area but it is thought the effects of the
dot.com recession damaged the labs long-term survival. the labs needed about 10
million euros (us$13 million) a year from corporate sponsors to survive. in the
end it was too deep and too long a recession said simon jones the labs
managing director. ian pearson bt s futurologist told the bbc news website that
the closure was a real shame . bt was just one of the companies that had worked
with the labs looking at rfid tag developments and video conferencing. there were
a lot of very talented creative people there and they came up with some great
ideas that were helping to ensure greater benefits of technology for society. i
have no doubt that the individuals will be quickly snapped up by other research
labs but the synergies from them working as a team will be lost. noel dempsey
the government s communications minister said mr ahern had been very committed
to the project. he is i know very disappointed it has come to this. at the time
it seemed to be the right thing to do he said. unfortunately the model is not a
sustainable one in the current climate. during its five years innovative and
some unusual ideas for technologies were developed. in recent months 14 patent
applications had been filed by the labs. many concepts fed into science
engineering and psychology as well as technology but it is thought too few of the
ideas were commercially viable in the near-term. several research teams explored
how which humans could react with technologies in ways which were entirely
different. the human connectedness group for example developed the iband a
bracelet which stored and exchanged information about you and your relationships.
this information could be beamed to another wearer when two people shook hands.
other projects looked at using other human senses like touch to interact with
devoices which could be embedded in the environment or on the body itself. one
project examined how brainwaves could directly control a computer game. the labs
set up in an old guinness brewery housed around 100 people made up of staff
researchers students collaborators and part-time undergraduate students. it is
thought more than 50 people will lose their jobs when the labs close on 1 february.
according to its latest accounts media lab europe said it spent 8.16 million euros
(about us$10.6 million) in 2003 and raised just 2.56 million euros (us$3.3
million).
kelly trails new discipline power teachers could get more powers to remove unruly
pupils from classes under a zero tolerance drive education secretary ruth kelly
has suggested. ms kelly told the bbc progress had been made against severely
disruptive children but parents were still worried about lower level problems. the
minister also confirmed she received spiritual support from the catholic movement
opus dei. but she denied her faith meant she would refuse key government jobs. the
conservatives have made school discipline one of their five priority areas in the
run-up to the next general election. ms kelly is expected to announce her plans on
the issue in the next fortnight. she told bbc one s breakfast with frost: it is
really important to support head teachers and teachers in tackling disruption in
the classroom. we have made huge progress on the really difficult cases the
pupils who have severely disruptive behaviour. but quite rightly what teachers
are concerned about and what parents are concerned about is that this lower level
disruption that goes on in the classroom now is tackled. i would like to see the
teacher being able to remove disruptive children from the classroom completely and
have either alternative provision within the school or indeed off the school and
may be working together with other schools in a particular area to provide that
provision. it is thought the plans may distinguish between excluding pupils from
schools and taking them out of mainstream classes. head teachers can currently
exclude pupils who commit or threaten violence in school who sexually abuse pupils
or other people who sell illegal drugs or who have persistent and malicious
disruptive behaviour. ms kelly entered the cabinet last month in the reshuffle
forced by the resignation of the then home secretary david blunkett. her links to
opus dei which means work of god in latin have provoked controversy. critics
say the organisation which adheres strictly to catholic teachings is secretive
and elitist but its members reject such claims. asked if she was a member of the
group ms kelly said: i do have spiritual support from opus dei and that is right.
but those are private spiritual matters and i m sure you ll respect that
politicians are entitled to a private life. she categorically denied reports that
her beliefs on issues such as contraception would make her refuse to serve as a
health or international development minister. her collective responsibility as a
cabinet minister meant she also took responsibility for policies in those areas
she argued. the government has yet to issue its official response to the tomlinson
review which recommended absorbing existing exam qualifications into a diploma. ms
kelly said reforms should build on gcses and a-levels. her comments did not impress
tory shadow education secretary tim collins. ruth kelly wants to ditch the
tomlinson report on exam structures but has absolutely no idea what to put in its
place he said. she also talks of improving discipline but cannot make her mind
up how. this is an all talk agenda that lets down children teachers and parents.
clarke to unveil immigration plan new controls on economic migrants and tighter
border patrols will be part of government plans unveiled on monday. home secretary
charles clarke wants to introduce a points system for economic migrants and
increase deportations of failed asylum seekers. tony blair has said people are
right to be concerned about abuses of the system but there is no magic bullet .
the tories say labour is acting too late while the lib dems say the plans may not
produce an efficient system. the government s new five-year plan is designed to
show how labour would reform immigration and asylum controls if it wins the
election expected to be held in may. ministers deny they have been spurred into
action by tory campaigning or because the prime minister is worried too little has
been done. instead they say the plans are part of an evolving process aimed at
winning public confidence. mr clarke is expected to announce an end to the
automatic right to settle for immigrants families and the introduction of
fingerprinting for all visa applicants. the prime minister on sunday said
immigration would be toughened up to ensure only those immigrants with skills the
uk really needs will be granted work permits. but he rejected the tories call for
a quota on economic migrants saying no arbitrary figure could reflect the uk s
needs. mr blair told bbc radio 4 s westminster hour: we should cut the number or
increase it depending on the country s needs... the public are worried about this
they are worried rightly because there are abuses of the immigration and asylum
system. but he defended the uk s current regime saying all systems around the
world were subject to abuse. tory proposals to cap the number of asylum seekers and
process all claims abroad would not work argued mr blair. he said: we will not
be... pretending there is some simple easy way of processing britain s asylum
seekers in some other country because no such other country exists. conservative
shadow home secretary david davis said the government had failed to remove 250 000
failed asylum seekers from the uk and limits on economic migrants had been a
shambles . what we are seeing today is a rather panicky response from the
government after eight years of failure he said. liberal democrat home affairs
spokesman mark oaten said labour was right to reject the tories idea of quotas on
asylum. but he said it was yet to be seen if mr clarke could deliver a fair and
efficient asylum system .
english clubs make euro history all four of england s champions league
representatives have reached the knockout stages for the first time. arsenal and
chelsea are seeded as group winners while runners-up manchester united and
liverpool are not. rules stipulate that teams from the same country or group will
be kept apart in the draw on 17 december. the favourites are chelsea and barcelona
and real madrid the two milan sides juventus and bayern munich are among the 16
still in the hat. steven gerrard s last-gasp wonder-strike secured qualification
for against olympiakos on wednesday evening. ac milan bayer leverkusen
internazionale juventus lyon. who had already qualified fielded a second-string
side and went down 3-0 to fenerbahce. ac milan bayer leverkusen internazionale
juventus monaco. on tuesday finished top of their group with a 5-1 win over the
rosenborg after drawing four of their first five matches. barcelona bayern munich
porto real madrid werder bremen who had already qualified lost 2-1 to porto as
jose mourinho made an unhappy return to his former club. barcelona bayern munich
psv eindhoven real madrid werder bremen.
dal maso in to replace bergamasco david dal maso has been handed the task of
replacing the injured mauro bergamasco at flanker in italy s team to face scotland
on saturday. alessandro troncon continues at scrum-half despite the return to
fitness of paul griffen. the experienced cristian stoica is recalled at centre at
the expense of walter pozzebon. we are going to scotland for the first away win
and nothing else said manager marco bollesan. i really believe this is the team
who will have all our faith for saturday s game. we lost a player like mauro
bergamasco who has been important for us but (coach) john (kirwan) has put
together the best team at present if not ever. r de marigny (parma); mirco
bergamasco (stade francais) c stoica (montpellier) a masi (viadana) l nitoglia
(calvisano); l orquera (padova) a troncon (treviso); a lo cicero (l aquilla) f
ongaro (treviso) m castrogiovanni (calvisano) s dellape (agen) m bortolami
(narbonne capt) a persico (agen) d dal maso (treviso) s parisse (treviso). g
intoppa (calvisano) s perugini (calvisano) ca del fava (parma) s orlando
(treviso) p griffen (calvisano) r pedrazzi (viadana) k robertson (viadana).
golden rule intact says ex-aide chancellor gordon brown will meet his golden
economic rule with a margin to spare according to his former chief economic
adviser. formerly one of mr brown s closest treasury aides ed balls hinted at a
budget giveaway on 16 march. he said he hoped more would be done to build on
current tax credit rules. any rate rise ahead of an expected may election would not
affect the labour party s chances of winning he added. last july mr balls won the
right to step down from his treasury position and run for parliament defending the
labour stronghold of normanton in west yorkshire. mr balls rejected the allegation
that mr brown had been sidelined in the election campaign saying he was playing a
different role to the one he played in the last two elections. he rejected
speculation that mr brown was considering becoming foreign secretary saying his
recent travels had been linked to efforts to boost international development.
gordon brown s decision to announce the date of the budget while on a trip to china
was a sensible thing to do since he was talking about skills and investment at
the time mr balls told the bbc. commenting on speculation of an interest rate rise
he said it was not within the remit of the bank of england s monetary policy
committee (mpc) to factor a potential election into its rate decisions.
expectations of a rate rise have gathered pace after figures showed that house
prices are still rising. consumer borrowing rose at a near-record pace in january.
i don t believe it would be a big election issue in britain or a problem for labour
mr balls said. prime minister tony blair has yet to name the date of the election
but most pundits are betting on 5 may as the likely day.
yukos unit fetches $9bn at auction a little-known russian company has bought the
main production unit of oil giant yukos at auction in moscow. baikal finance group
outbid favourite gazprom the state-controlled gas monopoly to buy
yuganskneftegas. baikal paid 260.75bn roubles ($9.37bn: £4.8bn) for yugansk -
nowhere near the $27bn russia says yukos owes in taxes. yukos reacted immediately
by repeating its view that the auction was illegal in international and russian law
and said baikal had bought itself trouble. the company considers that the victor
of today s auction has bought itself a serious $9bn headache said yukos spokesman
alexander shadrin. he said the company would continue to make every lawful move
to protect tens of thousands of shareholders in yukos from this forcible and
illegitimate removal of their property . meanwhile tim osborne head of yukos main
shareholders group menatep said that yukos may have to declare itself bankrupt
and that legal action would be taken outside russia against the auction winners.
reports from russia say baikal has paid a deposit of nearly $1.7bn from a sberbank
(savings bank) account to the russian federal property fund for yugansk. the sale
came despite a restraining order issued by a us court dealing with the firm s
bankruptcy application for chapter 11 protection. yukos has always insisted the
auction was state-sponsored theft but russian authorities argued they were imposing
the law trying to recover billions in unpaid taxes. there were originally four
registered bidders and with its close ties to the kremlin state-backed gas
monopoly gazprom had been seen as favourite. but just two companies turned up for
the auction gazprom and the unknown baikal finance group named after a large
freshwater lake in siberia. and according to tass news agency gazprom did not
make a single bid leaving the way open for baikal which paid above the auction
start price of 246.75bn roubles. mystery firm baikal finance group is officially
registered in the central russian region of tver but many analysts believe it may
be linked to gazprom. kaha kiknavelidze analyst at troika dialog said: i think a
decision that yugansk should end up with gazprom was taken a long time ago. so the
main question was how to structure this transaction. i would not exclude that the
structure of the deal has slightly changed and gazprom now has a partner. i would
also not exclude that baikal will decline to pay in 14 days that are given by law
and gazprom is then recognised as the winner. this would give gazprom an extra 14
days to accumulate the needed funds. another surprise was that the winner paid a
significant premium above the starting price. however gazprom has announced it is
not linked to baikal in any way. and paul collison chief analyst at brunswick ubs
said: i see no plausible explanation for the theory that baikal was representing
competing interests. yugansk will most likely end up with gazprom but could still
end up with the government. there is still potential for surprises. yugansk is at
the heart of yukos - pumping close to a million barrels of oil a day. the unit was
seized by the government which claims the oil giant owes more than $27bn in taxes
and fines. yukos says those tax demands are exorbitant and had sought refuge in us
courts. the us bankruptcy court s initial order on thursday - to temporarily block
the sale - in response to yukos filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection was
upheld in a second ruling on saturday. the protection if recognised by the russian
authorities would have allowed yukos current management to retain control of the
business and block the sale of any company assets. yukos has said the sale amounts
to expropriation - punishment for the political ambitions of its founder mikhail
khodorkovsky. mr khodorkovsky is now in jail on separate fraud charges. but
president vladimir putin has described the affair as a crackdown on corruption -
and the bbc s sarah rainsford in moscow says most russians believe the destruction
of yukos is now inevitable. hours before the auction lawyers for menatep a group
through which mr khodorkovsky and his associates control yukos said they would
take legal action in other countries. menatep lawyers who were excluded from
observing the auction said they would retaliate by seeking injunctions in foreign
courts to impound russian oil and gas exports.
takeover rumour lifts exel shares shares in storage and delivery firm exel closed
up 9% at a two-and-a-half year high on tuesday on speculation it is to receive an
imminent takeover bid. the talk in the city is that us giant united parcel
services (ups) is the most likely bidder for the firm. yet other names mentioned in
connection to buying exel are dhl-owner deutsche post and finance firm ge capital.
with its shares closing tuesday at 873p bracknell-based exel is currently valued
at £2.6bn ($6.3bn). exel employs 109 000 people in more than 120 countries and has
itself been active in the consolidation of the logistics sector paying £328m to
buy fellow uk firm tibbett & britten last august. its customers include boots
burberry mothercare and consumer products giant procter & gamble. andrew beh of
brokers ing said ups and deutsche post were the most likely bidders and an offer
of 950p a share would be fair if a bidding battle did not break out. it s a great
strategic fit for both companies he said. both are interested in expanding in
logistics and you can make a decent case for cost synergies which could justify the
premium and that s before you make any argument about revenue synergies.
fannie mae should restate books us mortgage company fannie mae should restate its
earnings a move that is likely to put a billion-dollar dent in its accounts
watchdogs have said. the securities & exchange commission accused fannie mae of
using techniques that did not comply in material respects with accounting
standards. fannie mae last month warned that some records were incorrect. the other
main us mortgage firm freddie mac restated earnings by $5bn (£2.6bn) last year
after a probe of its books. the sec s comments are likely to increase pressure on
congress to strengthen supervision of fannie mae and freddie mac. the two firms
are key parts of the us financial system and effectively underwrite the mortgage
market financing nearly half of all american house purchases and dealing actively
in bonds and other financial instruments. the investigation of freddie mac in june
2003 sparked concerns about the wider health of the industry and raised
questionsmarks over the role of the office of federal housing enterprise oversight
(ofheo) the industry s main regulator. having been pricked into action the ofheo
turned its attention to fannie may and in september this year said that the firm
had tweaked its books to spread earnings more smoothly across quarters and play
down the amount of risk it had taken on. the sec found similar problems. the
watchdog s chief accountant donald nicolaisen said that fannie mae s methodology
of assessing measuring and documenting hedge ineffectiveness was inadequate and
was not supported by generally accepted accounting principles.
yukos unit buyer faces loan claim the owners of embattled russian oil giant yukos
are to ask the buyer of its former production unit to pay back a $900m (£479m)
loan. state-owned rosneft bought the yugansk unit for $9.3bn in a sale forced by
russia to part settle a $27.5bn tax claim against yukos. yukos owner menatep group
says it will ask rosneft to repay a loan that yugansk had secured on its assets.
rosneft already faces a similar $540m repayment demand from foreign banks. legal
experts said rosneft s purchase of yugansk would include such obligations. the
pledged assets are with rosneft so it will have to pay real money to the creditors
to avoid seizure of yugansk assets said moscow-based us lawyer jamie firestone
who is not connected to the case. menatep group s managing director tim osborne
told the reuters news agency: if they default we will fight them where the rule
of law exists under the international arbitration clauses of the credit. rosneft
officials were unavailable for comment. but the company has said it intends to take
action against menatep to recover some of the tax claims and debts owed by yugansk.
yukos had filed for bankruptcy protection in a us court in an attempt to prevent
the forced sale of its main production arm. the sale went ahead in december and
yugansk was sold to a little-known shell company which in turn was bought by
rosneft. yukos claims its downfall was punishment for the political ambitions of
its founder mikhail khodorkovsky and has vowed to sue any participant in the sale.
disputed nirvana box set on sale a box set featuring 68 unreleased nirvana tracks
has gone on sale in the us after years of legal wrangles. with the lights out was
intended to be released in 2001 to mark the 10th anniversary of the album
nevermind. it was blocked by courtney love the widow of nirvana frontman kurt
cobain who did not want unreleased song you know you re right on the box set. the
dispute between love and surviving band members krist novoselic and drummer dave
grohl was settled in 2002. work began on the box set in 1998 but legal battles put
the project on hold. the legal fight centred on a studio recording of the
unreleased track you know you re right regarded by fans as one of the unreleased
gems of nirvana. the set released on tuesday features three cds and a dvd of rare
performance and rehearsal footage. the dvd also includes the first performance of
smells like teen spirit the track that launched nirvana on to the international
stage in 1991. the band wasn t always pretty or always in tune. this is not
nirvana unplugged. it s nirvana unedited said cobain biographer charles cross.
the band s development ended tragically when songwriter kurt cobain committed
suicide in april 1994.
weak end-of-year sales hit next next has said its annual profit will be £5m lower
than previously expected because its end-of-year clearance sale has proved
disappointing. clearance rates in our end-of-season sale have been below our
expectations the company said. the high street retailer said it now expected to
report annual profits of between £415m and £425m ($779m-798m). next s shares fell
more than 3% following the release of the trading statement. next chief executive
simon wolfson admitted that festive sales were below where we would expect a
normal christmas to be but said sales should still top analyst expectations.
among areas where next could have done better mr wolfson said menswear ranges were
a little bit too similar to the previous year . mr wolfson also said that
disappointing pre-christmas sales were more to do with the fact that we went in
with too much stock rather than (the fact that) demand wasn t there for the stock .
next s like-for-like store sales in the five months from 3 august to 24 december
were up 2.9% on a year earlier. this figure is for existing next stores which were
unaffected by new next store openings. like-for-like sales growth at the 49 next
stores directly affected by new store openings in their locality was 0.5%. overall
sales across both its retail and mail order divisions were up 12.4% next said. its
next directory mail order division saw sales rise 13.4% during the five-month
period. in terms of all the worries about their trading pre-christmas it s a
result said nick bubb an analyst at evolution securities. profits of around
£420m would be well within the comfort zone. however one dealer who asked not to
be named told reuters the seasonal sales performance was not what people had
hoped for . christmas has been tough for the whole sector and this is one of the
best retailers he said. next s trading statement comes a day after house of
fraser and woolworths disappointed investors with their figures.
blair and blunkett sheffield trip tony blair is to join home secretary david
blunkett in a visit to sheffield on thursday. mr blunkett s conduct is being
looked at to establish whether he abused his position in relation to his ex-lover.
the parliamentary standards watchdog is looking at his decision to give kimberly
quinn free rail tickets. he is also being investigated over the visa application of
mrs quinn s ex-nanny. the visit to sheffield will be seen as a show of unity by mr
blair. on wednesday during prime minister s questions tory leader michael howard
went on the offensive over comments mr blunkett is alleged to have made in a new
biography. he is understood to have made a series of criticisms about his cabinet
colleagues from the prime minister down. mr howard said mr blunkett had complained
he had inherited a giant mess when he took over at the home office from jack
straw now foreign secretary. the tory leader went on: he doesn t stop there: he
thinks the culture secretary s weak; he thinks the trade secretary doesn t think
strategically and he thinks the education secretary hasn t developed as expected.
he says the prime minister doesn t like being told the truth and the chancellor -
no doubt the prime minister will agree with this - is a bully. mr blair retorted
voters remembered the record of a government and no comments by politicians. the
home secretary has already admitted he was wrong to give the two first class
tickets given to him as an mp to mrs quinn and has since paid the £180 back. he
has apologised for a genuine mistake and says he will write to the watchdog to
answer further questions. the rail tickets are meant to help mps spouses get
between westminster and their constituencies. after his inquiry parliamentary
watchdog sir philip mawer will report to the commons standards and privileges
committee the group of mps who will recommend to the full house of commons what
action - if any - should be taken against mr blunkett. the separate inquiry by ex-
senior civil servant sir alan budd is investigating whether the home secretary
helped fast-track a bid by mrs quinn s nanny leoncia casalme to stay in the uk.
last week mr blunkett won the first round of a high court battle with mrs quinn
for access to her son. mr blunkett declined to comment about his own position
saying the inquiry was under way and the high court had stressed his right to
privacy did not affect his job in improving security and stability. downing street
has stressed mr blair s support for the home secretary.
baron kinnock makes lords debut former labour leader neil kinnock has officially
been made a life peer during a ceremony in the house of lords. he will be known
baron kinnock of bedwellty - after his former constituency. lord kinnock - who led
labour from 1983 until 1992 - was until recently one of britain s eu commissioners.
a former critic of the house of lords he has said he will use the upper house to
advocate its reform and to talk on issues like higher education. i accepted the
kind invitation to enter the house of lords as a working peer for practical
political reasons he said when his peerage was first announced. it is a good
base for campaigning on national issues like education sustainable transport
industrial change and the ageing society and global concerns particularly poverty
and oppression. during his induction into the upper house lord kinnock was
accompanied by lords leader baroness amos and baroness royall of blaisdon a former
aide to the ex-labour leader. it has been a long journey for the new lord kinnock
from his earliest days as a rebellious youngster in the south wales valleys. born
in 1942 in tredegar to a miner father and nurse mother he attended lewis boys
school in nearby pengam known then as the eton of the valleys . from there he
went to cardiff university where he met his future wife glenys now a labour mep.
after a brief career as a tutor for the workers educational association he became
an mp at the age of just 28 for his home seat of bedwellty (later islwyn). he
gained a reputation as a left-wing firebrand voting against his own labour
government s spending cuts proposals in 1975 and later rejecting a junior post in
james callaghan s administration. but he joined the shadow cabinet in 1980 and
after labour s heavy defeat in the 1983 he was elected leader. he took on the far-
left militant tendency and began the long process of returning his party to the
centre ground. he was not expected to win the 1987 election when margaret thatcher
was still riding high but was bitterly disappointed to lose the next one in 1992
to john major and stepped down. he remained an mp until 1995 when he resigned to
become european commission for transport. four years later he became vice-president
of the european commission with responsibility for internal reform. as he assumes
the title of lord kinnock he has also become chairman of the british council
which promotes the uk s reputation for arts science and education.
warnings on woeful wi-fi security companies are getting worse at keeping their
wireless data networks secure. a survey of wi-fi networks in london frankfurt
new york and san francisco by rsa security found more than a third had basic
security features turned off. by contrast last year s survey found that 15% of
firms had failed to take basic steps to improve security. rsa warned that wi-fi s
growing popularity made it much more likely that insecure networks would be found
and exploited. wireless or wi-fi networks have become hugely popular over the last
few years in offices because they are easy to set up and make going online much
more convenient. this popularity shows no sign of slowing reveals the annual rsa
security and netsurity survey which found an annual 66% growth rate in the number
of wireless nets being installed in london and frankfurt. although most firms do
take steps to turn on the security functions built in to the wi-fi standard and
protect themselves from attack the survey found that a significant proportion were
taking unnecessary risks. on average 33% of the wireless networks found by rsa and
netsurity researchers in london frankfurt new york and san francisco had not used
basic security systems. many firms were simply turning on their wireless net access
points and use default settings that anyone familiar with wi-fi could easily find
out. rsa said that 26% of wi-fi networks found london used default settings
compared to 30% in frankfurt 31% in new york and 28% in san francisco. many users
of wi-fi nets did not even turn on the encryption that scrambles data traffic
between users and the access point helping them go online. this is despite a series
of stories warning firms about the dangers of drive-by hacking in which computer
criminals walk or drive around city centres using easy to use tools to spot wi-fi
nets. these figures are another stark warning to unsecured businesses to get their
act together said phil cracknell chief technology officer at netsurity. as more
public wi-fi hotspots appear and people become more familiar with using them it
was getting more likely that insecure would be found warned mr cracknell.
accidental or intentional connection to a corporate network can bring with it a
series of security issues including loss of confidential data and installation of
malicious code he said.
halo fans hope for sequel xbox video game halo 2 has been released in the us on 9
november with a uk release two days later. why is the game among the most
anticipated of all time halo is considered by many video game pundits to be one
of the finest examples of interactive entertainment ever produced and more than 1.5
million people worldwide have pre-ordered the sequel. a science fiction epic halo
centred the action on a human cyborg controlled by the player who had to save his
crew from an alien horde after a crash landing on a strange and exotic world
contained on the interior surface of a giant ring in space. remembrance of things
past it was not - but as a slice of schlock science fiction inspired by works such
as larry niven s ringworld and the film starship troopers it fit the bill
perfectly. halo stood out from a crowd of similar titles - it was graphically
impressive had tremendous audio using dolby digital a decent storyline instant
playability and impressive physics. but what marked halo as a classic were the
thousands of details which brought a feeling of polish and the enormously-high
production values not usually associated with video gaming. produced by bungie
software renowned for their innovation in gaming it caused a stir among the
gaming fraternity when the developer was bought by microsoft and became an xbox
exclusive. claude errera editor of fansite halo.bungie.org said: bungie got
everything right. they were really careful to make sure everything worked the way
it was supposed to. nothing distracts you when you were playing. there was nothing
in halo that had not been done before but everything in there was as good as it
could be. he added: graphically it was superior to everything else out there.
it also had a depth to it that made it stand out. halo was unusually immersive
sucking the player into the action and blurring the interface between screen and
controller. it also capitalised on the growing popularity of lan gaming in the pc
world - for the first time it became easy to link multiple game consoles together
allowing up to 16 players to battle against each other at the same time. the game
instantly cultivated an online following which continues today with a score of
halo fan websites following every aspect of the sequel halo 2. errera spends three
to fours hours a day of his own time maintaining the hugely popular website which
attracts 600 000 page views a day from halo fans eager for the latest news. when
the xbox launched on november 15 2001 in the us halo was one of the launch titles
and had an immediate impact on critics and consumers. halo is the most important
launch game for any console ever wrote the influential edge magazine in its
review giving it a rare 10 out of 10 mark. the game had its critics and while it
is not a one-off original as a game it brought many original touches and
flourishes to the genre which have defined all other first person shooters since.
the first time i played it i just stood there watching the spent shells fall out of
my gun said errera remarking on the level of detail in the game. the game also
inspired thousands of people to write their own fiction based on the storyline and
produce downloadable video clips of the many weird and wonderful things that can be
done in the game. it blew me away the first time someone managed to climb to the
top of halo said errera referring to a fan who had created a video of master
chief scaling the landscape of the graphical world. video clips of the more
outrageous stunts that are possible thanks to the game s amazing physics engine are
incredibly popular and some have attained a cult following. speculation about the
sequel has seen every titbit analysed and poured over with all the intent of a
forensic scientist examining a body. when early screenshots of the game were
released some people wrote essay-length articles highlighting everything from the
texture of graphics to clues about the story line. errera said expectations of the
sequel among fans were sky high. it does not feel like a game release any more.
somebody told me this was the biggest single release of any product in microsoft s
history. we re all just hoping that bungie has got it right again. halo 2 is out
on 9 november in the us and 11 november in the uk
johnny and denise lose passport johnny vaughan and denise van outen s saturday
night entertainment show passport to paradise will not return to screens the bbc
has said. the ex-big breakfast presenters were recruited to host the bbc one
family variety show last july. there are currently no plans for another series a
spokeswoman said. she added the pair brought a real warmth to saturday night but
in the end we felt we had done enough with the format of the show . passport to
paradise involved a combination of games and outside broadcasts with a high level
of audience participation. the first instalment attracted more than 4.1 million
viewers - but that had dropped to fewer than 2.7 million by the time it ended. the
bbc spokeswoman said graham norton s strictly dance fever would be a priority for
2005. that s very much on the cards for next year and we re concentrating at the
moment on strictly come dancing which is doing phenomenally well she said.
hitler row over welsh arts cash an artist critical of welsh arts funding being
brought under assembly government control has denied comparing the idea with
dictatorships in russia and germany. shani rhys james is worried that the arts
council of wales may be taken over by the welsh assembly government. culture
minister alun pugh said it would be crass and ignorant to liken a quango review
to hitler s germany. but ms james emphasised she had actually said artists needed
freedom. the future of the arts council of wales has been in question since it was
announced that most welsh quangos would eventually be abolished. it was announced
last july that three welsh quangos education and training body elwa the wales
tourist board and the welsh development agency would be brought under assembly
government control. the arts council of wales may be among the next to come under
the assembly government s umbrella. but ms james who won the £30 000 jerwood
painting prize in 2003 said arts funding should be separate from government. ms
james told bbc radio wales: it s quite dangerous when you involve politicians
because it s not like the health service and it s not like the railways. free
expression is absolutely vital in a democratic society. you need distance you do
not need government interference because it could be taken the wrong way. but she
said reports that she had likened the assembly government to totalitarian regimes
were inaccurate. she told good morning wales: just to put the record straight
that business in the paper where it said i likened the government to bolshevik
russia or hitler s germany the actual quote i gave was: it is vital to a
civilised society that we allow artists to express themselves without government
control . as we know from past european history i.e. russia and germany in the
early 20th century artists will go underground or leave the country or rather than
compromise their expression . artists need a free voice to express themselves -
they reflect a truth through their own art forms. she said the assembly
government was not best placed to run the arts in wales. she added: it would be a
momentous change and devastating to the arts. it would set the arts scene back 60
years because i really don t think the government has the expertise. if you have
the national assembly taking control i fear you are going to be going back to the
dragons and leeks and the choirs. wales has moved on. it is international now. it
is not set back in how green was my valley responding to ms james criticisms mr
pugh said: the structure of unelected quangos is under review and we have made it
clear that further announcements are due shortly. comparing the welsh assembly
government to hitler s germany is a crass and ignorant response to a real issue
about democratic accountability. ms james whose father was welsh was born in
melbourne where her parents worked in the theatre. she moved to powys nearly 20
years ago where she works from her studio near llangadfan. she has won a number of
arts prizes including the wales open in 1989 and the mostyn open in 1991.
corbett attacks dumbed-down tv ronnie corbett has joined fellow comedy stars
victoria wood and david jason in attacking the declining standards of british
television programmes. speaking to the radio times the two ronnies star said
there is too much bad language and reality tv. you get fed up watching shows with
not much care and love he complained. corbett soon to reunite with ronnie barker
for a new two ronnies series also criticised quiz shows like the bbc s they think
it s all over. it s just laughing at each other and thinking aren t we clever
said the 74-year-old comedian. corbett is the latest comedy star to bemoan the
dumbing down of modern tv programmes. in an interview published in the radio times
in january victoria wood slated comedian sacha baron cohen for his character ali g
s horrible brand of victim humour. with so many good writers and good
performers it s a shame people can t just write a script and have other people
learn it she said. and last week only fools and horses star david jason
criticised british tv for being too safe and too cheap . we ve got to be careful
not to dumb down for the audience he said. they shouldn t be sitting at home on
the sofa vegetating. corbett said he and barker were always mindful of their
family audience while making the two ronnies. our material was good-natured he
said. we knew what would upset the average man in the street. there s a lot of
swearing on tv today. they even have documentaries with the f-word. corbett goes
on to criticise reality programmes where they put people in a house for a
fortnight and film them doing everything . the two ronnies ran from 1971 to 1987
and attracted 17 million viewers at its peak. its bespectacled stars will return
later this year in the two ronnies sketchbook which will combine classic sketches
with newly recorded material. corbett claims he and barker differ from today s
celebrities in that they did not allow their success to go to their heads. we were
never temperamental fractious or walked out slamming doors he said. we were
fussy though he added. we wanted everything done properly.
qantas considers offshore option australian airline qantas could transfer as many
as 7 000 jobs out of its home country as it seeks to save costs according to
newspaper reports. chief executive geoff dixon was quoted by the australian
newspaper as saying the carrier could no longer afford to remain all-australian .
unions criticised the possible move - which may affect cabin and maintenance staff
- saying qantas was profitable. more than 90% of the airline s staff are based in
australia. qantas confirmed it was looking at whether it might recruit and source
products overseas - potentially through joint ventures - but said it would continue
to create jobs in australia. despite making a record australian dollars 648m
($492m) profit last year qantas has argued that it needs to make considerable
savings if it is to remain competitive. we re going to have to get the lowest cost
structure we can and that willmean sourcing things more and more from overseas
the newspaper quoted qantas chief executive geoff dixon as saying. early this year
qantas increased the number of flight attendants based in london from 370 to 870.
if qantas were to follow the lead of other airlines moving staff offshore 7 000
jobs could shift overseas the newspaper reported. in a statement qantas said it
was looking to build its operations overseas. however it stressed this would not
result in large scale redundancies in its home market where most of its 35 000
staff are employed. we are totally committed to continuing to grow jobs in
australia mr dixon said. we are however operating in a global market and there
is no room for complacency simply because we are currently profitable and
successful. unions reacted angrily to the reported disclosure arguing that
qantas was profitable and did not need to take such action. we could understand if
qantas was a struggling airline about to go under michael mijatov international
division secretary of the flight attendants association told agence france presse.
qantas announced a record profit last year and is on course this year for an even
greater profit so it is totally unnecessary. in an effort to meet the challenge
posed by low cost carriers qantas sought a tie-up with air new zealand last year
however the deal was thrown out by the new zealand high court on competition
grounds.
howard and blair tax pledge clash tony blair has said voters will have to wait for
labour s manifesto to see if the party has plans to increase tax. the premier was
responding to a challenge from tory leader michael howard who said labour would
raise taxes in its post-election budget. mr blair derided tory claims they could
cut £35bn in wasteful spending saying the party had got its sums wrong. the two
political leaders clashed just days after the opening salvoes of the pre-election
period. mr howard told mps that every independent expert from the international
monetary fund to the institute of fiscal studies had suggested the government was
spending more than it is raising and a labour chancellor would have to put up taxes
. mr blair replied: i think they are wrong for this very simple reason: that the
treasury forecasts on the economy have been proven right. the tories on monday
highlighted their plans for tax cuts worth £4bn although the specific taxes to be
cut have not been announced. they also spelled out their plans for reduced
government borrowing and more spending on key services. labour and the liberal
democrats have said the party s sums do not add up and claim it would cut frontline
services. but mr howard said voters faced a clear choice at the next election
between more waste and more tax under labour and tory value for money and lower
taxes. the liberal democrats have also launched their pre-election platform with
leader charles kennedy saying his party was the authentic opposition
particularly on the iraq war council tax and university tuition fees. labour hit
back at the tory proposals even before their publication with election coordinator
alan milburn accusing mr howard of producing a fraudulent prospectus .
robertson out to retain euro lure hearts manager john robertson hopes a place in
the knock-out stages of the uefa cup could help keep some of his out-of-contract
players at the club. it could help. if we get through and have another european
tie it may encourage players to stay at least until the end of the season he
said. if we manage to get through it shows how well the club s progressing. they
have to think whether they are going to get other clubs like that should they
decide to move on. a win for robertson s side against ferencvaros would put them
through to the last 32 if basle fail to beat feyenoord. it s very much the player
s prerogative but the fact that we ve been playing european football for the last
three or four years is obviously an incentive added robertson. but we want
players who want to play for the football club who are committed and a run in
europe always helps a little bit. with the game being played at murrayfield
instead of tynecastle because of uefa regulations robertson sees both positive and
negative aspects to the change of venue. the pitch is not in the greatest
condition. the heineken cup game was there at the weekend and the pitch is a bit
threadbare he said. it s not ideal but it s the same for both teams so we just
have to go out and there and perform. that s the most important thing. but he
added: if tynecastle could have hosted 30 000 it would have been fantastic but
that s one of the benefits of murrayfield - it allows us to bring even more of our
supporters into it. there will be a good atmosphere and the hearts fans have an
important role to play. we need their encouragement we need them to get right
behind the side and make it as good an atmosphere as possible. hopefully the
players will respond to that and i know they will because it s a fantastic european
night for the club.
yelling takes cardiff hat-trick european cross-country champion hayley yelling
completed a hat-trick of wins in the reebok cardiff cross challenge in bute park on
sunday afternoon. the part-time maths teacher beat irish international jolene
byrne by 40 metres in the six-kilometre race. another great britain international
louise damen finished third as part of the contingent representing england. peter
riley who secured bronze for the gb men s team at last month s european
championships won the men s 9km race. riley representing england moved away over
the last two kilometres to win by 25 metres from ireland s gary murray. glynn
tromans - the reigning uk inter-countries and england cross-country champion - came
in third place as he continues his comeback from a five-month injury lay-off.
cash gives way to flexible friend spending on credit and debit cards has overtaken
cash spending in the uk for the first time. the moment that plastic finally
toppled cash happened at 10.38am on wednesday according to the association for
payment clearing services (apacs) apacs chose school teacher helen carroll from
portsmouth to make the historic transaction. the switch over took place as she
paid for her groceries in the supermarket chain tesco s cromwell road branch. mrs
carroll was born in the same year that plastic cards first appeared in the uk. i
pay for most things with my debit card with occasional purchases on one of my
credit cards said mrs carroll who teaches at peel common infants school in
gosport. spending patterns for the year and estimates for december led apacs to
conclude that 10.38am was the time that plastic would finally rule the roost.
shoppers in the uk are expected to put £269bn on plastic cards during the whole of
2004 compared with £268bn paid with cash apacs said. when the first plastic cards
appeared in the uk in june 1966 issued by barclaycard but only a handful of
retailers accepted them and very few customers held them. but in less than 40
years plastic has become our most popular way to pay due to the added security
and flexibility it offers said apacs spokeswoman jemma smith. the key driver has
been the introduction of debit cards which now account for two-thirds of plastic
card transactions and are used by millions of us every day.
go-ahead for new internet names the internet could soon have two new domain names
aimed at mobile services and the jobs market. the internet corporation for
assigned names and numbers (icann) has given preliminary approval to two new
addresses - .mobi and .jobs. they are among 10 new names being considered by the
net s oversight body. others include a domain for pornography an anti-spam domain
as well as .post and .travel for the postal and travel industries. the .mobi
domain would be aimed at websites and other services that work specifically around
mobile phones while the .jobs address could be used by companies wanting a
dedicated site for job postings. the process to see the new domain names go live in
cyberspace could take months and icann officials warned that there were no
guarantees they would ultimately be accepted. applicants paid £23 000 apiece to
have their proposals considered. the application for .mobi was sponsored by
technology firms including nokia microsoft and t-mobile. of the 10 currently
under consideration the least likely to win approval is the .xxx domain for
pornographic websites. there are currently around 250 domain names in use around
the globe mostly for specific countries such as .fr for france and .uk for
britain. perhaps unsurprisingly .com remains the most popular address on the web.
wipro beats forecasts once again wipro india s third-biggest software firm has
reported a 60% rise in profit topping market expectations. net income in the last
quarter was 4.3bn rupees ($98m; £52m) against 2.7bn a year earlier. profit had
been forecast to be 4.1bn rupees. wipro offers services such as call centres to
foreign clients and has worked for more than half of the companies on the fortune
500 list. wipro said demand was strong allowing it to increase the prices it
charged. on the face of it the results don t look very exciting said apurva
shah an analyst at ask-raymond james. but the guidance is positive and pricing
going up is good news. third-quarter sales rose 34% to 20.9bn rupees. one problem
identified by wipro was the high turnover of its staff. it said that 90% of
employees at its business process outsourcing operations had had to be replaced.
we have to get that under control said vice-chairman vivek paul. wipro is
majority owned by india s richest man azim premji.
tough rules for ringtone sellers firms that flout rules on how ringtones and other
mobile extras are sold could be cut off from all uk phone networks. the rules
allow offenders to be cut off if they do not let consumers know exactly what they
get for their money and how to turn off the services. the first month under the new
rules has seen at least ten firms suspended while they clean up the way they work.
the rules have been brought in to ensure that the problems plaguing net users do
not spread to mobile phones. in the last couple of years ringtones wallpapers
screensavers and lots of other extras for phones have become hugely popular. but
fierce competition is making it difficult for firms to get their wares in front of
consumers said jeremy flynn head of third party services at vodafone. if you
are not on the operator s portal you are going to have quite heavy marketing costs
because it s a problem of how people discover your services he said. to combat
this many ringtone and other mobile content sellers started using a new tactic to
squeeze more cash out of customers. this tactic involved signing people up for a
subscription to give them for instance several ringtones per week or month
instead of the single track they thought they were getting. mr flynn said that the
move to using subscriptions happened over the space of a few weeks at the end of
2004. websites such as grumbletext.co.uk started getting reports from customers who
were racking up large bills for phone content they did not know they had signed up
for. what made us uncomfortable was that these services were not being marketed
transparently said mr flynn. people did not know they were being offered a
subscription service. we saw potential for substantial consumer harm here he
added. the swift adoption of subscription services led to the creation of a new
code of conduct for firms that want to sell content for mobile phones. the drafting
of the new rules was led by the mobile entertainment forum and the uk s phone
firms. everyone is required to conform to this code of conduct said andrew bud
regulatory head of the mef and executive chairman of messaging firm mblox. it s
all about transparency he said. consumers have to be told what they have got
themselves into and how to get out of it. the consumer has a right to be
protected he said. christian harris partnership manager of mobile content firm
zed said the new system was essential if consumers were to trust companies that
sell ringtones and other downloads. the groundrules must be applied across the
whole industry and if that s done effectively we will see the cowboys driven out
he said. the new rules came in to force on 15 january and the first month under the
new regime has seen many firms cautioned for not honouring them. some have been
told to revamp websites so customers know what they get for their money and what
they are signing up for said mr flynn. also said mr flynn vodafone has briefly
cut off between eight and ten content sellers flouting the rules. we have quite
draconian contracts with firms he said. we do not have to say why. we can just
cut them off. under the rules consumers must be able to switch off the services by
using a universal stop command sent via text message. he said the system had been
designed to limit how much a consumer will pay if they inadvertently signed up for
a service. the mobile is so personal that people really resent the abuse of what
is effectively part of their personality said mr flynn.
agassi fear for melbourne andre agassi s involvement in the australian open was put
in doubt after he pulled out of the kooyong classic with a hip injury. agassi was
serving at 5-6 down in the first set to fellow american andy roddick when he
decided to bring a premature end to the match. my hip was cramping and i just
could not continue said the 34-year-old. agassi who has won the australian open
four times will have an mri scan to discover the extent of the damage. he said the
problem was not the same as the hip injury which forced him to miss wimbledon last
year. the good news is that it didn t just tear it was tightening up and that
can be your body protecting itself which is hopefully more of the issue he
added. that wasn t comfortable out there at all what i was feeling. i have to
wait and see what i m dealing with - it s a pretty scary feeling out there when
something doesn t feel right and is getting worse. it s very disappointing and i
ll have to do my best to deal with it. time will shortly tell if it (the australian
open) is a possibility or not. i was not counting on this being the end of the day
for me. maybe in a few days i ll have a much better sense of what my hopes will
be.
worldcom ex-boss launches defence lawyers defending former worldcom chief bernie
ebbers against a battery of fraud charges have called a company whistleblower as
their first witness. cynthia cooper worldcom s ex-head of internal accounting
alerted directors to irregular accounting practices at the us telecoms giant in
2002. her warnings led to the collapse of the firm following the discovery of an
$11bn (£5.7bn) accounting fraud. mr ebbers has pleaded not guilty to charges of
fraud and conspiracy. prosecution lawyers have argued that mr ebbers orchestrated
a series of accounting tricks at worldcom ordering employees to hide expenses and
inflate revenues to meet wall street earnings estimates. but ms cooper who now
runs her own consulting business told a jury in new york on wednesday that
external auditors arthur andersen had approved worldcom s accounting in early 2001
and 2002. she said andersen had given a green light to the procedures and
practices used by worldcom. mr ebber s lawyers have said he was unaware of the
fraud arguing that auditors did not alert him to any problems. ms cooper also
said that during shareholder meetings mr ebbers often passed over technical
questions to the company s finance chief giving only brief answers himself. the
prosecution s star witness former worldcom financial chief scott sullivan has
said that mr ebbers ordered accounting adjustments at the firm telling him to hit
our books . however ms cooper said mr sullivan had not mentioned anything
uncomfortable about worldcom s accounting during a 2001 audit committee meeting.
mr ebbers could face a jail sentence of 85 years if convicted of all the charges he
is facing. worldcom emerged from bankruptcy protection in 2004 and is now known as
mci. last week mci agreed to a buyout by verizon communications in a deal valued
at $6.75bn.
us gives foreign firms extra time foreign firms have been given an extra year to
meet tough new corporate governance regulations imposed by the us stock market
watchdog. the securities and exchange commission has extended the deadline to get
in line with the rules until 15 july 2006. many foreign firms had protested that
the sec was imposing an unfair burden. the new rules are the result of the
sarbanes-oxley act part of the us clean-up after corporate scandals such as enron
and worldcom. section 404 of the sox act as the legislation is nicknamed calls
for all firms to certify that their financial reporting is in line with us rules.
big us firms already have to meet the requirements but smaller ones and foreign-
based firms which list their shares on us stock markets originally had until the
middle of this year. over the past few months delegations of european and other
business leaders have been heading to the sec s washington dc headquarters to
protest. they say the burden is too expensive and the timescale too short and some
particularly the uk s cbi warned that companies would choose to let their us
listings drop rather than get in line with section 404. the latest delegation from
the cbi met sec officials on wednesday just before the decision to relax the
deadline was announced. i think this signifies a change of heart at the sec cbi
director-general sir digby jones told the bbc s today programme. they have been
listening to us and to many overseas companies who have reminded america what
globalisation really means: that they can t make these rules in isolation. the sec
said it had taken into consideration the fact that foreign companies were already
working to meet more onerous financial reporting rules in their home countries. the
european union in particular was imposing new international financial reporting
standards in 2005 it noted. i don t underestimate the effort (compliance) will
require... but this extension will provide additional time for those issuers to
take a good hard look at their internal controls said donald nicolaisen the sec
s chief accountant.
school sport is back says pm tony blair has promised that sport is back as a
priority for schools. the prime minister launched a £500m initiative to allow
school sports clubs in england to provide up to three hours of extra activity a
week by 2010. it s an important part of education and it s an important part of
health mr blair said. but the conservatives say government proposals - which
include two hours pe within school for 75% of pupils by 2006 - are unrealistic.
the latest move is aimed at encouraging more diversity in sport with activities
such as yoga and tai chi being options. launching the initiative mr blair
completed an agility course and shot basketball hoops with students from the all-
girl waverley sports college in southwark south london. he said: you ve got to
bring back school sport. it s got to be done differently than it was 30 or 40 years
ago. it s still very very important. earlier education secretary charles clarke
told bbc news there were at least three areas which needed a coherent framework
and dedicated funding . these were training for pe teachers establishing more
specialist schools and the development of partnerships for activities such as
inter-school competitions. he added the government had originally pledged for
every pupil to get at least two hours of high-quality physical education a week.
the proportion was currently at 62% and the government was hoping this would rise
to 85% by 2008 and 100% by 2010. the money for the initiative will come from a new
£500m fund. the £500m move will also increase the number of specialist sport
colleges from 350 to 400. but the conservatives warned of rising obesity levels and
said that since only a third of children do two hours of sport a week currently
the government is promising something it cannot guarantee. shadow spokesman for
sport hugh robertson said: i suspect the correct way to tackle it is to look at
the other end of the spectrum and try to enable the clubs - which is where the real
passion for sport exists - to deliver the school sport offer. he said more
emphasis should be put on traditional sports saying that an anti-competitive
sport agenda had been pursued in recent years. martin ward of the secondary heads
association said members did not like ring-fenced funds and that it should be up
to the schools themselves to decide how to spend their money.
henman overcomes rival rusedski tim henman saved a match point before fighting back
to defeat british rival greg rusedski 4-6 7-6 (8-6) 6-4 at the dubai tennis
championships on tuesday. world number 46 rusedski broke in the ninth game to take
a tight opening set. rusedski had match point at 6-5 in the second set tie-break
after henman double-faulted but missed his chance and henman rallied to clinch the
set. the british number one then showed his superior strength to take the decider
and earn his sixth win over rusedski. serve was held by both players with few
alarms until the seventh game of the final set when rusedski s wild volley gave
henman a vital break. a furious rusedski slammed his racket onto the ground in
disgust and was warned by the umpire. henman seeded three then held his serve
comfortably thanks to four serve-and-volley winners to take a clear 5-3 lead.
rusedski won his service game but henman took the first of his three match points
with a service winner to secure his place in the second round at dubai for the
first time in three years. it was the first match between the pair for three years
- henman last lost to rusedski six years ago - and lasted two hours and 40 minutes.
the pair are now likely to only face each other on court as rivals - rather than as
team-mates - after henman decided to retire from davis cup tennis leaving rusedski
to lead the team out against israel on 4-6 march. henman who now faces russian
igor andreev in the last 16 admitted afterwards it was difficult coming up against
his compatriot on a fast surface. you just take it point by point when you re
fighting to stay in the match he said. i had to keep playing aggressively and
competing to get a chance. i now have to recover in time for the next match
because the body doesn t recover as quick as it used to especially after two hours
and 40 minutes.
saint-andre anger at absent stars sale sharks director of rugby philippe saint-
andre has re-opened rugby s club-versus-country debate. sale host bath in the
powergen cup on friday but the frenchman has endured a difficult week with six
players away on england s six nations training camp. it s an important game but we
ve just the one full session. it s the same for everyone but we need to manage it.
if five players or more are picked for your country they should move the date of
the game he told bbc sport. unless the authorities agree to make changes saint-
andre believes england s national team will suffer as clubs opt to sign foreigners
and retired internationals. that s not good for the politics of the english team
or for english rugby he argues. it is an issue he has taken up before most
notably during the autumn internationals when sale lost all three zurich
premiership matches they played. now he fears it could derail the club s hopes of
cup silverware after eight players including captain jason robinson and fly-half
charlie hodgson were away with their countries. we re in the quarter-finals it s
always better to play at home than away and it s a great opportunity he added.
but we have to be careful. bath have just been knocked out of europe and will make
it a tough game. it also comes at the end of a very very difficult week.
sebastien bruno s been with france jason white with scotland and there are six
with england that s eight players plus injuries - 13 players out of a squad of 31.
we ll have just one session together and will have to do our best to make that a
good one on thursday afternoon. gloucester have also been caught in a club-
versus-country conflict after england sought a second medical opinion on james
simpson-daniel s fitness. the winger is carrying a shoulder injury and the national
team management believe he requires time on the sidelines. as a result he misses
the cherry and white s quarter-final at home to bristol. under the elite player
squad agreement england wanted a second opinion which they can do director of
rugby nigel melville told the gloucester citizen. they obviously want him for
international rugby and we want him for club rugby in what is a very important game
for us. there is a conflict of interests. the surgeon who carried out his
operation said he was fine for us but england say he is still vulnerable to be
damaged again and want him on a full rehab programme. simpson-daniel added: i ve
said to nigel i want to be back playing and that means if everything goes well this
week i can target the worcester game (on 29 january) for a return.
watchdog probes e-mail deletions the information commissioner says he is urgently
asking for details of cabinet office orders telling staff to delete e-mails more
than three months old. richard thomas totally condemned the deletion of e-mails
to prevent their disclosure under freedom of information laws coming into force on
1 january. government guidance said e-mails should only be deleted if they served
no current purpose mr thomas said. the tories and the lib dems have questioned
the timing of the new rules. tory leader michael howard has written to tony blair
demanding an explanation of the new rules on e-mail retention. on monday lib dem
constitutional affairs committee chairman alan beith warned that the deletion of
millions of government e-mails could harm the ability of key probes like the hutton
inquiry. the timing of the new rules just before the freedom of information act
comes into forces was too unlikely to have been a coincidence mr beith said. but
a cabinet office spokeswoman said the move was not about the new laws or the
destruction of important records . mr beith urged the information commissioner to
look at how the e-mail regime could support the freedom of information regime .
mr thomas said: the new act of parliament makes it very clear that to destroy
records in order to prevent their disclosure becomes a criminal offence. he said
there was already clear guidance on the retention of e-mails contained in a code of
practice from the lord chancellor. all e-mails are subject to the freedom of
information laws but the important thing was the content of the e-mail said mr
thomas. if in doubt retain that has been the long-standing principle of the
civil service and public authorities. it s only when you ve got no further use for
the particular record that it may be legitimate to destroy it. but any deliberate
destruction to avoid the possibility of later disclosure is to be totally
condemned. the freedom of information act will cover england wales and northern
ireland from next year. similar measures are being brought in at the same time in
scotland. it provides the public with a right of access to information held by
about 100 000 public bodies subject to various exemptions. its implementation will
be monitored by the information commissioner.
minimum rate for foster parents foster carers are to be guaranteed a minimum
allowance to help cover their costs the government has announced. payment levels
vary from area to area with some carers getting just £50 a week for clothes food
and other costs. minister for children young people and families margaret hodge
said new plans will ensure fosterers allowances would be as fair as possible.
however local authorities which set and pay the allowances are concerned about
how the extra cash will be found. about 50 000 children live with foster families
in the uk and carers have said they need more money to make ends meet. ms hodge
said: foster carers must not be out of pocket when meeting the costs of caring for
a looked after child - a crucial role in society. we need to make sure that
arrangements for paying foster carers are as fair and transparent as possible. our
proposal for a national minimum rate shows we are serious about creating a better
deal for foster carers and about encouraging more people to come forward and
consider fostering as a worthwhile and rewarding opportunity. the government is
seeking to amend the children bill which passes through the commons next week to
establish a national minimum payment. fostering network executive director robert
tapsfield criticised the existing system. there is just no logic to a system which
values children differently depending on where they live. and with a shortage of
over 8 000 foster carers in england it s not a sustainable situation to expect
carers to fund foster care from their own pockets. the charity recommends a weekly
payment of £108.49 for looking after a baby. in a survey it discovered that rates
paid by neighbouring authorities could vary by as much as £100 per week. the
association of directors of social services (adss) said it agreed in principle with
the government s plans. tony hunter the organisation s president said: there are
many devils and lots of details hidden within the government s proposals. but adss
fully supports proper remuneration for valued foster carers and looks forward to
working with ministers local government and the fostering organisations themselves
in order to make sure a sensible and practicable policy emerges.
singer sizzla jailed for swearing reggae star sizzla whose uk tour was cancelled
after protests at his anti-gay lyrics has been jailed in jamaica for swearing on
stage. the singer must serve 15 days in prison after he consistently swore during
a concert in st thomas jamaica in january despite warnings by police. he was
charged under a law which prohibits indecent dress or expression. sizzla s five-
date uk tour was cancelled last november after protests by gay rights campaigners.
sizzla whose real name is miguel collins has released 25 albums since 1995 and is
credited with taking dancehall music back to its reggae origins. many jamaican
entertainers have appeared before the courts for use of profanity in recent years
but they usually receive a verbal warning a suspended sentence or community
service. sizzla s uk tour was cancelled after scotland yard s racial and violent
crime taskforce announced it was examining lyrics by eight reggae artists. it would
not confirm that sizzla was among them. one of his most controversial songs pump
up contains the jamaican patois lyrics fire fi di man dem weh go ride man behind
translated by gay rights group outrage! as burn the men who have sex with men .
school tribute for tv host carson more than 1 000 people turned out on sunday to
pay tribute to late us tv presenter johnny carson in the nebraska town where he
grew up. carson who hosted the tonight show for 30 years died on 23 january from
respiratory disease emphysema. he lived in norfolk nebraska from the age of eight
until he joined the navy but returned regularly and donated $5m (£2.7m) to local
causes. old school friends were among the crowd at the school s johnny carson
theater. carson who was one of the best-loved tv personalities in the us asked
not to have a public memorial in los angeles where he lived in later life. he
began his showbusiness career in norfolk performing magic under the name the great
carsoni from the age of 14. his donations included $600 000 to norfolk high school
in the 1980s to build a new performing arts centre. when carson died president
bush led the public tributes saying the presenter had a profound influence on
american life and entertainment .
plaid mp s cottage arson claim a plaid cymru mp believes uk security services were
involved in some arson attacks blamed on welsh extremists. it is 25 years since
the start of 12 years of fire-bombings attributed to a shadowy group known as
meibion glyndwr. plaid cymru s elfyn llwyd has suggested the security services
could have been involved with the intention of discrediting the nationalist vote.
ex-welsh office minister lord roberts of conwy denied security services were
involved. in march this year north wales police reopened the case saying
materials kept during their investigations would be examined to find whether it
would yield dna evidence. meibion glyndwr - which means sons of glyndwr - began
burning property in december 1979 in protest at homes in rural wales being sold as
holiday cottages to people from england. the group was linked to most of the 220 or
so fire-bombing incidents stretching from the llyn peninsula to pembrokeshire. the
campaign continued until the early 1990s. police were accused in some quarters of
targeting anyone who was a nationalist. although one man sion aubrey roberts was
convicted in 1993 of sending letter bombs in the post the arson cases remain
unsolved. as a solicitor elfyn llwyd represented welsh singer bryn fôn when
he was arrested on suspicion of being involved in the arson campaign. fôn was
released without charge . but now as mp for merionnydd nant conwy and plaid cymru
s parliamentary leader mr llwyd has argued that some of the terror attacks may
have had the involvement of the security services and not meibion glyndwr. he
believes that elements of the british security services may have carried out
renegade actions in order to discredit plaid cymru and the nationalist vote ahead
of elections. the claim is made in an interview for bbc wales maniffesto programme
to be shown on s4c on sunday. mr llwyd said that the sophistication of many of the
devices used in the attacks compared to the crude nature of many others suggests a
degree of professionalism which could only have come from individuals who knew
exactly what they were doing. he said: what i m saying is that the role that they
took wasn t the appropriate one i.e. like an agent provocateur and perhaps
interfering and creating a situation where it looked like it was the nationalists
that were responsible. the programme also heard from lord roberts of conwy who
was a welsh office minister at the time. he denied that the security services
played any improper role. mr llwyd s theory has also been questioned by plaid cymru
s former president dafydd wigley. he accepted that the fires damaged plaid cymru s
public image but believed that the security services had their hands full at the
time with the ira and animal rights activists. - maniffesto can be seen on s4c
on sunday 12 december at 1200 gmt.
mitsubishi in peugeot link talks trouble-hit mitsubishi motors is in talks with
french carmaker psa peugeot citroen about a possible alliance. on tuesday
mitsubishi the only major japanese car firm in the red confirmed earlier reports
of negotiations. but a spokesman refused to comment on speculation that mitsubishi
could end up building cars for psa and perhaps its japanese rival nissan.
mitsubishi has been hit by a recall scandal and the withdrawal of support from
shareholder daimlerchrysler. the us-german firm once a majority shareholder
decided last april to stop providing financial backing. mitsubishi s sales have
slid 41% in the past year catalysed by the revelation that the company had
systematically been hiding records of faults and then secretly repairing vehicles.
mitsubishi is due to unveil a recovery plan later in january. analysts said that
alliances with other carmakers would be a necessary part of whatever it came up
with not least because its own slow sales have left its manufacturing capacity
under-used.
ministers deny care sums wrong ministers have insisted they are committed to free
personal care for the elderly despite research suggesting the cost of the policy
was under-estimated. a report by the fraser of allander institute says the
decision to push ahead with the flagship policy was based on flawed research.
deputy health minister rhona brankin has pledged to study the research. snp
holyrood leader nicola sturgeon said the public needed reassurance that the care
programme was secure. the rise in costs stems from a series of mistakes in the
research used by the care development group of scottish executive experts who
prepared the original costings according to findings published in the quarterly
economic commentary of strathclyde university s fraser of allander institute.
dubious assumptions about improving health expectancy could drive the cost of the
policy up by another £130m by 2022 the report warned. it was carried out by
husband and wife economist team jim and margaret cuthbert. but ms brankin told bbc
radio scotland: we don t think we got our sums wrong. obviously we will examine
the findings of this new report along with figures from our own research that we
have already commissioned. we will look in great detail at any contribution to
this because we need to be sure we can provide free personal care and nursing care
for our older people into the future. and we are absolutely committed to doing
that. but the scottish national party called on ministers to reassure people that
enough funding is in place to support the free personal care policy. ms sturgeon
said that while she had no reason to doubt the executive s support for the policy
there were questions which needed to be answered and if necessary sums redone.
she said: serious concerns have been raised and there are questions which need to
be answered by the scottish executive. we need to know that the money is there
not just for this year or next year but into the future so that older people and
those who are looking forward to older age can rest assured that their personal
care needs will be met.
more reforms ahead says milburn labour will continue to pursue controversial
reforms if it wins a third term in power the party s election chief alan milburn
has said. he pledged labour would encourage more people to achieve their
aspirations. what we want is for more people to earn and own mr milburn told bbc
radio 4 s today show. tory shadow chancellor oliver letwin called labour a
brilliant machine for talking about things but said it did not deliver policies
the country needs. meanwhile the liberal democrats president simon hughes said:
new labour has lost people s confidence in a way old labour never did. mr milburn
told today that labour wanted policies which encouraged increased social mobility
in britain. pressed on incapacity benefits he said the tax and welfare system
must provide the right incentives to people . no-one is talking about driving
people into work but what we do know is there are one million people on incapacity
benefit who want the opportunity to work providing the right level of support is
there for them . however backbench labour mp karen buck warned against proposed
changes in such benefits. she told the today programme: if the policy is seen as
being about how do you make the feckless poor go back to work then it is not going
to work on the one hand. and it is not going to improve our electoral chances on
the other. mr milburn also sought to draw a line under the controversy about
reports of a feud between gordon brown and prime minister tony blair. he stressed
that mr brown would play the same role that he did in the last election. mr milburn
gave more details of planned reforms in a speech to labour s fabian society in
which he also praised mr brown as one of the leaders of the party s reform process.
in the speech he backed choice in schools and hospitals wider home ownership and
changes to the welfare system. mr milburn insisted that government reform must
continue. our task is to rebuild the new labour coalition around one nation
politics that recognise while life is hard for many all should have the chance
to succeed he said. there is a glass ceiling on opportunity in this country. in
our first two terms we have raised it. in our third term we have to break it.
voters turned on the party when it failed to reform industrial relations in the
1960s he also told his audience. oliver letwin said the government had failed to
deliver in any of the key public services such as cleaner hospitals discipline in
schools and putting more police on the streets. he said ministers had not delivered
cleaner hospitals with 5 000 people dying from infections last year. new labour
had failed on school discipline because it had not implemented serious reforms so
that teachers could run schools and which would give parents choice he went on.
for the lib dems simon hughes said many pensioners are means tested for the money
they needed and students who were told there wouldn t be tuition fees and more debt
have been given exactly the opposite . he added: under new labour all households
are still paying unfair council tax rather than a fairer alternative.
rescue hope for borussia dortmund shares in struggling german football club
borussia dortmund slipped on monday despite the club agreeing a rescue plan with
creditors on friday. the club which has posted record losses and racked up debts
said last week that it was in a life-threatening profitability and financial
situation . creditors agreed on friday to suspend interest payments until 2007.
news of the deal had boosted shares in the club on friday but the stock slipped
back 7% during monday morning. in addition to the interest-payment freeze
borussia dortmund also will get short-term loans to help pay salaries. it estimated
that it needs almost 30m euros ($39m; £21m) until the end of june if it is to pay
its bills. the football club is hoping that all its creditors will agree to defer
rent payments on its westfalen stadium. borussia officials met with almost all the
banks involved in its financing on friday and over the weekend. three creditors
have yet to agree to the deal struck last week. on 14 march one of these creditors
- property investment fund molsiris which owns the club s stadium - holds its agm
at which it will discuss the rescue plan. chief executive gerd niebaum stepped down
last week and creditors have been pushing for a greater say in how the club is run.
borussia dortmund also is facing calls to appoint executives from outside the club.
the club posted a record loss of 68m euros in the 12 months through june. adding to
its woes borussia dortmund was beaten 5-0 by bayern munich on saturday.
blind student hears in colour a blind student has developed software that turns
colours into musical notes so that he can read weather maps. victor wong a
graduate student from hong kong studying at cornell university in new york state
had to read coloured maps of the upper atmosphere as part of his research. to study
space weather mr wong needed to explore minute fluctuations in order to create
mathematical models. a number of solutions were tried including having a colleague
describe the maps and attempting to print them in braille. mr wong eventually hit
upon the idea of translating individual colours into music and enlisted the help
of a computer graphics specialist and another student to do the programming work.
the images have three dimensions and i had to find a way of reading them myself
mr wong told the bbc news website. for the sake of my own study - and for the sake
of blind scientists generally - i felt it would be good to develop software that
could help us to read colour images. he tried a prototype version of the software
to explore a photograph of a parrot. in order to have an exact reference to the
screen a pen and tablet device is used. the software then assigns one of 88 piano
notes to individually coloured pixels - ranging from blue at the lower end of this
scale to red at the upper end. mr wong says the application is still very much in
its infancy and is only useful for reading images that have been created digitally.
if i took a random picture and scanned it and then used my software to recognise it
it wouldn t work that well. mr wong has been blind from the age of seven and he
thinks that having a colour memory makes the software more useful than it would
be to a scientist who had never had any vision. as the notes increase in pitch i
know the colour s getting redder and redder and in my mind s eye a patch of red
appears. the colour to music software has not yet been made available commercially
and mr wong believes that several people would have to work together to make it
viable. but he hopes that one day it can be developed to give blind people access
to photographs and other images.
research fears over kelly s views scientists have expressed concerns that new
education secretary ruth kelly s religious views could hamper vital scientific
research. ms kelly who is catholic is reported to be pro-life and has opposed
embryo research. medical research council professor nancy rothwell said ms kelly s
views mattered as she was responsible for training future scientists. the
department for education and skills would not comment on the concerns. a
spokeswoman said: it is not news that ms kelly is a catholic but we are not going
into any details on this. but she added that claims ms kelly was in charge of a
£1bn university research budget were not true. it was down to the higher education
funding council and the research councils to decide on universities research
allocations. british law is open to the cloning of human embryos to create stem
cells master cells that can develop into all the body s tissue types. this cloning
activity is not permitted for reproductive purposes - only for research into new
disease treatments. however it is controversial because it involves the
destruction of embryos. professor rothwell who is also vice-president of research
at manchester university told the times higher education supplement it would worry
her a great deal if ministers were anti-stem cell. she said: the views of
ministers in the dfes do matter as they are responsible for training the next
generation of scientists. you can t have a higher education policy that is at odds
with the government s science policy. head of developmental genetics at the
national institute of medical research professor robin lovell-badge said he had
witnessed the confused situation in the us where many religious groups opposed the
practice. he said: if someone as senior as ruth kelly is not going to favour stem
cell research we will end up with a similarly schizophrenic system in this country.
it is very worrying. but fertility expert lord winston said he thought it was
rather good ministers held ethical views. concerns have also been raised by pro-
choice organisations that ms kelly s views might affect sex education policy in
schools. family planning association chief executive anne weyman said teaching
pupils about contraception and abortion were key. young people must be informed
about all the issues within sexual health which include contraception and
abortion. i think it is very important that the government maintains its
commitment to the teenage pregnancy strategy. currently individual schools devise
their own sex education policies based on a framework provided by the dfes. ms
kelly has not set out her detailed views on either issue yet but has said she
intends to put parents first in education policy. this would include the quality of
teaching classroom discipline and academic standards in schools she said.
mps murder sentence concern murder sentences should not be reduced automatically
simply because of a guilty plea says a new mps report. the influential commons
home affairs committee was responding to sentencing guidelines issued this summer.
the mps also call for tougher sentences for crimes committed under the influence of
drink or drugs. they say the influence of drugs and alcohol should be introduced as
an aggravating factor when judges and magistrates sentence offenders. committee
chairman john denham said drugs of alcohol were sometimes used as an excuse. the
committee believes that these arguments should be rejected by sentencers and that
being under their influence should instead be an aggravating factor. at present
judges when sentencing murderers to the mandatory life sentence can reduce the
tariff - the minimum term they must serve - if the defendant pleads guilty. but
although they are spared the ordeal of a trial many murder victims relatives are
unhappy. in july this year amanda champion s killer james ford pleaded guilty to
her murder and was jailed for at least 15 years - it would have been longer had he
denied the charge. amanda s uncle lewis champion told the bbc news website ford
did not deserve any credit for his plea saying: nothing at all is worth taking
five years off a murder sentence. mps criticised home secretary david blunkett
last year for introducing last-minute rules allowing reduced sentences for
murderers who pleaded guilty. the measures passed into law virtually unnoticed
after mr blunkett introduced them at a late stage of the criminal justice bill. as
a result says the committee the government may need to re-legislate to remove
ambiguity over how murderers should be sentenced. it is also calling on the senior
judge in england and wales lord woolf to abandon draft guidelines he proposed in
september to reduce sentences of murderers who plead guilty. the committee said the
plans had not reflected the public disquiet expressed over the possibility of
significantly reduced prison terms for murderers. lord woolf s sentencing
guidelines council (sgc) caused further controversy by suggesting a one third
discount off sentences for early guilty pleas in all types of crime. as a result
murderers who face a 15-year tariff could get five years knocked off if they give
themselves up to the police. mr denham believes the sgc should reconsider its
proposals to reflect parliament s wish that murder should be treated as a separate
and especially grave category of offence. he said: we want to see sentencers
advised that in the case of murder reduction in sentence for a guilty plea should
not normally be granted in addition to reductions for other mitigating
circumstances. but a spokesman for the home office defended the proposals. he
said: by making express provision for murder tariffs in the criminal justice act
parliament sent a clear signal that it expects murder to be treated differently to
other offences. we stand by the provisions in the act that cover guilty plea
discounts which have potential benefits for victims and witnesses of avoiding the
trauma of a trial. shadow home secretary david davis echoed criticisms of the way
mr blunkett introduced the murder tariff rules. there is genuine concern about
potential reductions in murder sentences - such action sends out the wrong signals
to violent criminals and completely undermines the government s claim to be tough
on crime he said. but liberal democrat spokesman mark oaten warned the mps
committee that binding judges too much might look like political interference. the
danger of having a prescriptive approach is that whilst every murder is awful it
is also different he told bbc news.
howard rebuts asylum criticisms tory leader michael howard has gone on the
offensive in response to people questioning how a son of immigrants can propose
asylum quotas. mr howard whose parents fled the nazi threat to come to the uk
says the claim would mean no-one from an immigrant family could become premier. his
comments come in a bbc documentary called no more mr nasty . tv presenter anne
robinson said as home secretary he gave the impression he would like to kick your
cat . ms robinson a friend of the tory leader also revealed that as a cambridge
student mr howard was much loved by women and he was a courteous and kind and
rather dashing lover - although she denied having personal experience. i wasn t
at cambridge - and it s not personal experience - but i know people who were.
documentary maker michael cockerell was given behind-the-scenes access to mr howard
for his film portrait. the tory leader was asked about to respond to people who
said that if there had there been a quota on immigration and asylum in the 1930s
his parents might not have been allowed into the country. he replies: what is the
inference of that that if you reach the view that you need to control immigration
in the interests of the country you re not allowed to put a view forward if you
happen to be descended from immigrants that seems to me an absolutely
extraordinary proposition it would certainly mean no one from immigrant parents
could be prime minister. ms robinson who presents the weakest link tells
cockerell that she despaired at his hardline image when he was home secretary in
john major s government. i used to have to sit on my hands because he d get on
television and give a passable impression of someone who d like to kick your cat or
would put your baby in prison if he cried. i mean it was very very draconian. the
film shows mr howard laughing at rory bremner s impression of him as dracula which
he calls good fun apart from the serious falsehood of a comment suggesting he
wants fewer black people in the uk. the film shows the private side of the tory
leader watching television at home or playing table tennis with his wife ex-model
sandra. asked if she enjoys a game of ping pong she confesses: yeah it would be
more enjoyable if i could win occasionally too but otherwise it s quite fun.
former downing street communications chief alastair campbell now working on labour
s election campaign says a touchy-feely image does not fit mr howard. he says
tony blair was not worried by his opponents early performance in their commons
clashes because mr howard lacked a big strategy including on issues like iraq.
the tory leader brands such criticisms as absolutely rubbish arguing that he has
been consistent on his support for the war but critical of mr blair s failure to
tell the truth on intelligence. former tory chancellor ken clarke says mr howard
has a bigger problem changing perceptions of the tory party than his personal
image. mr clarke says the party is improving and it is conceivable it could win
the next election. but he adds: it has got to change itself a bit and broaden its
appeal. - michael howard: no more mr nasty is being shown on bbc2 on saturday 12
february at 2005 gmt.
kennedy to make temple address charles kennedy is set to address 2 000 people at a
hindu temple as part of an appeal to ethnic minority voters. the liberal democrat
leader will visit the shri swaminarayan mandir temple in neasden north west
london. he will say labour can no longer lay exclusive claim to the votes of
britain s ethnic minorities . mr kennedy will also highlight the anger among people
of all races over the iraq war and call for a balanced approach to tackling
terrorism. saturday s speech comes days after the lib dems launched their ethnic
minority mini-manifesto. mr kennedy is to tell the audience: many people in
britain of all races cultures and religions were angry about the way we were
taken to war in iraq. and they saw the principled stand the liberal democrats took
at the time. he will also say that the lib dems want to restore britain s
reputation on the world stage by fighting international poverty and climate change
and protecting human rights. mr kennedy will say that a balanced approach to
tackling terrorism would mean tough measures to make britain safe - but not at the
expense of people s fundamental legal rights like has happened at belmarsh . he
will say it also means acting through the united nations on terrorism. mr kennedy
held talks with tony blair on friday over government plans to hold terror suspects
under house arrest. he said afterwards that the prime minister had offered some
movement to address his concerns. the plans face trouble in the lords if
conservative and lib dem opposition continues.
observers to monitor uk election ministers will invite international observers to
check the forthcoming uk general election is fairly run. the move comes amid
claims the poll could be marred by electoral fraud. a report by two mps committees
called on thursday for urgent changes to the electoral registration system to
combat vote rigging and boost turnout. but in a written response to labour mp
gordon prentice the government said it would normally invite observers to any uk
election. junior constitutional affairs minister christopher leslie said: i fully
expect us to repeat our previous practice of doing so once the date for the next
general election is announced. the government has looked at ways of boosting voter
turnout which fell to 59% in the last general election in 2001. but trial all-
postal ballots in four english regions last summer were hit by delays and some
fraud allegations. liberal democrat peer lord greaves called last week for
international observers at the general election - saying otherwise there could be
months of court challenges on a scale not seen since the 19th century . thursday s
report was drawn up by two committees scrutinising the work of the office of the
deputy prime minister (odpm) and the department for constitutional affairs (dca).
it said that with the growth of postal voting there was a strong case to tighten
up fraud protection by requiring voters to register individually rather than by
household. it also said about three million people eligible to vote are not
registered to do so. figures for the 2001 general election suggest 29% of people
aged between 18 and 24 and 19% of black voters were not on the electoral roll.
young people in shared accommodation are thought to miss out because no one acts as
head of the household to fill in the form. odpm committee chairman andrew bennett
said individual voter registration as opposed to registration by household should
be quickly introduced as it could dramatically reduce the chances of fraud . but
his counterpart on the dca committee alan beith said it should be delayed until
measures likely to increase registration have been put in place and proved
effective. shadow constitutional affairs secretary oliver heald accused the
government of dragging its feet over this badly needed measure . it is vital
that we move ahead with the northern ireland system of individual electoral
registration to safeguard the integrity of the britain s electoral system he
said. the report said individual registration should be treated carefully as 12%
of voters disappeared from the electoral roll in northern ireland when it was
introduced in 2002. the report said the government should consider fines for
unregistered voters but accepted many experts said it would be an expensive system
that would be hard to enforce. it said incentives to register such as £20 council
tax rebate were likely to be seen as gimmicks and risked undermining the
integrity of the system mps said. instead they called for imaginative campaigns
to boost interest.
surprise win for anti-bush film michael moore s anti-bush documentary fahrenheit
9/11 has won best film at the us people s choice awards voted for by the us
public. mel gibson s the passion of the christ won best drama despite both films
being snubbed so far at us film awards in the run-up to february s oscars. julia
roberts won her 10th consecutive crown as favourite female movie star. johnny depp
was favourite male movie star and renee zellweger was favourite leading lady at
sunday s awards in la. film sequel shrek 2 took three prizes - voted top animated
movie top film comedy and top sequel. in television categories desperate
housewives was named top new drama and joey starring former friends actor matt
leblanc was best new comedy. long-running shows will and grace and csi: crime
scene investigation were named best tv comedy and tv drama respectively. nominees
for the people s choice awards were picked by a 6 000-strong entertainment weekly
magazine panel and winners were subsequently chosen by 21 million online voters.
fahrenheit 9/11 director michael moore dedicated his trophy to soldiers in iraq.
his film was highly critical of president george w bush and the us-led invasion of
iraq and moore was an outspoken bush critic in the 2004 presidential campaign
inwhich democratic challenger john kerry lost. this country is still all of ours
not right or left or democrat or republican moore told the audience at the
ceremony in pasadena california. moore said it was an historic occasion that the
31-year-old awards ceremony would name a documentary its best film. unlike many
other film-makers passion of the christ director mel gibson has vowed not to
campaign for an oscar for his movie. to me really this is the ultimate goal
because one doesn t make work for the elite gibson said backstage at the event.
to me the people have spoken.
ocean s twelve raids box office ocean s twelve the crime caper sequel starring
george clooney brad pitt and julia roberts has gone straight to number one in the
us box office chart. it took $40.8m (£21m) in weekend ticket sales according to
studio estimates. the sequel follows the master criminals as they try to pull off
three major heists across europe. it knocked last week s number one national
treasure into third place. wesley snipes blade: trinity was in second taking
$16.1m (£8.4m). rounding out the top five was animated fable the polar express
starring tom hanks and festive comedy christmas with the kranks. ocean s twelve
box office triumph marks the fourth-biggest opening for a december release in the
us after the three films in the lord of the rings trilogy. the sequel narrowly
beat its 2001 predecessor ocean s eleven which took $38.1m (£19.8m) on its opening
weekend and $184m (£95.8m) in total. a remake of the 1960s film starring frank
sinatra and the rat pack ocean s eleven was directed by oscar-winning director
steven soderbergh. soderbergh returns to direct the hit sequel which reunites
clooney pitt and roberts with matt damon andy garcia and elliott gould. catherine
zeta-jones joins the all-star cast. it s just a fun good holiday movie said dan
fellman president of distribution at warner bros. however us critics were less
complimentary about the $110m (£57.2m) project with the los angeles times
labelling it a dispiriting vanity project . a milder review in the new york times
dubbed the sequel unabashedly trivial .
hitachi unveils fastest robot japanese electronics firm hitachi has unveiled its
first humanoid robot called emiew to challenge honda s asimo and sony s qrio
robots. hitachi said the 1.3m (4.2ft) emiew was the world s quickest-moving robot
yet. two wheel-based emiews pal and chum introduced themselves to reporters at a
press conference in japan. the robots will be guests at the world expo later this
month. sony and honda have both built sophisticated robots to show off developments
in electronics. explaining why hitachi s emiew used wheels instead of feet
toshihiko horiuchi from hitachi s mechanical engineering research laboratory
said: we aimed to create a robot that could live and co-exist with people. we
want to make the robots useful for people ... if the robots moved slower than
people users would be frustrated. emiew - excellent mobility and interactive
existence as workmate - can move at 3.7m/h. its wheel feet resemble the bottom
half of a segway scooter. with sensors on the head waist and near the wheels pal
and chum demonstrated how they could react to commands. i want to be able to walk
about in places like shinjuku and shibuya [shopping districts] in the future
without bumping into people and cars pal told reporters. hitachi said pal and
chum which have a vocabulary of about 100 words could be trained for practical
office and factory use in as little as five to six years. robotics researchers
have long been challenged by developing robots that walk in the gait of a human. at
the recent aaas (american association for the advancement of science) annual
meeting in washington dc researchers showed off bipedal designs. the three designs
each built by a different research group use the same principle to achieve a
human-like gait. sony and honda have both used humanoid robots which are not
commercially available as a way of showing off computing power and engineering
expertise. honda s asimo was born five years ago. since then honda and sony s
qrio have tried to trump each other with what the robots can do at various
technology events. asimo has visited the uk germany the czech republic france
and ireland as part of a world tour. sony s qrio has been singing jogging and
dancing in formation around the world too and was until last year the fastest
robot on two legs. but its record was beaten by asimo. it is capable of 3km/h
which its makers claim is almost four times as fast as qrio. last year car maker
toyota also stepped into the ring and unveiled its trumpet-playing humanoid robot.
by 2007 it is predicted that there will be almost 2.5 million entertainment and
leisure robots in homes compared to about 137 000 currently according to the
united nations (un). by the end of that year 4.1 million robots will be doing jobs
in homes said the report by the un economic commission for europe and the
international federation of robotics. hitachi is one of the companies with home
cleaning robot machines on the market.
nuclear strike key terror risk the uk and us must realise they cannot prevent all
terror attacks and should focus on making sure they are not nuclear strikes says a
top academic. amitai etzioni a key influence on new labour thinking says the us
emphasis on an axis of evil is misplaced. the priority should instead be on
failing states including russia and pakistan who cannot properly control their
nuclear material he argues. his report demands a major overhaul of world rules on
nuclear technology. professor etzioni was a senior adviser to president carter s
white house and is the guru behind communitarian ideas which influenced the
development of blairite third way politics. in a report for the foreign policy
centre think tank he says a nuclear terrorist attack is the main danger faced by
many nations. attempts to defend against it by hardening domestic targets cannot
work nor can one rely on pre-emption by taking the war to the terrorists before
they attack he says. that means there is an urgent need to curb terrorists
access to nuclear arms and the materials used to make them. we must recognise that
we will be unable to stop all attacks and thus ensure terrorists will not be able
to strike with weapons of mass destruction prof etzioni continues. he suggests
so-called rogue states such as iran and north korea are less of a problem than
failed and failing states which are more likely to be a source of nuclear
materials. he names russia as the failing state of gravest concern as it has an
estimated 90% of all fissile material outside america. and he is also worried about
pakistan after one of its top nuclear scientists abdul qadeer khan admitted
leaking nuclear secrets. prof etzioni criticises the us for overlooking those
reports suggesting it was done in return for pakistani help in hunting osama bin
laden. this is like letting a serial killer go because he promised to catch some
jay-walkers he says. - upgrading security at nuclear arms stores as a
temporary measure - creating a new global safety authority to tackle nuclear
terrorism using the intelligence links established in the wake of 11 september -
backed by the united nations authority - encouraging pressuring and using all
available means to persuade countries to switch their highly-enriched uranium for
less dangerous less-enriched uranium - when possible taking fissile material
away from failing states to safe havens where it can be blended down or converted
- compelling failing and rogue states and eventually all states to destroy
their nuclear bombs.
o connor aims to grab opportunity johnny o connor is determined to make a big
impression when he makes his rbs six nations debut for ireland against scotland on
saturday. the wasps flanker replaces denis leamy but o connor knows that the
munster man will be pushing hard for a recall for the following game against
england. it s a horses for courses selection really said o connor. there s a
lot of competition here and i can t just drag my heels around if i don t get
picked. it looks a definite head-to-head battle between himself and 23-year-old
leamy - three stone heavier than o connor - for the number seven role against the
world champions. nonetheless all o connor is currently concerned about is making
an impression while winning his third cap. missing the italian game was
disappointing certainly but you can t dwell on these things - it s part and parcel
of rugby. denis has been playing really well and deserved his opportunity. it s a
good situation to be in if there are good players around you pushing for a place
in the side. o connor who celebrated his 25th birthday on wednesday was touted
by wasps director of rugby warren gatland as a possible 2005 lions test openside as
far back as last september. and his reputation as a breakdown scavenger and heavy
hitter has seen him come to the forefront of o sullivan s mind for the scottish
tussle. o connor added: it will be interesting to see how situations on the deck
is reffed with the new laws having come in. obviously the breakdown a big part
of what i do on the pitch so i m hoping to hold some influence there against what
is a very solid scottish pack. o connor will be winning his third cap after making
his debut in the victory over south africa last november.
parliament s record of scandal in a locked room at the heart of parliament there is
a hive of scandal. sex betrayal and custody of children are all there in this
affair but this time it has nothing to do with the recent troubles of david
blunkett or boris johnson. few realise that westminster in effect has its own
divorce den. for sprinkled among 12 floors of archives are blow-by-blow accounts of
marital break-ups - and now you can search what s there online. until 1857 the
only way in england to get a full divorce which allowed re-marriage was to obtain
an act of parliament by proving adultery or life-threatening cruelty. the legacy is
pages of testimonies used in the hearings dating back to 1670 all recorded among
the 325 000 items which fill the 12 floors of the parliamentary archives in
parliament s victoria tower. most people researching their family history want to
discover some tale of illicit love. this gives them the chance. divorce by
parliament was an expensive process open really only to the rich but the records
also include the testimony of maids butlers and coachmen about their masters and
mistresses. among the records is the story of jane campbell the first woman ever
to divorce her husband. that happened in 1801 after she had discovered her husband
edward addison had committed adultery with her sister jessy. a transcript of
evidence from jessy s maid amelia laugher shows her telling how addison
frequently passed by her on the way to the room where she had just put her mistress
naked to bed. it must have been a killer blow to addison s case - he had already
fled abroad rather than pay the £5 000 damages ordered by a civil court. as well as
making divorce history jane campbell won custody of her children - unusual for a
woman at the time. but divorces are by no means the only documents in the archives
which hold personal details of people often far removed from politics and
parliament. there are the protestation returns from 1642 - lists of the
protestants who pledged to maintain the true reformed protestant religion . there
are details of foreign nationals made british citizens by act of parliament
including composer george frideric handel in 1727. and the mass of private bills
which for example authorise the building of railways and roads contain both the
names and addresses of those involved and testimonies giving people a unique
perspective on how their ancestors opposed them. tax bills may be an extra source
for pedigree hunters - the longest stretches for about 300m and is longer than the
palace of westminster itself listing the names of appointed tax collectors. this
wealth of material has long been open to the public at the house of lords record
office with visitors able to phone ahead when they want to view particular items
in the search room. but now five years of work has produced an online catalogue.
david prior assistant clerk of the archives says the catalogue opens up new
possibilities for research. before you just could not do it you faced trawling
through pages and pages of printed material he says. mr prior sees the changes as
part of a wider revolution in archives generally. the archive profession may look
fairly staid but is in an enormous period of change mainly motivated by the
potential of it which is opening up all sorts of vistas for us he says. the
archives do of course hold records of high (and low) politics too for both houses
of parliament including copies of all acts passed since 1497 - the oldest dealing
with the employment of workers in the woollen industry in norfolk. records for the
commons only date back to 1834 - anything earlier was wiped out by the fire which
destroyed most of the parliament buildings in 1834. but that still leaves some of
the most important documents of uk political history - parts of the bill of rights
from 1689 the death warrant for charles i the private papers and diaries of major
politicians such as david lloyd george and andrew bonar law. there is also the 1606
act establishing 5 november as a thanksgiving day - the year after the gunpowder
plot. that document is likely to feature in the exhibition the archives will put on
next year as part of a series of events across london to mark the 400th anniversary
of guy fawkes conspiracy. as mr prior remarks as we walk by shelf after shelf of
vellum (parchment made from goat s skin): all human life is here.
bristol city 2-1 milton keynes leroy lita took his goal tally to 13 for the season
as his double earned city an ldv vans trophy win. the striker finished off scott
murray cross from close range just seconds before half-time. lita then made it 2-0
on 52 minutes but dons substitute serge makofo then netted a great volley to make
it 2-1. the visitors almost took the tie to extra time with a late 30-yard bullet
from richard johnson which was well held by steve phillips. phillips amankwaah
coles hill fortune murray (anyinsah 59) doherty (harley 45) dinning bell
lita (cotterill 72) gillespie. subs not used: orr brown. hill. lita 45 52.
bevan oyedele ntimban-zeh crooks puncheon kamara (makofo 64) chorley herve
(mckoy 45) tapp (johnson 45) mackie pacquette. subs not used: martin palmer.
pacquette chorley johnson mckoy. makofo 66. 3 367 j ross (essex).
camera phones are must-haves four times more mobiles with cameras in them will be
sold in europe by the end of 2004 than last year says a report from analysts
gartner. globally the number sold will reach 159 million an increase of 104%.
the report predicts that nearly 70% of all mobile phones sold will have a built-in
camera by 2008. improving imaging technology in mobiles is making them an
increasingly must-have buy. in europe cameras on mobiles can take 1.3 megapixel
images. but in japan and asia pacific where camera phone technology is much more
advanced mobiles have already been released which can take 3.2 megapixel images.
japan still dominates mobile phone technology and the uptake there is huge. by
2008 according to gartner 95% of all mobiles sold there will have cameras on
them. camera phones had some teething problems when they were first launched as
people struggled with poor quality images and uses for them as well as the
complexity and expense of sending them via mms (multimedia messaging services).
this has changed in the last 18 months. handset makers have concentrated on trying
to make phones easier to use. realising that people like to use their camera phones
in different ways they have introduced more design features like rotating screens
and viewfinders removable memory cards and easier controls to send picture
messages. mobile companies have introduced more ways for people to share photos
with other people. these have included giving people easier ways to publish them on
websites or mobile blogs - moblogs. but the report suggests that until image
quality increases more people will not be interested in printing out pictures at
kiosks. image sensor technology inside cameras phones is improving. the gartner
report suggests that by mid-2005 it is likely that the image resolution of most
camera phones will be more than two megapixels. consumer digital cameras images
range from two to four megapixels in quality and up to six megapixels on a high-
end camera. but a lot of work is being done to make camera phones more like digital
cameras. some handsets already feature limited zoom capability and manufacturers
are looking into technological improvements that will let people take more photos
in poorly-lit conditions like nightclubs. other developments include wide-angle
modes basic editing features and better sensors and processors for recording film
clips. images from camera phones have even made it into the art world. an
exhibition next month in aid of the charity mencap will feature snaps taken from
the camera phones of top artists. the exhibition fonetography will feature
images taken by photographers david bailey rankin and nan goldin and artists sir
peter blake tracey emin and jack vettriano. but some uses for them have worried
many organisations. intel samsung the uk s foreign office and lawrence livermore
national laboratories in the us have decided to ban camera phones from their
buildings for fear of sensitive information being snapped and leaked. many schools
fitness centres and local councils have also banned them over fears about privacy
and misuse. italy s information commissioner has also voiced concern and has issued
guidelines on where and how the phones can be used. but camera phone fears have not
dampened the manufacturers profits. according to recent figures sony ericsson s
profits tripled in the third-quarter because of new camera phones. over 60% of
mobiles sold during the three months through to september featured integrated
cameras it said.
leeds v saracens (fri) headingley friday 25 february 2000 gmt the tykes have
brought in newcastle prop ed kalman and tom mcgee from the borders on loan while
fly-half craig mcmullen has joined from narbonne. raphael ibanez is named at hooker
for saracens in one of four changes. simon raiwalui and ben russell are also
selected in the pack while kevin sorrell comes in at outside centre. - friday s
game at headingley got the go-ahead on friday after passing an early pitch
inspection. leeds: balshaw; rees christophers bell doherty; mcmullen dickens;
mcgee rawlinson gerber; murphy palmer (capt) morgan parks popham.
replacements: kalman regan hyde rigney mcmillan rock vickerman. saracens:
bartholomeusz; castaignede sorrell harris vaikona; jackson bracken; yates
ibanez visagie; raiwalui fullarton; randell russell vyvyan (capt).
replacements: cairns lloyd broster chesney johnston rauluni little.
capriati out of australian open jennifer capriati has become the third leading lady
to withdraw from the australian open because of injury. the organisers of the
first grand slam of 2005 which begins on 17 january said the american has a
problem with her right shoulder. it comes as a blow to the women s draw as last
year s champion justin henin-hardenne and runner-up kim clijsters will also be
absent. capriati is a two-time champion in melbourne with wins in 2001 and 2002.
she is believed to have picked up the injury at the advanta championships at
philadelphia in november and had to pull out of an exhibition match with wimbledon
champion maria sharapova on 17 december. capriati also decided against competing in
the australian open warm-up event the sydney international.
johnson uncertain about euro bid jade johnson is undecided about whether to contest
next month s european indoor championships in madrid despite winning the aaas long
jump title on saturday. the 24-year-old delivered a personal best of 6.50m to win
the european trials but had to wait until her final jump after four failures. i
don t want to go if i am not going to get a medal said johnson. i will have to
see how i am jumping in the next competition and i ll have to have a conversation
with my coach. johnson who finished seventh in last year s olympic games has not
competed indoors since 2000. and the commonwealth and european silver medallist
believes her lack of experience in the early part of the season has knocked her
confidence. it s the stress said johnson. i am not used to feeling this this
early. i am just used to training. but if i m doing this kind of thing then i
will have to see how it goes. johnson next competes in the high-class birmingham
grand prix on 18 february.
elvis regains top chart position elvis presley has scored his 19th number one
single in the uk charts with the re-release of jailhouse rock 27 years after his
death. elvis knocked x factor winner steve brookstein down into second place after
three weeks in the charts. in at number three was iron maiden for the number of the
beast and erasure entered the chart at four with breathe. elvis s number one is the
999th in chart history and comes the day after what would have been his 70th
birthday. fans around the world held tribute events for the singer on saturday
ranging from concerts to memorabilia exhibitions. meanwhile a poll carried out by
royalty payments group the performing right society found that the wonder of you is
the elvis song most performed by live bands and tribute acts. record company
sonybmg are releasing elvis s 18 number one singles at the rate of one a week in
britain complete with original artwork and a collector s box. hit single one night
will follow next week - with the chance of becoming the 1 000th number one as
interest surrounding elvis s birthday grows. elsewhere in the singles charts the
scissor sisters went straight in at number five with filthy/gorgeous. band aid 20
slipped to six after seven weeks in the chart with do they know it s christmas. the
other two new entries are dana rayne with object of my desire at seven and kasabian
who are at number eight with cut off. making up the top 10 are boulevard of broken
dreams by green day down three places to number nine and out of touch by uniting
nations also down three places to 10. in the album charts the scissor sisters
went to number one with their self-titled release knocking green day s american
idiot to third place. the killers album hot fuss moved up three to number two.
latest opera browser gets vocal net browser opera 8.0 due for official release at
the end of next month will be the most accessible browser on the market
according to its authors. the latest version of the net browser can be controlled
by voice command and will read pages aloud. the voice features based on ibm
technology are currently only available in the windows version. opera can also
magnify text by up to 10 times and users can create style sheets its developers
say. this will enable them to view pages with colours and fonts that they prefer.
but the browser does not yet work well with screen reader software often used by
blind people so its accessibility features are more likely to appeal to those with
some residual vision. our mission was always to provide the best internet
experience for everyone said opera spokeswoman berit hanson. so we would
obviously not want to exclude disabled computer users. another feature likely to
appeal to people with low vision is the ability to make pages fit to the screen
width which eliminates the need for horizontal scrolling. the company points out
that this will also appeal to anyone using opera with a handheld device. the
company says that features like voice activation are not solely aimed at visually
impaired people. our idea was to take a first step in making human-computer
interaction more natural said ms hanson. people are not always in a situation
where they can access a keyboard so this makes the web a more hands-free
experience. unlike commercially available voice recognition software opera does
not have to be trained to recognise an individual voice. around 50 voice commands
are available and users will have to wear a headset which incorporates a
microphone. the voice recognition function is currently only available in english.
opera is free to download but a paid-for version comes without an ad banner in the
top right hand corner and with extra support. opera began life as a research
project - a spin-off from norwegian telecoms company telenor. its browser is used
by an estimated 10 million people on a variety of operating systems and a number of
different platforms.
fockers fuel festive film chart comedy meet the fockers topped the festive box
office in north america setting a new record for christmas day. the sequel took
$44.7m (£23.2m) between 24 and 26 december according to studio estimates. it took
$19.1m (£9.9m) on christmas day alone the highest takings on that day in box
office history. meet the fockers is the sequel to ben stiller comedy meet the
parents also starring robert de niro blythe danner dustin hoffman and barbra
streisand. despite the success of meet the fockers takings were down 26.5% on 2003
s figures - which was blamed on christmas falling over a weekend this year. when
christmas falls on a weekend it s bad for business said paul dergarabedian
president of exhibitor relations which compiles box office statistics. the weekend
s top 12 films took an estimated $121.9m (£63.3m) compared with $165.8m (£86.1m)
last year when the third lord of the rings film dominated the box office. meet the
fockers knocked last week s top film lemony snicket s a series of unfortunate
events down to third place with $12.5m (£6.5m). comedy fat albert - co-written by
bill cosby - entered the chart in second place after opening on christmas day
taking $12.7m (£6.6m). the aviator starring leonardo dicaprio as howard hughes
took $9.4m after expanding from 40 to 1 796 cinemas on christmas day.
broadband takes on tv viewing the number of europeans with broadband has exploded
over the past 12 months with the web eating into tv viewing habits research
suggests. just over 54 million people are hooked up to the net via broadband up
from 34 million a year ago according to market analysts nielsen/netratings. the
total number of people online in europe has broken the 100 million mark. the
popularity of the net has meant that many are turning away from tv say analysts
jupiter research. it found that a quarter of web users said they spent less time
watching tv in favour of the net the report by nielsen/netratings found that the
number of people with fast internet access had risen by 60% over the past year.
the biggest jump was in italy where it rose by 120%. britain was close behind
with broadband users almost doubling in a year. the growth has been fuelled by
lower prices and a wider choice of always-on fast-net subscription plans. twelve
months ago high speed internet users made up just over one third of the audience in
europe; now they are more than 50% and we expect this number to keep growing said
gabrielle prior nielsen/netratings analyst. as the number of high-speed surfers
grows websites will need to adapt update and enhance their content to retain
their visitors and encourage new ones. the total number of europeans online rose
by 12% to 100 million over the past year the report showed with the biggest rise
in france italy britain and germany. the ability to browse web pages at high
speed download files such as music or films and play online games is changing what
people do in their spare time. a study by analysts jupiter research suggested that
broadband was challenging television viewing habits. in homes with broadband 40%
said they were spending less time watching tv. the threat to tv was greatest in
countries where broadband was on the up in particular the uk france and spain
said the report. it said tv companies faced a major long-term threat over the next
five years with broadband predicted to grow from 19% to 37% of households by 2009.
year-on-year we are continuing to see a seismic shift in where when and how europe
s population consume media for information and entertainment and this has big
implications for tv newspaper and radio said jupiter research analyst olivier
beauvillian.
federer breezes into semi-finals roger federer reached the last four of the qatar
open with an easy 6-1 6-2 win over seventh seed feliciano lopez. the swiss world
number one reeled off a series winners to outclass the spaniard and set up a semi-
final match against russian nikolay davydenko. federer who lost in the quarter-
final in his last qatar appearance in 2003 was happy with his form. i think i
played better than against greg rusedski and i am happy i am playing so well said
the top seed. lopez showed glimpses of resolve early in the second set when he held
his first service game and came close to breaking federer. but the swiss saved a
break point and promptly broke serve in the following game to seize control.
davydenko meanwhile upset french third seed sebastien grosjean 2-6 6-3 6-2.
fabrice santoro completed a miserable day for france when he was forced to retire
when 6-2 3-0 down to albert costa. spaniard costa will next face croatian ivan
ljubicic after the sixth seed beat rafael nadal 6-2 6-7 (3/7) 6-3.
hollywood to sue net film pirates the us movie industry has launched legal action
to sue people who facilitate illegal film downloading. the motion picture
association of america wants to stop people using the program bittorrent to swap
movies. the industry is targeting people who run websites which provide information
and internet links to movies which have been copied or filmed in cinemas. more than
100 server operators have been targeted in the actions launched in the us and uk
the mpaa added. the suits were filed against users of the file-sharing programs
bittorrent edonkey and directconnect in the united states united kingdom france
finland and the netherlands the mpaa said. bittorrent users can download movies
by following a link to files which are found on websites called trackers. unlike
most peer-to-peer programs bittorrent works by sharing a file which could be
anything from a legitimate digital photo to a copied movie among multiple users at
the same time. the movie industry hopes that suing the people who run the trackers
will cut bittorrent users off from illegal movies at source. last month major film
studios started legal action against 200 individuals who were swapping films
online. the growth in broadband has made it quicker for people to download movies
and the industry fears that if it does not take action now it could suffer the
same downturn as the music industry.
ferrero eyes return to top form former world number one juan carlos ferrero insists
he can get back to his best despite a tough start to 2005. the 2003 french open
champion has slipped to 64 in the world after a year of illness and injuries in
2004 but is confident that his form will return. i don t know when it is going to
happen ferrero told bbc sport. but i have a lot of confidence in me that i will
be the same juan carlos as i was before and very soon. i feel 100% again mentally.
the 25-year-old spaniard joins a top field for the abn amro world tennis tournament
in rotterdam this week as he looks to add to just two wins in 2005. he opens
against rainer schuettler and potentially faces fourth seed david nalbandian in the
second round. because i m no longer seeded it s tougher ferrero admitted. i had
to play against joachim johansson in the first round last week in marseille. in
the past when i was a top seed i would have played a match like that in the
quarters or semi-finals. this is the big difference but i have to do it to get
higher in the rankings. despite this ferrero insists he is feeling positive after
chicken pox and a rib injury destroyed last season. physically i am 100% since
december of last year said ferrero. i was working very hard before the davis cup
final to prepare and i ve felt 100% from then until now. the difficult moments
were when i knew that i had the chicken pox and that it would take two or three
months to recover. i had to start from zero again physically because the virus
left me at zero per cent. when i started to come back i had my rib broken when i
fell on court and that was another two months out. those five months were pretty
difficult for me. among the low points of a difficult year for ferrero was the
decision of spain captain jordi arrese to drop him for the davis cup final against
the usa. it was difficult because i had been playing well for the whole year and
the coaches told me that i would play said ferrero. but then i had some problems
with my hand two days before the friday matches so they decided to choose nadal
instead. it was difficult for me not to be in the friday matches but i had to
understand. inside me i wanted to play but this was the decision of the captain
and they had to make it.
jones doping probe begins an investigation into doping claims against marion jones
has been opened by the international olympic committee. ioc president jacques
rogge has set up a disciplinary body to look into claims by victor conte of balco
laboratories. jones who says she is innocent could lose all her olympic medals
after conte said he gave her performance-enhancing drugs before the sydney
olympics. but rogge said it was too early to speculate about that hoping only that
the truth will emerge . any decision on the medals would be taken by the ioc s
executive board and could hinge on interpretation of a rule stating that olympic
decisions can only be challenged within three years of the games closing. the
sydney olympics ended more than four years ago but world anti-doping agency chief
dick pound said the rule may not apply because the allegations are only coming out
now. we will find a way to deal with that pound said. in a statement released
through her attorney rich nichols jones repeated her innocence and vowed she would
be cleared. victor conte s allegations are not true and the truth will be revealed
for the world to see as the legal process moves forward she said. conte is
someone who is under federal indictment and has a record of issuing contradictory
inconsistent statements.
singer ferguson facing eviction three degrees star sheila ferguson is the
favourite to be evicted from itv s i m a celebrity... get me out of here on monday.
bookmakers ladbrokes says the singer has even odds of being the first contestant to
be voted off the show. it s going to be close but sheila is favourite as she has
shown herself to be a bit of a troublemaker said ladbrokes warren lush. comic
joe pasquale remains odds on favourite to win the reality show. mr lush added that
nancy sorrell s chances of an early departure had increased since the surprise
arrival of husband vic reeves in the jungle camp last wednesday. notwithstanding
comedian reeves remains 3/1 favourite to win the show after pasquale. huggy bear
actor antonio fargas also remains a contender for eviction having done nothing to
live up to the pre-show hype . there has been a big gamble on natalie [appleton]
to go... but bookies fancy the millions at home will keep piling on the misery by
putting her through more bushtucker trials added mr lush. the former all saint
star has performed dismally in bushtucker trials which have seen her plunged into
glass tanks containing putrid waste and challenged to eat fish eyes. on friday
ladbrokes suspended betting after singer brian harvey quit the show folllowing a
blazing row with janet street-porter. harvey who entered the camp a day later than
other contestants after learning that his grandmother had died reached the end of
his tether following days of meagre rations and rows.
wine comedy up for six film gongs sideways a wine-tasting comedy starring paul
giamatti is up for six independent spirit awards the art-house version of the
oscars. the awards are held on 26 february the day before the oscars. spanish
drama maria full of grace about a colombian woman who becomes a drug courier got
five nominations. controversial biopic kinsey starring liam neeson as sex
researcher alfred kinsey was one of four films to get four nominations. the awards
now in their 20th year honour quirky low-budget films all of which must have a
degree of independent financing. sideways is written and directed by alexander
payne who directed the 2002 hit about schmidt winning jack nicholson his 12th
academy award nomination. these awards for better or worse mean everything
said sideways producer michael london adding they were a huge first step toward
getting recognition from other awards. among the other films receiving four
nominations apiece were brother to brother a drama about a young gay black man
forced to live on the streets robbing peter and primer. primer a $7 000 (£3 650)
tale of discovery won top prize at the sundance film festival earlier this year.
walter salles critically acclaimed the motorcycle diaries and the forthcoming
thriller the woodsman starring kevin bacon received three nominations each. also
in the running with two nominations are high school comedy napoleon dynamite the
door in the floor and garden state - written directed and starring scrubs star
zach braff alongside natalie portman. the awards were announced by actors selma
blair and dennis quaid in los angeles on tuesday.
bank voted 8-1 for no rate change the decision to keep interest rates on hold at
4.75% earlier this month was passed 8-1 by the bank of england s rate-setting body
minutes have shown. one member of the bank s monetary policy committee (mpc) -
paul tucker - voted to raise rates to 5%. the news surprised some analysts who had
expected the latest minutes to show another unanimous decision. worries over growth
rates and consumer spending were behind the decision to freeze rates the minutes
showed. the bank s latest inflation report released last week had noted that the
main reason inflation might fall was weaker consumer spending. however mpc member
paul tucker voted for a quarter point rise in interest rates to 5%. he argued that
economic growth was picking up and that the equity credit and housing markets had
been stronger than expected. the bank s minutes said that risks to the inflation
forecast were sufficiently to the downside to keep rates on hold at its latest
meeting. however the minutes added: some members noted that an increase might be
warranted in due course if the economy evolved in line with the central
projection . ross walker uk economist at royal bank of scotland said he was
surprised that a dissenting vote had been made so soon. he said the minutes
appeared to be trying to get the market to focus on the possibility of a rise in
rates . if the economy pans out as they expect then they are probably going to
have to hike rates. however he added any rate increase is not likely to happen
until later this year with mpc members likely to look for a more sustainable pick
up in consumer spending before acting.
aviator and vera take bafta glory hollywood blockbuster the aviator and low-budget
british movie vera drake have shared the main honours at the 2005 bafta film
awards. the aviator was declared best film and its star cate blanchett won best
supporting actress. but vera drake scored best director for mike leigh while imelda
staunton took the hotly contested best actress award. jamie foxx won best actor for
ray while british actor clive owen took best supporting actor for closer. the two
actors have repeated their success at the golden globes in january. but big british
hope kate winslet walked away empty-handed on saturday despite two nominations for
best actress. celebrating his win the oscar-nominated owen told reporters: the
whole award season is new to me because i haven t won anything before. all of that
is a bit overwhelming. blanchett who won a bafta in 1999 for her leading role in
elizabeth said: winning a bafta means an enormous amount to me. she thanked the
woman she played katharine hepburn for paving the way for women to work in film.
thank you very much i m sure you re pleased although you re not able to see this
she said. the aviator took four awards in all also collecting best make-up and
hair and production design while vera drake also scooped best costume design.
staunton who is up for an oscar for her role in vera drake arrived wearing a
green silk and chiffon beaded evening dress. thank you very much. i m so thrilled
and so grateful and i m delighted that the success of vera drake has boosted sales
of hair nets and pinnies which is very good she said on accepting her award. her
director leigh who beat martin scorsese to the best director award told the
audience: we always say it was a surprise and sometimes i ve said it and not meant
it. on this occasion given the other names it s a real surprise and an
extraordinary honour. it s an immense privilege to have been allowed the freedom
to make as uncompromising a film as i think vera drake is and an epic with such a
small budget. best actor foxx could not make the ceremony but actress helen
mirren read out his acceptance speech. i m honoured and proud to receive this
bafta. i d like to thank the late ray charles himself. he apologised for not being
in london joking: unfortunately i m stuck driving a car in la at gunpoint and i
can t get away. dicaprio who lost out on the best actor bafta to foxx will face
him again at the academy awards in two weeks time. it s the first time i ve come
to the baftas because it s the first time i ve been nominated he told reporters
on the red carpet. i ve appreciated british cinema for a long time and to be
recognised like this is a special honour. other winners included the motorcycle
diaries which took best foreign film and best music while eternal sunshine of the
spotless mind won best original screenplay and best editing. best british film was
my summer of love the story of two young women and their developing relationship
while foxx s movie ray a bio-pic of late singer ray charles also took best sound.
harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban won the orange film of the year voted for
by the public. the orange british academy film awards are being shown on bbc one
from 2010 gmt.
oscars race enters final furlong the race for the oscars entered its final stages
as the deadline for voters to choose their winners passed. the 5 808 academy
voters had until tuesday afternoon to return their ballots - any late submissions
will not be included in the count. the next five days will be spent counting the
voting forms and preparing the winners envelopes. best actor nominee leonardo
dicaprio is to present a statuette for the first time at the la ceremony on sunday.
the 30-year-old actor who is nominated for playing howard hughes in the aviator
will join other hopefuls such as co-star cate blanchett natalie portman and kate
winslet as oscar presenters. the only people who will know the oscar winners before
they are revealed at the ceremony will be the auditors who are in charge of looking
after the ballot count. after collating the results they are responsible for
sealing the results in the famous golden envelopes which will be revealed by a host
of celebrity presenters at the ceremony. former academy award winners gwyneth
paltrow dustin hoffman and halle berry will also present prizes. the event at the
kodak theatre will be attended by 3 300 people including some of the best-known
names in film and organisers say they expect it will be watched on television by
one billion people around the world. one current concern is the torrential rain
which has lashed los angeles for the past week flooding suburbs and causing
mudslides. it is hoped the forecast for sunday for cool weather but no rain will
prove accurate. the last time it rained on oscars night was in the mid-to-late
1980s said oscars communications director john pavlik. we have had rain up until
the day before the show many times but for some reason the oscar gods always shine
on sunday and we hope they will do so again this year he added.
blair joins school sailing trip the prime minister has donned a life jacket and
joined school children in a sailing dinghy as he sought to sell his party s
education policies. tony blair sailed across the lake in bromsgrove
worcestershire while on a visit with education secretary ruth kelly to back school
outings. mr blair later stressed labour s election pledge to focus on education
when he met parents in the area. the conservatives and lib dems both say his
pledges are worthless . all the parties are stepping up campaigning ahead of a
general election widely expected to be held on 5 may. mr blair looking a little
windswept joined two girls from st egwin s middle school in evesham and an
instructor for a trip in the wayfarer dinghy closely followed by a boat full of
photographers. afterwards he said outdoor activities were beneficial for children
but accepted that lots of teachers now worried about taking part for fear of being
sued if something went wrong. what we re doing is introducing some simple
guidelines so if teachers follow those they are not going to be at risk of legal
action mr blair said. when you are doing these types of activities you ve got to
exercise some common sense there obviously. you can t have a situation where
parents or teachers end up being worried that they re going to be subject to all
sorts of legal action if they take children sailing or doing outdoor activity that
is actually good for the kids and good for their health and their character. the
pledge on education - your child achieving more - was one of six election pledges
unveiled by mr blair last week. if it wins a third term in the general election
expected this year labour is committed to giving parents more choice between
schools; allowing all secondary schools to take on specialist status; opening 200
city academies and creating 100 000 more sixth-form places. it aims to improve
discipline in schools by adopting a zero tolerance approach to disruption of
classes and introducing fixed penalty notices for truants. labour also plans to
give head teachers at groups of local schools control over funding for units to
handle disruptive pupils. parents and teachers who met mr blair on tuesday were
invited to the informal discussion after writing to their mps to raise concerns
about education. it is the latest in a series of events designed to show the prime
minister is speaking directly to voters in the run-up to the election - and that he
has not lost touch. for the conservatives shadow education secretary tim collins
said: mr blair¿s government is all talk. he must be judged on what he has
done in two terms not what he mendaciously claims he would do in a third. that
judgment will be damning. the liberal democrats are promising to cut class sizes
for the youngest children and ensure all children are taught by a qualified teacher
in each subject.
sa unveils more for all budget the south african government has put tax cuts and
increased social spending at the centre of its latest budget. aiming to both stir
economic growth and aid the country s poor finance minister trevor manuel said the
focus of the 2005 budget was more for all . the tax cuts target firms and
individuals cutting corporate tax from 30% to 29% and offering income tax cuts
worth 6.8bn rand ($1.2bn; £910m). spending on health and education will rise by
9.4% and 8.1% respectively. spending on housing and sanitation will rise by 12%.
all the spending increases will run over the next three years. unveiling the
418bn-rand budget to parliament mr manuel said the south african economy had grown
by an average of 3.2% over the past four years slightly below the african average
of 4%. he predicted that the south african economy would grow by 4.3% in 2005 and
4.2% in 2006. mr manuel added that inflation fell to 4.3% in 2004 and is expected
to remain at between 3% and 6% from now until at least 2008 helped by interest
rates which are at their lowest level in 24 years. given that both corporate and
personal taxes are being cut - under the new measures those earning less than 35
000 rand a year will be exempt from income tax - the extra 22.3bn rand in social
spending will be partly met by higher fuel tobacco and alcohol taxes. in this
budget the focus is on more for all not more for some and not a hell of a lot
more for a few but spread across all of south africa said mr manuel. he said
that the economic situation was a marked improvement on the position at the end
of apartheid but acknowledged that more needed to be done to improve the lives and
livelihoods of the disadvantaged. about 280 000 jobs a year have been created in
south africa since 2000 but unemployment remains high currently close to 30%.
economist colen garrow said the budget looked as if it would stimulate economic
growth. it s pleasant to see the cut in company taxes it s a good incentive for
business he said.
wales hails new superstar one game into his six nations career and gavin henson is
already a welsh legend. a mesmeric display against england topped off by his
howitzer of a match-winning penalty has secured life membership of that particular
club. at 23 henson has the rugby world at his silver-booted feet. and if his
natural self-assurance and swagger is shared by his wales team-mates then a full-
blown revival could be more than just a lot of hot air drifting up from the
valleys. the red dragonhood subdued the red rose army in most areas of the
field but henson s stellar performance ensured their efforts yielded the win they
craved above all others. he announced himself in the game s opening salvo with a
welcome to cardiff greeting for mark cueto on the gain line. and his defence was a
major feature of the match his principal victim poor old or rather young mathew
tait. the england centre will have spent his 19th birthday on sunday shuddering at
the memory of how he was up-ended not just once but twice by henson s all-
enveloping tackles. the second time after the interval single-handedly lifted
the record millennium stadium crowd at a time when england were starting to show
menace. showing awesome strength henson nonchantly held the bewildered debutant in
mid-air a master predator toying with his helpless prey savouring the kill. his
kicking game also prospered particularly when he moved to full-back for 10 minutes
either side of half-time when his captain gareth thomas was in the sin-bin. one
huge clearance from tait s kick sent england retreating rapidly while another
booming punt to the right corner kept the visitors pinned in their own half. henson
was also creativity personified: one little chip ahead for shane williams narrowly
missed its target; a precise cross-kick forcing jamie noon to fumble the ball into
touch. he also had a hand in the game s only try finished superbly by williams
and might have scored himself on the half-hour as he glided into space only to be
scragged by tait. henson was twice repelled as wales laid siege to the english line
after charlie hodgson s penalty had edged the visitors in front for the first time.
but he was not to be denied as the crescendo rose to a deafening din and the
outcome of the match fell to him. replacement gareth cooper made the most of a poor
welsh scrum by chipping into space where jason robinson was penalised for holding
on in the tackle. five metres in from the right touchline 44 metres out it was
not a kick stephen jones who had seen a long-range effort fall agonisingly under
the bar would have approached with confidence. it was out of steve s range but i
looked at gavin and he gave me a reassuring nod said thomas. henson surveying
his date with destiny positively relished the responsibility and the chance to
make himself a hero. without further ado he nervelessly slotted the kick that
ended five years of english dominance and 12 years of waiting in cardiff. i knew i
was going to get it before i even took the kick he said later his distinct
spikey locks freshly gelled into an appropriate star shape. i have been getting
them from that distance all year so it wasn t a problem. there were still four
minutes for wales to hold out and the frenzy was such that henson could not even
hear jones shouting instructions at him from three yards away. but it was wales who
finished the game on the attack almost snatching a second try in a thunderous
climax. just do it implored the front page headline on saturday s western mail
newspaper. and thanks to henson wales did.
file-swappers ready new network legal attacks on websites that help people swap
pirated films have forced the development of a system that could be harder to shut
down. one site behind the success of the bittorrent file-swapping system is
producing its own software that avoids the pitfalls of the earlier program. a test
version of the new exeem program will be released in late january. but doubts
remain about the new networks ability to ensure files being swapped are quality
copies . in late december movie studios launched a legal campaign against websites
that helped people swap pirated movies using the bittorrent network. the legal
campaign worked because of the way that bittorrent is organised. that file-sharing
system relies on links called trackers that point users to others happy to share
the file they are looking for. shutting down sites that listed trackers crippled
the bittorrent network. one of the sites shut down by the legal campaign was
suprnova.org which helped boost the popularity of the bittorrent system by checking
that trackers led to the movies or tv programmes they claimed to. now the man
behind suprnova.org who goes by the nickname sloncek is preparing to release
software for a new file-swapping network dubbed exeem. in an interview with
novastream web radio sloncek said exeem would combine ideas from the bittorrent
and kazaa file-sharing systems. like bittorrent exeem will have trackers that help
point people toward the file they want. like kazaa these trackers will be held by
everyone. there will be no centrally maintained list. this said sloncek should
make the system less vulnerable to legal action aimed at stopping people swapping
pirated movies and music. the exeem software has been under development for a few
months and is currently being tested by a closed group of users. an early public
version of the software should be available before february. sloncek said that
currently only a windows version of the software was in development. there were no
plans for a linux or mac version. he said that costs of writing the software will
be paid for by adverts appearing in the finished version of the program. despite
suprnova administrator sloncek s involvement with exeem the basic technology
appears to have been developed by a firm called swarm systems that is based on
caribbean island saint kitts and nevis. users of the exeem system will be able to
rate files being swapped to help stop the spread of fake files sloncek told
novastream. dr johan pouwelse a researcher at the delft university of technology
who studies peer-to-peer networks said exeem was the next evolution in file-
sharing systems. but he said it would struggle to be as popular as bittorrent and
suprnova because early versions were not taking enough care to make sure good
copies of files were being shared. exeem cannot prevent pollution he said. the
rating system in exeem seems flawed because it is easy to insert both fake files
and fake ratings he said. studies have shown that organisations working for
record labels and movie studios have worked to undermine kazaa by putting in fakes.
by contrast moderators on suprnova made sure files being shared were high quality.
the moderators are the difference between having a system that works and one that s
full of crap like kazaa he said. there is a fundamental tension between
distribution and integrity he said. mr pouwelse said that future versions of
file-sharing systems are likely to incorporate some kind of distributed reputation
system that lets moderators prove who they are to the network and rate which files
are worth downloading. when big files were being shared moderation systems were key
said mr pouwelse. he added that the legal attacks on bittorrent had driven people
away from sites such as suprnova but many users had simply migrated to other
tracker listing sites many of which have seen huge increases in traffic. it s hard
to compete with free he said. no-one from the motion picture association of
america was immediately available for comment on the file-sharing development.
doors open at biggest gadget fair thousands of technology lovers and industry
experts have gathered in las vegas for the annual consumer electronics show (ces).
the fair showcases the latest technologies and gadgets that will hit the shops in
the next year. about 50 000 new products will be unveiled as the show unfolds.
microsoft chief bill gates is to make a pre-show keynote speech on wednesday when
he is expected to announce details of the next generation xbox. the thrust of this
year s show will be on technologies which put people in charge of multimedia
content so they can store listen to and watch what they want on devices any time
anywhere. about 120 000 people are expected to attend the trade show which
stretches over more than 1.5 million square feet. highlights will include the
latest trends in digital imaging storage technologies thinner flat screen and
high-definition tvs wireless and portable technologies gaming and broadband
technologies. the show also includes several speeches from key technology companies
such as intel microsoft and hewlett packard among others. the story this year
remains all about digital and how that is completely transforming and
revolutionising products and the way people interact with them jeff joseph from
the consumer electronics association (cea) told the bbc news website. it is about
personalisation - taking your mp3 player and creating your own playlist taking
your digital video recorder and watch what you want to watch when - you are no
longer at the whim of the broadcasters. consumer electronics and gadgets had a
phenomenal year in 2004 according to figures released by ces organisers the cea
on tuesday. the gadget explosion signalled the strongest growth yet in the us in
2004. shipments of consumer electronics rose by almost 11% between 2003 and 2004.
that trend is predicted to continue according to cea analysts with wholesale
shipments of consumer technologies expected to grow by 11% again in 2005. the
fastest-growing technologies in 2004 included blank dvd media liquid crystal
display (lcd) tvs digital video recorders (dvrs) and portable music players.
this year we will really begin to see that come to life in what we call place
shifting - so if you have your pvr [personal video recorder] in your living room
you can move that content around the house. some exhibitors will be showcasing how
you can take that content anywhere said mr joseph. he said the products which
will be making waves in the next year will be about the democratisation of
content - devices and technologies that will give people the freedom to do more
with music video and images. there will also be more focus on the design of
technologies following the lead that apple s ipod made with ease of use and good
looks which appeal to a wider range of people a key concern. the cea predicted
that there would be several key technology trends to watch in the coming year.
gaming would continue to thrive especially on mobile devices and would reach out
to more diverse gamers such as women. games consoles sales have been declining but
the launch of next generation consoles such as microsoft s xbox and playstation
could buoy up sales. although it has been widely predicted that mr gates would be
showcasing the new xbox some media reports have cast doubt on what he would be
talking about in the keynote. some have suggested the announcement may take place
at the games developers conference in the summer instead. with more than 52% of us
homes expected to have home networks the cea suggested hard drive boxes - or media
servers - capable of storing thousands of images video and audio files to be
accessed through other devices around the home will be more commonplace. portable
devices that combine mobile telephony digital music and video players will also
be more popular in 2005. their popularity will be driven by more multimedia content
and services which will let people watch and listen to films tv and audio
wherever they are. this means more storage technologies will be in demand such as
external hard drives and flash memory like sd cards. ces runs officially from 6 to
9 january.
woolf murder sentence rethink plans to give murderers lighter sentences if they
plead guilty have been watered down. there was an outcry three months ago when the
sentencing guidelines council - led by lord woolf - published its proposals for
england and wales. it had suggested judges should reduce sentences by a third for
murderers who confessed at the earliest opportunity. but that has now been changed
to one-sixth with no reduction for those killers given a whole life tariff . at
the time lord woolf the lord chief justice had said the one third reduction would
only be in extraordinary circumstances - for example if people gave themselves up
before their crime had even been detected. the guidelines were to recognise the
need to spare victims and witnesses the trauma of going to court where possible by
allowing lighter sentences for guilty pleas and co-operation he said. but
director of the victims of crime trust norman brennan accused lord woolf of
having an arrogant contempt for victims of crime and the law-abiding public . the
national association of probation officers said the move would be political
suicide . in revised proposals from the sentencing guidelines council (sgc) the
section on murder said possible reductions would have to be weighed carefully by
a judge so they did not lead to an inappropriately short sentence . where it was
appropriate to reduce the minimum term having regard to a plea of guilty the
maximum reduction would be one sixth and should never exceed five years it said.
in a statement issued on wednesday lord woolf said: i have no doubt that being
able to call on the diverse backgrounds and experiences of all those that serve on
the sgc has vastly improved the final guidelines. i am confident as a result
that judges will be better placed to deliver sentences which are effective both as
punishments and deterrents to offending and reoffending. director of public
prosecutions ken macdonald qc who sits on the sgc said the principle of
discounting sentences to offenders for early guilty pleas is set down by
parliament. what the new guideline on reduced sentences for guilty pleas does is
increase the chances of convicting the guilty by bringing clarity to this process.
it represents a tougher regime than existed previously because the discount is
automatically reduced if a guilty plea is not made at the first available
opportunity he said.
indian oil firm eyes yukos assets india s biggest oil exploration firm oil &
natural gas corp (ongc) says it is in talks to buy the former assets of troubled
russian crude producer yukos. we are in touch with the concerned russian entities
about the yukos assets and other opportunities in russia said ongc chairman subir
raha. local press had reported that ongc was looking to buy 15% of yukos former
key oil production unit for $2bn (£1bn). yukos is being broken up by russian
authorities to pay a massive tax bill. it was forced to sell its key production
unit yuganskneftegas (yugansk) last month after being hit with a bill of $27bn in
unpaid taxes and fines. state-owned rosneft now owns yugansk and russia has said
it will turn the oil producer into a stand-alone firm. indian oil minister mani
shankar aiyar discussed ongc s plans during a trip to moscow last year and the
topic came up again during russian president vladimir putin s recent visit to new
delhi. it would make great sense for us to build on that said mr aiyar. india s
oil production has stagnated over recent years and it is having to look abroad to
secure future supplies. india imports about 70% of its total oil consumption. at
the same time india s economy is booming and the country s thirst for oil is so
strong that it has helped pushed up the price of crude worldwide. india produces
about 793 000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) little changed since the start of the
1990s according to oil industry analysts douglas-westwood. consumption meanwhile
has jumped to 2.4 million bpd compared with 474 000 bpd in 1973. for countries
to develop they have to have access to energy said john westwood managing
director of oil industry analysts douglas-westwood. india is a dramatically
growing economy that must have access to oil . by buying into yugansk ongc would
be able to reduce its dependence on gulf states for oil imports mr westwood
explained especially as the chances of finding and exploiting resources within
india are slim. we forecast that indian production will go into significant
decline mr westwood said. by 2020 production may only be at half of today s
levels. ongc which is majority-owned by the indian state already has bought
petroleum assets in countries including vietnam sudan and russia. the company is a
partner with rosneft in the sakhalin-1 oil field off russia s siberian coast. ongc
is however not the only firm interested in yugansk. chinese crude company china
national petroleum has also been mentioned as a possible investor while on
thursday italy refused to rule out an interest. ongc s interest is the latest
twist in a saga that has seen one of the world s biggest oil producers brought to
its knees. the dispute is partly driven by president putin s clampdown on the
political ambitions of ex-yukos boss mikhail khodorkovsky who is currently in jail
on charges of fraud and tax evasion. yukos has been battling the russian
authorities for more than a year and has filed for bankruptcy protection in the us.
analysts have questioned how long it can continue to survive without yugansk. on
thursday a us court said it will hear arguments for yukos bankruptcy claim to be
thrown out on 16 february. should that happen yukos will have little chance of
clawing back its assets analysts said.
tottenham bid £8m for forest duo nottingham forest have confirmed they have
received an £8m bid from tottenham for andy reid and michael dawson. reid rejected
a move to southampton after forest accepted a cash-plus-players offer while spurs
had made previous bids for the 22-year-old. spurs had also made an undisclosed
offer for 21-year-old defender dawson. forest chief executive mark arthur said: we
ve received an £8m bid from spurs for the two players and we re considering the
offer. southampton s offer for republic of ireland international reid comprised
£3m-plus and two players - brett ormerod and darren kenton. spurs had seen
previous bids of £3m £4m and £5m for reid rejected by the championship club.
saudi investor picks up the savoy london s famous savoy hotel has been sold to a
group combining saudi billionaire investor prince alwaleed bin talal and a unit of
hbos bank. financial details of the deal which includes the nearby simpson s in
the strand restaurant were not disclosed. the seller - irish-based property firm
quinlan private - bought the savoy along with the berkeley claridge s and the
connaught for £750m last year. prince alwaleed s hotel investments include the
luxury george v in paris. he also has substantial stakes in fairmont hotels &
resorts which will manage the savoy and simpson s in the strand and four seasons.
fairmont said it planned to invest $48m (£26m) in renovating parts of the savoy
including the river room and suites with views over the river thames. work was
expected to be completed by summer 2006 fairmont said.
label withdraws mcfadden s video the new video of former westlife singer brian
mcfadden has been pulled after a dublin school complained about being associated
with his song irish son. st fintian s high school says it is clearly identified in
the video while mcfadden never went there. mcfadden makes claims that he was
beaten at his own school in the song s lyrics saying it had cell blocks . the
performer s record label sony bmg has withdrawn the video and issued replacements
to television stations. the label believed the school name was fictitious until
they received the complaint. they have said the reference to the school was
unintentional and coincidental. the head of christian brothers school st fintian
s richard fogarty said the video implied that the 24-year-old pop star had
attended his school and was abused there. the school has always treated its pupils
with respect mr fogarty said in a statement. mcfadden makes specific references
to the christian brothers in his song but did not attend st fintian s. corporal
punishment was outlawed in irish schools in 1982 when mcfadden was two years old.
mcfadden whose debut solo album is released next week has said that every song is
autobiographical and a true story . alcoholism and domestic violence are among the
other topics dealt with in his songs half of which have been written with robbie
williams former collaborator guy chambers. mcfadden who quit chart-topping group
westlife in march went to number one in september with his first solo single real
to me. he enjoyed 12 chart-toppers with the boy band before parting company with
them.
thompson says gerrard should stay liverpool legend phil thompson has pleaded with
steve gerrard to reject any overtures from chelsea. the ex-reds assistant boss
also warned that any honours won at chelsea would be cheapened by the bid to buy
success. he told bbc radio five live: liverpool would think about any bid made but
it will all be down to steve in the end. but it wouldn t have that same sweet
feeling at chelsea where it s all money-orientated and about simply buying the
best. thompson reacted sharply to some liverpool supporters who criticised
gerrard s performance in the carling cup final against chelsea. a number of fans
questioned gerrard s commitment and sarcastically branded his own goal in liverpool
s 3-2 defeat as his first goal for chelsea. thompson added: i heard those
comments from so-called supporters and they were diabolical absolutely outrageous.
stevie carried the club last year and this year. he s always put liverpool first.
thompson who savoured seven title-winning seasons and two european cup triumphs
during his anfield playing career is confident that the lure of champions league
football will keep gerrard at anfield. i hope champions league football will
beckon for liverpool - either as winners or as finishing fourth in the premiership
- and he will commit himself. there has been a lot of soul-searching the way
things have gone lately. i hope he s hardening to the fact he will have big
decisions to make but i hope it is to the benefit of steven gerrard and i hope it
is worthwhile for liverpool.
last chance warning for voters people in england scotland and wales must have
registered by 1700 gmt to be able to vote in the general election if it is held as
expected on 5 may. those who filled in forms last autumn should already be on the
register - but those who have moved house or were on holiday may have been left
off. there will also be elections for local councils and mayors in parts of england
on 5 may. the deadline for voters to register in northern ireland expired on
thursday. completed registration forms can be handed into local authorities
throughout the day on friday and some will accept them by fax. as well as for
english county councils polls for unitary authorities at bristol isle of wight
and stockton-on-tees and mayors at doncaster hartlepool north tyneside and stoke-
on-trent are also scheduled for 5 may. last week preston city council reported that
more than 14 000 of its voters were not registered. its electoral roll fell by
17.5% in a year - the biggest dip in the uk. an electoral commission spokeswoman
said: political decisions are made on your behalf every day but only by using your
right to vote at an election can you really have a say on the issues you care
about. if you want your voice to be heard on 5 may you will need to have
registered by friday 11 march. council tax payers are not eligible to vote without
registration officials have stressed.
abba queen enters music rich list the woman behind the abba musical mamma mia! has
joined a list of british-based music millionaires. producer judy craymer is the
highest new entry in the sunday times music rich list with a £67m fortune. ms
craymer remortgaged her home to finance her idea of a musical based around abba s
hits which has since become a global triumph. teenage soul singer joss stone is a
new entry on a list of britain s young music millionaires with £5m. ms craymer
who developed mamma mia! with playwright catherine johnson and members of abba is
at number 31 on the music rich list. but taking the top spot for a second year is
former record label boss clive calder whose wealth has risen to £1.3bn. mr calder
is the man behind acts including britney spears. he made his fortune by selling his
independent label zomba to record giant bmg. former beatle sir paul mccartney is
second on the list with £800m - up £40m on last year. andrew lloyd-webber s wealth
rose an estimated £300m on last year to £700m while theatre impresario sir
cameron mackintosh s fortune rose from £340m to £400m. his recent hits have
included the west end show mary poppins. but pop idol mogul simon fuller has seen
his wealth plummet from £220m last year to £75m after selling his entertainment
company 19 for less than expected according to the sunday times. joss stone the
17-year-old soul singer from devon was a new entry in the young music millionaires
list. the list also features charlotte church coldplay daniel bedingfield will
young and david and victoria beckham. at number one is dhani harrison son of the
late beatle george harrison who has inherited £140m. the beckhams - who qualify
thanks to victoria s former singing career - are in second place with £75 million
between them - up £10m on last year.
moya suffers shock loss fifth seed carlos moya was the first big name to fall at
the australian open as he went down to fellow spaniard guillermo garcia-lopez on
monday. moya began the year with victory at the chennai open but looked out of
sorts from the start in the melbourne heat. garcia-lopez ranked 106 in the world
dominated from the outset and withstood a third-set rally from moya to hang on for
a 7-5 6-3 3-6 6-3 victory. the 21-year-old plays kevin kim or lee hyuung-taik in
the second round. garcia-lopez was delighted with the victory in only his third
ever grand slam match. i think this was the most important win of my life as
carlos is one of the best players in the world he said. this has given me a lot
of confidence. now i feel i can beat all these players. moya said: i was playing
well before i came here. it was the perfect preparation but something was wrong
today. four-time champion andre agassi began what could be his last australian
open with a convincing win over german qualifier dieter kindlmann. the 34-year-old
american who had been struggling with a hip injury earlier in the week stormed to
a 6-4 6-3 6-0 win. agassi will play france s olivier patience or germany s rainer
schuettler - the man he beat in the 2003 final - in the next round. no one was
more concerned (about the injury) than myself said eighth seed agassi. i d
worked hard to be down here and ready. but the last few days i ve pushed through
the injury and it seemed to do pretty good. in other matches world junior
champion gael monfils made use of his wild card with a magnificent 1-6 6-3 6-4 7-6
(8-6) win over american robby ginepri. the 2002 champion thomas johansson fought
back to beat peter luczak 7-6 (7-5) 4-6 6-3 4-6 6-0 and french open champion
gaston gaudio beat justin gimelstob 7-6 (7-3) 6-4 6-3. seeds dominik hrbaty ivan
ljubicic and mario ancic made comfortable progress but former french open champion
albert costa lost to bjorn phau.
collins appeals against drugs ban sprinter michelle collins has lodged an appeal
against her eight-year doping ban with the north american court of arbitration for
sport (cas). the 33-year-old received the ban last month as a result of her
connection to the federal inquiry into the balco doping scandal. she is the first
athlete to be banned without a positive drugs test or an admission of drugs use.
cas has said that a ruling is normally given within four months of an appeal.
collins was suspended by the us anti-doping agency based on patterns observed in
her blood and urine tests as well as evidence in the balco investigation. as well
as being hit with the ban collins was stripped of her 2003 world and us indoor
200m titles. the san francisco-based balco laboratory is at the centre of the
scandal which has rocked the sport. the company has been accused of distributing
illegal performance-enhancing drugs to elite athletes.
german economy rebounds germany s economy the biggest among the 12 countries
sharing the euro grew at its fastest rate in four years during 2004 driven by
strong exports. gross domestic product (gdp) rose by 1.7% last year the
statistical office said. the economy contracted in 2003. foreign sales increased by
8.2% last year compared with a 0.3% slide in private consumption. concerns remain
however over the strength of the euro weak domestic demand and a sluggish labour
market. the european central bank (ecb) left its benchmark interest rate unchanged
at 2% on thursday. it is the nineteenth month in a row that the ecb has not moved
borrowing costs. economists predict that an increase is unlikely to come until the
second half of 2005 with growth set to sputter rather than ignite. during 2004
we profited from the fact that the world economy was strong said stefan schilbe
analyst at hsbc trinkaus & burkhardt. if exports weaken and domestic growth
remains poor we cannot expect much from 2005. many german consumers have been
spooked and unsettled by government attempts to reform the welfare state and
corporate environment. major companies including volkswagen daimlerchrysler and
siemens have spent much of 2004 in tough talks with unions about trimming jobs and
costs. they have also warned there are more cost cutting measures on the horizon.
campbell: e-mail row silly fuss ex-no 10 media chief alastair campbell is at the
centre of a new political row over an e-mail containing a four-letter outburst
aimed at bbc journalists. mr campbell sent the missive by mistake to bbc2 s
newsnight after it sought to question his role in labour s controversial poster
campaign. he later contacted the show saying the original e-mail had been sent in
error and that it was all a silly fuss . mr campbell has recently re-joined labour
s election campaign. the e-mail was revealed the day after peter mandelson former
labour minister and now a european commissioner warned the bbc to steer away from
demonising mr campbell. mr campbell messaged newsnight after the programme
investigated claims that labour s advertising agency tbwa was blaming him for
controversy over its campaign posters. the images including one of flying pigs and
another of what critics claim depicted tory leader michael howard as fagin
prompted accusations of anti-semitism claims denied by labour. mr campbell s e-
mail which was apparently intended for a party official suggested they should get
trevor beattie tbwa s boss to issue a statement. in it he said: just spoke to
trev. think tbwa shd give statement to newsnight saying party and agency work
together well and nobody here has spoken to standard. posters done by by tbwa
according to political brief. now fuck off and cover something important you twats!
the e-mail was sent by mistake to newsnight journalist andrew mcfadyen. realising
his error mr campbell then e-mailed mr mcfadyen pointing out the mistake but
suggesting presenter jeremy paxman would have seen the funny side. he said: not
very good at this e-mail blackberry malarkey. just looked at log of sent messages
have realised e-mail meant for colleagues at tbwa has gone to you. for the record
first three sentences of email spot on. no row between me and trevor. posters done
by them according to our brief. i dreamt up flying pigs. pigs not great but okay in
the circs of tories promising tax cuts and spending rises with the same money. tbwa
made production. campbell swears shock. final sentence of earlier e-mail probably
a bit colourful and personal considering we have never actually met but i m sure
you share the same sense of humour as your star presenter mr p. never known such a
silly fuss since the last silly fuss but there we go. must look forward not back.
later the prime minister s spokesman was asked by journalists about his view on mr
campbell s use of abusive language. the spokesman said: the person you are
referring to is capable of speaking for himself and he no longer works in
government. foreign secretary jack straw said he had always had very good and
polite relations with mr campbell who he described as very talented . but on the
former spin doctor s use of language mr straw said: i do know the odd journalist
who has occasionally used the odd word that would probably be inappropriate in some
circumstances. maybe i mix with the wrong kind of journalists. liam fox tory co-
chairman said the return of mr campbell was a sign of new sinister and underhand
tactics by labour.
mobiles get set for visual radio the growth in the mobile phone market in the past
decade has been nothing less than astonishing but the ability to communicate on
the go is not the only reason we are hooked. games cameras and music players have
all been added to our handsets in the last few years but 2005 could see another
big innovation that won t just see a change in our mobile phone habits - it might
alter the way we listen to the radio. finnish handset giant nokia has been working
on a technology called visual radio which takes an existing fm signal from a radio
station and enables that station to add enhancements such as information and
pictures. it is not the first time that such an idea has been suggested - the early
days of dab digital radio had similar intentions that never really saw the light of
day. one problem is that the name visual radio leads people to think of television
but reidar wasenius a senior project manager at nokia was adamant that visual
radio should not be confused with the more traditional medium. he said: i m very
happy to say it s not television what we re talking about is an enhancement of
radio as we know it today. if you have a visual radio enabled handset when you
hear an artist you don t know or there s a competition or vote that you d like to
participate in you pull out your handset and with one click you turn on a visual
channel parallel to the on-air broadcast you ve just been listening to. that
visual channel is run from a computer within the radio station and sends out
different kinds of information to the handset depending on what you are listening
to. as well as details on the track or artist of a particular song there is also
the ability to interact immediately with the radio station itself in a similar way
to digital television s red button content. possible interactive content
includes competitions votes and even the chance to rate the song that is playing.
but the interactive aspect will make the service especially attractive to radio
stations who will be able to track the number of people taking part in such
activities on a real-time basis. this in turn should lead to an additional source
of revenue as it is very likely that advertisers will be keen to exploit new
opportunities to reach listeners. as the visual radio content is transmitted by
existing gprs technology you would need to have that service enabled by your
network. and there will be a cost for the service as well although it may depend
on your usage. if you enjoy the visual channel occasionally and interact it ll be
two or three pounds per month said mr wasenius. but typically what we see
happening is the operator offering a package deal for an all you can eat
arrangement per month. the payment system could therefore be similar to the way
that broadband internet works versus dial-up connections. one thing that is for
sure - assuming that nokia retains its market share in handsets it is estimating
that there will be 100 million visual radio-enabled mobile phones in circulation by
the end of 2006. basically visual radio is not really revolutionary but rather
an evolution where we are providing tools with which people can participate in
radio much more easily than ever before. the first visual radio service in the uk
will begin in a few months time with virgin radio who are positive about the
impact it could have on their listeners. station manager steve taylor commented:
listeners can interact with the radio station in a new way. not only does this
give listeners more information on the music we play but means they can instantly
purchase things they like; mp3 music downloads and the latest gig tickets.
initially visual radio functionality will be limited to two nokia handsets due out
soon - the 3230 and 7710 - but if successful it is very likely that other
manufacturers will want to join them. listen again to the interview on the radio
five live website.
eu software patent law faces axe the european parliament has thrown out a bill that
would have allowed software to be patented. politicians unanimously rejected the
bill and now it must go through another round of consultation if it is to have a
chance of becoming law. during consultation the software patents bill could be
substantially re-drafted or even scrapped. the bill was backed by some hi-tech
firms saying they needed protections it offered to make research worthwhile. hugo
lueders european director for public policy at comptia an umbrella organization
for technology companies said only when intellectual property was adequately
protected would european inventors prosper. he said the benefits of the bill had
been obscured by special interest groups which muddied debate over the rights and
wrongs of software patents. other proponents of the bill said it was a good
compromise that avoided the excesses of the american system which allows the
patenting of business practices as well as software. but opponents of the bill said
that it could stifle innovation be abused by firms keen to protect existing
monopolies and could hamper the growth of the open source movement. the proposed
law had a troubled passage through the european parliament. its progress was
delayed twice when polish meps rejected plans to adopt it. also earlier this month
the influential european legal affairs committee (juri) said the law should be re-
drafted after it failed to win the support of meps. to become law both the european
parliament and a qualified majority of eu states have to approve of the draft
wording of the bill. the latest rejection means that now the bill on computer
inventions must go back to the eu for re-consideration.
parmalat to return to stockmarket parmalat the italian dairy company which went
bust after an accounting scandal hopes to be back on the italian stock exchange in
july. the firm gained protection from creditors in 2003 after revealing debts of
14bn euros ($18.34bn; £9.6bn). this was eight times higher than it had previously
stated. in a statement issued on wednesday night parmalat finanziaria detailed
administrators latest plans for re-listing the shares of the group. as part of
the re-listing on the italian stock exchange creditors debts are expected to be
converted into shares through two new share issues amounting to more than 2bn
euros. the company s creditors will be asked to vote on the plan later this year.
the plan is likely to give creditors of parmalat finanziaria shares worth about
5.7% of the debts they are owed. this is lower than the 11.3% creditors previously
hoped to receive. creditors of parmalat the main operating company are likely to
see the percentage of debt they receive fall from 7.3% to 6.9%. several former top
parmalat executives are under investigation for the fraud scandal. lawmakers said
on wednesday night enrico bondi the turnaround specialist appointed by the italian
government as parmalat s chief executive spoke positively about the company during
a closed-door hearing of the chamber of deputies industry commission. bondi
supplied us with elements of positive results on the industrial positions and on
the history of debt which will find a point of solution through the parmalat group
s quotation on the market in july italian news agency apcom quoted several
lawmakers as saying in a statement.
turkey turns on the economic charm three years after a gruelling economic crisis
turkey has dressed its economy to impress. as part of a charm offensive - ahead of
17 december when the european union will decide whether to start entry talks -
turkey s economic leaders have been banging the drum to draw attention to recent
achievements. the economy is growing fast they insist. education levels among its
young and large population are rising. unemployment levels in percentage terms
are heading fast towards single digits. inflation is under control. a new law to
govern its turbulent banking system is on the cards. the tourism industry is
booming and revenues from visitors should more than double to $21bn (£10.8bn) in
three years. moreover government spending is set to be frozen and a burdensome
social security deficit is being tackled. income and corporate taxes will be cut
next year in order to attract $15bn of foreign investment over the next three
years. a loan restructuring deal with the international monetary fund (imf) is
pretty much in the can. and following recent macroeconomic restructuring efforts
its currency is floating freely and its central bank is independent. the point of
all this has been to convince europe s decision makers that rather than being a
phenomenally costly exercise for the eu allowing turkey in would in fact bring
masses of economic benefits. the cake will be bigger for everybody said deputy
prime minister abdullatif sener earlier this month. turkey will not be a burden
for the eu budget. if admitted into the eu turkey would contribute almost 6bn
euros ($8bn; £6bn) to its budget by 2014 according to a recent impact study by the
country s state planning organisation. as turkey s gross domestic output (gdp) is
set to grow by 6% per year on average its contribution would rise from less than
5bn euros in 2014 to almost 9bn euros by 2020. turkey could also help alleviate a
labour shortage in old europe once its population comes of age. by 2014 one in
four turks - or about 18 million people - will be aged 14 or less. a literate and
qualified turkish population insisted mr sener will make a positive impact on
the eu. this runs contrary to the popular view that turkey is getting ready to
dig deep into eu taxpayers wallets. however turkey s assertions are confirmed by
brussels own impact studies which indeed say that turkish membership would be
good news for the eu economy. but only over time. costs are projected to be vast
during the early years of turkey s membership with subsidies alone estimated to
exceed 16.5bn euros and according to some predictions balloon to 33.5bn euros.
this would include vast agricultural subsidies and regional aid though such
payments should decline as the country s farm sector which currently employs one
in three turks would employ just one in five by 2020. such high initial expenses
would be coupled with risks that the benefits flagged up by turkey s government
would never be delivered say those who feel the turkish project should be shunned.
some fear that rather than providing an educated sophisticated labour force for
europe at large the people who will leave turkey to seek work abroad will be poor
uneducated - and plentiful. more recently less palatable concerns - at least in
liberal european circles - have been voiced with senior eu or member state
officials talking darkly of a river of islam an oriental culture and a threat
to europe s cultural richness . of course many opponents are politically
motivated - their views ranging from xenophobic prejudices about the country s
muslim traditions to well-documented concerns about the government s human rights
record. yet their economic arguments should not be dismissed out of hand. critics
insist that much of the optimism about turkey s economic roadmap has been over-
egged - an argument amplified by a 134% rise in the country s current account
deficit to $10.7bn during the first 10 months of this year. the country s massive
debt - which includes $23bn owed to the imf and billions borrowed via the
international bond markets - also remains a major obstacle to its ambition of
joining the eu. in the new member states of the european union gross public debt
is typically about 40% of gross domestic product says reza moghadam assistant
director of the imf s european department. at about 80% of gdp turkey s gross
debt is double that figure. turkey s debts have largely arisen from its efforts to
push through banking reform after a run on the banks in 2001 caused the country s
devastating recession. there is no question that although turkey is doing much
better than in the past it remains quite vulnerable says michael deppler
director of the imf s european department. its debt is far too high for an
emerging economy. a key factor for eu decision makers should be whether or not
turkey has met its economic criteria. but economics is not a science. and although
the state of turkey s economy is important as is its pace of reform the final
decision on 17 december will be taken by politicians who will of course be guided
by their political instincts.
henry tipped for fifa award fifa president sepp blatter hopes arsenal s thierry
henry will be named world player of the year on monday. henry is on the fifa
shortlist with barcelona s ronaldinho and newly-crowned european footballer of the
year ac milan s andriy shevchenko. blatter said: henry for me is the
personality on the field. he is the man who can run and organise the game. the
winner of the accolade will be named at a glittering ceremony at zurich s opera
house. the three shortlisted candidates for the women s award are mia hamm of the
united states germany s birgit prinz and brazilian youngster marta. hamm who
recently retired - is looking to regain the women s award which she lost last year
to striker prinz. fifa has changed the panel of voters for this year s awards. male
and female captains of every national team will be able to vote as well as their
coaches and fipro - the global organisation for professional players.
blair dismisses quit claim report tony blair has dismissed reports he told gordon
brown he would quit before the next general election. you don t do deals over
jobs like this the prime minister told bbc one s breakfast with frost programme.
according to a new book brown s britain mr blair went back on a pledge to make
way for mr brown after cabinet allies intervened in june 2004. mr blair said the
claims were reheated from six months ago and that he was concentrating on running
the country. mr blair said: i ve dealt with this six months ago. i said then you
don t do deals over jobs like this - you don t. what both of us are actually
concentrating on are the issues that concern the country. the book by sunday
telegraph journalist robert peston and serialised in the newspaper said the pair
had mutual animosity and contempt for each other. it claims tony blair felt by
november 2003 he had lost voters trust because of the iraq war and that he was no
longer an asset to the labour party. and that at a dinner hosted by deputy prime
minister john prescott he told mr brown of his intention to stand down. according
to mr peston the prime minister said: help me to get through the year and i will
then stand down. but he then changed his mind in june 2004 following intervention
from allies in the cabinet and the suspicion that the chancellor was deliberately
manoeuvring against him according to the book. mr peston told bbc news: my
understanding is that they are not nearly as close or as friendly as they once
were. what the book says is there is now a pretty profound mutual mistrust mutual
animosity. i think in public you see this double-act pretending everything is
alright but in private i don t think the relationship is good because brown
understandably feels deeply betrayed - particularly over this issue of the
leadership. but in a wide-ranging bbc interview covering issues such as the asian
tsunami disaster the middle east peace process and northern ireland mr blair
said: when you get to the top in politics you get this huge swell around you. all
sorts of people make all sorts of claims and counter-claims. he admitted to a
sense of frustration about the allegations which he said had been made countless
times . there has been fresh speculation of a rift recently following their
separate responses to the asian tsunami. these rumours were fuelled by mr blair s
decision to hold his monthly media conference at the same time as a long-planned
speech by mr brown on uk plans to tackle global poverty with a new marshall plan
for africa. there was speculation the pair were trying to outdo each other s
response to the disaster. but the prime minister said he had discussed these claims
with the chancellor and dismissed them as a load of nonsense . former welfare
minister frank field mp said the prime minister should sack mr brown but did not
believe mr blair was strong enough to do so. tory leader michael howard accused
the prime minister and mr brown of squabbling like schoolboys . he told sky news
sunday with adam boulton: this is the politics of the playground and britain
really does deserve better. the liberal democrat parliamentary chairman matthew
taylor said the personal ambition of mr blair and mr brown was getting in the way
of good government . either they need to grow up and put their squabbles to one
side or they cannot expect the electorate to support a divided government at the
next election. during the interview mr blair also said the former home secretary
david blunkett would play a big role at the general election.
potter director signs warner deal harry potter director alfonso cuaron has signed a
three-year deal with hollywood studio warner brothers according to variety trade
magazine. the mexican film-maker who directed harry potter and the prisoner of
azkaban will produce mainstream movies and smaller spanish-language films. we had
a wonderful experience with alfonso on harry potter warner producer jeff robinov
told variety. cuaron s other films include mexican movie y tu mama tambien. the
2001 rites-of-passage drama about two teenage boys who embark on a relationship
with an older woman brought cuaron international attention - and box office glory.
it also won him and his brother carlos with whom he co-wrote the screenplay an
oscar nomination for best original screenplay. warner will distribute cuaron s
films in several languages outside the us. this deal will give us the opportunity
to collaborate with alfonso on movies that make the most of his artistry and vision
and continue to offer him the mainstream worldwide audiences that our studio
provides so successfully said mr robinov. his first film for warner brothers was
1995 s family fantasy movie a little princess. based on the novel by frances
hodgson burnett a little princess tells the story of a young girl who is sent to
live in a new york boarding school when her widowed father enlists for war. after
the erotic nature of y tu mama tambien cuaron was a surprise choice to direct the
third harry potter film but his dark interpretation was received well by the public
and critics alike.
mcilroy aiming for madrid title northern ireland man james mcilroy is confident he
can win his first major title at this weekend s spar european indoor championships
in madrid. the 28-year-old has been in great form in recent weeks and will go in
as one of the 800 metres favourites. i believe after my wins abroad and in our
trial race in sheffield i can run my race from the front back or middle said
mcilroy. new coach tony lester has helped get mcilroy s career back on track. the
28-year-old 800 metres runner has not always matched his promise with performances
but believes his decision to change coaches and move base will bring the rewards.
mcilroy now lives in windsor and feels his career has been transformed by the no-
nonsense leadership style of former army sergeant lester. lester is better known
for his work with 400m runners roger black and mark richardson in the past but
under his guidance mcilroy has secured five wins this indoor season. mcilroy now
claims he is in his best shape since finishing fourth for ireland at the outdoor
european championships in 1998. that was my last decent year said mcilroy who
temporarily retired last august before returning to the sport under lester s shrewd
guidance. before every race was like trying to climb mount everest and i now know
you can t do it on your own. trying to succeed saw me sometimes standing half-dead
and terrified on the starting line which became a bit too much. mcilroy who was
compared to the likes of sebastian coe steve cram and steve ovett in his younger
days is now competing without the benefit of national lottery funding. that
situation could change if he maintains his current form and repeats the world-class
times he produced in the 800m and 1000m at major races in erfurt and stuttgart
earlier this season. russian dmitriy bogdanov won at the same madrid venue last
week and then claimed the european championship race would be between himself
dutchman arnoud okken and antonio reina of spain but mcilroy is unfazed. he
admitted: he looked quite good in his win and fair enough everyone has the right
to their own opinion. i never write myself off and let s face it i haven t or
looked like being beaten this season. and mcilroy whose time of one minute
46.68seconds in erfurt elevated him to sixth place on the uk all-time list is also
already looking beyond madrid. he said: i ve been much more focused this year
about my career and having such a good team around me has been very important.
ultimately of course this weekend is a means to an end and that is getting
prepared for the summer s world championships. that ambition has meant that i ve
had only two nights out since last august. the rest of my time has seen me just
concentrating on rebuilding my career.
sociedad set to rescue mladenovic rangers are set to loan out-of-favour midfielder
dragan mladenovic to real sociedad despite the closure of the january transfer
window. sociedad have been given special permission by the spanish fa to sign a
player due to an injury crisis. mladenovic will effectively replace former rangers
midfielder mikel arteta who has been loaned to everton. sociedad say they will pay
rangers £150 000 with an option to buy the serbia & montenegro international.
mladenovic s loan move is subject to him passing a medical. the 28-year-old who
joined rangers from red star belgrade for £1.2m in the close season is expected in
san sebastian later this week following his national side s game against bulgaria.
sociedad are in 15th place in the 20-strong primera liga just two points above the
relegation zone. special permission from the spanish fa came after an injury to
central defender igor jauregi. the versatile mladenovic can also play in the back
four. his agent said last month that rangers had told him to find the player a new
club. mladenovic s time at ibrox has been plagued with injury and he has made just
six starts in six months with the glasgow club.
labour trio had vote-rig factory three labour councillors in birmingham were
caught operating a vote-rigging factory an election court has heard. police
found the trio handling unsealed postal ballots in a deserted warehouse in the city
during a late-night raid in june 2004 the hearing was told. the votes were later
counted towards that month s english local elections. the men elected to the aston
ward deny collecting votes fraudulently. the judge presiding has indicated the
whole postal voting system is under scrutiny. deputy high court judge richard
mawrey qc told the hearing at the birmingham and midlands institute the case could
have potentially serious consequences for any forthcoming general election. the
special election court the first in living memory to hear allegations of vote-
rigging opened in birmingham last month. the case against muhammad afzal mohammed
islam and mohammed kazi is being brought by local liberal democrat supporters. they
claim the trio benefited from the widespread misuse of postal votes during the 10
june election. ravi sukul counsel for the petitioners accused the three men of
being deeply involved in illegal practices. witnesses saw them carrying several
bags from their campaign office which the men drove to a warehouse on an
industrial estate off birch road east the court was told. the police were alerted
and called to the premises. mr sukul said: when (the officers) arrived there in
the middle of the night they saw a large room with a 10ft long table and six asian
men present. hundreds of documents and unsealed envelopes were scattered all over
the table. the police officers left the warehouse but were later ordered back to
seize the documents. when the officers left all the envelopes and papers were
scattered mr sukul said. (when they went) back to make the seizure every one
of these 275 yellow ballot papers were placed neatly in envelope a and sealed. the
house was in order. interrupting mr sukul in his opening mr mawrey said: what
you are saying is these men were operating a vote-forging factory on an industrial
estate. the court heard how documents were taken by police to the elections office
next morning where they were mixed in with other ballots. the case against the men
follows a hearing into postal fraud allegations made against three other birmingham
councillors in the bordesley green ward claims which are denied. mr mawrey is due
to deliver a judgment in their case once the aston petition has been heard. mr
afzal mr islam and mr kazi deny conspiring to commit election fraud to deceive the
returning officer. the case continues.
beastie boys win sampling battle us rappers beastie boys have won their long-
running battle over the use of a sample in their song pass the mic. the punk-
rappers used three notes of music from flautist james newton s choir in their track
from 1992. although the group had paid a licence fee for the sample mr newton said
his copyright had been infringed. but the us court of appeal upheld its original
decision that the group did not have to pay an additional fee to license the
underlying composition. the beastie boys - michael diamond adam horowitz and adam
yauch - are considered to be one of early pioneers of sampling music. sampling
now a standard practice among musicians involves taking a segment of one track and
using it in a different song. a three-judge panel of the court held in 2003 that
the band had abided by copyright protections by paying a licence fee for a sample
of mr newton s recording. that finding upheld a lower-court dismissal of the case
in favour of the beastie boys. we hold that beastie boys use of a brief segment
of that composition consisting of three notes separated by a half-step over a
background c note is not sufficient to sustain a claim for infringement of newton
s copyright chief judge mary schroeder wrote in her opinion. mr newton is a
critically acclaimed jazz and classical flutist composer performer and
university professor. mr newton and the beastie boys were not available for
comment.
no half measures with half-life 2 could half-life 2 possibly live up to the hype
after almost two years of tantalising previews and infuriating delays it s safe to
say that this is the most highly-anticipated computer game of all time.
fortunately it doesn t merely live up to its promise but exceeds it. no-one who
plays the finished product will wonder why it took so long. the impression is of a
game that has been endlessly refined to get as close to perfection as could
realistically be hoped. all the money - or indeed time - is on the screen. the
player sees things through the eyes of gordon freeman the bespectacled scientist
who starred in the original 1998 half-life. having survived that skirmish in an
desolate monster-infested research facility he s back in another foreboding
troublespot - the enigmatic city 17. it has the look of a beautiful eastern
european city but as soon as your train pulls in to the station it s clear that
all is not well here. sinister police patrol the unkempt streets and the
oppressive atmosphere clobbers you like a sledgehammer. a casual smattering of the
nightmarish creatures from the first game makes this an even less pleasant place to
be. you are herded around like a prisoner and have to mingle with a few freedom-
fighting civilians to gather information and progress in your task. it is not
immediately explained what your objectives are nor precisely why everything is so
ravaged. finding out step-by-step is all part of the experience although you never
fully get to understand what it was all about. that does not really matter. hl2
does not waste energy blinding you with plot. underplaying the narrative in this
way is gloriously effective and immerses the player in the most vivid convincing
and impressive virtual world they are likely to have seen. there are no cut-scenes
to interrupt the flow. exposition is accomplished by other characters stopping to
talk directly to you. whereas the highly impressive doom iii felt like a top-notch
theme park thrill-ride wandering through half-life s world truly does feel like
being part of a movie. considering its sophistication the game runs surprisingly
well on computers that only just match the modest minimum specifications. but if
ever there was an incentive to upgrade your pc s components this is it. on our
test machine - an alienware system with an athlon 3500+ processor and ati s radeon
x800 video card - everything ran at full quality without trouble and the visual
experience was simply jaw-dropping. it is not simply that the surfaces textures
and light effects push the technical envelope without mercy but that such care and
artistic flair has gone into designing them. the haunting grim landscapes become
strangely beautiful. luckily you get time to pause mid-task and marvel at the
awesome graphical flourishes of your surroundings. so impressive are the physics
that you ll find yourself hurling bits of rubbish around and prodding floating
corpses just to marvel at the lifelike way they move. there are puzzles to be
solved along the way pitched at about the right difficulty but most progress is
achieved by force. freeman is quickly reunited with the original game s famous
crowbar and an array of more sophisticated weapons soon follow. virtually
anything not nailed to the floor can be interacted with and in realistic fashion.
you will be wowed by the attention-to-detail as you chip bits of plaster off walls
chase a pigeon out of your way or dodge exploding barrels as they ping around at
deadly speed. at times half-life 2 feels like one of those annoying people who are
unfeasibly brilliant at everything they turn their hand to and in a curious way
its unrelenting goodness actually becomes almost tiresome. running around on foot
is great enough but jumping into vehicles proves even more fun. human foes are
rendered just as well as alien ones. the stealth sections are as exhilarating as
the open gun battles. in gameplay terms hl2 somehow gets almost everything
perfect. and without resorting to the zombies-leaping-out-of-shadows approach of
doom iii it s all incredibly unsettling. the vacant environment is distinctly
eerie and at one point i even caught myself hesitating to go down a murky tunnel
for fear of what might be inside. the game does have a couple of problems. firstly
the carefully-scripted way that you progress through each level might irk some
people. a lot of things are meticulously choreographed to happen on cue which
makes for exciting moments but may be an annoyance to some players and limit the
appeal of playing again once you ve completed it. if you like things open-ended and
free-ranging far cry will be a lot more pleasing. but the real downside is the
hassle of getting the game to run. installing it proved a life-draining siege that
would test a saint s patience. developer valve has rashly assumed that everyone
wanting to play the game will have an internet connection and it forces you to go
online to authenticate your copy. the box does warn you of this anti-piracy measure
but does not say just how many components have to be downloaded. the time spent
doing this will depend on your connection speed the temperamental valve servers
and the time of day but it can take hours. it would take a mighty piece of work to
feel worthwhile after such annoyances - but luckily half-life 2 is up to the
challenge. it is surely the best thing in its genre and possibly many will feel
of any genre. the bar has been raised and so far out of sight that you have to
sympathise with any game that tries to do anything remotely similar in the near
future. half-life 2 is out now for the pc
murphy: that was a bruising battle that s what i call a tough game. it was very
physical and fair play to the italians they made us work very hard for our victory.
their organisation was very very good and they proved again that they are getting
better and better as the years go by. it is by far the strongest italian team that
we have faced. we knew all along that we would be a huge threat particularly the
first game in the championship. it was not like the days gone by when you could get
scores on the board early. we had to work our socks off and try and build our
scores gradually. it was really hard work out there and the players have plenty of
bumps and bruises to prove it. i m not too bad but there are one or two others who
will be feeling it a bit on monday morning. in the backs we were not frustrated at
such but the new rucking laws were a little bit problematical. the different
interpretations between the referee and the players was a little difficult. but we
managed to get the ball in our hands and i got a try near the end of the first
half. it s always good to score. it was great work by brian and i always knew i had
scored even though it went upstairs to the video referee. eddie (o sullivan) was
very calm at half-time even though we were only 8-6 ahead. he spelled out what we
needed to do and advocated getting the ball out of our own territory. that new
ruck law made it a bit more difficult to get out of our own half. we were penalised
a lot at the breakdown and if they had kicked all their chances at goal we would
have been behind at the break. so really we went back to playing a territory game
and simplifying things and having more patience on the ball. every one was a little
down after the game following the injuries to brian and gordon. as yet we do not
know the full extent of the injuries but it does not that good. now we have to
focus on scotland and only six days to recover. it s a big ask after such a
bruising encounter. i was very impressed the way the scots played against the
french on saturday. it could so easily have gone their way but for a couple of
decisions. we will be under no illusions it is going to be tough for us. in the
meantime when in rome ... .
brits return keane to number one brits success has helped return keane s award-
winning album hopes and fears back to the top of the uk album chart. the debut
album which took the best british album title at the brits on tuesday moved up
seven places from number eight to number one. also capitalising on brits success
were the scissor sisters whose eponymous album moved three places to number two. u2
s latest single sometimes you can t make it on your own took the top spot in the
singles chart ahead of elvis. the track from their current album how to dismantle
an atomic bomb pushed eminem s like toy soldiers from number one to number three.
elvis wooden heart which entered the chart at number two is the sixth in a
series of 18 reissues to mark the 70th anniversary of presley s birth. there are
currently six re-released elvis tracks occupying spots in the top 40 singles chart
including are you lonesome tonight at number 20 it s now or never at number 27 and
jailhouse rock at number 37. soldier by destiny s child ti and lil wayne debuted
at number four while almost here the duet from former westlife star brian
mcfadden and delta goodrem fell from number three to number five. there was more
follow up to brits success for franz ferdinand won best rock act and best british
group last week. their self-titled album moved from 13 to number four. last week s
number one album tourist by athlete fell to number three.
winn-dixie files for bankruptcy us supermarket group winn-dixie has filed for
bankruptcy protection after succumbing to stiff competition in a market dominated
by wal-mart. winn-dixie once among the most profitable of us grocers said
chapter 11 protection would enable it to successfully restructure. it said its 920
stores would remain open but analysts said it would most likely off-load a number
of sites. the jacksonville florida-based firm has total debts of $1.87bn (£980m).
in its bankruptcy petition it listed its biggest creditor as us foods giant kraft
foods which it owes $15.1m. analysts say winn-dixie had not kept up with
consumers demands and had also been burdened by a number of stores in need of
upgrading. a 10-month restructuring plan was deemed a failure and following a
larger-than-expected quarterly loss earlier this month winn-dixie s slide into
bankruptcy was widely expected. the company s new chief executive peter lynch said
winn-dixie would use the chapter 11 breathing space to take the necessary action to
turn itself around. this includes achieving significant cost reductions improving
the merchandising and customer service in all locations and generating a sense of
excitement in the stores he said. yet evan mann a senior bond analyst at gimme
credit said mr lynch s job would not be easy as the bankruptcy would inevitably
put off some customers. the real big issue is what s going to happen over the next
one or two quarters now that they are in bankruptcy and all their customers see
this in their local newspapers he said.
jowell rejects las vegas jibe the secretary of state for culture media and sport
tessa jowell has hit out at critics of the gambling bill. she told the guardian
newspaper there would be no las vegas-style super-casinos as rumoured in the
press. meanwhile labour backbencher stephen pound labelled casino-related
regeneration schemes a pile of pants . the mp for ealing north claimed the
legislation would encourage a mafia-like culture of vice and corruption in an
interview on bbc radio 4. you look at some of the people who are involved...they
aren t in there to regenerate blackpool. they are in it to fill their boots mr
pound told the today programme. i just really think that we have made a terrible
mistake here. and over all of it hangs the shadow of the men in the chalk-stripe
suits with names that rhyme with spaghetti he said. ms jowell complained of the
scale of misrepresentation in the media over the bill in her interview with the
newspaper her first since the bill was launched. the culture secretary said a four
year consultation period had produced a consensus on the need to protect children
and the vulnerable in a swiftly changing sector. ms jowell insisted: we have a
good track record for extracting planning gain in this country for instance in
social housing. and continued: we can be proud to have one of the lowest rates of
problem gambling in the world. i intend to keep it that way. ms jowell will set
out her position when the bill is debated in the commons on monday. in prime
minister s questions last week tony blair assured parliament that 90% of the bill
was about tightening up the regulation of the gambling industry.
sculthorpe wants lions captaincy paul sculthorpe has admitted he would love to
succeed andy farrell as great britain skipper if the wigan star does switch codes
to rugby union. sculthorpe was vice-captain in the tri-nations and took the st
helens captaincy from chris joynt last year. i would definitely want the job - i
make no bones about it sculthorpe told bbc sport. it s something i ve always
wanted to do. i d gladly take it if it was offered to me. the 27-year-old who
captained st helens to challenge cup success last year said following in the
footsteps of farrell would be a challenge. andy would be a hard act to follow but
it s something i m confident of being up to he said. the gb team isn t a one-man
team. there are a lot of good young players who are pushing for places anyway.
sculthorpe said the rugby league world would understand if farrell did decide to
move to rugby union. it s a short career and you have to make of it what you can
said sculthorpe. nobody can blame him if he does go - he s done everything in the
game of rugby league. financially it could set him up for life. if he fancies a
new challenge then who could fault him sculthorpe also called on the rugby
league authorities to have a serious look at the number of games the top players
are being asked to play. sean long sculthorpe s saints and lions team-mate has
expressed doubts about his international future i think sean s situation is to do
with the sheer number of games we re playing he said. the way he s looking at
it is that if he can extend his career by a couple of years by not playing
international rugby then he s willing to do that. the rfl has got to do something
about the fixtures. we re playing 42 weeks of the year and it s too much. a lot of
the niggly injuries that i ve suffered with over the last couple of years have come
about because of the lack of rest time. st helens have been strongly linked with a
move for brilliant young forward sonny bill williams and sculthorpe said he would
love the 19-year-old to come to knowsley road. he s a great player - a big strong
lad who can certainly hit hard in defence but who is also very skilful he said.
i d love him to come to st helens. who knows what might happen but you want the
best players in your team and he s certainly one of the best players in the world.
hospital suspends no welsh plan an english hospital has suspended plans to stop
treating welsh patients who have waited more than three months. hereford county
hospital had earlier said that from the new year patients waiting longer than this
would be taken off waiting lists for hip and knee operations. gps in wales had
feared patients could be pushed to the back of another queue. but after talks with
powys health board the hospital called off its plan until health chiefs meet early
in january. hereford hospital trust caused an outcry when it sent out a letter
telling patients that for financial and administrative reasons it planned to turn
down some orthopaedic patients. shocked health officials in powys said this meant
they would be left with the prospect of patients and doctors having to find new
appointments in other hospitals. andy williams chief executive of powys local
health board had said it was a totally unacceptable way to behave . mr williams
had said he did not think it was a welsh-english issue but said hereford hospital
was struggling financially and trying to pass the problem back to powys . he had
told bbc radio wales: i have written straight back to the trust... to insist they
withdraw this threat and treat the patients i am paying them to treat. but after
the hospital had agreed to the suspension mr williams said he was optimistic a
compromise could be reached which would ensure welsh patients continued to be
treated there. he said the problem had been caused by the difference in waiting
time targets between england and wales. the target is 12 months for welsh patients
but just three months in england. the contract with the powys health board was
worth £7m a year for the hospital and accounts for 12% of its patients. in a
statement before the suspension of the idea the welsh assembly government said the
situation was unacceptable . but powys local health board is committed to
ensuring our patients receive the care that is appropriate said the assembly
government. although we will be challenging hereford s decision we will put in
place appropriate care for our patients. they will be contacted by their gps in the
next week. earlier david rose chief executive of hereford hospitals nhs trust
had said: it is with real regret that we have taken this step. we want to
continue providing an excellent and fast service to powys people but can only do
this if we are paid to provide the service. in 2005 our waiting time will fall to
a maximum of 6-months and we want powys people to ask to be referred to our modern
hospital. we appeal to powys local health board to allow powys people to choose
hereford for their treatment.
honour for uk games maker leading british computer games maker peter molyneux has
been made an obe in the new year honours list. the head of surrey s lionhead
studios was granted the honour for services to the computer games industry. mr
molyneux has been behind many of the ground-breaking games of the last 15 years
such as populous theme park dungeon keeper and black and white. he is widely
credited with helping to create and popularise the so-called god-game genre.
speaking to the bbc news website mr molyneux said receiving the honour was
something of a surprise. it s come completely out of the blue he said i never
would have guessed that i d have that kind of honour. he said he was surprised as
much because not too long ago many people thought computer gaming was a fad. it
was thought to be like skateboarding he said a craze that everyone thought
would go away. now he said the gaming world rivals the movie industry for sales
and cultural influence. britain plays a big part in it he said. it s one of the
founding nations that made the industry what it is. mr molyneux has been a pivotal
figure in the computer games industry for almost 20 years. his career started at
bullfrog studios which in 1987 produced populous one of the first god-games. the
title gave players control over the lives a small population of computerised
people. mr molyneux said that his involvement with the games industry started
almost by accident as back in the early days game making was more a hobby than a
career. i thought everyone would treat populous as weird he said but it became
a huge international success. he left bullfrog in 1997 to set up lionhead studios
which was behind the ambitous and widely acclaimed game black & white. one of the
next titles to come from lionhead puts players in charge of a movie studio and
tasks them with producing and directing a hit film. the veteran game maker says he
has one problem still to solve. being an absolute geek i ve got no idea what i m
going to wear when i go and pick it up he said.
elvis fans hold birthday bash elvis fans around the world have been marking the
legendary singer s 70th birthday on saturday. a three-day elvis convention took
place in blackpool england over the weekend with the aim of finding the best
european elvis impersonator. his graceland tennessee home was the focus for us
celebrations with four days of events including a concert by the memphis symphony
orchestra. elvis single jailhouse rock became the uk s number one on sunday. fans
in france celebrated with a tribute concert by elvis cover bands and a special
exhibition of memorabilia is on display in bonn germany. jailhouse rock is now
the 999th number one single in uk pop history. record company sonybmg are releasing
elvis 18 number one singles at the rate of one a week in britain complete with
original artwork and a collector s box. hit single one night will follow next week
- with the chance of becoming the 1 000th number one as interest surrounding elvis
birthday grows. hmv spokesman gennaro castaldo said: it would be a fantastic and
truly fitting way to celebrate elvis landmark birthday.
tomlinson stays focused on europe long jumper chris tomlinson has cut his schedule
to ensure he is fully fit for the european indoor championships. the 23-year-old
has a minor injury and has pulled out of international meets in madrid and lievin
this week as well as warm-weather training in lanzarote. it s nothing serious
said his coach peter stanley. he strained a muscle in his abdomen at the
birmingham meeting but is back in full training. sprinter mark lewis-francis will
also not compete in madrid on thursday. the birmingham athlete who clocked a
season s best of 6.61 seconds over 60m in birmingham last week also prefers to
focus his attentions on next month s european indoor championships. lewis-francis
who was runner-up to british team-mate jason gardener at the europeans three years
ago will continue his training at home. meanwhile tomlinson is still searching
for this first major medal and this season he has shown he could be in the sort of
form to grab a spot on the podium in madrid. the middlesbrough athlete jumped a
season s best of 7.95m at the birmingham grand prix - good enough to push world
indoor champion savante stringfellow into second.
labour plans maternity pay rise maternity pay for new mothers is to rise by £1 400
as part of new proposals announced by the trade and industry secretary patricia
hewitt. it would mean paid leave would be increased to nine months by 2007 ms
hewitt told gmtv s sunday programme. other plans include letting maternity pay be
given to fathers and extending rights to parents of older children. the tories
dismissed the maternity pay plan as desperate while the liberal democrats said
it was misdirected. ms hewitt said: we have already doubled the length of
maternity pay it was 13 weeks when we were elected we have already taken it up to
26 weeks. we are going to extend the pay to nine months by 2007 and the aim is to
get it right up to the full 12 months by the end of the next parliament. she said
new mothers were already entitled to 12 months leave but that many women could not
take it as only six of those months were paid. we have made a firm commitment. we
will definitely extend the maternity pay from the six months where it now is to
nine months that s the extra £1 400. she said ministers would consult on other
proposals that could see fathers being allowed to take some of their partner s
maternity pay or leave period or extending the rights of flexible working to
carers or parents of older children. the shadow secretary of state for the family
theresa may said: these plans were announced by gordon brown in his pre-budget
review in december and tony blair is now recycling it in his desperate bid to win
back women voters. she said the conservatives would announce their proposals
closer to the general election. liberal democrat spokeswoman for women sandra
gidley said: while mothers would welcome any extra maternity pay the liberal
democrats feel this money is being misdirected. she said her party would boost
maternity pay in the first six months to allow more women to stay at home in that
time. ms hewitt also stressed the plans would be paid for by taxpayers not
employers. but david frost director general of the british chambers of commerce
warned that many small firms could be crippled by the move. while the majority
of any salary costs may be covered by the government s statutory pay recruitment
costs advertising costs retraining costs and the strain on the company will not
be he said. further details of the government s plans will be outlined on monday.
new mothers are currently entitled to 90% of average earnings for the first six
weeks after giving birth followed by £102.80 a week until the baby is six months
old.
no seasonal lift for house market a swathe of figures have provided further
evidence of a slowdown in the uk property market. the council of mortgage lenders
(cml) british bankers association (bba) and building societies association (bsa)
all said mortgage lending was slowing. cml figures showed gross lending fell by 4%
in november as the number of people buying new homes fell. elsewhere the bba added
underlying mortgage lending rose by £4m in november compared to october s £4.29m.
the cml said that loans for new property purchases fell 25% year-on-year to 85 000
- the lowest total seen since february 2003. data from the cml showed lending fell
to just over £25bn in november from £25.5bn a year earlier. separate figures from
the building societies association showed the value of mortgage approvals -- loans
agreed but not yet made -- stood 32% lower than at the same time last year at a
seasonally-adjusted £2.98bn. the figures come hot on the heels of new data from
property website rightmove which suggested owners must indulge in a winter sale
and slash prices by up to 8%. miles shipside commercial director at rightmove
said sellers would have to be more realistic with their asking prices to tempt
buyers. the average asking price of a home fell by more than £600 from £190 329 in
november to £189 733 in december while the length of time it takes to sell a home
rose to 81 days from 53 in the summer. rightmove said estate agents were set to
enter 2005 with a third more properties on their books than a year ago. even once
the quieter holiday period is over sellers will find themselves competing with a
lot of other properties on the market. in any business excess supply and low
demand means one thing - cut prices mr shipside said. the proof is that some
properties that have been appropriately discounted are selling even in the current
market. overall asking prices have fallen 3.3% from their july peaks as the
equivalent of £6 500 has been cut from an average property. a host of mortgage
lenders and economists have predicted that property prices will either fall or
stagnate in 2005. what is apparent is a picture of a slowing market but one that
should remain stable as we return to more normal volumes of lending over 2005 as a
whole cml director general michael coogan said. it s a fairly consistent picture
showing that mortgage demand has fallen back again which is consistent with a
continuing correction in the housing market investec economist philip shaw said.
however the figures do suggest only a modest weakening and we stand by our view
that the property market will remain in the doldrums for some time though a
collapse is still unlikely.
wine comedy wins critics award quirky comedy sideways was named the best film of
the year by the los angeles film critics association. the us movie also picked up
four other accolades including best director for alexander payne and supporting
actor for thomas haden church. british actress imelda staunton has again been
recognised for her role in vera drake winning best actress while liam neeson won
best actor for kinsey. the awards will be handed out on 13 january at a ceremony in
las vegas. sideways tells the story of two men who take a road trip through
california s wine regions and also stars paul giamatti. virginia madsen was also
named best supporting actress for her performance in the film. house of flying
daggers directed by yimou zhang was named best foreign language film while the
animation award went to the incredibles. unusually the runners-up in categories
were also named with clint eastwood s million dollar baby just missing out on the
best film award. the best director runner-up was martin scorsese for the aviator. a
career achievement award will be handed to veteran actor and comic jerry lewis at
the ceremony next year.
tory leader unveils spending plan tory leader michael howard says his party can
save £35bn in government spending by tackling waste. the money would be ploughed
back into frontline services like the nhs and schools with the rest used to cut
government borrowing and reduce taxes. the tory leader has also shrugged off the
defection of one of his mps robert jackson a former minister to labour. mr
howard said that these things happened in politics and it would not affect the
outcome of the election. let s be realistic - the election is not going to be
decided on the basis of what mr jackson did he told bbc 1 s breakfast with frost
programme. however the defection on saturday has cast a shadow over the launch of
the conservatives spending plans. fuller details are due to be unveiled on monday.
the bulk of the £35bn saved by tackling bureaucracy and inefficient systems will go
back into frontline services mr howard said. the £12bn left over would then be
spent on reducing government borrowing he added. however the remainder would deal
with some of the unfair taxes . almost every independent expert says if you get
another labour government you are going to have to pay higher taxes mr howard
insisted. because borrowing is going up it is out of control that is bound to
lead to higher taxes or higher interest rates or both. so part of the £12bn we are
going to apply to filling the government s black hole reducing the borrowing. the
rest will be used to reduce these unfair taxes which are bearing so heavily on the
people of our country today. mr howard is expected to say that around £6bn will
be available for tax cuts when he makes his announcement on monday. the cuts will
be paid for out of the savings identified by business trouble-shooter david james.
home office spending could be cut by £1.6bn according to the final instalment of
his year-long review. savings of £153m at the foreign office and £336m at the
department for culture media and sport have also been identified. in all almost a
quarter of a million jobs and 168 public bodies would go under mr james proposals.
mr howard said: all this adds up to a bottom line and the bottom line is at this
election people will have a clear choice between mr blair who will waste more and
tax more and a conservative government that will give them value for money and tax
less. however chief treasury secretary paul boateng said: none of the tories
figures add up so they can t make these savings and can t pay for any tax cuts
which means the only guaranteed cut from the tories is £35bn of cuts hitting
frontline public services hard. liberal democrat leader charles kennedy added:
people will not be taken in by michael howard s claims of £35bn worth of savings.
this can t be achieved without drastic cuts in local services in their own
communities. a poll for the news of the world newspaper suggests the conservatives
are on course for their worst election defeat in a century. labour will hold key
marginal constituencies winning a majority of 160 the populus survey suggests.
and the liberal democrats will take three key seats from the conservatives leaving
the tories with just 163 mps two less than they returned atlabour s 1997 landslide
and their worst showing since 1906.
uk tv channel rapped for csi ad tv channel five has been criticised for sending
offensive and threatening advertising material to viewers for a new show about
murder scene scientists. five mailed thousands of fake dossiers including photos
of murder victims and an e-mail suggesting the recipient was being stalked by a
serial killer. following complaints the advertising standards authority contacted
five to cease promotion of crime show csi:ny. five admitted it had sent out 55 000
promotion packs but had now stopped. the promotion material was sent in brown
envelope of the type used by investigators in the series a spin-off from the
highly successful csi: crime scene investigation series which also runs on five.
the pack also features pictures of forensic evidence from a crime scene and a
wanted poster which did have a csi:ny logo printed in large at the bottom. five
said it had received 100 complaints but that it had been surprised at the reaction
because it was obvious this material is promoting a drama . a five spokesman said:
in light of the efforts we have made to make the nature of the contents so
transparent we are surprised a very small minority of recipients have mistaken it
as anything else. everyone who was sent this promotion has expressed an interest
in receiving details about this particular genre of programming on various
websites. we have also received emails and calls from recipients praising the
originality and imagination of the campaign.
iraqis win death test case probe the family of an iraqi civilian allegedly killed
by uk troops have won a challenge against the government s refusal to order a full
inquiry. the high court ruled on tuesday that baha mousa s death in british
custody in iraq fell within the european convention on human rights. and the judges
paved the way for an independent inquiry by saying previous investigations were
inadequate. but judicial reviews into five other deaths in southern iraq were ruled
out. their families will be appealing against the judgement. the families
solicitor phil shiner described it as a historic day for human rights and the rule
of law in the uk . father-of-two mr mousa 28 a hotel receptionist was arrested
with eight men seized at a hotel in basra in september 2003. he was allegedly
beaten to death while in the custody of the queen s lancashire regiment. the iraqi
families lawyer argued that failing to adequately investigate the death breached
the european convention on human rights. ministry of defence lawyers argued the
uk-controlled area of southern iraq was outside european jurisdiction. but lord
justice rix and mr justice forbes ruled that uk jurisdiction could extend to a uk-
run prison but did not apply to the total territory of another state . they said
as mr mousa was in custody when he died his case came within the uk s
jurisdiction. the other five iraqis did not die in custody so their cases had to
fail they said. and it was difficult to say that the investigation which had
already occurred has been timely open or effective the judges said. after the
ruling carla ferstman legal director of the human rights organisation redress
said: it is not enough for the military to investigate behind closed doors. there
must be an effective public investigation by an independent official body. only
such an investigation could reveal what really happened and who might be
responsible. other allegations involving british soldiers included the shooting of
an iraqi police commissioner and the shooting of four iraqi civilians in may 2003.
both sides were granted permission to appeal. prime minister tony blair s official
spokesman said: obviously we will need to study this detailed judgment. i would
point out however that a separate criminal case is currently being considered by
the army prosecuting authority. i can t say anything further for obvious reasons.
the mod are considering whether to appeal. but former british commander colonel
bob stewart said : anyone at the top [of the military] will be saddened by the
verdict that has taken place but will say: if there s a case to answer let s have
it out. because we don t want people thinking that british soldiers beat up
civilians and get away with it he said. the ministry of defence does everything
in its power to try to prove we act ethically and properly under the rules of war.
holmes back on form in birmingham double olympic champion kelly holmes was back to
her best as she comfortably won the 1 000m at the norwich union birmingham indoor
grand prix. the 34-year-old running only her second competitive race of the
season shook off the rust to win in two minutes 35.39 seconds. but she is still
undecided about competing in the european championships in madrid from 4-6 march.
i ll probably be entered and make my mind up at the last minute she said. my
training hasn t gone as well as expected but i ve got two weeks to decide. i need
to take my time and make sure i feel good about what i m doing. i felt very good
here but with the crowd behind you you feel like you can do anything. american
was the eventual winner of the men s 60m race which almost ended in farce. three
athletes were disqualified for false starting including britain s mark lewis-
francis who was the first man guilty of coming out of his blocks too quickly.
world 100m champion kim collins clinched second spot ahead of world 60m record
holder and scott s training partner maurice greene. jason gardener s unbeaten run
came to an end as he came fifth and he will need to improve if he is to defend his
european title in madrid. you can t win them all said gardener afterwards. and
i was very disappointed as i know i m capable of doing better. russian was back
on record-breaking form in the pole vault at the national indoor arena. the
olympic champion set a new world mark of 4.88m to break her own record - which she
set just six days ago - and beat russian rival svetlana feofanova. it was
isinbayeva s 11th world record - indoors or out - since july 2003. i m so happy
and i will do my best to break the 5m barrier soon the 22-year-old told bbc
sport. jamaica s stormed to a personal best of 7.13 seconds to claim the women s
60m sprint. belgian kim gevaert who will be one of the favourites for next month s
european title took second while american muna lee was third. there was
disappointment for british pair jeanette kwakye and joice maduaka who finished
seventh and eighth respectively. jamaican stretched her unbeaten record to 25
races as she effortlessly claimed the 200m. the olympic champion set a new indoor
personal best of 22.38 seconds - the fastest time in the world this season. fought
off fellow briton tim abeyie to take the men s 200m in a personal best of 20.88.
continued her outstanding start to the season beating a strong international field
which included two-time olympic 100m hurdles bronze medallist melissa morrison to
claim the women s 60m hurdles. the 25-year-old briton clocked 7.98 seconds while
pre-european championships favourite russian irina shevchenko finished down in
sixth. ethiopia s failed in her bid to smash compatriot berhane adere s world 3
000m record but still won the event in emphatic style. the olympic 5 000m champion
was inside record pace but dropped off over the final third finishing in eight
minutes 33.05 seconds - the fourth fastest time ever recorded for the event.
britain s jo pavey bravely decided to go with defar as she strode away from the
field and took second in a season s best 8:41.43. kenyan also missed out on the
indoor 1500m world record which hicham el guerrouj has held for the last eight
years. lagat settled for silver behind el guerrouj in athens and was almost four
seconds short of the moroccan s world best clocking 3:35.27 in birmingham. and
was still struggling to find his form after the death of his fiancee this year. the
olympic 10 000m champion had comfortably led the men s two mile race after his
younger brother tariku had set the pace. but fellow ethiopian appeared ominously
on bekele s shoulder with two laps to go before surging past him at the bell to win
in 8:14.28. jamaican made the most of a blistering start to take the men s 400m
title in 45.91 seconds. world indoor champion alleyne francique faded badly and
finished in fourth while american duo jerry harris and james davis took second and
third respectively. swede showed her class in the long jump as she stole top spot
from jade johnson with the very last jump of the competition. the olympic
heptathlon gold medallist reached 6.66m to better johnson s mark of 6.52m - her
second personal best inside a week. i was quite surprised because i didn t think i
d end up with second place said johnson who wore london s 2012 olympic bid
slogan back the bid on her shorts. but i m pleased and hopefully i ll get a
bit better for the europeans. i really want to win a medal. won the men s event
with a season s best of 7.95m taking the scalp of world indoor champion savante
stringfellow of the usa.
talks held on gibraltar s future two days of talks on the future of gibraltar begin
at jack straw s country residence later on wednesday. officials at the two-day
summit at the foreign secretary s official kent house chevening will plan a new
forum on the rock s future. in october mr straw and his spanish counterpart miguel
moratinos agreed to establish a body that would give gibraltarians a voice in their
future. most gibraltarians said in a referendum they wanted to remain british.
gibraltar s chief minister peter caruana will represent the british citizens living
on the rock while britain s europe director dominick chilcott will represent the
uk. madrid is being represented by spain s director general for europe jose maria
pons. the initiative follows spain s socialist government s decision to put its
long-standing sovereignty ambitions on hold. gibraltarians rejected plans for the
rock s sovereignty to be shared between britain and spain in a referendum organised
by gibraltar government.
eu to probe alitalia state aid the european commission has officially launched an
in-depth investigation into whether italian airline alitalia is receiving illegal
state aid. commission officials are to look at rome s provision of a 400m euro
($495m; £275m) loan to the carrier. both the italian government and alitalia have
repeatedly denied that the money - part of a vital restructuring plan - is state
aid. the investigation could take up to 18 months. however transport commissioner
jacques barrot said he wanted it to be carried out as swiftly as possible. the
italian authorities have presented a serious industrial plan said mr barot. we
now have to verify certain aspects to confirm that this plan contains no state aid.
i would like our analysis to be completed swiftly. the matter of possible state
aid was brought to the commission s attention by eight of alitalia s rivals
including germany s lufthansa british airways and spain s iberia. while alitalia
needs to restructure to bring itself back to profitability the rival carriers say
it has both violated state aid rules and threatened competition. alitalia lost 330m
euros in 2003 as it struggled to get to grips with high costs spiralling oil
prices competition from budget carriers and reduced demand. it plans to split into
az fly and az services which will handle air and ground services respectively.
alitalia already enjoyed state aid in 1997. eu rules prevent that from happening
again in what is known as the one time last time rule for airlines. otherwise
eu regulations on state aid stipulate that governments may help companies
financially but only on the same terms as a commercial investor. the airline
declined to comment on the commission decision.
deutsche telekom sees mobile gain german telecoms firm deutsche telekom saw strong
fourth quarter profits on the back of upbeat us mobile earnings and better-than-
expected asset sales. net profit came in at 1.4bn euros (£960m; $1.85bn) a
dramatic change from the loss of 364m euros in 2003. sales rose 2.8% to 14.96bn
euros. sales of stakes in firms including russia s oao mobile telesystems raised
1.17bn euros. this was more than expected and helped to bring debt down to 35.8bn
euros. a year ago debt was more than 11bn euros higher. t-mobile usa the company
s american mobile business made a strong contribution to profits. it s a seminal
achievement that they cut debt so low. that gives them some head room to invest in
growth now said hannes wittig telecoms analyst at dresdner kleinwort
wasserstein. the company also said it would resume paying a dividend after two
years in which it focused on cutting debt.
straw to attend auschwitz service foreign secretary jack straw will visit auschwitz
for the 60th anniversary of the former nazi concentration camp s liberation it has
been announced. prince edward will also join the uk delegation in poland for
national holocaust memorial day on 27 january. between 1.1 and 1.5 million people
mainly jews were killed at auschwitz. the tories said they were glad mr straw had
been shamed into going having earlier criticised the decision to send a lower-
ranking official. shadow foreign secretary michael ancram said: i am glad the
foreign secretary has finally been shamed into representing britain at this
important act of commemoration. once again this government has shown crass
insensitivity until it has been forced by public opinion into doing what it should
have done in the first place. in britain the queen and prince philip will lead
the nation s commemoration at a service in westminster hall london. the queen will
also host a reception for holocaust survivors at st james s palace. altogether
some six million people mainly jews perished in the holocaust. the queen s
grandson prince harry sparked outrage earlier this week after photographs of him
wearing a nazi uniform at a costume party emerged. the prince 20 apologised but
critics have called for him to go to auschwitz for the commemoration of the soviets
1945 liberation of the camp. prince harry should see for himself the results of
the hated symbol he so foolishly and brazenly chose to wear rabbi marvin hier
founder of jewish human rights group the simon wiesenthal center said.
warning over us pensions deficit taxpayers may have to bail out the us agency that
protects workers pension funds leading economists have warned. with the pension
benefit guaranty corporation (pbgc) some £23bn (£12m) in deficit the financial
economists roundtable (fer) wants congress to act. instead of taxpayers having to
pick up the bill the fer wants congressmen to change the pbgc s funding rules. the
fer says firms should not have been allowed to reduce the insurance premiums they
pay into the pbgc fund. the fer blames this on a 2004 law in a statement signed by
several members who include nobel economics laureate william sharpe. it said it
was dismayed at the situation and wants congress to overturn the legislation.
cash-strapped us companies including those in the airline car-making and steel
industries had argued in favour of the 2004 rule change claiming that funding the
insurance premiums adequately would force them to have to cut jobs. with a little
firmer hand on the pensions issues in the us i think that congress could avoid
having to turn to the taxpayer and instead turn the obligations back onto the
companies that deserve to pay them said professor dennis logue dean of price
college of business at the university of oklahoma. the pbgc was founded in 1974 to
protect workers retirement rights. its most recent action came last week when it
took control of the pilots pension scheme at united airlines. with united battling
bankruptcy the carrier had wanted to use the money set aside for pensions to
finance running costs. the company has an estimated $2.9bn hole in its pilots
pension scheme which the pbgc will now guarantee.
norway upholds napster ruling a norwegian student who ran a website which linked
to downloadable mp3 files has been ordered to pay compensation by the country s
supreme court. frank allan bruvik was ordered to pay 100 000 kroner (£8 000) to
the music industry in norway. he was a student when he set up his napster.no site
which allowed users to submit and receive links to mp3 files. bruvik had earlier
been cleared on appeal after a lower court had found for the music industry. music
industry bosses in norway said the ruling would help build confidence in the
internet as a distribution medium. frank allan bruvik set up the napster.no
website as part of a school project in 2001 while studying computer engineering in
the norwegian town of lillehammer. the website was not associated with the
napster.com site in the usa which had been operating since 1999 and was already
facing legal action. bruvik s site was online between august and november 2001
and while it did not host any music at its peak it was providing links to more
than 170 free files on other servers. as well as providing links the site allowed
those visiting it to submit links that could later be accessed by other visitors. a
legal complaint for copyright violation was filed by groups including norway s
performing rights society tono and the norwegian branches of sony music and
universal music who saw it as an important test of principle. a norwegian court
ruled in 2003 that bruvik would have to pay 100 000 kroner to the music industry
but the country s court of appeal cleared him saying that the copyright violation
occurred when others posted the music. however the supreme court stated that the
music was clearly published in violation of copyright law it added that the case
was decided based on the responsibility for abetting an illegal act and that
bruvik s actions were premeditated. norway s music industry said it was satisfied
with the ruling because showed that music piracy would not be accepted. meanwhile
in the usa a further 717 lawsuits against people alleged to have traded copyrighted
songs were filed this week by the recording industry association of america. the
suits brought on behalf of the major record companies cite the individuals for
illegally distributing music via unauthorized peer-to-peer services such as kazaa
and edonkey. as with preceding cases the fresh action was made against so-called
john doe defendants who are identified only by the codes given to their computers
internet connections.
nadal puts spain 2-0 up result: nadal 6-7 (6/8) 6-2 7-6 (8/6) 6-2 roddick spain s
rafael nadal beats andy roddick of the usa in the second singles match rubber of
the 2004 davis cup final in seville. spain lead 1-0 after carlos moya beat mardy
fish in straight sets in the opening match of the tie. nadal holds his nerve and
the crowd goes wild as spain go 2-0 up in the tie. roddick holds serve to force
nadal to serve for the match but the american surely cannot turn things around now.
nadal works roddick around the court on two consecutive points to earn two break
points. one is enough the spaniard secures the double-break and roddick is now
teetering on the edge. roddick is trying to gee himself up but the clay surface is
taking its toll on his game and he is looking tired. nadal wins the game to love.
nadal steps up the pressure to break and spain have the early initiative in the
fourth set. nadal also holds convincingly as both players feel their way into the
fourth set. roddick shrugs off the disappointment of losing the third-set tiebreak
and breezes through his first service game of the fourth set. nadal earns the
first mini-break in the tiebreak as the match enters its fourth hour. a couple of
stunning points follow one where nadal chases down a roddick shot and turns into a
passing winner. then roddick produces some amazing defence at the net to take the
score to 4-4. roddick has two serves for the set but double-faults to take the
score to 5-5. nadal saves a roddick set point then earns his own with a drive
volley - and a crosscourt passing winner sends the crowd wild. nadal tries to up
his aggression and he passes roddick down the line to go 15-40 and two set points
up. roddick saves the first with a desperate lunge volley and smacks a volley
winner across the court to take the score back to deuce before securing the game.
the set will go to another tiebreak. nadal enjoys another straightforward hold and
roddick must once again serve to stay in the set. roddick again holds on despite
some brilliant shot-making from his opponent. nadal races through his service game
to put the pressure straight back onto roddick. roddick hangs in on his serve to
level matters but nadal is making him fight for every point. nadal could be
suffering a disappointment hangover from the previous game as he goes 0-30 down and
then has to save a break point after a tremendous rally in which he is forced into
some brilliant defence. but it pays off and the spaniard edges ahead in the set.
roddick s serve is not firing as ferociously as usual and has to rely on his sheer
competitive determination to stay in the set. three times nadal forces a break
point and three times the world number two hangs in. and roddick s grit pays off as
he manages to hold. roddick still looks a bit sluggish but he attacks the net and
is rewarded with a break point which nadal saves with a good first serve and the
spaniard goes on to hold. there is a disruption in play as roddick is upset about
something in the crowd. the spanish captain gets involved as does the match referee
but it is unclear what the problem is. one thing for certain is that the crowd are
roused into support of nadal and they go wild when roddick loses the next point and
goes break point down. roddick saves the break point and then bangs down his ninth
ace before clinching the game with a service winner. the game passes the two-hour
mark as nadal holds serve to edge ahead in the third set. now roddick has to
defend a break point and he produces a characteristic ace to save it. it is
immediately followed by another and he holds with a little dinked half-volley
winner. roddick is looking a little leaden-footed but does carve out a break point
for himself. but he plays it poorly and nadal avoids the danger. roddick has gone
off the boil and again struggles. he fails to get down properly for a low forehand
volley and gives nadal three break points. the american blasts an ace to save one
but follows up with a double fault and the rubber is level. nadal edges towards
taking the second set with a comfortable hold. two good serves put roddick 30-0 up
but he then makes a couple of errors to find himself 30-40 down. he saves the break
point with an ace and then manages to hold. roddick s level has dropped while
nadal is on a hot streak. the spaniard includes a superb crosscourt winner off the
back foot as he races through his service game without dropping a point. roddick
double-faults twice and nadal takes full advantage of the break point offered
powering a passing winner past roddick. nadal wins another tight game. neither
player has dipped from the high standard of play in the first set. nadal puts the
american under pressure and roddick saves a break point with a superb stop volley
before going on to hold. nadal puts the disappointment of losing the first-set
tiebreak to claim the opening game in the second. roddick double-faults to concede
the first mini-break and then nadal loops a crosscourt winner to seize advantage in
the tiebreak. he lets one slip but wins his next serve to earn three set points.
but roddick saves them and then earns one himself. nadal comes up with a down-the-
line winner but then nets tamely on roddick s next set point. nadal s nerve is
tested as he tries to force a tiebreak. both players come up with some
scintillating tennis and the spaniard has several chances to clinch the game before
finally doing so when roddick drives wide. a pulsating game sees nadal racing
round the court retrieving and refusing to give roddick any easy points. the point
of the match so far involves roddick s slam-dunk smash being returned by nadal
before roddick finally manages to end the rally. on the very next point nadal
blasts a forehand service return from right of court that passes roddick and even
the american is forced to applaud. but roddick comes up with two big serves to
polish off the game. nadal outplays roddick to reach 40-0 but the american fights
back to 40-30 before nadal s powerful crosscourt forehand winner secures the game.
the crowd are getting very involved cheering between roddick s first and second
serves. but the american comes through to hold and edge ahead in the set. nadal
manages to hold again despite roddick piling the pressure on his serve. the
spaniard wins the game courtesy of another lucky net cord. roddick double faults
buts manages to keep his composure. a well-placed serve is unreturnable and roddick
holds. a powerful ace down the middle gives nadal a simple love service game - the
first time he has held serve so far in the match. if roddick didn t know before he
knows now that he is in a real contest. another superb game as nadal breaks to
once again lift the roof. he produces some fine groundstrokes to leave roddick
chasing shadows. four of the first five games have seen a break of serve. despite
the disappointment of losing his serve roddick is not phased and storms into a 40-
15 lead when the umpire leaves his seat to confirm a close line-call. nadal takes
the next point but roddick breaks again with a sharp volley at the net. roddick s
advantage is short lived as nadal breaks back immediately. a fortunate net cord
helps the spaniard on his way and when roddick fires a forehand cross court shot
wide to lose his serve nadal pumps his fist in celebration. the american is
pumped up for this clash and takes on nadal s serve from the start. nadal s drop
shot is agonisingly called out and roddick claims the vital first break. after
moya s win in the opening rubber a raucous seville crowd is buoyed by nadal s
impressive start which sees him race into a 30-0 lead. however roddick fights back
to hold his serve.
ukraine strikes turkmen gas deal ukraine has agreed to pay 30% more for natural gas
supplied by turkmenistan. the deal was sealed three days after turkmenistan cut
off gas supplies in a price dispute that threatened the ukrainian economy. supplies
from turkmenistan account for 45% of all natural gas imported by ukraine which has
large coal deposits but no gas fields. turkmenistan is also trying to strike a
similar deal with russia which is not so dependent on its gas. turkmen president
saparmurat niyazov who signed the contract said the turkmen side agreed to lower
the price demanded by $2 per 1 000 cubic metres bringing it down to $58. but the
new price is still $14 higher than the price fixed in the contract for 2004. the
head of the ukrainian state-owned naftohaz company yury boyko said he was fully
happy with the deal. on friday turkmenistan acted on a threat and shut off gas
supplies to ukraine in attempt to bring the price dispute to a head. mr niyazov
said that his government would insist on the same price for supplies to russia.
analysts say thay may not happen as russia the world s leading gas producer needs
the cheap turkmen gas only to relieve is state-owned gazprom from costly investment
in the exploration of oil fields in siberia. turkmenistan is the second-largest gas
producer in the world.
da vinci film to star tom hanks actor tom hanks and director ron howard are
reuniting for the da vinci code an adaptation of the international best-selling
novel by dan brown. distributor sony pictures said production will begin next year
with a planned release in may 2006. hanks will play robert langdon who is trying
to solve the murder of a member of an ancient society that has protected dark
secrets for centuries. it will be hanks third collaboration with howard. they
previously worked together along with howard s producing partner brian grazer on
splash and apollo 13. hanks is one of hollywood s most bankable stars with his
presence in a movie almost guaranteeing box office success. brown s book has become
a publishing phenomenon consistently topping book charts in the uk and us. it has
sold more than eight million copies worldwide in little over two years. it is a
classic whodunit which centres on a global conspiracy surrounding the holy grail
mythology and places heavy emphasis on symbols and cryptography. its protagonist is
a harvard professor likened to a contemporary indiana jones who also appeared in
brown s first book angels and demons. the tale mixes art history with mythology
semiotics with medieval history.
circuit city gets takeover offer circuit city stores the second-largest
electronics retailer in the us has received a $3.25bn (£1.7bn) takeover offer.
the bid has come from boston-based private investment firm highfields capital
management which already owns 6.7% of circuit city s shares. shares in the
retailer were up 19.6% at $17.04 in tuesday morning trading in new york following
the announcement. highfield said that it intends to take the virginia-based firm
private. such a transformation would eliminate the public-company transparency
into the company s operating strategy that is uniquely damaging in a highly
competitive industry where circuit city is going head-to-head with a tough and
entrenched rival highfield said. one analyst suggested that a bidding battle may
now begin for the company. bill armstrong a retail analyst at cl king & associates
said he expected to see other private investment firms come forward for circuit
city. the retailer is debt free with a good cash flow despite the fact that it is
said to be struggling to keep up with market leader best buy and cut-price
competition from the likes of wal-mart said mr armstrong.
venus stunned by farina elia venus williams suffered a first-round defeat for the
first time in four years at the dubai championships. sylvia farina elia who had
lost all nine of her previous meetings with the american fifth seed won 7-5 7-6
(8-6). former wimbledon champion conchita martinez and india s sania mirza the
oldest and youngest players in the draw also reached the second round. martinez
32 beat shinobu asagoe 6-4 6-4 and 18-year-old mirza beat jelena kostanic 6-7 (7-
2) 6-4 6-1. mirza the first indian woman to win a wta tour title this month on
home ground at hyderabad will now face us open champion svetlana kuznetsova. but
she is remaining confident. she (kuznetsova) is a great player she said. but
everyone is beatable and i am looking forward to a great match. williams though
blamed her defeat by farina elia on injuries. blisters were a factor but mostly
my stomach wasn t that great she said. i did it in the last tournament in the
semi-finals and i was serving at 40% in the final. the first time i served again
was sunday and there wasn t a lot i could do out there. when your serve isn t good
it throws the rest of your game off too. she will wait to see how she recovers
before deciding whether to take part in the nasdaq-100 open in miami starting on
21 march.
anelka apologises for criticism manchester city striker nicolas anelka has issued
an apology for criticising the ambitions of the club. anelka was quoted in a
french newspaper as saying he would like to play in the champions league for a
bigger club. but chairman john wardle said: i ve spoken to nicolas and he s
apologised for anything that might have been mistakenly taken from the french
press. we are a big club. nicolas told me that he agrees with me that we are a big
club. wardle was speaking at the club s annual general meeting where he also
confirmed the club had not received any bids for the former arsenal and real madrid
striker. the club still owe french club psg £5m from the purchase of anelka in may
2002. he has been linked with a move to barcelona and liverpool and reds skipper
steven gerrard also revealed he is an admirer from his time on loan at anfield. but
wardle added: there s been no bids for nicolas anelka. no-one has come to me and
said i would like to buy nicolas anelka. if a bid comes in for nicolas anelka i
will speak to the board and then speak to kevin keegan. if there was a bid and it
was a bid of substance and worth taking then between us we d decide. we still owe
some money on nicolas which we have clear out so it would have to be above that.
wardle did stress that the club was not inviting any offers for england winger
shaun wright-phillips. he added: i ve no intention of selling shaun wright-
phillips. if someone comes with a silly bid i ll have to discuss it. but we re
not putting him on the shelf to sell. he is the heart and soul of this club and has
his heart and sole in this club and he would be very upset if i put him in the
shop window. he was an academy kid here he s just signed a new four-year deal i
don t think he d do that unless he wanted to play for manchester city football
club. city recently announced debts of £62m but wardle confirmed they would try
and find funds to bring in players in the january transfer window. he said: like
kevin i d like to see some players come in. we ve got to see what we can do -
whether it s a on a bosman or not. we will try to be creative to generate some
funds. but maybe we have to start looking at clubs like everton and bolton to see
how they have been dealing in the transfer market and do a similar type of thing.
fears raised over ballet future fewer children in the uk are following in the
dainty footsteps of dancers like darcey bussell and carving out potential careers
as ballet dancers. new research from the royal academy of dance (rad) has found
fewer children over the age of 10 are attending ballet classes and taking exams in
the discipline. the organisation blames the growing popularity of computer games
and other changes in lifestyle. and there are fears that if the trend is not
reversed there could be fewer british ballet stars in the future. the rad found
that the number of youngsters taking their ballet exams drops by almost 70% after
the age of 10 or 11. dance teacher eve trew who has taught ballet for over 48
years told bbc news she had seen a vast change over the years. she blamed modern
lifestyles for the fall in ballet attendance. i think the children of many years
ago did not have as many hobbies she said. the trouble now is that they are wide
open to computers gameboys and everything else children have got. as a result
there is less time being spent on ballet lessons. hazel gilbert 23 an
information manager from newcastle gave up ballet at the age of 10 and is typical
of the problem. it s not a very cool thing to do when you go to big school and i
think you have to be very focused on ballet to want to carry on doing it she
said. i used to love it but after a certain age it becomes much more disciplined
and i didn t want that. i started getting into other things like swimming and
kickboxing and ballet just wasn t something i wanted to do any more. ms trew who
runs a dance school in gateshead admitted it would be very difficult to reverse
the trend and said many young ballet dancers were no longer willing to make the
sacrifices to succeed. you have to be very dedicated and you have to be very
disciplined. it is a career that you have got to really want to do because it is
such hard work. children these days have not got the time to spend perfecting
it... that is very sad. currently only two out of 16 principal dancers at the
royal ballet - darcey bussell and jonathan cope - are british compared to 16 of
the 21 principals in 1985. but a spokesman for the english national ballet told bbc
news that although only two out of their 12 principal dancers were british around
a quarter of the company s dancers were from the uk. he said competition at open
auditions in london was fierce between talented dancers from all over the world.
the rad have launched a new competition to try and reverse the decline in british
ballet. dame antoinette sibley president of the rad launched the fonteyn nureyev
young dancers competition earlier this week. aimed at children aged 10 to 13 it
is hoped the contest will help keep british ballet evolving. a spokeswoman for the
rad said: it is our responsibility to re-ignite the passion and nurture young
dancers for the long-term future of ballet. we need to provide them with a
framework and a goal to work towards with constant support and coaching in an
environment where they can work with their peers and possibly leading artists and
choreographers. perhaps more importantly provide them with the opportunity to
experience performance themselves. what better way to reignite a passion for
ballet than to let them experience the thrill of performance
consumer concern over rfid tags consumers are very concerned about the use of radio
frequency id (rfid) tags in shops a survey says. more than half of 2 000 people
surveyed said they had privacy worries about the tags which can be used to monitor
stock on shelves or in warehouses. some consumer groups have expressed concern that
the tags could be used to monitor shoppers once they had left shops with their
purchases. the survey showed that awareness of tags among consumers in europe was
low. the survey of consumers in the uk france germany and the netherlands was
carried out by consultancy group capgemini. the firm works on behalf of more than
30 firms who are seeking to promote the growth of rfid technology. the tags are a
combination of computer chip and antenna which can be read by a scanner - each item
contains a unique identification number. more than half (55%) of the respondents
said they were either concerned or very concerned that rfid tags would allow
businesses to track consumers via product purchases. fifty nine percent of people
said they were worried that rfid tags would allow data to be used more freely by
third parties. ard jan vetham capgemini s principal consultant on rfid said the
survey showed that retailers needed to inform and educate people about rfid before
it would become accepted technology. acceptance of new technologies always has a
tipping point at which consumers believe that benefits outweigh concerns. with the
right rfid approach and ongoing communication with consumers the industry can
reach this point. he said that the survey also showed people would accept rfid if
they felt that the technology could mean a reduction in car theft or faster
recovery of stolen items. the tags are currently being used at one tesco
distribution centre in the uk - the tags allow the rapid inventory of bulk items.
they are also in use as a passcard for the m6 toll in the midlands in the uk. mr
vetham said the majority of people surveyed (52%) believed that rfid tags could be
read from a distance. he said that was a misconception based on a lack of awareness
of the technology. at least once consumer group - consumers against supermarket
privacy invasion and numbering (caspian) - has claimed that rfid chips could be
used to secretly identify people and the things they are carrying or wearing. all
kinds of personal belongings including clothes could constantly broadcast
messages about their whereabouts and their owners it warned.
lib dems stress budget trust gap public trust in the handling of the economy can
only be restored if gordon brown opens up his books for unbiased inspection say
the lib dems. city experts say there is a £10bn black hole in the public
finances a claim denied by the chancellor. lib dem spokesman vince cable said the
public did not know who to believe and the national audit office should judge.
responding to the pre-budget report mr cable also attacked labour s unfair and
over-complicated taxes. in his report mr brown insisted he was on course to meet
his golden rule of borrowing only to invest rather than for day-to-day spending
over the course of the economic cycle. mr cable said people did not know whether to
believe the chancellor or the consensus among experts which said the rule would be
broken. there is an issue of credibility and trust he said. we cannot have a
continuation of a situation where the chancellor sets his own tests and then marks
them. what we need is the equivalent of a thorough ofsted inspection of the
government s accounts. he asked what the government had to hide. mr cable also
accused the chancellor of ducking tough choices. he argued: there are serious
challenges ahead from the falling dollar and from the rapid downturn in the uk
housing market and rising personal debt. but they have not been confronted. mr
brown confirmed he was setting aside another £520m for the conflicts in iraq and
afghanistan. mr cable compared that new cost with the £500m needed for britain s
role in the entire first gulf war - when 80% of the bill had been met through help
from european and arab nations. he suggested keeping british troops in iraq could
cost another £1bn with the government also planning to spend at least £3bn for
identity cards. the current economic climate meant britain could not afford the
reckless george bush-style tax cutting spree planned by the tories he said.
instead what was needed was simple and fair taxation rather than the complete
mess produced by mr brown s endless tinkering. mr cable said 40% of all
pensioners were now paying marginal tax rates of 50%. and one-and-a-half million
hard working families were paying 60% marginal tax rates. with that record he
asked why ministers attacked lib dem plans for a new 50% tax rate for the very
rich - those earning more than £100 000 a year. mr brown earmarked £1bn to help
keep down council tax rises next year. but the lib dem spokesman questioned whether
that money was being found from cuts to education and health. he urged the
government to scrap the grossly unfair tax completely. the lib dems want it
replaced with a local income tax. in response mr brown stressed the iraq money
came from a reserve funds. it was because he had rejected previous lib dem
proposals such as scrapping the new deal that britain s economy was successful
claimed mr brown.
more power to the people says hp the digital revolution is focused on letting
people tell and share their own stories according to carly fiorina chief of
technology giant hewlett packard. the job of firms such as hp now she said in a
speech at the consumer electronics show (ces) was to ensure digital and physical
worlds fully converged. she said the goal for 2005 was to make people the centre of
technology. ces showcases 50 000 new gadgets that will be hitting the shelves in
2005. the tech-fest the largest of its kind in the world runs from 6 to 9
january. the digital revolution is about the democratisation of technology and the
experiences it makes possible she told delegates. revolution has always been
about giving power to the people. she added: the real story of the digital
revolution is not just new products but the millions of experiences made possible
and stories that millions can tell. part of giving people more control has been
about the freeing up of content such as images video and music. crucial to this
has been the effort to make devices that speak to each other better so that content
can be more easily transferred from one device such as a digital camera to others
such as portable media players. a lot of work still needs to be done however to
sort out compatibility issues and standards within the technology industry so that
gadgets just work seamlessly she said. ms fiorina s talk also touted the way
technology is being designed to focus on lifestyle fashion and personalisation
something she sees as key to what people want. special guest singer gwen stefani
joined her on-stage to promote her own range of hp digital cameras which ms stefani
has helped design and which are heavily influenced by japanese youth culture. the
digital cameras which are due to go on sale in the us by the summer are based on
the hp 607 model. the emphasis on personalisation and lifestyle is a big theme at
this year s ces with tiny wearable mp3 players at every turn and rainbow hues
giving colour to everything. ms fiorina also announced that hp was working with
nokia to launch a visual radio service for mobiles which would launch in europe
early this year. the service will let people listen to radio on their mobiles and
download relevant content like a track s ringtone simultaneously. the service is
designed to make mobile radio more interactive. among the other new products she
showcased was the digital media hub a big upgrade to hp s digital entertainment
centre. coming out in the autumn in the us the box is a networked high-definition
tv cable set-top box digital video recorder and dvd recorder. it has a removable
hard drive cartridge memory card slots and light scribe labelling software which
lets people design and print customised dvd labels and covers. it is designed to
contain all a household s digital media such as pre-recorded tv shows pictures
videos and music so it can all be managed in one place. the hub reflects the
increasing move to re-box the pc so that it can work as part of other key centres
of entertainment. research suggests that about 258 million images are saved and
shared every day equating to 94 billion a year. eighty per cent of those remain on
cameras. media hubs are designed to encourage people to organise them on one box.
ms fiorina was one of several keynote speakers who also included microsoft chief
bill gates to set out what major technology companies think people will be doing
with technologies and gadgets in the next 12 months. in a separate announcement
during the keynote speech ms fiorina said that hp would be partnering mtv to
replace this year s mtv asia music award. mtv s asia aid will be held in bangkok on
3 february and is aimed at helping to raise money for the asian tsunami disaster.
howard denies split over id cards michael howard has denied his shadow cabinet was
split over its decision to back controversial labour plans to introduce id cards.
the tory leader said his front bench team had reached a collective view after
holding a good discussion but admitted it was not an easy issue . he had
decided to support the plans as the police said they would help fight terror crime
and illegal immigration. the lib dems have pledged to oppose the bill when it is
debated next monday. tory sources say senior party figures had argued vociferously
against the id card scheme. among those reported to have serious reservations over
the strategy were senior shadow cabinet members david davis oliver letwin and tim
yeo. but mr howard denied mr yeo his transport and environment spokesman said the
plans stink . he also said he was confident shadow home secretary mr davis would
set out the position very clearly when he stands up to debate the matter next
week. mr howard said the police had said id cards could help them foil a terror
bomb plot in which people could lose their lives . he added: when the police say
that you have to take them seriously . he acknowledged there were good
libertarian arguments against the cards but said the shadow cabinet had weighed
up all the conflicting interests before reaching its decision. i don t pretend
that it is an easy decision but at the end of the day a decision has to be taken.
he also denied he was afraid of looking soft on the issue compared to labour.
the conservatives announced their support for the government plans on monday
evening. sources within the party told the bbc mr howard had always been in favour
of id cards and tried to introduce them when he was home secretary. but the tories
insisted they would hold ministers to account over the precise purpose of the
scheme. they said they would also press labour over whether objectives could be
met and whether the home office would be able to deliver them. and they pledged to
assess the cost effectiveness of id cards and whether people s privacy would be
properly protected. it is important to remember that this bill will take a decade
to come into full effect a spokesman said. lib dem home affairs spokesman mark
oaten has branded the id scheme a waste of money and deeply flawed . he said:
this has all the signs of michael howard overruling colleagues concerns over id
cards. the chairman of the bar council guy mansfield qc warned there was a real
risk that people on the margins of society would be driven into the hands of
extremists. what is going to happen to young asian men when there has been a bomb
gone off somewhere they are going to be stopped. if they haven t [id cards] they
are going to be detained. tory ex-minister douglas hogg said he opposed the plans
for id cards branding them a regressive step which would intrude into the lives
of ordinary citizens without any counterbalancing benefits. he predicted ultimately
carrying the cards would become compulsory and that would lead to large numbers of
britain s ethnic minorities being stopped by police.
labour seeks to quell feud talk labour s leadership put on a show of unity at a
campaign poster launch after mps criticised tony blair and gordon brown over
reports of their rift. mr brown was joined at the launch by john prescott and alan
milburn the man controversially put in charge of election planning by mr blair. a
private meeting on monday saw normally loyal mps warn that feuding could jeopardise
their election hopes. it follows a new book charting disputes between prime
minister and chancellor. the event was the first time mr milburn has shared a
platform with the chancellor since taking mr brown s traditional poll planning
role. but the pair chatted amicably and mr brown insisted he was happy with his
current campaign task. asked about how he would deal with claims that he did not
trust the prime minister mr brown replied: you can see that our record on the
economy is about the british people trusting us to run the economy. he refused to
comment on the new book saying nobody should be distracted from the business of
government. mr brown later told reporters: of course i trust the prime minister.
downing street cited that comment when reporters suggested mr brown had pointedly
failed to deny claims he had once told mr blair: there is nothing you could ever
say to me now that i could ever believe . labour s new posters say britain is
enjoying the lowest inflation since the 1960s lowest unemployment for 29 years and
the lowest mortgage rates for 40 years. they urge voters not to let the tories take
things backwards. mr milburn promised a poll campaign which is upbeat confident
and above all else optimistic about the future of our country . conservative co-
chairman liam fox derided the photo call saying: the show of unity was the worst
acting i have seen since prisoner cell block h. labour had broken promises by
raising taxes 66 times and brought the slowest economic growth in the english-
speaking world he said. the prime minister and chancellor faced backbench
discontent at monday s meeting of the parliamentary labour party over claims made
in journalist robert peston s new book. mr blair told mps and peers: i know from
everyone here in cabinet and government nothing is going to get in the way of a
unified labour party with a unified position and winning the third term people
desperately need. labour s paul flynn said the pair had had a scorching from
mps. on tuesday deputy prime minister mr prescott told bbc news: they told us
very clearly it was the troops telling the leaders: get in line. the new book
claims mr prescott hosted a dinner in november 2003 where the prime minister told
mr brown he would stand down before the next election because he had lost trust
over the iraq war. mr blair then changed his mind in june 2004 after cabinet
allies intervened and amid suspicion the chancellor was manoeuvring against him
writes mr peston. mr prescott said there was a dinner but the discussions were
confidential. of course as a waiter for 10 years i have a professional ability
here he joked.
england claim dubai sevens glory england beat fiji 26-21 in a dramatic final in
dubai to win the first irb sevens event of the season. having beaten australia and
south africa to reach the final england fell behind to an early try against fiji.
they then took charge with scores from pat sanderson kai horstman mathew tait and
rob thirlby but fiji rallied to force a tense finale. scotland were beaten 33-15
by samoa in the plate semi-final and ireland lost 17-5 to tunisia in the shield
final. mike friday s england side matched their opponents for pace power and skill
in the final and led 19-7 at half-time. but neumi nanuku and marika vakacegu
touched down for fiji only for a needless trip by tuidriva bainivalu on geoff
appleford to allow england to run down the clock. to be honest england have
wanted to win in dubai for a very long time now and the people here have wanted us
to win for just as long said friday. we didn t want to put pressure on
ourselves but we are thankful we have achieved that and brought through some young
talent at the same time that can hopefully play for the england 15s in a few
years. portugal confirmed their impressive progress in sevens rugby by recording a
sudden-death win over france in the bowl final. samoa won the plate title by edging
out argentina 21-19.
iaaf awaits greek pair s response kostas kenteris and katerina thanou are yet to
respond to doping charges from the international association of athletics
federations (iaaf). the greek pair were charged after missing a series of routine
drugs tests in tel aviv chicago and athens. they have until midnight on 16
december and an iaaf spokesman said: we re sure their responses are on their way.
if they do not respond or their explanations are rejected they will be
provisionally banned from competition. they will then face a hearing in front of
the greek federation which will ultimately determine their fate. their former
coach christos tzekos has also been charged with distributing banned substances.
under iaaf rules the athletes could receive a maximum one-year suspension.
kenteris and thanou already face a criminal trial after being charged with avoiding
a drug test on the eve of the athens olympics and then faking a motorcyle crash.
no date for the trial has yet been set and again tzekos is also facing charges. the
iaaf issued an official warning to the trio last year after they were discovered
training in qatar rather than in crete where they had said they would be. all
athletes must inform their national federations where they are at all times so
they can be available for out-of-competition drugs tests. but kenteris and thanou
then went on to skip tests in tel aviv and chicago when they decided to fly back
to greece early. then just before the olympics the pair dramatically missed
another test in athens and withdrew from the games.
liverpool revel in night of glory liverpool manager rafael benitez said their
qualification for the next stage of the champions league was one of the proudest
nights of my career. the reds beat olympiakos 3-1 with a late steven gerrard
strike and benitez said: it was a really great night. the players ran hard all
the time and you see how much it means to the fans. we knew before the game that
it was very important for the club to gain these extra finances. for liverpool
this result is very very important. benitez hailed gerrard for his match-winning
strike four minutes from time and also the anfield crowd for sticking by their side
after they had fallen a goal behind at the interval. the reds scored three second-
half goals in a sensational comeback capped by gerrard s 20-yard drive. he added:
steven can play all over the pitch and he influences every part of the game. i
have said to him many times that he has the freedom because he has talent and is
very important to us. i felt that the difference between the sides was really our
supporters i cannot thank them enough. i want to say thank-you to the supporters
they were magnificent to help us achieve this result. gerrard admitted he thought
they were going out of the champions league after trailing 1-0 at half-time. he
said: i d be lying if i thought we were going through when we were losing at half-
time. we had a mountain to climb but we have climbed it and credit to everyone.
that was one of the best goals i have scored i caught it sweet i haven t caught
one like that for ages. it was a massive night for me and the team. liverpool s
win means all four of england s champions league representatives have reached the
knockout stages for the first time.
yukos accused of lying to court russian oil firm yukos lied to a us court in an
attempt to stop the russian government selling off its key production unit the
court has heard. the unit yugansk was sold to pay off a $27.5bn (£14.5bn) back
tax bill. yukos argued that since it had a us subsidiary and local bank accounts
the us court could declare it bankrupt and stop the auction of yugansk. but
deutsche bank - itself a target of a yukos lawsuit - said documents had been
backdated to strengthen the case. deutsche bank s evidence came on the first day
of a two-day hearing in houston. its lawyer hugh ray told the court that yukos
had claimed it had transferred $27m into two texas bank accounts opened by its new
us subsidiary. by doing so he said the firm had intended to reinforce its us
presence - and thus its chances of getting its case heard in us courts. but he said
that the papers documenting the transaction were not drawn up till weeks after
yukos made its bankruptcy application on 14 december and then backdated. yukos
chief financial officer bruce misamore who had moved to the us in early december
to set up yukos usa acknowledged the point. he said the discrepancy was only in
the paperwork but that money had indeed been transferred on 14 december. even so
he told the court that only $480 000 had been in the accounts that day with the
rest arriving a day later. deutsche bank is involved in the case because it is
itself being sued by yukos. it had agreed to loan to an arm of russian state gas
firm gazprom the money to bid for yuganskneftegaz as the yukos unit is formally
known. the sale went ahead despite an order from the us bankruptcy court ordered
that it should be stopped. in the end the auction was won by an unknown shell
company for $9.4bn - much less than most assessments of its value - before ending
up in the hands of state-controlled oil firm rosneft. rosneft meanwhile has
agreed to merge with gazprom bringing a large chunk of russia s very profitable
oil business back under state control. yukos maintains that it filed for
bankruptcy in the us because it feared it would not be able to do so in russia. it
also said that in the event of going bust it could offer the chance of
restructuring. it gives us a kind of life after death alternative said yukos
chief executive steven theede. yukos is currently suing four companies - gazprom
its unit gazpromneft rosneft and the shell company which won the bidding - for
their part in yugansk s disposal. it has also threatened to sue the russian
government for $28bn. analysts have questioned whether a us court has any
jurisdiction over russian companies while moscow officials have dismissed yukos
legal wrangling as meaningless. yukos claims that the rights of its shareholders
have been ignored and that is has been punished for the political ambitions of its
founder mikhail khodorkovsky. mr khodorkovsky once russia s richest man is in
prison having been charged with fraud and tax evasion and repeatedly denied bail.
apple sues to stop product leaks computer firm apple has issued a lawsuit to
prevent online leaks of information about future products. the lawsuit against an
unidentified individual comes just weeks before the macworld conference in san
francisco used to showcase new products. the complaint said an unidentified
individual... has recently misappropriated and disseminated confidential
information . the lawsuit was filed with the santa clara california superior court.
apple is famously secretive about its future product launches while apple users are
equally famous for speculating about new technology from the company. fans have
speculated in recent weeks about the possibility of a new type of ipod being
announced at the macworld conference. apple said in the seven-page complaint
filed on 13 december that it did not know the true names or capacities whether
individual associate corporate or otherwise of the defendants. the company said
it would amend the complaint once they had discovered the names of those who had
allegedly leaked information. it is not the first time apple has sued people who
have posted information about future products on the internet. in december 2002
apple sued a former contractor who allegedly posted online drawings images and
engineering details of the company s powermac g4 computer. in a statement apple
said of the current lawsuit: apple has filed a civil complaint against unnamed
individuals who we believe stole our trade secrets and posted detailed information
about an unannounced apple product on the internet.
hard act to follow for outkast us rap duo outkast s trio of trophies at the mtv
europe awards crowns a year of huge success for the band. the latest triumph adds
to the three grammys and four american mtv gongs won earlier in this year. andre
3000 and big boi s album speakerboxxx/the love below has been critically acclaimed
since its release and sold in large quantities around the world. the double album -
which saw the pair produce one disc each - topped the charts in the us at the same
time as single hey ya! it took another track from the exponents of southern hip-hop
- the way you move - to displace it from the top spot. the georgia pair s year of
critical and commercial triumph leaves them with a tough act to follow - what can
be next for a musical act that has done it all g money a presenter on the bbc s
urban music station 1xtra thinks a hiatus is inevitable after such a sustained
period of exposure - giving the band time to think about other interests. they
might be more appearances outside the band such as producing for other artists
while they have a number of fringe music projects. andre 3000 would like to go
into acting so we might see him a film while big boi already has a dog-breeding
business says the dj. but in a couple of years they will be back with another
album which will be a collaboration unlike their double cd. their greatness has
become clear with speakerboxxx/the love below. we haven t seen the last of them
he adds. outkast s musical career spans 10 years and they have enjoyed commercial
and critical success in the past with their debut southernplayalisticadillacmuzik
going platinum. but it took until 2001 for the pair to score their first hit in the
uk with ms jackson while their album stakonia saw their fame spread beyond the us.
1xtra s g money says it took the latest album released in 2003 for him to be
assured of their genius . they have always been experimental some of it has
worked and some hasn t he adds. but g money acknowledges that making the next
move for a band that has reached a pinnacle can be tough. what can you do next
when you ve done it all he says. with ten years of success behind them and
worldwide fame it seems that outkast is not a name that is likely to be forgotten
in a hurry.
brazil approves bankruptcy reform a major reform of brazil s bankruptcy laws has
been approved by the country s congress in a move which it is hoped will cut the
cost of borrowing. the bill proposed in 1993 has finally been approved by the
leadership of president luiz inacio lula da silva. the old law dating from 1945
gave priority first to workers second to tax revenue and finally to creditors. the
new legislation changes this giving priority to creditors and limiting payments to
workers. the new regulations will limit payments to workers to 150 times the
minimum monthly salary which is currently $94. the law also makes it more
difficult for a company to declare bankruptcy. however when a firm is declared
bankrupt it will gain protection from creditors for 180 days while a recovery plan
is worked out. the proposals were opposed in the past by leftist parties
including mr lula s worker party. they considered that they undermined workers
rights. but president lula became a defender of the reforms arguing that the
country s bank lending margins were among the highest in the world and were
damaging the economy. according to andreas adriano of latin trade magazine the new
bankruptcy law will help in reducing the spread - difference between the interest
rates of the banks and federal bonds. nevertheless mr adriano said to reduce the
basic interest rate the central bank needs to change its policy focusing not only
on inflation but also on economic growth.
wada will appeal against ruling the world anti-doping agency (wada) will appeal
against the acquittal of kostas kenteris and katerina thanou on doping charges if
the iaaf does not. the pair were cleared of charges relating to missing dope tests
by the greek athletics federation last week. wada chairman dick pound said: i am
convinced the iaaf will appeal against the decision and we will support them. but
if they accept the federation s ruling we will go before the court of arbitration
for sport he added. kenteris s lawyer gregory ioannidis reacted angrily to
pound s comments. comments like these only help to embarrass the sporting
governing bodies create a hostage situation for the iaaf and strengthen our case
further he told bbc sport. kenteris 31 and thanou 30 had been charged with
avoiding drugs tests in tel aviv chicago and athens and failing to notify anti-
doping officials of their whereabouts before the olympics. they withdrew from the
athens games after missing a drugs test at the olympic village on 12 august. but
an independent tribunal ruled that the duo had not been informed that they needed
to attend a drugs test in athens. however their former coach christos tzekos was
banned for four years by the tribunal. kenteris and thanou still have to face trial
on charges brought separately by greek prosecutors of missing the drugs tests and
faking a motorcycle accident to avoid testing at the athens games.
aviation firms eye booming india india s defence minister has opened the country s
aero india 2005 air show with an invitation for global aerospace firms to outsource
jobs to the nation. pranab mukherjee said such companies could take advantage of
india s highly skilled workers and low wages. more than 240 civil and military
aerospace firms from 31 countries are attending the show. analysts said india could
spend up to $35bn (£18.8bn) in the aviation market over the next 20 years. giants
such boeing and airbus - on the civil aviation front - as well as lockheed martin
and france s snecma - on the military side - are some of the firms attending the
show. there is tremendous scope for outsourcing from india in areas where the
companies are competitive said mr mukerjee. we are keen to welcome international
collaborations that are in conformity with our national goals. lockheed said it
had signed an agreement with state-owned hindustan aeronautics (hal) to share
information on the p-3 orion maritime surveillance aircraft. in fact the indian
armed force is considering the buying of used p-3 orion as well as f-16 fighter
jets from lockheed. the us military industry has show a strong interest to open a
link with india now that relations between the two countries have improved a lot.
in fact it is the first time the us air force will attend the air show since
sanctions imposed in 1998 after india s nuclear tests were lifted. but the indian
air force is also considering proposals from other foreign firms such as france s
dassault aviation sweden s saab and russia s mikoyan-gurevich. meanwhile france s
snecma has also said it plans a joint venture with hal to make engine parts with
an initial investment of $6.5m. on the civilian front boeing announced a deal
with india s hcl technologies to develop a platform for the flight test system of
its 787 dreamliner aircraft. the us company also said it had agreed with a new
indian budget airline the sale of 10 737-800 planes for $630m. the airline
spicejet will also have the option to acquire 10 more aircraft. airbus has also
recently signed fresh deals with two indian airlines - air deccan and kingfisher.
in addition the european company has plans to open a training centre in india.
meanwhile flag carrier air india is considering to buy 50 new aircraft from either
boeing or airbus. no other market is going to see the growth that will be seen
here in the coming years said dinesh keskar senior vice president boeing.
uk athletics agrees new kit deal uk athletics has agreed a new deal with adidas to
supply great britain squads of all ages with their kit for the next four years.
the german-based firm kitted out team gb at the 2004 olympics and has deals with 20
other national olympic bodies. uk athletics chief david moorcroft said: the athens
experience can now be extended to more major championships. in the year ahead
these include the european indoor and world outdoor championships. we are
delighted. moorcroft added: it is hugely beneficial to the sport that the adidas
commitment will also provide for officials and other personnel at our world-class
series of live televised events. this week uk athletics also agreed a four-year
deal with energy drink company red bull who will be supplying the product to
athletics at major domestic meetings and in high performance centres.
huge rush for jet airways shares indian airline jet airways initial public
offering was oversubscribed 16.2 times bankers said on friday. over 85% of the
bids were at the higher end of the price range of 1 050-1 125 rupees ($24-$26). jet
airways a low-fare airline was founded by london-based ex-travel agent naresh
goya and controls 45% of the indian domestic airline market. it sold 20% of its
equity or 17.2 million shares in a bid to raise up to $443m (£230.8m). the price at
which its shares will begin trading will be agreed over the weekend bankers said.
the demand for the ipo was impressive. we believe that over the next two years the
domestic aviation sector promises strong growth even though fuel prices could be
high said hiten mehta manager of merchant banking firm fortune financial
services. india began to open up its domestic airline market - previously dominated
by state-run carrier indian airlines - in the 1990s. jet began flying in 1993 and
now has competitors including air deccan and air sahara. budget carriers kingfisher
airlines and spicejet are planning to launch operations in may this year. jet has
42 aircraft and runs 271 scheduled flights daily within india. it recently won
government permission to fly to london singapore and kuala lumpur.
pompeii gets digital make-over the old-fashioned audio tour of historical places
could soon be replaced with computer-generated images that bring the site to life.
a european union-funded project is looking at providing tourists with computer-
augmented versions of archaeological attractions. it would allow visitors a glimpse
of life as it was originally lived in places such as pompeii. it could pave the way
for a new form of cultural tourism. the technology would allow digital people and
other computer-generated elements to be combined with the actual view seen by
tourists as they walk around an historical site. the lifeplus project is part of
the eu s information society technologies initiative aimed at promoting user-
friendly technology and enhancing european cultural heritage. engineers and
researchers working in the europe-wide consortium have come up with a prototype
augmented-reality system. it would require the visitor to wear a head-mounted
display with a miniature camera and a backpack computer. the camera captures the
view and feeds it to software on the computer where the visitor s viewpoint is
combined with animated virtual elements. at pompeii for example the visitor would
not just see the frescos taverns and villas that have been excavated but also
people going about their daily life. augmented reality has been used to create
special effects in films such as troy and lord of the rings and in computer gaming.
this technology can now be used for much more than just computer games said
professor nadia magnenat-thalman of the swiss research group miralab. we are for
the first time able to run this combination of software processes to create
walking talking people with believable clothing skin and hair in real-time she
said. unlike virtual reality which delivers an entirely computer-generated scene
to the viewer the lifeplus project is about combining digital and real views.
crucial to the technique is the software that interprets the visitor s view and
provides an accurate match between the real and virtual elements. the software
capable of doing this has been developed by a uk company 2d3. andrew stoddart
chief scientist at 2d3 said that the eu project has been driven by a new desire to
bring the past to life. the popularity of television documentaries and
dramatisations using computer-generated imagery to recreate scenes from ancient
history demonstrates the widespread appeal of bringing ancient cultures to life
he said.
christmas sales worst since 1981 uk retail sales fell in december failing to meet
expectations and making it by some counts the worst christmas since 1981. retail
sales dropped by 1% on the month in december after a 0.6% rise in november the
office for national statistics (ons) said. the ons revised the annual 2004 rate of
growth down from the 5.9% estimated in november to 3.2%. a number of retailers have
already reported poor figures for december. clothing retailers and non-specialist
stores were the worst hit with only internet retailers showing any significant
growth according to the ons. the last time retailers endured a tougher christmas
was 23 years previously when sales plunged 1.7%. the ons echoed an earlier
caution from bank of england governor mervyn king not to read too much into the
poor december figures. some analysts put a positive gloss on the figures pointing
out that the non-seasonally-adjusted figures showed a performance comparable with
2003. the november-december jump last year was roughly comparable with recent
averages although some way below the serious booms seen in the 1990s. and figures
for retail volume outperformed measures of actual spending an indication that
consumers are looking for bargains and retailers are cutting their prices.
however reports from some high street retailers highlight the weakness of the
sector. morrisons woolworths house of fraser marks & spencer and big food all
said that the festive period was disappointing. and a british retail consortium
survey found that christmas 2004 was the worst for 10 years. yet other retailers -
including hmv monsoon jessops body shop and tesco - reported that festive sales
were well up on last year. investec chief economist philip shaw said he did not
expect the poor retail figures to have any immediate effect on interest rates. the
retail sales figures are very weak but as bank of england governor mervyn king
indicated last night you don t really get an accurate impression of christmas
trading until about easter said mr shaw. our view is the bank of england will
keep its powder dry and wait to see the big picture.
worldcom trial starts in new york the trial of bernie ebbers former chief
executive of bankrupt us phone company worldcom has started in new york with the
selection of the jury. mr ebbers 63 is accused of being the mastermind behind an
$11bn (£6bn) accounting fraud that eventually saw the firm collapse in july 2002.
his indictment includes charges of securities fraud conspiracy and filing false
reports with regulators. if found guilty mr ebbers could face a substantial jail
sentence. he has firmly declared his innocence. under mr ebbers leadership
worldcom emerged from mississippi obscurity to become a $160bn telecoms giant and
the darling of late 1990s investors. yet as competition intensified and the
telecoms boom petered out worldcom found itself under growing financial stress.
when worldcom finally collapsed shareholders lost about $180bn and 20 000 workers
lost their jobs. mr ebbers trial which is expected to last two months is the
latest in a series of attempts by us prosecutors to pursue senior executives for
fraud. it will coincide with the retrial of former tyco international chief dennis
kozlowski and his top lieutenant accused of looting the industrial conglomerate to
the tune of $600m. trail preparations are also preparing for former executives of
shamed us energy firm enron.
business confidence dips in japan business confidence among japanese manufacturers
has weakened for the first time since march 2003 the quarterly tankan survey has
found. slower economic growth rising oil prices a stronger yen and weaker
exports were blamed for the fall. december s confidence level was below that seen
in september the bank of japan said. however september s reading was the
strongest for 13 years. the economy is at a pause but unlikely to fall the
economy minister said. it will feel a bit slower (next year) than this year and
growth may be a bit more gentle but the situation is that the recovery will
continue said economy minister heizo takenaka. in the bank of japan s december
survey the balance of big manufacturers saying business conditions are better
minus those saying they are worse was 22 down from 26 in september. japan s
economy grew by just 0.1% in the three months to september according revised data
issued this month. with the recovery slowing the world s second biggest economy is
now expected grow by 0.2% in 2004. the tankan index is based on a survey of 10 227
firms. big manufacturers were even more pessimistic about the first quarter of
2005; their views suggest the march reading could go as low as 15 - still in
positive territory but weaker. the dollar s decline has strengthened the yen
making japanese exports more expensive in the us. china s attempts to cool down its
fast-growing economy have also hit japanese industry s sales abroad. confidence
among non-manufacturers was unchanged in the final quarter of 2004 but it is
forecast to drop one point in the march survey. nonetheless japanese firms have
been stepping up capital investment and the survey found the pace is quickening.
companies reported they expect to invest 7.7% more in the year to march 2005 than
the previous year - up from expectations of 6.1% increase in the september tankan.
weak dollar trims cadbury profits the world s biggest confectionery firm cadbury
schweppes has reported a modest rise in profits after the weak dollar took a bite
out of its results. underlying pre-tax profits rose 1% to £933m ($1.78bn) in 2004
but would have been 8% higher if currency movements were stripped out. the owner of
brands such as dairy milk dr pepper and snapple generates more than 80% of its
sales outside the uk. cadbury said it was confident it would hit its targets for
2005. while the external commercial environment remains competitive we are
confident that we have the strategy brands and people to deliver within our goal
ranges in 2005 said chief executive todd stitzer. the modest profit rise had
been expected by analysts after the company said in december that the poor summer
weather had hit soft drink sales in europe. cadbury said its underlying sales were
up by 4% in 2004. growth was helped by its confectionery brands - including cadbury
trident and halls - which enjoyed a successful year with like-for-like sales up
6%. drinks sales were up 2% with strong growth in us carbonated soft drinks led by
dr pepper and diet drinks offset by the weaker sales in europe. cadbury added that
its fuel for growth cost-cutting programme had saved £75m in 2004 bringing total
cost savings to £100m since the scheme began in mid-2003. the programme is set to
close 20% of the group s factories and shed 10% of the workforce. cadbury schweppes
employs more than 50 000 people worldwide with about 7 000 in the uk.
hewitt survives nalbandian epic home favourite lleyton hewitt came through a
dramatic five-set battle with argentine david nalbandian to reach the australian
open semi-finals. hewitt looked to be cruising to victory after racing into a two-
set lead. but nalbandian broke his serve three times in both of the next two sets
to set up a nailbiting decider. hewitt eventually grabbed the vital break in the
17th game and served out to win 6-3 6-2 1-6 3-6 10-8 and set up a meeting with andy
roddick. the winner of that match will face either roger federer or marat safin in
the final. ninth seed nalbandian had never come back from two sets down to win a
match and there was no indication he would do so as hewitt dominated the first two
sets. the argentine had stoked up the temperature ahead of the match by saying
hewitt s exuberant on-court celebrations were not very good for the sport . and he
had words with hewitt during one change of ends in the second set when the
australian appeared to brush shoulders with him as they went to their chairs. the
balance of power changed completely in the third set as hewitt allowed his level to
dip and he double-faulted twice as nalbandian broke on the way to taking the
fourth set. but the tiring third seed showed incredible reserves of strength to
force the break despite being outplayed for much of the final set and three times
coming within two points of defeat. he then produced a love service game to finish
off the match in four hours and five minutes. i just kept hanging in there. it was
always tough serving second in the fifth set said hewitt who had never reached
the last four at his home grand slam. i told myself to give everything and in the
end it paid off once again. it s a long way from holding that trophy up there but
i m hanging in there. only four guys left that can win and we re the top four in
the world. it s set up for a pretty good showdown in the semis and finals.
trial date is set for balco case a us judge has set a preliminary trial date for
the balco steroid distribution case which has rocked athletics. us district court
judge susan ilston rejected an attempt by the defence team to have the case
dismissed at a pre-trial hearing in san francisco. and she set a march date for the
case of the four men accused of distributing illegal performance-enhancing drugs to
elite athletes to be heard. a firm decision on whether the trial takes place is
expected in january. the judge said that she may conduct hearings in january into
whether federal agents illegally searched the balco headquarters and wrongfully
obtained statements from the company s founder victor conte and its vice-president
james valente. the two men - along with personal trainer greg anderson and
athletics coach remy korchemny - were all indicted earlier this year but have
pleaded their innocence. the outcome of those hearings could result in some or all
of the charges being dismissed. conte said that he would be telling his side of the
story on an american tv show on friday. the world deserves to know the truth
about performance-enhancing drugs he said. balco (the bay area laboratory
cooperative) is the company at the centre of the scandal. the company has been
accused by the united states anti-doping agency (usada) of being the source of the
banned steroid thg and modafinil. the usada claims that 10 athletes have received
sanctions for testing positive for thg and modafinil. former double world champion
kelli white and olympic relay star alvin harrison have both been banned on the
basis of materials discovered during the balco investigation. britain s former
european 100m champion dwain chambers is currently serving a two-year ban after
testing positive for thg in an out-of-competition test in 2003.
roddick in talks over new coach andy roddick is reportedly close to confirming us
davis cup assistant dean goldfine as his new coach. roddick ended his 18-month
partnership with brad gilbert on monday and goldfine admits talks have taken
place. we had a really good conversation and we re on the same page in terms of
what i expect from a player in commitment and what he wants said goldfine. the
reading i got from him is that i would have a lot of the qualities he s looking for
in a coach. speaking to told south florida s sun-sentinel newspaper goldfine
added: that being said from his standpoint which is smart he wants to cover all
his bases. i think andy wants a long-term relationship and wants to make sure it s
the right fit... the best fit. goldfine 39 has worked with todd martin and
roddick s close friend mardy fish and was an assistant coach with the us olympic
team. martin is the other name to have been linked to the vacant post alongside
roddick.
irish duo could block man utd bid irishmen jp mcmanus and john magnier who own a
29% stake in manchester united will reportedly reject any formal £800m offer for
the club. the sunday times and the sunday telegraph say they will oppose any
formal £800m takeover bid from us tycoon malcom glazer. mr glazer got permission to
look at the club s accounts last week. irish billionaires mr mcmanus and mr magnier
are said to believe that an £800m bid undervalues club prospects. mr magnier and
mr mcmanus who hold their stake through their cubic expression investment vehicle
have the power to block a bid. mr glazer s financial backers including jp morgan
the us investment bank have said they won t back a bid unless it receives backing
from the owners of at least 75% of the club s shares. however there has been much
speculation that the irish duo simply do not think the price offered - 300p a share
- is high enough. mr glazer has been stalking the premier league football club
since 2003. mr magnier and mr mcmanus issued a statement late on friday saying
that they remained long-term investors in man utd. the sunday telegraph says the
board of manchester united also considered a management buyout at just over 300p
but did not go ahead with it.
strong demand triggers oil rally crude oil prices surged back above the $47 a
barrel mark on thursday after an energy market watchdog raised its forecasts for
global demand. the international energy agency (iea) warned demand for opec s
crude in the first quarter would outstrip supply. the iea raised its estimate of
2005 oil demand growth by 80 000 barrels a day to 84 million barrels a day. us
light crude rose $1.64 to $47.10 while brent crude in london gained $1.32 to
$44.45. the paris-based iea watchdog which advises industrialized nations on
energy policy said the upward revision was due to stronger demand from china and
other asian countries. the fresh rally in crude prices followed gains on wednesday
which were triggered by large falls in us crude supplies following a cold spell in
north america in january. the us department of energy reported that crude
stockpiles had fallen 1m barrels to 294.3m. on top of that ongoing problems for
beleaguered russian oil giant yukos have also prompted the iea to revise its output
estimates from russia - a major non-opec supplier. i think that prices are now
beginning to set a new range and it looks like the $40 to $50 level said energy
analyst orin middleton of barclays capital.
usher leads billboard nominations r&b singer usher is leading the race for the
billboard awards with nominations in 13 categories including best male. alicia
keys has 12 nominations for the awards which will be held on 8 december at the mgm
grand in las vegas. other multiple nominees include maroon5 outkast kanye west r
kelly gretchen wilson hoobastank and jay-z. soul singer stevie wonder will
receive billboard s century award the magazine s highest honour for creative
achievement at the ceremony. the awards will be hosted by american idol presenter
ryan seacrest and will feature performances by usher gwen stefani nelly and
green day. usher and keys will be battling it out for prizes including artist of
the year hot 100 songwriter of the year and billboard 200 album of the year for
their respective albums confessions and the diary of alicia keys. maroon5 and
outkast are also up for artist of the year while outkast s speakerboxxx/the love
below is a finalist for billboard 200 album of the year alongside josh groban s
closer. the awards honour the year s leading artists and songs as determined by
their performance on billboard s weekly charts.
durex maker ssl awaits firm bid uk condom maker ssl international has refused to
comment on reports it may be subject to a takeover early in 2005. a financial
times report said business intelligence firm gpw was understood to be starting due
diligence work on ssl international for a corporate client. an spokesman for ssl
which makes the famous durex brand of condom would not to comment on market
speculation . however the news sent shares in ssl which also makes scholl footwear
up more than 6% or 16.75 pence to 293.5p. the ft said most the high-profile firm
that might woo ssl was anglo-dutch household products group reckitt benckiser.
eighteen months ago reckitt benckiser was at the centre of a rumoured takeover bid
for ssl - but that came to nothing. other firms that have been seen as would-be
suitors include kimberly-clark johnson & johnson and private equity investors.
analysts have seen ssl as a takeover target for years. it sold off its surgical
gloves and antiseptics businesses for £173m to a management team in may. ssl was
formed by a three-way merger between seton healthcare footwear specialists scholl
and condom-maker london international group. its other brands include syndol
analgesic meltus cough medicine sauber compression hosiery and deodorant products
and mister baby.
south african car demand surges car manufacturers with plants in south africa
including bmw general motors toyota and volkswagen have seen a surge in demand
during 2004. new vehicle sales jumped 22% to 449 603 from a year earlier the
national association of automobile manufacturers of south africa (naamsa) said.
strong economic growth and low interest rates have driven demand and analysts
expect the trend to continue. naamsa said it expects sales to top 500 000 in 2005.
during 2004 south africa was one of the best performing markets internationally
for car sales naamsa said. while domestic demand is set to continue to enjoy rapid
growth foreign sales could come under pressure analysts said. the vehicle
industry accounts for about 13% of south africa s total exports. however the world
auto market has its problems and analysts warn that overcapacity and the strength
of the rand could hit exports.
imf agrees fresh turkey funding turkey has agreed a draft proposal with the
international monetary fund to borrow $10bn (£5.19bn) extending its ongoing
financial support until 2007. turkey s current $18.6bn loan agreement with the imf
expires in february and the new deal would see it receive added support between
2005 and 2007. in return for the funding turkey would be expected to keep
inflation under control and introduce market reforms. turkey s economy has steadily
recovered from a severe crisis in 2001. economic growth has average 6-7% in the
past three years ahead of imf forecasts while inflation fell below 10% this year
for the first time in 30 years. however turkey has a huge debt burden - already
owing $23bn to the imf - while its current account deficit has swelled to $10.7bn
this year. the turkish economics minister ali babacan said the two sides had
reached general agreement on a new three year funding program. rodrigo de rato the
imf s managing director said the loan agreement would help to improve turkish
economic prospects by cutting its debt and stimulating growth. i believe the new
programme if implemented successfully will help turkey create the conditions for
sustained growth and employment creation reduce inflation toward european level
and enhance the economy s resilience he said. the agreement must still be
ratified by imf directors at a meeting expected to take place next month. the
agreement would also enable turkey to defer payments on previous loans worth $3.7m
until 2006. as part of the draft agreement turkey has signed a letter of intent
stating its determination to push through far-reaching reforms to its tax and
benefits system and its banking sector. such reforms are considered vital for
turkey if it is to fulfil its ambition of joining the european union. the eu will
decide on 17 december whether to begin entry talks with turkey. the us the largest
of the imf s 184 members is a strong supporter of continued financial support for
turkey.
smith keen on home series return scotland manager walter smith has given his
backing to the reinstatement of the home international series. such a plan is to
be proposed by the new chief executive of the northern irish fa howard wells at
the next meeting of the four home countries. the english fa has expressed doubt as
to whether the fixtures could be accommodated at the end of each season. but smith
said: bringing it back would add meaning to friendly games and that s something
that s needed. the home international series was done away with in 1984 with the
traditional scotland-england fixture continuing until 1989. that game is one smith
would be delighted to see reinstated. the scotland v england match was a highlight
of the end of the season he added. i was in italy for their friendly with russia
last week and they made seven substitutions while only around 20 000 fans turned up
to watch. england were criticised for the 0-0 draw against holland - the way
scotland were slammed in the past for poor results in friendlies. you have to put
a performance on in friendly games. if you don t they can be de-motivating. it
can be a dangerous road to go down if players don t apply themselves in the manner
they should. so i would support the return of the home internationals - the only
problem would be fitting them in to the fixture schedule.
bomb threat at bernabeu stadium spectators were evacuated from real madrid s
bernabeu stadium on sunday following a bomb scare during the game between the hosts
and real sociedad. more than 70 000 people abandoned the ground with the score at
1-1 and only three minutes left to play. the basque newspaper gara apparently
received a telephone call saying a bomb was due to explode at 2100 local time. but
after searching the stadium with sniffer dogs the police said that no explosive
device had been found. the police have said they have completed their search and
have not found anything said real madrid president florentino perez. the best
thing we can all do now is to put this nightmare behind us. madrid midfielder guti
told private spanish radio station cadena ser: i have never seen this before and
sport should be above it all. real took the lead just before the break when
brazilian striker ronaldo cracked home with his left foot. sociedad levelled the
match midway through the second half when turkish striker nihat kahveci smashed
home with an acrobatic finish. it is not yet clear if the remaining three minutes
of the game will be played at a later date or if the result will be allowed to
stand. if the result remains at 1-1 real will drop to third place in the
standings 11 points behind leaders barcelona who snatched a late 2-1 win at
albacete on saturday. initial reports suggested the basque separatist group eta may
be responsible for the bomb threat after issuing similar warnings before a series
of small explosions in recent days. the bernabeu was targeted by eta on 1 may 2002
when madrid were about to play fc barcelona in a champions league semi-final. a car
bomb exploded in a street outside the stadium and 17 people were slightly injured.
kuznetsova failed a drugs test us open champion svetlana kuznetsova has tested
positive for a banned drug according to belgian authorities. belgian sports
minister claude eerdekens said that the russian world number five tested positive
for the stimulant ephedrine on 19 december. kuznetsova was playing in an exhibition
event in charleroi at the time. eerdekens said: there is a problem. ephedrine was
discovered. she remains innocent until proved guilty. she can ask for it to be
tested again. the situation remains unclear as the tournament was not commissioned
by the world anti-doping agency (wada) the international tennis federation (itf)
or the women s tennis accosiation (wta). the test was carried out by regional
belgian authorities and kuznetsova has not yet been able to have a b sample tested.
speaking at the australian open on monday before eerdekens identified her
kuznetsova said: i m not worried. i m not using anything to push myself. i have
not been notified of any positive test and i think it is unfair that it s come out
the way it did. eerdekens said that confirmation of the findings was sent last
friday to the player s address in spain as well as to the belgian prosecutors
office and the belgian and russian tennis federations. he conceded kuznetsova might
have taken a medicine which contained the banned substance. we have simply stated
a fact he said. it is for the federation concerned to impose the disciplinary
measures after a procedure that respects the defence. either the ephedrine was
taken to improve her performance or it is because she took some medicine
legitimately to cure an infection. however kuznetsova s naming was condemned by
russian tennis chief shamil tarpishchev. first of all this belgian sports
minister has broken every ethical rule in the book by naming a player without any
proof of wrongdoing without any basic evidence tarpishchev said. we all know
the basic principle in doping cases. if there is a positive sample then they
should notify the international tennis federation (itf) as well as the national
federation within three days he said. this is not the case here. as of today we
have not received any statement from the doping officials nor did the itf. today
i called the itf headquarters and they told me they know nothing about it. if wada
(the world anti-doping agency) was behind the testing then we would also have
known something by now. otherwise all these looks to me as pure fiction and
fabrication of the facts.
brainwave cap controls computer a team of us researchers has shown that
controlling devices with the brain is a step closer. four people two of them
partly paralysed wheelchair users successfully moved a computer cursor while
wearing a cap with 64 electrodes. previous research has shown that monkeys can
control a computer with electrodes implanted into their brain. the new york team
reported their findings in the proceedings of the national academy of sciences.
the results show that people can learn to use scalp-recorded electroencephalogram
rhythms to control rapid and accurate movement of a cursor in two directions said
jonathan wolpaw and dennis mcfarlane. the research team from new york state
department of health and state university of new york in albany said the research
was another step towards people controlling wheelchairs or other electronic devices
by thought. the four people faced a large video screen wearing a special cap which
meant no surgery or implantation was needed. brain activity produces electrical
signals that can be read by electrodes. complex algorithms then translate those
signals into instructions to direct the computer. such brain activity does not
require the use of any nerves of muscles so people with stroke or spinal cord
injuries could use the cap effectively. the impressive non-invasive
multidimensional control achieved in the present study suggests that a non-invasive
brain control interface could support clinically useful operation of a robotic arm
a motorised wheelchair or a neuroprosthesis said the researchers. the four
volunteers also showed that they could get better at controlling the cursor the
more times they tried. although the two partially-paralysed people performed better
overall the researchers said this could be because their brains were more used to
adapting or that they were simply more motivated. it is not the first time
researchers have had this sort of success in brain-control experiments. some teams
have used eye motion and other recording techniques. earlier this year a team at
the mit media labs europe demonstrated a wireless cap which read brain waves to
control a computer character.
brussels raps mobile call charges the european commission has written to the mobile
phone operators vodafone and t-mobile to challenge the high rates they charge for
international roaming. in letters sent to the two companies the commission
alleged the firms were abusing their dominant market position in the german mobile
phone market. it is the second time vodafone has come under the commission s
scrutiny. the uk operator is already appealing against allegations that its uk
roaming rates are unfair and excessive . vodafone s response to the commission s
letter was defiant. we believe the roaming market is competitive and we expect to
resist the charges said a vodafone spokesman. however we will need time to
examine the statement of objections in detail before we formally respond. the
commission s investigation into vodafone and deutsche telekom s t-mobile centres on
the tariffs the two companies charge foreign mobile operators to access their
networks when subscribers of those foreign operators use their mobile phones in
germany. the commission believes these wholesale prices are too high and that the
excess is passed on to consumers. the commission aims to ensure that european
consumers are not overcharged when they use their mobile phones on their travels
around the european union the commission said in a statement. vodafone and o2
britain s other big mobile phone operator were sent similar statements of
objections by the commission in july last year. vodafone sent the commission a
response to those allegations in december last year and is now waiting for a reply.
the vodafone spokesman said a similar process would be set in motion with these
latest statement of objections about its operations in germany. the companies will
have three months to respond to the commission s allegations and the process may
go on for some time yet the spokesman said. the commission could charge the
companies up to 10% of their annual turnover though in practice that sort of
figure is rarely demanded. the commission s latest move comes just a few months
after national telecoms regulators across europe launched a joint investigation
which could lead to people being charged less for using their mobile phone when
travelling abroad. the investigation involves regulators assessing whether there is
effective competition in the roaming market.
juninho demand for o neill talks juninho s agent has confirmed that the player is
hoping for talks with martin o neill as the brazilian midfielder comes closer to
departing celtic. brian hassell says no official approach has been received from
manchester city but that the english club had been earmarked as a possible
destination. but it was being stressed to bbc sport that juninho would prefer to
remain with the scottish champions. juninho wants assurances that he will return to
o neill s first-team plans. he has become frustrated with his lack of first-team
action since his move from middlesbrough in the summer. hassel says juninho who
has just bought a new home would desperately like to stay at celtic but will
seek a move if it is made clear that he is not wanted. the agent also stressed
that nothing should be read into the 30-year-old s father being in scotland and
talk of a move back to botafogo in brazil. juninho s father was simply in the
country to see his son and grandchildren. i know there is interest from a
brazilian club but i know juninho doesn t want to go there said hassel. he
wants to stay in britain. in fact he wants to stay at celtic. hassall made it
clear that a move to manchester city who are badly in need of a midfield play-
maker was more of a possibility than botafogo or mexican outfit red sharks
veracruz who also expressed an interest. it was a thought at one stage he said.
if you are not going to get a game under one manager you look for another whose
style of play suits you. he is a fan of kevin keegan s style of play. it would not
be a bad move for him. juninho had earlier told the daily record: the manager has
had a lot of chances to put me in his team but it hasn t happened. if that is the
case then this is the opportunity for me to go. that would be good for the club and
good for me. if i have no part in his plans there is no point in remaining here
waiting for a chance that never comes. the attacking midfielder also claims he has
not had the backing of boss martin o neill since his move to celtic park. i can t
understand why i am in this situation he continued. when a manager brings a new
player to the club he gives that player support.
balco case trial date pushed back the trial date for the bay area laboratory
cooperative (balco) steroid distribution case has been postponed. us judge susan
illston pushed back a preliminary evidentiary hearing - which was due to take place
on wednesday - until 6 june. no official trial date has been set but it is expected
to begin in september. balco founder victor conte along with james valente coach
remy korchemny and trainer greg anderson are charged with distributing steroids to
athletes. anderson s clients include barry bonds and several other baseball stars
have been asked to appear before a congressional inquiry into steroid use in the
major leagues. the balco defence team have already lost their appeal to have the
case dismissed at a pre-trial hearing in san francisco but will still argue the
case should not go to trial. the hearing in june will focus on the admissibility of
evidence gathered during police raids on balco s offices and anderson s home. conte
and anderson were not arrested at that point but federal agents did obtain
statements from them. the defence are expected to challenge the legality of those
interviews and if ilston agrees she could could reject all the evidence from the
raids. balco has been accused by the united states anti-doping agency (usada) of
being the source of the banned steroid thg and modafinil. former double world
champion kelli white and olympic relay star alvin harrison have both been banned on
the basis of materials discovered during the balco investigation. britain s former
european 100m champion dwain chambers is currently serving a two-year ban after
testing positive for thg in an out-of-competition test in 2003. and american
sprinter marion jones has filed a lawsuit for defamation against conte following
his allegations that he gave her performance-enhancing drugs.
thanou desperate to make return greek sprinter katerina thanou says she is eager to
compete again after being cleared of missing a drugs test by an independent greek
tribunal. thanou 30 was provisionally suspended for missing a test before the
olympics but the decision was overturned. the iaaf will decide if we can compete
again in greece and abroad thanou told to vima newspaper in her first interview
since the athens olympics. if given the green light i will run again - that s the
only thing i want. thanou 30 and her compatriot kostas kenteris were
provisionally suspended by the iaaf in december for missing three drugs tests. the
third was alleged to have been on the eve of the opening ceremony of the athens
olympics. but an independent tribunal of the greek athletics federation overturned
the provisional ban on 18 march. the iaaf - which said it was very surprised by
the decision of the greek tribunal - is deciding whether to appeal against the
decision at the court of arbitration for sport. however dick pound the chairman
of the world anti-doping authority has said he will appeal against the decision if
the iaaf does not. and thanou and kenteris face a criminal trial later this year
for allegedly avoiding the test and then faking a motorcycle accident. thanou said:
i can see how people can think the accident seemed like a childish excuse. i
cannot deny that we made a lot of mistakes during that time. i always said we
needed a pr person. an athlete would have to be very stupid to take illegal
substances when he or she knows that they will undergo tests at any given moment.
i am a champion. i cannot risk everything i ve achieved in such a silly way.
bat spit drug firm goes to market a german firm whose main product is derived from
the saliva of the vampire bat is looking to raise more than 70m euros ($91m; £49m)
on the stock market. the firm paion said that it hoped to sell 5 million shares
- a third of the firm - for 11-14 euros a share. its main drug desmoteplase is
based on a protein in the bat s saliva. the protein stops blood from clotting -
which helps the bat to drink from its victims but could also be used to help
stroke sufferers. the company s shares go on sale later this week and are
scheduled to start trading on the frankfurt stock exchange on 10 february. if the
final price is at the top of the range the company could be valued at as much as
200m euros. the money raised will be spent largely on developing the company s
other drugs since desmoteplase has already been licensed to one manufacturer
forest laboratories.
smith loses us box office crown new comedy diary of a mad black woman has ended
will smith s reign at the top of the north american box office. based on a play by
tyler perry who also stars as a gun-toting grandmother the film took $22.7m
(£11.8m) in its first three days of release. after topping the chart for two
consecutive weeks smith s romantic comedy hitch dropped to second place with
takings of $21m (£10.9m). keanu reeves supernatural thriller constantine dropped a
place to three. based on the hellblazer comics the film took $11.8m (£6.1m) on its
second week of release. two new entries came next in the chart with wes craven s
horror movie cursed about a werewolf loose in los angeles in fourth position with
$9.5m (£4.9m). action comedy man of the house starring tommy lee jones as a texas
ranger assigned to protect a cheerleader squad came in at fifth with $9m (£4.6m).
clint eastwood s boxing drama million dollar baby - recipient of four academy
awards including best picture - continued to perform well in sixth place with
takings of $7.2m (£3.74m). martin scorsese s hollywood biopic the aviator - which
won five oscars all in minor categories - held on in ninth place. the low-budget
feature diary of a mad black woman stars kimberly elise as a woman thrown out on
the streets by her philandering husband. with the help of her grandmother madea
(one of three roles played by perry) she plots revenge. perry 34 is one of
america s best-known black playwrights but is a newcomer to film. once made
homeless after investing his own money in unsuccessful productions of his work he
now lives in the mansion in which diary of a mad black woman was filmed.
multi-purpose tv aids india two-thirds of the world s population 4 billion people
live on $2 000 a year or less. you might think that the last thing on their minds
would be getting a television set or a computer. but that s not the case. many
people in the developing world give up one of their daily meals so they can afford
to buy a tv. and now an indian-born computer engineer thinks he s come up with a
way to give them cheap access to the internet. carnegie mellon professor raj reddy
has spent the bulk of his professional career trying to find ways to make
technology accessible to poor people. the first step is to figure out why poor
people would want a personal computer and professor reddy thinks he has a pretty
good idea of why they might. i come from a village says prof reddy i know what
the population is like many of them are illiterate and many of them have other
concerns. there nobody will use it for the conventional uses of a pc word
processing and powerpoint he said. so it s clear to me that if people wanted to
use pcs in a village - it has to usable by illiterate people and it must be
primarily for entertainment education telemedicine and access to expert advice.
prof reddy also thinks that tying it into some kind of aid package was the wrong
approach. after all he asked -- what aid group could possibly give expensive
computers to 250 million less fortunate indians let alone the billions of poor
people around the world instead prof reddy decided to think of those 250 million
indians as a potential market. the problem then becomes one of making the product
compelling enough. it must be so compelling that you would give up your third meal
in order to have this prof reddy says. people do this today with television
sets. if you go to india and many other countries they will first go get a
television set before they worry about one more meal. why because personalized
entertainment has become very important. this hatched a completely new idea. he
calls it a pctvt - a personal computer television and telephone all in one that
runs on a normal desktop machine. literate users can surf through the applications
with a keyboard and mouse but illiterate users can use what looks like a television
remote control. on the screen pictures - not words - designate applications like
tv voice mail and video e-mail. this dependence on graphics video and audio
means that a computer for an illiterate person needs 100 times more power and more
memory than one for a phd. prassana rambathla one of prof reddy s graduate
students says that when you re talking illiterate you re talking audio and video
and that demands exponentially high bandwidth. it can t choke at any point in
time and it has to withstand anything no matter what you re pressing. the major
part is making it foolproof very tough so that it never breaks he says. the
carnegie mellon team says this project is only possible because pcs are now so much
cheaper and have built-in audio and video hardware and software. limited trials of
the pctvt are due to start this month in the indian state of andhra pradesh.
although andhra pradesh has a fairly good infrastructure but work has to be done to
ensure reliable connections to the net. prof reddy has teamed up with eric brewer
at the university of california at berkeley. the answer says prof brewer is wi-
fi. we re looking at the thing you ll see in starbuck s or many other hotspots
he says. we re doing a lot of work on long-distance wireless and how to make the
network work better in the presence of intermittency when the power goes up and
down and the links go up and down and the computers you re connected to just get
turned off for no reason. prof reddy says he hopes to lease the pctvts for about
$10 a month and thinks indians will rent the units for the television and dvd
capabilities. reddy says he can then introduce the pctvt s other technologies -
such as video mail. for example a farmer could use the pctvt s webcam to send a
picture of a harmful insect to a local official who could send back a proposed
course of action to the farmer. prof reddy thinks this kind of communication is the
real pay-off. the underlying problem he says is how you can increase their
wealth and reduce their poverty and reduce their illiteracy and improve their
health care. and what i m postulating is that this is the technology that will
enable them. if i didn t have it it would be an uphill battle. even with the
technology it s an uphill battle. but i have a tool. there is hope. i can reach
them in ways that have not been possible before. clark boyd is technology
correspondent for the world a bbc world service and wgbh-boston co-production
lifestyle governs mobile choice faster better or funkier hardware alone is not
going to help phone firms sell more handsets research suggests. instead phone
firms keen to get more out of their customers should not just be pushing the
technology for its own sake. consumers are far more interested in how handsets fit
in with their lifestyle than they are in screen size onboard memory or the chip
inside shows an in-depth study by handset maker ericsson. historically in the
industry there has been too much focus on using technology said dr michael bjorn
senior advisor on mobile media at ericsson s consumer and enterprise lab. we have
to stop saying that these technologies will change their lives he said. we
should try to speak to consumers in their own language and help them see how it
fits in with what they are doing he told the bbc news website. for the study
ericsson interviewed 14 000 mobile phone owners on the ways they use their phone.
people s habits remain the same said dr bjorn. they just move the activity into
the mobile phone as it s a much more convenient way to do it. one good example of
this was diary-writing among younger people he said. while diaries have always
been popular a mobile phone -- especially one equipped with a camera -- helps them
keep it in a different form. youngsters use of text messages also reflects their
desire to chat and keep in contact with friends and again just lets them do it in a
slightly changed way. dr bjorn said that although consumers do what they always did
but use a phone to do it the sheer variety of what the new handset technologies
make possible does gradually drive new habits and lifestyles. ericsson s research
has shown that consumers divide into different tribes that use phones in
different ways. dr bjorn said groups dubbed pioneers and materialists were most
interested in trying new things and were behind the start of many trends in phone
use. for instance he said older people are using sms much more than they did
five years ago. this was because younger users often the children of ageing
mobile owners encouraged older people to try it so they could keep in touch.
another factor governing the speed of change in mobile phone use was the simple
speed with which new devices are bought by pioneers and materialists. only when
about 25% of people have handsets with new innovations on them such as cameras
can consumers stop worrying that if they send a picture message the person at the
other end will be able to see it. once this significant number of users is passed
use of new innovations tends to take off. dr bjorn said that early reports of
camera phone usage in japan seemed to imply that the innovation was going to be a
flop. however he said now 45% of the japanese people ericsson questioned use
their camera phone at least once a month. in 2003 the figure was 29%. similarly
across europe the numbers of people taking snaps with cameras is starting to rise.
in 2003 only 4% of the people in the uk took a phonecam snap at least once a month.
now the figure is 14%. similar rises have been seen in many other european nations.
dr bjorn said that people also used their camera phones in very different ways to
film and even digital cameras. usage patterns for digital cameras are almost
exactly replacing usage patterns for analogue cameras he said. digital cameras
tend to be used on significant events such as weddings holidays and birthdays. by
contrast he said camera phones were being used much more to capture a moment and
were being woven into everyday life.
mobile music challenges ipod age nokia and microsoft have agreed a deal to work
on delivery of music to handsets while sony ericsson has unveiled its phone
walkman and motorola is working on an itunes phone. can mobile phones replace the
mp3 player in your pocket the music download market has been growing steadily
since record firms embraced digital distribution. ease of use relative low price
and increased access to broadband has helped drive the phenomenal growth of mp3
players. full-length music downloads on mobile phones have not taken off so
quickly - held back by technical challenges as well as issues over music
availability. but the mobile music industry is confident that the days of dedicated
mp3 players are numbered. gilles babinet chief executive of mobile music firm
musiwave said: music downloads on mobiles have the potential to be the biggest-
ever medium for music. musiwave provides downloading infrastructure for the
mobile phone market and mr babinet said the industry was enjoying definite
momentum. but there are hurdles to overcome. mobile phones offer limited storage
for music - certainly nothing to rival apple s 60gb ipod. but the first mobile
phones with hard disk players will be on the market soon and the current generation
of mobiles using flash technology can store up to one gigabyte of music - enough
for 250 songs. we are working in the hard disk area and we will be bringing out
exciting devices jonas guest vice president for entertainment at nokia told the
bbc news website. but will mobiles become mere storage devices one of the
problems we could have is that mobiles are used just for storage and playback while
pcs are used for downloading said mr babinet we don t want people to cast aside
their pcs - we want mobile users to hook up into the existing ecosystems
explained mr guest. you must enable people to transfer music from a pc to a
handset and vice versa. one of the key elements of the nokia and microsoft deal
is the agreed ability to transfer songs between a handset and a pc. microsoft will
adopt open standards allowing music to cross boundaries for the first time. songs
can be downloaded on pc or mobile and transferred between the platforms. the line
between online and wireless is going to blur predicted ted cohen senior vice
president of digital development and distribution at emi. he said: the market is
more regional in its maturity. in asia it is beyond belief. the majority of our
digital revenues in asia comes from mobiles. in north america it is fixed line
while there is equilibrium in europe. emi currently offers its entire 200 000
download catalogue for use by both by pcs and mobile phones. mr cohen said: it s
going to be just as important to connect through 3g or wireless as it is through
your pc. we want music to be a continuum. the seamless experience of mobiles and
pc downloads is approaching he predicted. mr babinet said the mobile phone had a
number of advantages over pcs which would see it become the focus for music
downloading in the future. getting music from your pc onto a device is not an easy
experience. you have to switch the pc on load the operating system load the
program buy the music download the music and then transfer the music. all of
these steps can be done in one step on a mobile phone. he said the mobile phone s
billing system would make it easier for teenagers to embrace downloads because
pre-paid cards were already accepted by the age group. certainly we have a
problem with battery memory and bandwidth. but it s not about the current status.
it s about the potential. you will have all of your music on your mobile. all
three men said that the social interaction of mobile music would drive the market.
mr cohen said: i can send you the song and it is either billed to me or i send it
to you and if you listen to it and want to keep it is billed to you. it s a
social phenomenon. mr babinet said: today you use radio and tv to discover music.
tomorrow you will discover and consume music via one device - the mobile.
row over police power for csos the police federation has said it strongly opposes
giving community support officers (csos) the power to detain suspects for up to 30
minutes. the powers - piloted in six areas - were extended to all police forces in
england and wales on thursday. the federation said csos do not have the experience
training and safety equipment to deal with potentially confrontational
situations. but the government said the move would help police build safe
communities . police federation chairman jan berry said civilian officers should
act as eyes and ears for the police. they should not be placed in potentially
confrontational situations - which detaining someone clearly is she said. csos
can now use reasonable force to detain suspects for up to 30 minutes while they
wait for police officers to arrive. the powers will be granted by chief constables
of local forces. ms berry said this dramatically changes their original purpose -
to be a visible presence combating low-level crime and anti-social behaviour. she
said more powers would mean more paperwork and less time on the street. but home
office minister hazel blears defended the move saying it would give the civilian
officers just that little bit of edge . she denied their role was changing and
said the new powers would not take them away from the streets. the powers that we
are bringing in are things that they need to do when they are out patrolling she
said. the home office has produced its own report on csos which it describes as
encouraging . ms blears said the study shows csos are making a real difference in
the fight against crime. but the report also showed that the public is having
difficulties distinguishing between a civilian officer and a proper officer.
shadow home secretary david davis said the research appeared to acknowledge that
csos were having no discernible effect on crime figures. while the answer is a
lot more real police the government wants to recruit 25 000 people who can t
arrest anyone he said. bbc home affairs correspondent danny shaw said the
research is inconclusive. there are about 3 500 csos in england and wales but the
government intends to have 25 000 on the streets by 2008 at a cost of £50m. they
already have powers to hand out fines for a wide range of offences. the serious
organised crime and police bill proposes extra powers to search suspects enforce
licensing offences direct traffic and deter begging.
venezuela reviews foreign deals venezuela is to review all foreign investment in
its mining industries in an effort to strengthen its indigenous industrial output.
president hugo chavez has ordered all existing contracts with foreign firms to be
examined to see if they provide maximum benefits to the country. the review will
cover production of gold aluminium and iron ore although it excludes the country s
oil sector. chavez has sought to extend the state s role in all sectors of the
economy. the left-wing president is conducting a controversial review of land
ownership in the country while also seeking to create a state-run telecoms firm to
compete with foreign-owned businesses. he has argued that major economic reforms
are vital to improve the lives of venezuela s poorest citizens. announcing the
review of raw material production minister victor alvarez said the government
would seek to transfer technology training capability and content from projects
with foreign partners. we are defending our national sovereignty over the use of
our national resources which must serve the endogenous development of the nation
mr alvarez said. for this reason we are reviewing all memorandums of understanding
all letters of intent all agreements that have been signed all contracts to
check which of these comply with these directives. everything absolutely
everything has to be reviewed. venezuela has previously assured foreign
companies with operations in the mineral rich country that it respects existing
contracts. however the government insisted that it needed to develop its own
industrial infrastructure in order to create new jobs and lessen its reliance on
foreign partners. if we don t do this we are just going to carry on being slaves
suppliers of raw materials all our lives and we will never develop our own
productive capacity mr alvarez added. companies from the united states canada
france and switzerland all have substantial investments in venezuela s mining
sector.
india s maruti sees profits jump india s biggest carmaker maruti has reported a
sharp increase in quarterly profit after a booming economy and low interest rates
boosted demand. net profit surged 70% to 2.39bn rupees ($54.98m; £29.32m) in the
last three months of 2004 compared with 1.41bn rupees a year earlier. total sales
were 30.1bn rupees up 27% from the same 2004 period. maruti accounts for half of
india s domestic car sales luring consumers with cheap fuel-efficient vehicles.
demand in india also has been driven by the poor state of public transport and the
very low level of car ownership analysts said. figures show that only eight
people per thousand are car owners. maruti beat market expectations despite an
increase in raw materials costs. the company majority-owned by japan s suzuki
said an increase in steel and other raw material prices was partially offset by
cost cutting. sales in the fiscal third quarter including vans and utility
vehicles rose by 17.8% to 136.069 units. maruti is not the only company benefiting
as indian s economic growth gives consumer greater spending power. utility vehicle
and tractor maker mahindra has reported a 52% rise in net profit during the last
three months of 2004. profit was 1.33bn rupees compared with 874.2m rupees a year
earlier.
t-mobile bets on pocket office t-mobile has launched its latest pocket office
third-generation (3g) device which also has built-in wi-fi - high-speed wireless
net access. unlike other devices where the user has to check which high-speed
network is available to transfer data the device selects the fastest one itself.
the mda iv released in the summer is an upgrade to the company s existing
smartphone the 2.5g/wi-fi mda iii. it reflects the push by mobile firms for
devices that are like mini laptops. the device has a display that can be swivelled
and angled so it can be used like a small computer or as a conventional clamshell
phone. the microsoft mobile phone with two cameras and a qwerty keyboard reflects
the design of similar all-in-one models released this year such as motorola s mpx.
one in five european workers are already mobile - meaning they spend significant
time travelling and out of the office rene obermann t-mobile s chief executive
told a press conference at the 3gsm trade show in cannes. he added: what they need
is their office when they are out of the office. t-mobile said it was seeing
increasing take up for what it calls office in a pocket devices with 100 000
mdas sold in europe already. in response to demand t-mobile also said it would be
adding the latest phone-shaped blackberry to its mobile range. reflecting the
growing need to be connected outside the office it announced it would introduce a
flat-fee £20 ($38) a month wi-fi tariff for people in the uk using its wi-fi
hotspots. it said it would nearly double the number of its hotspots - places where
wi-fi access is available - globally from 12 300 to 20 000. it also announced it
was installing high-speed wi-fi on certain train services such as the uk s london
to brighton service to provide commuters a fast net connection too. the service
which has been developed with southern trains nomad digital (who provide the
technology) begins with a free trial on 16 trains on the route from early march to
the end of april. a full service is set to follow in the summer. wi-fi access
points will be connected to a wimax wireless network - faster than wi-fi - running
alongside the train tracks. brian mcbride managing director of t-mobile in the uk
said: we see a growing trend for business users needing to access e-mail securely
on the move. we are able to offer this by maintaining a constant data session for
the entire journey. he said this was something other similar in-train wi-fi
services such as that offered on gner trains did not offer yet. mr obermann added
that the mobile industry in general was still growing with many more opportunities
for more services which would bear fruit for mobile companies in future. thousands
of mobile industry experts are gathered in cannes france for the 3gsm which runs
from 14 to 17 february.
minister hits out at yukos sale russia s renationalisation of its energy industry
needs to be reversed a senior government figure has warned. economy minister
german gref told the kommersant newspaper that direct state involvement in oil was
unjustified . his comments follow the sale of much of oil giant yukos to cover back
taxes - a deal which effectively took most of the firm s assets into public
ownership. on 28 december another senior economic adviser called the sale the
swindle of the century . yuganskneftegaz the unit which produced 60% of yukos
output had been seized and sold in december for less than $10bn to a previously
unknown firm called baikal. baikal promptly passed into the hands of state-
controlled firm rosneft itself shortly to merge with state gas giant gazprom. we
used to see street hustlers do this kind of thing andrei illarionov - then
economic adviser to president vladimir putin - told a press conference. now
officials are doing it. within days he was stripped of most of his
responsibilities. mr gref a well-known opponent of nationalisation in competitive
parts of the market was keen to distance himself from mr iliaronov s comments. the
privatisation of companies such as yukos in the 1990s had been badly handled he
said. but he stressed that the government needed to get out of oil. i think that
rosneft and yuganskneftegaz should it become a state-owned company must be
privatized he said. today our government is ineffective and state companies as
a result are for the overwhelming part ineffective as well. and he warned that
using back taxes to deal with firms like yukos - a technique now being applied by
the kremlin to several other firms - was a mistake. if we follow that logic we
should nationalise all businesses he said. many large russian companies
particularly in the energy sector use complex webs of offshore companies to avoid
taxes. mr gref also poured cold water on president putin s promises of doubled
economic growth within a decade. the assault on yukos assets has been widely
blamed for a slowdown in economic growth in recent months. the task is not simply
to double gdp; instead it is to use gdp to qualitatively improve people s lives
mr gref told kommersant. we don t need simply to increase gdp but to improve its
structure. instead of focusing on headline growth figures russia needed to focus
on better institutions such as a more efficient - and less corrupt - court system.
the gaming world in 2005 if you have finished doom 3 half life 2 and halo 2 don t
worry. there s a host of gaming gems set for release in 2005. world of warcraft
the us reception to this game from developers blizzard has been hugely enthusiastic
with the title topping its competitors in the area of life-eating high-fantasy
massively multiplayer role-player gaming. solid diverse accessible and visually
striking it may well open up the genre like never before. if nothing else it will
develop a vast and loyal community. released 25 february on pc. ico 2 (working
title) ico remains a benchmark for ps2 gaming a title that took players into a
uniquely atmospheric and artistic world of adventure. the (spiritual) sequel has
visuals that echo those of the original but promises to expand the ico world with
hero wanda taking on a series of giants. the other known working title is wanda and
colossus. release date to be confirmed on ps2. the legend of zelda the
charismatic cel imagery has been scrapped in favour of a dark detailed aesthetic
(realism isn t quite the right word) that connects more with ocarina of time. link
resumes his more teenage incarnation too though enemies elements and moves look
familiar from the impressive trailer that has been released. horseback adventuring
across a vast land is promised. release date to be confirmed on gamecube. advance
wars ds the uk nintendo ds launch line-up is still to be confirmed at time of
writing but titles that exploit its two-screen and touch capacity like warioware
touched! and sega s feel the magic are making a strong impression in other
territories. personally i can t wait for the latest advance wars the franchise
that has been the icing on the cake of nintendo handheld gaming during the past few
years. release date to be confirmed on ds. s.t.a.l.k.e.r. following in the high-
spec footsteps of far cry and half-life 2 this looks like the key upcoming pc
first-person shooter (with role-playing elements). the fact that it is inspired in
part by andrei tarkovsky s enigmatic 1979 masterpiece stalker and set in 2012 in
the disaster zone a world of decay and mutation makes it all the more intriguing.
released 1 march on pc. metal gear solid: snake eater more hideo kojima serious
stealth featuring action in the soviet-controlled jungle in 1964. the game see
snake having to survive on his wits in the jungle including eating wildlife. once
again expect cinematic cut scenes and polished production values. released march
on ps2. dead or alive ultimate tecmo s team ninja are back with retooled and
revamped versions of dead or alive 1 and 2. here s the big big deal though - they
re playable over xbox live. released 11 march on xbox. knights of the old republic
ii looks set to build on the acclaimed original star wars role playing game with
new characters new force powers and a new set of moral decisions despite a
different developer. released 11 february on xbox and pc.
officials respond in court row australian tennis top official has defended the
australian open courts at melbourne park after criticism of the playing surface by
lleyton hewitt. hewitt said he had had a gutful of trying to persuade them to
make the surface faster but tennis australia s geoff pollard rejected his comments.
we did ask for it to be made faster than last year and to my knowledge it is
faster he said. we spent a substantial amount of money on modifications to make
it faster. hewitt who has not got past the fourth round at melbourne in seven
attempts had earlier said the surface was not worthy of such a prestigious
tournament. but he said he would play on whatever surface he had to in order to
have a chance of winning. the tournament starts on 17 january and pollard said the
surface had been speeded up since last year s tournament following complaints by
several australian players. but he refused to accept that the melbourne surface may
have had a bearing on hewitt s performances over the years. lleyton s proving how
versatile he is on all surfaces he said. it is faster than last year and that ll
be faster than the one lleyton beat roger federer on in the davis cup in 2003.
llewellyn plans wales retirement wales record cap holder gareth llewellyn will
retire from test rugby at the end of the six nations. the veteran lock who is 36
at the end of february told bbc wales scrum v that it is time for him to bring
down the curtain on his 92-cap wales career. llewellyn is on a one-season deal with
french club side narbonne but said he may consider retiring from all rugby. i don
t know what i ll do next year whether to carry on playing or make a change in my
career llewellyn said. narbonne are really keen for me to stay on for next year
so i ve got to decide whether to stay on there or maybe go somewhere else but
ultimitely coaching is where i d like to end up. i ve done all the coaching awards
and everything you can do in that respect so it s just hopefully getting a chance
somewhere. fellow locks robert sidoli and brent cockbain who both scored tries in
saturday s six nations win in italy are wales coach mike ruddock s preferred
starters in the second row. with the resurgence of the dragons ian gough and the
adaptibility of lock-cum-flanker jon thomas on the bench llewellyn has not yet
made a match-day squad this six nations campaign. but the former neath and ospreys
player is still targetting one last outing in the red shirt. if i do get on the
field then brilliant although the boys are doing really well and i m very pleased
for them llewellyn added. we ve had some really tough years in wales and the
players have been through a hell of a lot. sometimes the easiest thing would have
been to throw the towel in and walk away but a few of us dug in there and it s
really nice to see some of the boys getting the rewards now. i was going to retire
at the end of the last six nations i d even told some of the boys in the squad
about it. but mike (ruddock) asked me to carry on for another season which i ve
done still part of the squad still trying to help them out as much as i can.
llewellyn made his wales debut in 1989 against new zealand as a 20-year-old having
caught the selectors eyes in the all blacks tour match against neath. the 6ft 6in
player has not looked back since going on to break neil jenkins wales cap record
on 12 june 2004 in the 50-44 loss in argentina. there s been lots of highs -
winning the six nations in 94 beating england in 93 i ve been on some great
tours and seen some fantastic countries llewellyn said. but i think the best
thing of all for me was the time i spent with the players i ve met some great guys
in rugby and made some great friends. it ll be a bit strange on international days
having to find somewhere to watch wales play but at least i might have time to get
my golf handicap down! llewellyn captained neath for seven seasons while being an
integral part of the neath-swansea ospreys regional side s first season. but with
the ospreys building for the future llewellyn was eventually forced to look to
france for employment - digging in his heels during contract negotiations to insist
he must be allowed to play for wales.
ban on hunting comes into force fox hunting with dogs is now illegal in england and
wales after a ban on the activity came into force overnight. the law faces a stiff
test this weekend with the countryside alliance saying many hunts will be out in
force. chief police officers spokesman nigel yeo said he expected most people would
obey the law - by drag hunting or chasing foxes then shooting them. he said police
would challenge the one of two isolated hunts which are threatening to break the
law. but simon hart of the countryside alliance has questioned how police will
ensure there are no violations. the definitions of legal and illegal hunting are
so blurred that the police are being asked to make impossible judgements. you can
hunt a rat but not a mouse a rabbit but not a hare an artificial scent but not
a real one he said. the attorney general lord goldsmith has so far issued no
instructions to police on how they should deal with hunters who violate the law. he
said he will consult the director of public prosecutions and the police in the
near future to decide what measures to take with regards to hunting prosecutions.
he has rejected a blanket policy of not enforcing the ban until the house of
lords has considered its legality. john cooper a barrister and chairman of the
league against cruel sports said the anti-hunting lobby expects the authorities to
prosecute wherever there is clear evidence of illegal hunting practices. he said
police had acknowledged their duty to investigate allegations of hunting
offences . the beaufort hunt had one pack out on thursday and has promised a hunt
this weekend. under the new law hunters have a number of legal options available to
them. as well as being able to mount a hunt for an artificial scent it will still
be legal for the hunts to flush out foxes as long as they shoot their quarry
rather than set the hounds on them. we are not going away. we will keep these
hounds going we will keep this community going and in the end we will come back
and hunt when hunting is legal again hunt master captain ian farquhar said. but
tony banks labour mp for west ham said the issue would soon disappear and that
people in a few years time will be wondering what it was all about . he said had
the government not prevaricated since 1997 in introducing the ban hunting with
dogs would have passed into history like other former country pursuits such as
otter hunting and badger baiting. let the election decide this because the
conservatives have made clear that if they get elected into government they will
restore hunting he said.
uk set to cut back on embassies nine overseas embassies and high commissions will
close in an effort to save money uk foreign secretary jack straw has announced.
the bahamas east timor madagascar and swaziland are among the areas affected by
the biggest shake-up for the diplomatic service for years. other diplomatic posts
are being turned over to local staff. mr straw said the move would save £6m a year
to free up cash for priorities such as fighting terrorism. honorary consuls will
be appointed in some of the areas affected by the embassy closures. nine consulates
or consulates general will also be closed mostly in europe and america. they
include dallas in the us bordeaux in france and oporto in portugal with local
staff replacing uk representation in another 11. the changes are due to be put in
place before the end of 2006 with most savings made from cutting staff and running
costs. some of the money will have to be used to fund redundancy payments. in a
written statement mr straw said: the savings made will help to underpin higher
priority work in line with the foreign and commonwealth office s strategic
priorities including counter- proliferation counter-terrorism energy and climate
change. some of the savings will also be redeployed to strategic priority work
within certain regions where we are closing posts. in africa for instance we
plan to create new jobs to cover these issues across the region with a new post in
nairobi to help support our work on climate change one in nigeria to cover energy
and one in pretoria to cover regional issues more generally as well as covering
maseru and mbabane. the foreign office currently has about 6 100 uk-based staff.
it has opened major new missions on baghdad and basra in iraq kabul in afghanistan
and pyongyang in north korea since 1997 in response to what the government says are
changing needs. since 1997 10 overseas posts have been closed - excluding wednesday
s cuts - but 18 new embassies or consulates have been opened. the shake-up is aimed
at helping making £86m in efficiency savings between 2005 and 2008. the chancellor
has demanded all government departments make similar savings. shadow foreign
secretary michael ancram said there was a constant need to ensure value for money
from foreign missions. but the government must give a far clearer reason for
making the dramatic changes it has announced and must show that british commercial
interests and the interests of britons abroad will not be adversely affected he
said.
tories unveil quango blitz plans plans to abolish 162 quangos have been unveiled by
the conservatives as part of their effort to show how government red tape can be
cut. six government units would also be scrapped under proposals which the tories
say would save more than £4.3bn. among the targets are strategic health authorities
and the new fair access regulator for universities. tory frontbencher john redwood
said britain needed a slimmer government and lower taxes to be competitive. the
plans would abolish regional assemblies and other regional bodies such as boards
tackling industrial development and housing. their powers would be returned to
elected local councils or national government. the tories say the strategic health
authorities are not needed as it is better that local people rather than officials
run hospitals and surgeries. announcing the plans mr redwood said: mr blair has
forgotten the interests of taxpayers and has broken the pledges he made. far from
improving public services spending taxpayers money on quangos has led only to
more bureaucrats more regulation and higher taxes. his party leader michael
howard argued a change in direction was needed to get a grip on spending. labour
are creating two britains: the britain of the forgotten majority and bureaucratic
britain he said. in the real world people are working harder just to stand
still. they ve seen their pensions knocked for six. they re being squeezed by
extra taxes. the forgotten majority are paying the price of bureaucratic britain.
the government has announced plans to cut 100 000 civil servants as part of its
efficiency drive. but chief secretary to the treasury paul boateng attacked the
tory plans. the conservatives are committed to cutting labour s public spending
plans by a massive £35 billion he said. cuts on this scale cannot be found from
cutting bureaucracy but would require massive cuts to front-line public services
such as schools hospitals and the police. the liberal democrats have said they
would cut the number of whitehall departments to make sure money reaches frontline
services.
wilkinson to miss ireland match england will have to take on ireland in the six
nations without captain and goal-kicker jonny wilkinson according to his newcastle
boss rob andrew. wilkinson - who had targeted the 27 february match for his
international comeback - has been missed by england not least for his goal-
kicking. jonny s not fit yet falcons chief andrew told bbc radio five live. he
won t be fit for dublin there s no doubt about that but he might be fit for
scotland and italy. the 25-year-old has not played for england since the 2003
world cup final after a succession of injuries. england who have lost three six
nations games in a row wasted a 17-6 half-time lead in their 18-17 defeat to
france. goal-kickers charlie hodgson and olly barkley missed six penalty attempts
and a drop-goal between them. they ve probably got two of the best english kickers
in the premiership in hodgson and barkley added andrew a former england fly-half
and goal-kicker. they re both pretty good kickers. charlie is a good kicker week-
in week-out. but it s all about pressure and unfortunately england are just not
handling the pressure at the moment. andrew also blamed england s poor run of
recent results on a lack of leadership in the side following several high-profile
retirements and injuries. they just didn t have that leadership that would have
seen them through. martin johnson lawrence dallaglio and jonny are obviously huge
losses and leadership is so important in those situations he said. i think it is
really difficult for jason robinson to lead the side effectively from full-back.
meanwhile former england full-back dusty hare put england s mistakes down to a
lack of mental toughness. jonny wilkinson has proved himself a cool customer with
around an 80% kicking success rate hare told bbc radio five live. but natural-
born toughness comes into it as well as all the practice you do. you have to be
able to shut out all the outside elements and concentrate on putting the ball
between the posts. hodgson who has an excellent kicking record with club side
sale sharks has introduced crowd noise into his practice routine of late. the top
golfers don t hit the fairway every time and it is the same with goal-kicking
hare added. you need that mental toughness as well to put the ball over but great
goal-kickers like jonny wilkinson come along very rarely.
hodgson shoulders england blame fly-half charlie hodgson admitted his wayward
kicking played a big part in england s 18-17 defeat to france. hodgson failed to
convert three penalties and also missed a relatively easy drop goal attempt which
would have given england a late win. i m very disappointed with the result and
with my myself hodgson said. it is very hard to take but it s something i will
have to get through and come back stronger. my training s been good but it just
didn t happen. hodgson revealed that olly barkley had taken three penalties
because they were out of my range but the centre could not convert his
opportunities either particularly the drop goal late on. it wasn t a good strike
he added. i felt as soon as it hit my boot it had missed. it s very disappointing
but i must recover. andy robinson said he would keep working on the kicking with
his squad. however the england coach added that he would take some positives from
the defeat. we went out to play and played some very good rugby and what have
france done he said. they won the game from kicking penalties from our 10m line.
it s very frustrating. the lads showed a lot of ambition in the first half they
went out to sustain it in the second but couldn t build on it. we took the ball
into contact and you know when you do that it is a lottery whether the referee is
going to give the penalty to your side or the other side. we have lost a game we
should have won. there is a fine line between winning and losing and for the
second week we ve been on the wrong side of that line and it hurts. england went
in at half-time with a 17-6 lead but they failed to score in the second half and
dimitri yachvili slotted over four penalties as france overhauled the deficit.
england skipper jason robinson admitted his side failed to cope with france s
improved second-half display. we controlled the game in the first half but we
knew that they would come out and try everything after half-time he said. we
made a lot of mistakes in the second half and they punished us. they took their
chances when they came. it s very disappointing. last week we lost by two points
now one point.
tories opposing 24-hour drinking the tories say plans to extend pub opening times
should be put on hold until binge drinking is under control despite backing a law
change last year. spokesman david davis said ministers had failed to make his
party aware of concern among senior police that plans would cause more anti-social
behaviour. notts police chief steve green said innocent people would suffer. but
culture secretary tessa jowell said a delay would be disastrous and she accused
the tories of opportunism. the government would go ahead with the changes which
would give police more power to tackle excessive drinking she added. earlier chief
constable green questioned how his officers would be able to practically apply
powers allowing them to shut down problem premises. if you look at the market
square in nottingham if a fight takes place which licensed premises do you go and
lay the responsibilty at the door of he asked on bbc radio 4 s world at one
programme. he warned that if drinking establishments were allowed to open until
three or four in the morning the police would have to take officers off day shifts
in order to do their job effectively at night. earlier this year the royal college
of physicians said it opposed the plan to extend drinking hours when there was
already an epidemic of binge drinking. minister richard caborn said the
government was tackling the causes and the symptoms of the problem by allowing more
powers to close down problem premises. it is hoped that allowing pubs and clubs to
stay open longer will stagger closing times and end the current situation where
drinkers spill on to the streets all at once. earlier tony blair defended the plans
against criticism from one of his own backbenchers. my view of this is very
clear: we should have the same flexibility that other countries have and then we
should come down really hard on those who abuse that freedom and don t show the
responsibility he told mps. the law-abiding majority who want the ability after
going to the cinema or theatre say to have a drink at the time they want should
not be inconvenienced we shouldn t have to have restrictions that no other city in
europe has just in order to do something for that tiny minority who abuse alcohol
who go out and fight and cause disturbances. to take away that ability for all the
population - even the vast majority who are law abiding - is not in my view
sensible. this week a judge claimed easy access to drink was breeding urban
savages and turning town centres into no go areas. judge charles harris qc made
his remarks as he sentenced three men for assaults carried out while drunk and high
on drugs after a night out.
faith schools citizenship warning schools must improve the quality of citizenship
lessons - or social cohesion and democracy will suffer says the education
watchdog. independent faith schools were singled out by ofsted chief david bell
for not doing enough to promote the wider tenets of british society . mr bell said
muslim jewish and evangelical christian schools must be intolerant of intolerance
. diversity certainly must not mean segregated or separate he said. mr bell s
speech called for a much greater effort in all types of schools to teach
citizenship - with an accompanying survey showing that young people knew little
about politics and had no enthusiasm to find out more. badly-taught citizenship
lessons have previously been criticised by mr bell and in a speech to the hansard
society he warned that it was failing to pass on an understanding of democracy
public service and shared values. he highlighted his particular concern for
citizenship in the growing number of independent faith schools - which he said
included about 100 muslim 100 evangelical christian and 50 jewish schools. mr
bell expressed concern about schools which did not teach children enough about a
common heritage and needed to do more to promote principles of mutual tolerance
and social inclusion. i worry that many young people are being educated in faith-
based schools with little appreciation of their wider responsibilities and
obligations to british society said mr bell. the ofsted chief said his
forthcoming annual report would make particular reference to muslim schools. many
must adapt their curriculum to ensure that it provides pupils with a broad general
knowledge of public institutions and services in england and helps them to acquire
an appreciation of and respect for other cultures in a way that promotes tolerance
and harmony. mr bell said such questions of religion and cultural identity were
tricky issues . but he argued that we must not allow our recognition of diversity
to become apathy in the face of any challenge to our coherence as a nation . i
would go further and say that an awareness of our common heritage as british
citizens equal under the law should enable us to assert with confidence that we
are intolerant of intolerance illiberalism and attitudes and values that demean
the place of certain sections of our community be they women or people living in
non-traditional relationships said mr bell.
us peer-to-peer pirates convicted the first convictions for piracy over peer-to-
peer networks have been handed down in the us. new yorker william trowbridge and
texan michael chicoine have pleaded guilty to charges that they infringed copyright
by illegally sharing music movies and software. the two men faced charges
following raids in august on suspected pirates by the fbi. the pair face jail terms
of up to five years and a $250 000 (£130 000) fine. in a statement the us
department of justice said the two men operated the central hubs in a piracy
community organised across the direct connect peer-to-peer network. the piracy
group called itself the underground network and membership of it demanded that
users share between one and 100 gigabytes of files. direct connect allows users to
set themselves up as central servers that act as co-ordinating spots for sharers.
users would swap files such as films and music by exchanging data over the
network. during its investigation fbi agents reportedly downloaded 84 movies 40
software programs 13 games and 178 sound recordings from the five hubs that made
up the larger piracy group. the raids were organised under the umbrella of
operation digital gridlock which was aimed at fighting criminal copyright theft on
peer-to-peer networks . in total six raids were carried out in august. five were
on the homes of suspected copyright thieves and one on a net service firm. the
department of justice said that both men pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy
to commit felony copyright infringement. they also pleaded guilty to acting for
commercial advantage. the two men are due to be sentenced on 29 april.
parmalat bank barred from suing bank of america has been banned from suing parmalat
the food group which went bust in 2003 after an accounting scandal. the bank -
along with investors auditors and the group s managers - wants damages for being a
victim of fraud at the hands of the italian firm. but a judge has barred bank of
america and two auditors from the case. the bank and italaudit - formerly the
italian arm of auditor grant thornton - face lawsuits and possible prosecution. a
second auditor deloitte & touche has also been banned from the case. grant
thornton - now rid of the italian unit at the centre of the case - is still being
permitted to sue as are consob italy s stock market regulator hundreds of small
investors and parmalat s new managers. parmalat collapsed in december 2003 after it
emerged that the 4bn euros ($5.2bn; £2.8bn) it supposedly held in a bank of
american offshore account did not in fact exist.
mourinho plots impressive course chelsea s win at fulham - confirming their
position at the premiership summit - proves that they now have everything in place
to mount serious challenges on all fronts this season. they have got strength in
depth great players an outstanding manager in jose mourinho and finances no other
club in the world can match. all they need to add now is the big prizes which as
we all know is the most difficult part of all. one thing is certain - they have
put themselves in a position to make that leap to success very impressively indeed.
they beat a very tough everton at stamford bridge won at newcastle in the carling
cup and then won 4-1 at fulham which was a great result given that they had been
showing good form. as i said winning the major honours is the hardest task of all
but in mourinho they have a manager who will make it a whole lot easier to handle
the anticipation and expectation that will come their way now. mourinho has won the
biggest club prize of all the champions league and that track record and
confidence transmits itself to top players. it is a priceless commodity. no-one can
be anything other than highly-impressed by mourinho. he is regarded as a touch
arrogant by some people and maybe he can appear that way but he has the
silverware to back up the talk. mourinho doesn t simply talk a good game - he s won
some very big games such as the champions league final with porto. some may
criticise his talk but the words are backed up with actions. i ve also found him
to be very realistic whenever i ve heard him. he s spent a lot of money and it
seems to be working and we should remember lots of managers have spent money and
it has not worked. the buys are now integrating and in arjen robben he has the
player who is giving them that extra dimension. in the early games he was
slaughtered for defensive tactics and yet he was winning games. you cannot win
titles early on in the season but you can certainly lose them and those points on
the board were vital. i also thought the criticism was very harsh because even
though they were not scoring goals they were creating chances by the hatful. now
they are taking those chances have the double threat of robben and damien duff
and things are looking good. i just wonder if they lack a predator particularly
with didier drogba injured. he was starting to look the part before he was
sidelined but you have to feel if chelsea had a ruud van nistelrooy they would be
even more of a safe bet for the title. chelsea also have all the tools to go far in
the champions league. i felt they would never have a better chance than last season
but they have swept all before them in europe so far this season. it will now be
very interesting to see how mourinho prioritises things but his life will be made
easier by the size of chelsea s squad. i have said i believed chelsea would win the
league this season even when arsenal were flying at the start and i have seen
nothing to make me change me mind. if anything what i have seen has confirmed my
early impressions. and chelsea would have taken encouragement from arsenal s rocky
defensive display at spurs even though they ran out 5-4 winners. mourinho had his
say on that game complaining: five-four is a hockey score not a football score.
in a three-against-three training match if the score reaches 5-4 i send the
players back to the dressing rooms as they are not defending properly. so to get a
result like that in a game of 11 against 11 is disgraceful. on a more serious
note it was a game that merely confirmed the importance of sol campbell to
arsenal. much criticism has been aimed at pascal cygan but i believe the problem
lies with the absence of campbell and its overall effect on arsenal s defence.
confidence is a crucial factor in defending. when you start conceding goals you
suddenly get a chill in the bones every time the ball comes into the penalty area.
you think oh no - then find your worst fears confirmed. arsenal need to reverse
the process with or without campbell and get some clean sheets on the board. but
the return of campbell is key. he solidifies the unit has pace and is powerful in
the air and on the deck. he is vastly experienced and has a calming influence on
all around him. campbell pulls it all together at the back and gets the defence
playing as a unit. chelsea have no such problems at present which is why i would
still place my money on them to edge out arsenal as champions this season.
cole refuses to blame van persie ashley cole has refused to blame robin van persie
for leaving arsenal with no fully-fit strikers for the fa cup fifth round replay at
sheffield united. van persie is suspended alongside dennis bergkamp and jose
antonio reyes after being sent off at southampton when arsenal had a numerical
advantage. thierry henry is ruled out with an achilles tendon injury but cole said:
no-one is putting the blame on robin. it s just something that happens on the spur
of the moment. cole added: i ve done it before and i hope they didn t blame me
for anything. of course he ll learn. i ve been sent off a couple of times now and
it s just one of those things when you go a bit crazy for one or two seconds.
freddie ljungberg is likely to be used in an emergency striking role and will be
partnered by either arturo lupoli quincy owusu-abeyie or jeremie aliadiere.
gunners boss arsene wenger said: freddie is an option but we need a second
striker. i have to decide whether it will be aliadiere quincy or lupoli who will
start with him up front. those three will be involved. arsenal are also without
winger robert pires who sustained an ankle injury at st mary s. wenger added: it
doesn t look like anything is fractured but it is a good ankle sprain. it does
not look like pires will be ready for two to three weeks.
brentford v southampton griffin park tuesday 1 march 1945 gmt barry knight
(kent) home to manchester united in the quarter-finals midfielder andrew frampton
and striker deon burton are both slight doubts with hamstring injuries but should
be fit saints are missing their entire first-choice midfield of jamie redknapp
graeme le saux nigel quashie and david prutton. anders svensson and matt oakley
are likely replacements with kevin phillips also scheduled to start with henri
camara rested. - brentford boss martin allen: after conceding eight goals in our
last three matches i have to admit i m not very confident. there s no doubt we re
the underdogs and after defending so poorly recently it s not looking good.
southampton have just drawn with the premiership champions and that makes our task
harder than it was already. - southampton boss harry redknapp: we know they can
give us problems. brentford have done well but we are the premiership side and
should have the better players. staying in the premiership is our priority. we
want to win of course we do. we ll battle but if it comes to a football match i
think we ll win. key match stats - brentford are the lowest ranked club left in
the fa cup. they re on their best run in the competition since reaching the
quarter-finals for the fourth time in their history 16 years ago. now they have the
carrot of the plum draw in the last eight dangling before them. victory over
premiership strugglers southampton would bring the mighty manchester united to
griffin park and a gigantic pay day for the sole league one survivors. - martin
allen s brave side came back from two goals down at st mary s to earn a deserved
replay. southampton striker henri camara scored twice from close range to put the
saints in command but isaiah rankin hit back just before half time and sam sodje
headed past a creaky defence on 58 minutes. - the londoners have conceded six
goals in their two subsequent league outings - three each in losing away to
hartlepool and drawing at home to sheffield wednesday. but they haven t lost in six
league and cup games on home turf - winning three and drawing three since the
reverse to torquay on boxing day. - southampton go into this tie on the back of
an eventful premiership match with arsenal on saturday. an angry david prutton
pushed referee alan wiley after being shown the red card but his side still came
back to draw 1-1. it was saints fourth stalemate in succession in all competitions
but didn t lift them out of the relegation zone. the retention of their ever
present premier league status must be the number one priority irrespective of the
rewards that success against brentford would bring. - victory here would set up a
repeat of the 1976 final when saints astounded the football world by defeating
tommy docherty s manchester united courtesy of bobby stokes famous winner. they
also knocked out the red devils in 1991 on penalties in the fourth round. but to
write another chapter in their fa cup history the solent side must avoid
succumbing to lower division opposition for the first time since rotherham from
the second level beat them 2-1 in a third round tie at millmoor on 16 january
2002. southampton were last humbled by a club from the third tier six years ago.
fulham were then in the second division when they won a third round replay at
craven cottage 1-0 on 13 january 1999. - to get to within two matches of a second
visit to the millennium stadium in three years for the final harry redknapp must
guide his side past a club 36 places inferior on the league ladder and a manager
19 years his junior who played under him at west ham. head to head 10th league
one quarter-finals (four times) 18th prem winners (once)
clijsters set for february return tennis star kim clijsters will make her return
from a career-threatening injury at the antwerp wta event in february. kim had
considered returning to action in paris on 7 february a statement on her website
said. she s decided against this so that she does not risk the final phase of her
recovery. if all goes well kim will make her return on february 15. the 21-year-
old has not played since last october after aggravating a wrist injury at the
belgian open. back then a doctor treating the belgian feared that her career may
be over with the player having already endured an operation earlier in the season
to cure her wrist problem. i hope she comes back but i m pessimistic said bruno
willems. clijsters was also due to marry fellow tennis star lleyton hewitt in
february but the pair split for private reasons back in october.
cannabis hopes for drug firm a prescription cannabis drug made by uk biotech firm
gw pharmaceuticals is set to be approved in canada. the drug is used to treat the
central nervous system and alleviate the symptoms of multiple sclerosis (ms). a few
weeks ago shares in gw pharma lost a third of their value after uk regulators said
they wanted more evidence about the drug s benefits. but now canadian authorities
have said the sativex drug will be considered for approval. approximately 50 000
people in canada have been diagnosed with ms and 85 000 people are suffering from
the condition in the uk. many patients already smoke cannabis to relieve their
symptoms. now gw pharma s sativex mouth spray could be legally available to ms
sufferers in canada within the next few months. this will be the first time a
cannabis-based drug has been approved anywhere in the world representing a
landmark for gw pharma and for patients with ms. final approval in canada should
now be little more than a formality analysts said and the company expects full
approval for sativex early in 2005. we are delighted to receive this qualifying
notice from health canada and look forward to receiving regulatory approval for
sativex in canada in the early part of 2005 said gw pharma executive chairman dr
geoffrey guy. the uk government granted gw pharma a licence to grow the cannabis
plant for medical research purposes. satifex consists of a cannabis extract
containing tetrahydrocannabinol and cannabidiol a cocktail that has also proved
effective in treating patients with arthritis. thousands of plants are grown at a
secret location somewhere in the english countryside. despite hopes of regulatory
approval last year a series of delays has put back sativex s launch in the uk. the
latest news sent shares in gw pharma up 8.5p or 8.1% to 113.5p.
mcleish ready for criticism rangers manager alex mcleish accepts he is going to be
criticised after their disastrous uefa cup exit at the hands of auxerre at ibrox on
wednesday. mcleish told bbc radio five live: we were in pole position to get
through to the next stage but we blew it we absolutely blew it. there s no use
burying your head in the sand we know we are going to get a lot of criticism. we
have to take it as we have done in the past and we must now bounce back. mcleish
admitted his team s defending was amateurish after watching them lose 2-0 to guy
roux s french side. i m very disappointed because we didn t give ourselves a
chance losing the first goal from our own corner. it was amateur he added. the
early goal in the second half gave us a mountain to climb and we never created the
same kind of chances as we did in the first half. it s difficult to take positives
from the game. we ve let the fans down.
oil companies get russian setback international oil and mining companies have
reacted cautiously to russia s decision to bar foreign firms from natural resource
tenders in 2005. us oil giant exxon said it did not plan to take part in a new
tender on a project for which it had previously signed a preliminary agreement.
miner highland gold said it regretted any limit on privatisation while bp a big
investor declined to comment. only firms at least 51% russian-owned will be
permitted to bid. the federal natural resources agency said the government is
interested in letting russian companies develop strategic resources . the foreign
ownership issue will be dealt with according to russia s competition law natural
resources minister yuri trutnev was quoted as saying by the interfax news agency.
no further details were given with mr trutnev suggesting that russia may decide on
a case-by-case basis. observers said that the move may represent a shift in policy
as the administration of vladimir putin puts the protection of national interests
above free market dynamics. russia recently wrested back control of a large chunk
of its oil industry from stock-market listed company yukos a move that prompted
calls of outrage from many investors. analysts warned that it was still too early
to draw too many conclusions from this new set of proposals. companies echoed this
sentiment saying that they would require more information before ringing the alarm
bells. it s not good. but it is very understandable said al breach an economist
at ubs brunswick. but if the investment climate is stable - that s much more
important. foreigners of course would like to have free entry but... this is not
the end of the world. a number of other nations including mexico saudi arabia
and kuwait protect their national resources from foreign firms. what has surprised
observers is that since the collapse of communism russia has been courting foreign
investment. bp spent $7.5bn to create russian-registered oil company tnk-bp and
has a partnership to develop the sakhalin 5 petroleum field with state-owned
rosneft. exxon the world s largest oil company has signed preliminary agreements
to develop the sakhalin 3 field. company spokesman glenn waller said exxon still
considered the deal valid despite russia inviting new offers for the land block.
according to mr waller exxon were not planning to bid at a new tender anyway .
we regret the ministry has taken such a decision said ivan kulakov deputy
chairman of highland gold - a mining firm that has the motto bringing russia s
gold to market . it would be a shame if that has a negative impact on the
investment climate. other firms that have been linked with investment in russia
include france s total the us-based chevrontexaco and miner barrick gold.
china continues rapid growth china s economy has expanded by a breakneck 9.5%
during 2004 faster than predicted and well above 2003 s 9.1%. the news may mean
more limits on investment and lending as beijing tries to take the economy off the
boil. china has sucked in raw materials and energy to feed its expansion which
could have knock-on effects on the rest of the world if it overheats. but officials
pointed out that industrial growth had slowed with services providing much of the
impetus. growth in industrial output - the main target of government efforts to
impose curbs on credit and investments - was 11.5% in 2004 down from 17% the
previous year. still consumer prices - at 2.4% - rose faster than in 2004 adding
to concern that a sharp rise in producer prices of 7.1% could stoke inflation. and
overall investment in fixed assets was still high up 21.3% from the previous year
- although some way off the peak of 43% seen in the first quarter of 2004. the
result could be higher interest rates. china raised rates by 0.27 percentage points
to 5.8% - its first hike in nine years - in october 2004. despite the apparent
rebalancing of the economy the overall growth picture remains strong economists
said. there is no sign of a slowdown in 2005 said tim congdon economist at ing
barings. china s economy is not only gathering speed thanks to domestic demand
but also from soaring sales overseas. figures released earlier this year showed
exports at a six-year high in 2004 up 35%. part of the impetus comes from the
relative cheapness of the yuan china s currency. the government keeps it pegged
close to a rate of 8.28 to the us dollar - much to the chagrin of many us
lawmakers who blame china for lost jobs and competitiveness. despite urging to ease
the peg officials insist they are a long way from ready to make a shift to a more
market-set rate. we need a good and feasible plan and formulating such a plan also
needs time national bureau of statistics chief li deshui told reuters. those who
hope to make a fortune by speculating on a renminbi revaluation will not succeed in
making a profit.
salary scandal in cameroon cameroon says widespread corruption in its finance
ministry has cost it 1bn cfa francs ($2m; £1m) a month. about 500 officials are
accused of either awarding themselves extra money or claiming salaries for non-
existent workers. prime minister ephraim inoni who vowed to tackle corruption
when he came to office last year said those found guilty would face tough
punishments. the scam is believed to have begun in 1994. the prime minister s
office said the alleged fraud was uncovered during an investigation into the
payroll at the ministry. in certain cases staff are said to have lied about their
rank and delayed their retirement in order to boost their earnings. the prime
minister s office said auditors had found irregularities in the career structure
of certain civil servants . it added that the staff in question appear to have
received unearned salaries boosting the payroll . fidelis nanga a journalist
based in the cameroon capital yaounde said the government was considering taking
criminal action against those found guilty and forcing them to repay any money
owed. the prime minister has given instructions for exemplary penalties to be
meted out against the accused and their accomplices if found guilty he told the
bbc s network africa programme. mr inoni launched an anti-corruption drive in
december after foreign investors criticised a lack of transparency in the country s
public finances. in one initiative designed to improve efficiency civil servants
who arrived late for work were locked out of their offices. the government now
intends to carry out an audit of payrolls at all other government ministries. in a
report compiled by anti-corruption body transparency international in 2003 graft
was said to be pervasive in cameroon.
mild winter drives us oil down 6% us oil prices have fallen by 6% driven down by
forecasts of a mild winter in the densely populated northeast. light crude oil
futures fell $2.86 to $41.32 a barrel on the new york mercantile exchange (nymex)
and have now lost $4 in five days. nonetheless us crude is still 30% more
expensive than at the beginning of 2004 boosted by growing demand and bottlenecks
at refineries. traders ignored the possible effects of asia s tidal waves on global
supplies. instead the focus is now on us consumption which is heavily influenced
in the short term by the weather. with the revised milder temperatures... i m more
inclined to think we ll push lower and test the $40-40.25 range said john brady
of abn amro. the market definitely feels to be on the defensive. statistics
released last week showed that stockpiles of oil products in the us had risen an
indication that severe supply disruptions may not arise this winter barring any
serious incident. oil prices have broken records in 2004 topping $50 a barrel at
one point driven up by a welter of worries about unrest in iraq and saudi arabia
rising demand and supply bottlenecks. london s international petroleum exchange
remained closed for the christmas holiday.
johansson takes adelaide victory second seed joachim johansson won his second
career title with a 7-5 6-3 win over taylor dent at the australian hardcourt
championships in adelaide. the swede was made to graft american dent surviving
three break points in the fifth game of the match. but johansson got the
breakthrough with a sublime backhand return winner and won the second set with more
ease. his first tournament win was at memphis in 2004 helping him leap from 113th
in the world rankings to number 11. afterwards dent said he rated us open semi-
finalist johansson as a top contender at the australian open which starts on 17
january. i believe men s tennis is all about holding serve and if he s playing
like that on his own serve i don t see how guys are going to break him said dent.
johansson was more restrained in his assessment: i have to improve my serve if i m
going to go all the way in melbourne.
police urge pub closure power new powers are needed to close disorderly pubs bars
and clubs for up to a week or even permanently police chiefs have told mps.
association of chief police officers president chris fox said the current 24-hour
closure power did not have enough impact on bad landlords. mr fox s comments follow
the controversy over plans to allow pubs to open around the clock. he rejected
critics calls for the law change to be delayed. instead the new licensing act
could help reduce drunken disorder - but only if it was properly planned he
argued. acpo made its call for stronger closure powers in a paper for the commons
home affairs select committee. after the meeting mr fox said being able to close
premises for only 24 hours did not necessarily make an impact. if it s 12.30 on a
saturday morning and you close for 24 hours there s not a lot of pain for the
premises because they probably wouldn t open on sunday anyway. this is about
getting through to the management that they can t run a disorderly house without
facing some immediate sanctions. under acpo s proposal the closure orders would
be used only with the agreement of the local licensing authority. the new licensing
laws will give police greater powers to close pubs and clubs - but only for 24-hour
periods. mr fox said the drinks industry was currently not regulating itself. it
s making money at the cost of human misery and the public purse and the strategic
planning process has been less than useless he said. mr fox said the new laws
due to start being phased in next month could help if food outlets public
transport and public toilets could cope with late-night drinkers. staggering it
(closing hours) will be a solution if the infrastructure is there if the premises
are properly managed and people aren t being served rolling drunk and underage and
then tossed out into the street he said. we have the problem from 11pm to 2am in
any event. we have to get a grip on the underlying causes of this. acpo wants
pubs and clubs which cause extra work for police and hospitals to have to pay
towards the costs. home secretary charles clarke is currently looking at the idea
of a levy on the drinks industry to pay for the cost of extra policing. the
licensing changes have sparked concern among some mps councils and some senior
police officers who fear they could exacerbate drinking problems. culture secretary
tessa jowell on tuesday said it was not her job to bow to the campaign against the
changes. it was the status quo not the new laws which were causing current binge
drinking problems she told bbc two s newsnight. leaked documents have suggested
ex-home secretary david blunkett branded new opening hours as a leap in the dark .
but ms jowell insisted his concerns had been met. the police s job against alcohol-
related crime would be made easier if all pubs did not close at the same time she
added.
mirza shocks kuznetsova sania mirza continued her remarkable rise with victory over
us open champion svetlana kuznetsova at the dubai championships on tuesday. the
18-year-old indian who is already a huge star in her home country won 6-4 6-2 in
front of a delirious crowd. it was mirza s sixth straight victory following her
first wta tournament win in hyderabad last month. earlier daniela hantuchova built
on her improving form with a 7-6 6-2 win over sixth seed alicia molik. mirza needed
attention to an ankle injury after the second game against kuznetsova. she quickly
slipped 4-0 down but staged a dramatic comeback that thrilled the large indian
contingent in the crowd. i really didn t expect that after my ankle turn said
mirza. i played a great match and i think (the crowd) did it again. i knew that i
had to play an all-round game and that s what happened. i did everything well but
i wasn t missing the ball - i don t know how that happened. mirza plays silvia
farina elia or jelena jankovic next. hantuchova has risen from 31 in the world at
the turn of the year to number 22 having reached the quarter-finals and semi-
finals at her last two events. it was such a tough first-round match and i am glad
to come through said hantuchova. she was serving so well. i just decided to hang
in there and keep fighting. the slovakian will meet elena likhovtseva in the
second round after the russian struggled past tunisian wild card selima sfar 2-6 6-
2 7-6. likhovtseva needed nine match points before seeing off sfar who got a point
penalty for swearing in the third set. seventh seed nathalie dechy and elena bovina
were among other first-round winners on tuesday.
new delay hits eu software laws a fresh delay has hit controversial new european
union rules which govern computer-based inventions. the draft law was not adopted
by eu ministers as planned at a brussels meeting on monday during which it was
supposed to have been discussed. the fresh delay came after polish officials had
raised concerns about the law for the second time in two months. critics say the
law would favour large companies over small ones and could impact open-source
software innovation. there was at one point the intention to put the item on today
s agenda. but in the end we could not put it on an eu spokesman told the reuters
agency. he added that no date had been chosen for more discussion of the law. in
december poland requested more time to consider the issue because it was concerned
that the law could lead to the patenting of pure computer software. its ministers
want to see the phrasing of the text of the directive on the patentability of
computer-implemented inventions changed so that it excludes software patenting.
poland is a large eu member so its backing for the legislation is vital. the eu
says the law would bring europe more in line with how such laws work in the us but
this has caused some angry debate amongst critics and supporters. in the us the
patenting of computer programs and internet business methods is permitted. this
means that the us-based amazon.com holds a patent for its one-click shopping
service. critics say a similar model in europe would hurt small software developers
which do not have the legal and financial might of larger companies. but supporters
say current law does not let big companies protect inventions which they have spent
years developing.
half of uk s mobiles go online multimedia mobile phones are finally showing signs
of taking off with more britons using them to go online. figures from industry
monitor the mobile data association (mda) show the number of phones with gprs and
mms technology has doubled since last year. gprs lets people browse the web access
news services mobile music and other applications like mobile chat. by the end of
2005 the mda predicts that 75% of all mobiles in the uk will be able to access the
net via gprs. the mda say the figures for the three months up to 30 september are a
rapid increase on the figure for the same time the previous year. about 53 million
people own a mobile in the uk so the figures mean that half of those phones use
gprs. gprs is often described as 2.5g technology - 2.5 generation - sitting between
2g and 3g technology which is like a fast high-quality broadband internet for
phones. with more services being offered by mobile operators people are finding
more reasons to go online via their mobile. downloadable ringtones are still
proving highly popular but so is mobile chat. bandaid was the fastest ever-selling
ringtone this year according to the mda and chat was given some publicity when
prime minister tony blair answered questions through mobile text chat. multimedia
messaging services also looked brighter with 32% of all mobiles in the uk able to
send or receive picture messages. this is a 14% rise from last september s figures.
but a recent report from continental research reflects the continuing battle mobile
companies have to actually persuade people to go online and to use mms. it said
that 36% of uk camera phone users had never sent a multimedia message or mms. that
was 7% more than in 2003. mobile companies are keen for people to use multimedia
functions their phones like sending mms and going online as this generates more
money for them. but critics say that mms is confusing and some mobiles are too
difficult to use. there have also been some issues over interoperability and being
able to send mms form a mobile using one network to a different one.
tindall aiming to earn lions spot bath and england centre mike tindall believes he
can make this summer s lions tour despite missing most of the season through
injury. the world cup winner has been out of action since december having damaged
both his shoulder and his foot. but tindall who recently signed for bath s west-
country rivals gloucester told rugby special he would be fit in time for the tour
to new zealand. i m aiming to be fit by 18 april and hope i can play from then
he said. i ve spoken to sir clive woodward and he understands the situation so i
just hope that i can get on the tour. the 26-year-old will face stiff competition
for those centre places from brian o driscoll gordon d arcy and gavin henson and
is aware that competition is intense. but after missing out on the 2001 tour to
australia with a knee injury tindall says he will be happy just to have an
opportunity to wear the red shirt. i m quite laid back about it to be honest - it
s quite hard for me to expect to be pushing for a test spot he said. but after
what s happened this season at least clive knows i ll be 100% fresh! - for the
full interview with mike tindall tune into this sunday s rugby special 2340 on bbc
two
fast moving phone bugs appear security firms are warning about several mobile phone
viruses that can spread much faster than similar bugs. the new strains of the
cabir mobile phone virus use short-range radio technology to leap to any vulnerable
phone as soon as it is in range. the cabir virus only affects high-end handsets
running the symbian series 60 phone operating system. despite the warnings there
are so far no reports of any phones being infected by the new variants of cabir.
the original cabir worm came to light in mid-june 2004 when it was sent to anti-
virus firms as a proof-of-concept program. a mistake in the way the original cabir
was written meant that even if it escaped from the laboratory the bug would only
have been able to infect one phone at a time. however the new cabir strains have
this mistake corrected and will spread via short range bluetooth technology to any
vulnerable phone in range. bluetooth has an effective range of a few tens of
metres. the risk of being infected by cabir is low because users must give the
malicious program permission to download on to their handset and then must manually
install it. users can protect themselves by altering a setting on symbian phones
that conceals the handset from other bluetooth using devices. finnish security firm
f-secure issued a warning about the new strains of cabir but said that the viruses
do not do any damage to a phone. all they do is block normal bluetooth activity and
drain the phone s battery. anti-virus firm sophos said the source code for cabir
had been posted on the net by a brazilian programmer which might lead to even more
variants of the program being created. so far seven versions of cabir are know to
exist one of which was inside the malicious skulls program that was found in late
november. symbian s series 60 software is licenced by nokia lg electronics lenovo
panasonic samsung sendo and siemens.
fiat mulls ferrari market listing ferrari could be listed on the stock market as
part of an overhaul of fiat s carmaking operations the financial times has
reported. it said fiat was set to restructure its business after reaching a $2bn
(1.53bn euros; £1.05bn) settlement with gm about fiat s ownership. steps being
considered include listing ferrari and bringing maserati and alfa romeo closer
together it said. despite strong sales of alfa romeo fiat s car business is
making a loss. under the proposals - which the paper said could be announced
within days - the iconic sportscar maker could be listed separately on the market.
fiat owns a 56% stake in ferrari -best known for its dominant formula one motor
racing team - having first bought into the business in 1969. it considered floating
ferrari in 2002 but opted to sell a minority stake to italian bank mediobanca for
775m euros ($1bn). that sale valued ferrari - which owns the maserati brand - at
2.3bn euros. the price tag would change if maserati was stripped out. the financial
times said fiat may transfer maserati within its wholly- owned alfa romeo division
in an effort to exploit commercial synergies. such a move would help alfa romeo and
maserati to share marketing distribution and research & development costs.
maserati and ferrari sell about 10 000 cars between them and both companies broke
even in 2003. fiat italy s largest private sector employer did not comment on
the reported changes. fiat recently negotiated an end to its alliance with general
motors. the us firm agreed to pay $2bn to exit an agreement under which it could
have been liable to buy fiat outright. analysts said the reported restructuring was
evidence of the greater flexibility which fiat now had to develop the business.
boogeyman takes box office lead the low-budget horror film boogeyman has knocked
robert de niro thriller hide and seek from the top spot at the uk box office. the
film in which a young man is forced to revisit a traumatic childhood experience
took £788 439 in its first three days on release. hide and seek which was knocked
off the top of the us box office by boogeyman last month fell one place. oscar
nominee hotel rwanda was also a new entry in the chart at number five. the film
which scored oscar nominations for don cheadle and british actress sophie okonedo
made £507 596 in its first week of nationwide release. comedy sequel meet the
fockers and shall we dance starring jennifer lopez and richard gere completed
the top five. clint eastwood s million dollar baby re-entered the charts at number
eight following its recent success at the oscars. the boxing drama which won four
awards including best film and best director has made £4.4m to date. two other new
entries a remake of the 1965 film flight of the phoenix and the teen comedy
harold and kumar get the munchies debuted outside the top 10.
trade gap narrows as exports rise the uk s trade gap narrowed in november helped
by a 7.5% rise in exports outside the european union. according to the office for
national statistics the difference between what the uk exported and imported was
£3.1bn ($5.8bn) down from october s £3.6bn. overall uk exports - including both
goods and services - rose by more than 3.2% to £24.8bn although total imports rose
again to a new record of £27.9bn. the deficit for goods alone was £4.6bn down from
october s £5bn. during november the uk exported £16.9bn worth of goods but
imported £21.5bn. the cumulative deficit for the first eleven months of 2004 now
stands at £36.3bn £4.5bn higher than the same period in 2003. november saw an
improvement in export levels to both the european union and the rest of the world
the office for national statistics (ons) said. eu exports rose 2% fuelled by an
increase in sales of chemicals. non-eu exports shot up 7.5% with growth seen
across a range of manufacturing sectors including cars consumer durables and
chemicals. the export boost offset a 1% rise in imports. non-eu imports rose 3%
but the growth in goods entering the uk from the eu slowed to 0.5%. the uk s
deficit with the eu fell to £1.9bn from £2.1bn while its non-eu shortfall dropped
to £2.7bn from £2.9bn in october. the country s surplus on trade-in-services
remained steady at £1.5bn for the fifth month in a row. paul dales uk economist
for capital economics said the figures represented an improvement on recent
months. however he stressed that the long-term prognosis for exports was still
uncertain. the figures are a lot better than expected but the trend still remains
poor he said. there have been some very encouraging signs that the uk export
recovery is starting to take hold. but there is a danger that this could be held
back by the ongoing weakness of domestic demand on the continent.
desailly backs blues revenge trip marcel desailly insists there is no chance of
history repeating itself when chelsea take on barcelona on wednesday. the french
star was part of the chelsea side crushed 5-1 at the nou camp in the champions
league quarter-final second leg in 2000. things will be totally different this
time he told bbc sport. now everyone knows about chelsea and is a little bit
afraid of them. they are one of the major clubs in europe and the pressure will be
on barcelona. chelsea have not played barcelona since that quarter-final tie five
years ago. the blues had looked destined to progress after winning the first leg at
stamford bridge 3-1 courtesy of two goals from tore andre flo and one by
gianfranco zola. but they collapsed in the second leg going down to strikes from
rivaldo (2) luis figo dani and patrick kluivert. former chelsea captain desailly
who is now playing for al-gharafa in qatar says there is no comparison between
that side and the current blues team who are top of the premiership. mentally
they are much stronger even though a lot of their players are young the 36-year-
old said. we made some mistakes at the nou camp in 2000 - a lot of them were
individual mistakes. it would not happen now. this team has a new motivation and a
different mentality. world cup winner desailly saw huge changes during his time at
stamford bridge. he was signed for £4.6m from ac milan in 1998 by ruud gullit and
went on to play under gianluca vialli and claudio ranieri. but the biggest change
occurred when billionaire roman abramovich bought the club in 2003. desailly says
the russian s arrival helped to instil a winning mentality at the club as well as a
demand for success. the whole of chelsea is different now - the chairman the
manager and all the players he said. everything is new and there is a huge
determination to win. since that game in 2000 chelsea have gained more experience
in europe and were very close to reaching the champions league final last season.
desailly is one of the most decorated players in the history of football. he won
the 1998 world cup and 2000 european championship with france the champions league
in 1993 with marseilles and 1994 with ac milan two serie a titles and the fa cup
in 2000 with chelsea. he is now winding down his career in qatar alongside the
likes of frank lebeouf josep guardiola titi camara gabriel batistuta and
christophe dugarry. so he is full of admiration for two of his colleagues from the
great milan side of the mid-90s who are likely to line up against manchester united
on wednesday - paolo maldini and alessandro costacurta. i m happy that they have
managed to play so long at a high level he said. i made a vow to costacurta that
as long as he plays i will continue to play. and it s amazing that paolo has
managed to play at such a high level for such a long time.
japan turns to beer alternatives japanese brewers are increasingly making money
from beer-flavoured drinks rather than beer itself beer and spirits are heavily
taxed in japan driving breweries to search for alternatives. japan s long economic
downturn helped drive the trend as drinkers looked for cheaper opportunities to
drown their sorrows. now according to asahi breweries the market for so-called
beer-like drinks is set to grow 84% this year. asahi is predicting profits to
rise 50% in 2005 as it launches a drink based on soybean peptides rather than malt.
the chosen name shinnama or new draft disguises its non-beer nature. but
despite a record profit in 2004 of 30.6bn yen ($291m; £154m) up 31.8% on the
previous year asahi is coming late to the market. key rival sapporo is already
well-established with the beer-flavoured draft one . suntory meanwhile is doing
well with super blue which combines happoshu - an existing low-cost beer
alternative made with malt and seawater - and shochu a distilled alcohol derived
from sweet potatoes or barley. happoshu has been a mainstay of brewery profits for
years taking over from beer thanks to its low tax and therefore low cost. kirin
the fourth big name is launching its own third-type drink in april.
what high-definition will do to dvds first it was the humble home video then it
was the dvd and now hollywood is preparing for the next revolution in home
entertainment - high-definition. high-definition gives incredible 3d-like
pictures and surround sound. the dvd disks and the gear to play them will not be
out for another year or so and there at are still a number of issues to be sorted
out. but when high-definition films do come out on the new format dvds it will
profoundly change home entertainment. for rick dean director of business
development for digital content company thx a high-definition future is an
exciting prospect. he has worked on the star wars dvd trilogy finding nemo the
incredibles and indiana jones. there was a time not so long ago when the film
world and the video world were two completely separate worlds he told the bbc
news website. the technology we are dealing with now means they are very much
conjoined. the film that we see in theatres is coming from the same digital file
that we take the home video master he says. but currently putting a master
feature film onto dvd requires severe compression because current dvd technology
cannot hold as much as high-definition films demand. as much as you compress the
picture data rate wise you also take qualities away from the picture that we fight
so hard to keep in the master he explains. i would love to be able to show
people what projects that we worked on really look like in the high-def world and i
find it very exciting. high-definition dvds can hold up to six times more data
than the dvds we are used to. it will take time though to persuade people who spent
money on dvd players to buy the different players and displays required to watch
high-definition dvds in 18 months time. mr dean is confident though: i think if
they see real hd [high-definition] not some heavily compressed version of it
there is such a remarkable difference. i have heard comments from people who say
the images pop off the screen. high-definition will mean some changes for those
working behind the scenes too. on the whole producing films for high-definition
dvds will be easier in some ways because less compression is needed. equally it
may mean hollywood studios ask for more to be put onto the average dvd. when we
master movies right now our data rates are running at about 1.2 gigabits per
second says mr dean. our dvds that we put out today have to be squashed down to
about five or six megabits per second. that s a huge amount of compression that
has to be applied - about 98%. so if you have anything that allows more space you
don t have to compress so hard. studios could fit a lot more marketing material
games and features onto high-capacity dvds. currently an entire dvd project can
take up to three months says mr dean. although the step of down-converting will be
bypassed this will realistically only save a day s work says mr dean. one of the
most time consuming elements is building dvd navigation and menu systems. on the
fairly complex star wars disks making sure the menu buttons worked took 45 human
hours alone. if studios want to cash in on the extra space it could mean extra
human hours for which someone has to pay. if the decision on the studio side is
that they are going to put a lot more on these disks it could be more expensive
because of all the extra navigation that is required. and if studios do focus on
delivering more added value content thinks mr dean ultimately it could mean
that they will want more money for it. those costs could filter down to the price
ticket on a high-definition dvd. but if the consumer is not willing to pay a
premium price studios will listen thinks mr dean. high-definition throws up
other challenge to film makers and dvd production alike. more clarity on screen
means film makers have to make doubly sure that attention to detail is meticulous.
when we did the first hd version of star wars episode i everybody was very sun-
tanned but that was make-up. in the hd version of episode i all these make-up
lines showed up explains mr dean. the restoration of the older star wars episodes
revealed some interesting items too. there are scans of a corridor [on the death
star] and fairly plainly in one of those shots there is a file cabinet stuck
behind one of the doorways. you never used to be able to see it because things are
just blurred enough during the pan that you just didn t see it. what high-
definition revolution ultimately means is that the line between home entertainment
and cinema worlds will blur. with home theatre systems turning living rooms into
cinemas this line blurs even further. it could also mean that how we get films
and in what format will widen. in the future we are going to look towards file
delivery over ip [internet protocol - broadband] giving a dvd-like experience from
the set-top box to the hard drive says mr dean. but that is some time off for
most and for now people still like to show off something physical in their
bookshelves.
sony psp console hits us in march us gamers will be able to buy sony s playstation
portable from 24 march but there is no news of a europe debut. the handheld
console will go on sale for $250 (£132) and the first million sold will come with
spider-man 2 on umd the disc format for the machine. sony has billed the machine
as the walkman of the 21st century and has sold more than 800 000 units in japan.
the console (12cm by 7.4cm) will play games movies and music and also offers
support for wireless gaming. sony is entering a market which has been dominated by
nintendo for many years. it launched its ds handheld in japan and the us last year
and has sold 2.8 million units. sony has said it wanted to launch the psp in europe
at roughly the same time as the us but gamers will now fear that the launch has
been put back. nintendo has said it will release the ds in europe from 11 march.
it has gaming at its core but it s not a gaming device. it s an entertainment
device said kaz hirai president of sony computer entertainment america.
uk plan to deport terror suspects deals are being sought to allow the uk to deport
terror suspects to their home countries without risk of them being tortured or
sentenced to death. home secretary charles clarke told the times he hoped
agreement with several countries could be reached. the move follows a law lords
judgement that the detention of 12 men at belmarsh prison london and woodhill
milton keynes was unlawful. the 12 affected by the ruling are from algeria
tunisia egypt and jordan. the government was told that using anti-terror
legislation brought in after 11 september to hold the men indefinitely without
charge broke human rights laws. mr clarke told the times: i think we should be
prosecuting much more energetically our ability to deport the individuals concerned
to the countries from which they come. he said it was a route that was being
pursued in collaboration with foreign secretary jack straw in a very positive
way . mr clarke said that he was seeking memorandums of understanding between
overseas governments and britain to ensure suspects would not be subjected to the
death penalty on their return. however he added: i do not think the solution to
the law lords judgement for this government is in deportations but they will
help. there are other strands that we have to do. but the liberal democrat s
shadow home secretary mark oaten accused mr clarke of avoiding the main issue
with the belmarsh detainees. the critical issue that the home secretary is
dodging at this stage is to deal with the very principle to deal with how we
tackle this problem in the future he told bbc news. and i do want him to grasp
those issues and that means looking at how we can actually secure convictions in
this country allowing for example intercept communications telephone tapping to
be included mr oaten said. deportation may tackle this initial problem but i
want to see a wider debate urgently about how we can actually get trials and
convictions in this country. unless we get that the liberal democrats will vote
against this measure when it comes for renewal in march. the bbc s home affairs
correspondent daniel sandford said it appeared mr clarke was putting more
emphasis on the possibility of deportation than his predecessor david blunkett.
but he said reaching an understanding with some of the detainees home countries
could be difficult. some of these people are accused of very very serious crimes
in their home countries so it s not an easy agreement to get and i think for some
of these suspects it won t be the solution. daniel sandford said ministers may try
to put forward other solutions - such as allowing more secret evidence to be put
into normal criminal trials or developing a more secret trials process - in the
next few weeks. the government may try and deport some of them and then those that
are left see if they can work out some way of putting them on trial he said.
actor foxx sees globe nominations us actor jamie foxx has been given two
nominations for golden globe awards with meryl streep morgan freeman and cate
blanchett also up for prizes. the stars were shortlisted on monday for supporting
roles with the main nominations still to come. foxx has starred in collateral and
ray. clive owen david carradine and natalie portman are also up for awards. the
golden globes hollywood s second most prominent awards are the first major
nominations to be announced. last year the lord of the rings: the return of the
king was named best drama movie while lost in translation won best musical or
comedy. sean penn charlize theron tim robbins and renee zellweger all won acting
awards - mirroring the eventual oscars outcome. the golden globes ceremony will
take place on 16 january with the oscars following on 27 february.
ad sales boost time warner profit quarterly profits at us media giant timewarner
jumped 76% to $1.13bn (£600m) for the three months to december from $639m year-
earlier. the firm which is now one of the biggest investors in google benefited
from sales of high-speed internet connections and higher advert sales. timewarner
said fourth quarter sales rose 2% to $11.1bn from $10.9bn. its profits were buoyed
by one-off gains which offset a profit dip at warner bros and less users for aol.
time warner said on friday that it now owns 8% of search-engine google. but its own
internet business aol had has mixed fortunes. it lost 464 000 subscribers in the
fourth quarter profits were lower than in the preceding three quarters. however
the company said aol s underlying profit before exceptional items rose 8% on the
back of stronger internet advertising revenues. it hopes to increase subscribers by
offering the online service free to timewarner internet customers and will try to
sign up aol s existing customers for high-speed broadband. timewarner also has to
restate 2000 and 2003 results following a probe by the us securities exchange
commission (sec) which is close to concluding. time warner s fourth quarter
profits were slightly better than analysts expectations. but its film division saw
profits slump 27% to $284m helped by box-office flops alexander and catwoman a
sharp contrast to year-earlier when the third and final film in the lord of the
rings trilogy boosted results. for the full-year timewarner posted a profit of
$3.36bn up 27% from its 2003 performance while revenues grew 6.4% to $42.09bn.
our financial performance was strong meeting or exceeding all of our full-year
objectives and greatly enhancing our flexibility chairman and chief executive
richard parsons said. for 2005 timewarner is projecting operating earnings growth
of around 5% and also expects higher revenue and wider profit margins. timewarner
is to restate its accounts as part of efforts to resolve an inquiry into aol by us
market regulators. it has already offered to pay $300m to settle charges in a deal
that is under review by the sec. the company said it was unable to estimate the
amount it needed to set aside for legal reserves which it previously set at $500m.
it intends to adjust the way it accounts for a deal with german music publisher
bertelsmann s purchase of a stake in aol europe which it had reported as
advertising revenue. it will now book the sale of its stake in aol europe as a loss
on the value of that stake.
stern dropped from radio stations controversial dj howard stern has been dropped
from four us radio stations because he keeps promoting his move to a network
broadcasting on satellite. cidatel broadcasting said stern had transformed his
show into a continuous infomercial promoting sirius his new satellite radio
employer . stern will join the sirius subscription service which is not governed
by us regulators next year. citadel pulled stern s show from stations in new york
and pennsylvania. stern had been holiday for two weeks but his show did not return
to the four stations as expected on 3 january. citadel said it did not yet know
whether it would return to its network. stern announced in october that he was
leaving conventional radio where his syndicated show goes out across the us for
the relatively restriction-free satellite service. the dj s broadcasts are well
known for landing in trouble with regulators for obscene and sexually explicit
rantings. stern was dropped by six stations owned by media giant clear channel in
2004 after it had to pay the federal communications commission $1.75m (£950 000)
over breaches indecency laws. media giant viacom has also reportedly agreed to the
fcc s demands that if stern is issued with another indecency violation then his
show must be pulled from all of its stations. viacom has also been hit with record
fines of $3.5m (£1.8m) over stern and two other new york djs. but stern continues
to be one of the most popular talk show hosts particularly in the 25-54 age
category.
us data sparks inflation worries wholesale prices in the us rose at the fastest
rate in more than six years in january according to government data. new figures
show the labor department producer price index (ppi) rose by 0.3% - in line with
forecasts. but core producer prices which exclude food and energy costs surged by
0.8% the biggest rise since december 1998 increasing inflationary concerns. in
contrast the university of michigan barometer of us retail consumer confidence
showed a slight dip. the university s index of consumer spending fell to 94.2 in
early february from 95.5 in january which could indicate a fall in retail spending
by the us public. the mixed set of data on friday led to volatile early wall street
trade as the dow jones standard and poor s 500 and nasdaq swung between positive
and negative territory. the economic figures come on the back of increased fears
that the federal reserve chairman may be about to raise interest rates in order to
stifle any inflationary pressures. the fed has been raising interest rates at a
gradual pace since june 2004 in an attempt to make sure inflation does not get out
of control. mr greenspan told congress this week that the central bank was on
guard against the possibility that a rebounding economy could trigger stronger
inflation pressures. the ppi would argue for greenspan to continue to raise rates
at a measured pace said joe quinlan chief market stategist at bank of america
capital management. but this michigan survey tells you that the consumer might be
downshifting a little bit in terms of their confidence and their spending; this
could be an indication of that. consumer spending accounts for 66% of us economic
activity and is viewed as a gauge of the health of the economy which is why the
michigan data is closely observed. however on friday it was overshadowed by the
core ppi core figure which surged 2.7% during the past 12 months the biggest
year-on-year gain in nine years. the concern is that traders might interpret this
big jump in the core ppi as an impetus for the fed to be more aggressive than a
measured move in moving rates said paul cherney chief market analyst at standard
& poor s. but ian shepherdson chief us economist at high frequency economics said
the ppi report was much less alarming than at first glance. one-time increases in
alcohol and tobacco prices which are no indication of broad ppi pressure were
responsible for the increase he said. prices for autos and trucks also jumped in
january but shepherdson said it is a good bet these increases won t stick .
humanoid robot learns how to run car-maker honda s humanoid robot asimo has just
got faster and smarter. the japanese firm is a leader in developing two-legged
robots and the new improved asimo (advanced step in innovative mobility) can now
run find his way around obstacles as well as interact with people. eventually
asimo could find gainful employment in homes and offices. the aim is to develop a
robot that can help people in their daily lives said a honda spokesman. to get
the robot running for the first time was not an easy process as it involved asimo
making an accurate leap and absorbing the impact of landing without slipping or
spinning. the run he is now capable of is perhaps not quite up to olympic star
kelly holmes standard. at 3km/h it is closer to a leisurely jog. its makers claim
that it is almost four times as fast as sony s qrio which became the first robot
to run last year. the criteria for running robots is defined by engineers as having
both feet off the ground between strides. asimo has improved in other ways too
increasing his walking speed from 1.6km/h to 2.5km growing 10cm to 130cm and
putting on 2kg in weight. while he may not quite be ready for yoga he does have
more freedom of movement being able to twist his hips and bend his wrists thumbs
and neck. asimo has already made his mark on the international robot scene and in
november was inducted into the robot hall of fame. he has wowed audiences around
the world with his ability to walk upstairs recognise faces and come when
beckoned. in august 2003 he even attended a state dinner in the czech republic
travelling with the japanese prime minister as a goodwill envoy. he is one of a
handful of robots used by tech firms to trumpet their technological advances.
technology developed for asimo could be used in the automobile industry as
electronics increasingly take over from mechanics in car design. for the moment
asimo s biggest role is an entertainer and the audience gathered to see his first
public run greeted his slightly comical gait with amusement according to reports.
robots can fulfil serious functions in society and the united nations economic
commission for europe predicts that the worldwide market for industrial robots will
swell from 81 000 units in 2003 to 106 000 in 2007.
blair blasts tory spending plans tony blair has launched an attack on conservative
spending plans saying they are a ludicrous improbability . the prime minister
has told a labour party gathering that the tory policies would cause economic
failure. tory leader michael howard has said his party would cut £35bn in wasteful
spending to allow £4bn in tax cuts. on saturday tory shadow home secretary david
davis said the tories would fund the cuts by removing inefficiencies which had
burgeoned under labour. in his speech mr blair contrasted a reformed labour party
which had learned to occupy the political centre ground with a hidebound tory
party which he said would turn the clock back with spending cuts. mr blair said:
the conservative tax and spending proposals would put at risk both britain s hard-
won economic stability - the lowest mortgages inflation unemployment for decades
- and the key investment in public services. i believe that the tory plans are as
plain a call to return to the past as it s possible to imagine he said. it s a
recipe for exactly the same boom and bust economics and cuts in public services
that were their hallmark in 18 years of conservative government. mr blair added:
they the conservatives have learned nothing. by contrast he said new labour had
listened to its electorate and changed. mr blair went on to list his government s
achievements and to issue a rallying call to the party. so now we have a choice
we can defend this record and we can build on it and go on and fulfil the promise
or give up and go back. and i say we have to fight. in response david davis said
the tories would make cuts such as removing regional assemblies but would bring
in more police officers and match labour s spending on health and education.
everybody knows having lived through this government the last seven years that
they faced lots of stealth tactics lots of increases in taxes but no improvement
in public services he said. mr davis said labour had been responsible for huge
waste huge overspending not on the frontline at all but on bureaucracy . the
public face a choice between more waste and more taxes with this government less
waste and lower taxes with a tory government he concluded. gordon brown has
addressed the conference behind closed doors. the chancellor said the conservatives
plans would see some £50bn in spending cuts by 2011 which the tories deny. mr
brown also issued call for party unity and warn of the dangers of allowing
themselves to be distracted or diverted . according to an advance text released by
officials he told delegates: we must all show the strength and unity of purpose
to take the long-term decisions necessary to meet them. mr brown warned that the
tories were planning the biggest cuts ever in the history of any election
manifesto . meanwhile tory shadow chancellor oliver letwin accused mr blair of
misrepresenting the party s proposals and questioned how labour would fund its own
plans. he still cannot accept the simple truth which is that we will spend more
on what matters to people - schools hospitals and police - and that we will offer
value for money and lower taxes mr letwin said. once again mr blair and his
chancellor have failed to answer the question that lies at the heart of this
election - which taxes will they put up to fill the £8bn shortfall in their plans
indie film nominations announced mike leigh s award-winning abortion drama vera
drake has scooped seven nominations at this year s british independent film awards.
but the venice winner faces stiff competition from shane meadows critically
acclaimed dead man s shoes which received eight nominations. also in the running
for a clutch of awards are my summer of love and the stalker drama enduring love.
the winners will be announced at a ceremony in london on 30 november. the winners
of the awards will be chosen by a jury chaired by cold mountain director anthony
minghella and including actresses cate blanchett and helena bonham-carter. the
awards which recognise independent film-making in britain were established seven
years ago. this year s nominees reflect the growing strength and diversity of
british independent filmmaking said bifa founder and director elliot grove.
commenting on the diversity of the nominated films he added: our selection
committee had a harder time than ever narrowing down the field. joining vera
drake and dead man s shoes in the running for best film are my summer of love
climbing documentary touching the void and zombie comedy shaun of the dead.
geoffrey rush wins a best actor nomination for his role as peter sellers in the
recent biopic the life & death of peter sellers. the australian star faces
competition from daniel craig (enduring love) phil davis (vera drake) ian hart
(blind fight) and dead man s shoes star paddy considine. considine is also
nominated for a best supporting actor award for my summer of love. a rare us
nominee scarlett johansson is among this year s best actress contenders for her
role in girl with a pearl earring. fellow nominees include imelda staunton (vera
drake) natalie press (my summer of love) anne reid (the mother) and eva
birthistle (ae fond kiss... ). shane meadows and kevin mcdonald both former
winners of the douglas hickox award (for best directorial debut) won best director
nominations. seasoned film-makers roger michell mike leigh and pavel pavlikowsky
challenge them to the award. harry potter author jk rowling will receive a special
award for her contribution to the industry.
job cuts false economy - tuc plans to shed 71 000 civil service jobs will prove
to be a false economy that could hamper public sector reforms according to a tuc
report. public and commercial services union members have already voted to strike
over cuts for one day on 5 november. the tuc said cuts would deliver less than 6%
of the £22bn ministers hope to save through efficiency reforms. general secretary
brendan barber warned the costs could easily outweigh the benefits . the
government s big boost to public spending is now showing results said mr barber.
public services are improving but looking for simple savings through job cuts at
this stage could be a false economy. they may shoot a tory fox but cutting
thousands of civil service jobs will hit the morale and capabilities of the public
servants expected to implement government reforms. the costs could easily outweigh
the benefits. next friday s strike action by the pcs is the biggest in the civil
service since 1993 hitting jobcentres benefit agencies pensions offices customs
and driving tests. the union says it is concerned about pensions sick pay and
forced relocation as well as the cut in jobs. last month it was announced that a
total of 37 social security offices and jobcentres across the uk would close in the
first wave of plans to shed civil service jobs. the number of civil servants in
britain rose to more than 520 000 in april. other areas the strike will affect
include passports museums and galleries libraries and health and safety
inspections.
hendrix guitar fetches £100 000 a much-loved guitar belonging to jimi hendrix has
been sold for £100 000 at an auction in london. the 1965 fender stratocaster was
one of a number of guitars included in the sale dedicated to the rock legend. the
vast archive of instruments signed records and posters were collected by a
dedicated fan who had become friendly with the star. the auction was billed as the
biggest collection of hendrix memorabilia to go under the hammer. the majority of
the items were collected by fan bob terry who began collecting at the age of 17. he
later sold it on to another collector. hendrix widely considered one of the best
guitarists of his era died of a drug overdose in 1970 at the age of 27. the 1965
fender stratocaster was used by the musician on tour and in his studio. a poem
written by hendrix two weeks after his infamous appearance at the monterey festival
where he set light to his guitar went for £10 000. the jimi hendrix experience s
first single hey joe signed by all the band was sold for £2 000. the sale hosted
by auctioneers cooper owen was held at the hard rock cafe in london.
us tv host clark suffers stroke veteran us television host dick clark is in
hospital in los angeles after suffering a mild stroke. the 75-year-old presented
long-running show american bandstand from 1956-87 and has since hosted game shows
and produced award ceremonies. clark is scheduled to welcome in the new year on the
abc network a job he has done for 33 years. the presenter said that he is hopeful
of getting better in time to lead the festivities in new york s times square. clark
s publicist paul shefrin said the television host was recovering and there was no
cause for alarm. clark who produces the golden globe and american music awards
disclosed last year that he was suffering from diabetes. his popular music show
american bandstand was first broadcast in 1952 and attracted an audience of 20
million people after it was picked up by abc in 1957. the long-running weekly
series which featured guests including elvis presley buddy holly and aretha
frankin came to an end in 1989. clark was inducted into the rock and roll hall of
fame in 1993 for his contribution to the music industry. he has also been
responsible for television series such as tv bloopers celebrity boxing and drama
american dreams. clark is also expected to act as executive producer for the
upcoming golden globe awards ceremony which is taking place on 16 january.
friends fear with lost mobiles people are becoming so dependent on their mobile
phones that one in three are concerned that losing their phone would mean they lose
their friends. more than 50% of mobile owners reported they had had their phone
stolen or lost in the last three years. more than half (54%) of those asked in a
poll for mobile firm intervoice said that they do not have another address book. a
fifth rely entirely on mobiles. about 80% of uk adults own at least one mobile
according to official figures. it is estimated that 53% of over 65s own a mobile
according to intervoice but the figures are higher for those aged between 15 and
34. most 15 to 24-year-olds (94%) and 25 to 34-year-olds (92%) own at least one.
nineteen percent of mobile owners were more concerned about how long it would take
to find their contacts information again if the phone was lost stolen or
replaced. the survey showed that extent to which people have become reliant on
their phones as address book. many mobile owners do not bother to make back-ups of
their contact details and with people changing their phones once a year on average
it becomes a problem. they also are becoming less likely to remember numbers by
heart relying on the mobile phone book instead. we re a nation of lazy so-and-sos
david noone from intervoice said. we put the numbers in our phones so we can call
a friend at the touch of just one or two buttons and we certainly can t be bothered
to write them down in an old fashioned address book. the mobile phone plays such a
key role in modern relationships; take the phone away and the way we manage these
relationships falls apart. one in three women the survey said thought if they
lost their phones it would mean they would lose touch with people altogether. most
(62%) said they had no idea what their partner s number was. mr noone said it
should be up to mobile operators to provide back-up services on the network itself
instead of relying on mobile owners to find ways themselves. generally
information from sim cards can be backed up on physical memory cards or can be
copied onto computers via cables if the phone is a smartphone model with the right
software. sim back-up devices can be bought from phone shops for just a few pounds.
but some operators offer customers free web-based back-up services too. orange told
the bbc news website that those with orange smartphones could use the my phone
syncing service which means back-ups of address books and other data are created
online. for non-smartphone users a memory mate card could be used to back up data
on the phone. o2 also offers a free web-based syncing service which works over
gprs and gsm. neither vodafone or t-mobile currently offer a free network service
for back-ups but encourage people to use sim back-up devices. it is thought that
about 10 000 phones are lost or stolen every month and 50% of total street crime
involves a mobile. mobile phone sales are expected to continue growing over the
next year. globally more than 167 million mobile phones were sold in the third
quarter of 2004 26% more than the previous year according to analysts. it is
predicted that there will be two billion handsets in use worldwide by the end of
2005.
uk young top euro earnings league british children enjoy the highest average annual
income in europe - more than double that of spanish or italian youngsters a report
suggests. children in the uk between the ages of 10 and 17 had an annual income of
£775 said market analyst datamonitor. they use pester power to get their parents
to stump up nearly a third of this income the report said. as for how they spend
their cash the bulk goes on personal care soft drinks and food datamonitor said.
datamonitor adds that british teenagers are keen on personal care because it helps
them combine two seemingly contradictory emotional needs - the desire to fit in and
the desire to express their individuality. british teenage girls compared to
their counterparts in seven european countries are the most keen to use make-up
products. nearly three out of four girls said they used make-up. according to the
datamonitor report the trend marked british teenagers out as particularly
important to cosmetics manufacturers as they are likely to experiment more with
brands and products and form long-term beauty routines . and the good times are
likely to keep rolling for british children as the report predicts that they will
still be topping the earnings table in 2008.
hi-tech posters guide commuters interactive posters are helping londoners get
around the city during the festive season. when interrogated with a mobile phone
the posters pass on a number that people can call to get information about the
safest route home. sited at busy underground stations the posters are fitted with
an infra-red port that can beam information directly to a handset. the posters are
part of transport for london s safe travel at night campaign. the campaign is
intended to help londoners especially women avoid trouble on the way home. in
particular it aims to cut the number of sexual assaults by drivers of unlicensed
minicabs. nigel marson head of group marketing at transport for london (tfl) said
the posters were useful because they work outside the mobile phone networks. they
can work in previously inaccessible areas such as underground stations which is
obviously a huge advantage in a campaign of this sort he said. the posters will
automatically beam information to any phone equipped with an ir port that is held
close to the glowing red icon on the poster. we started with infra-red because
there are a huge number ir phones out there said rachel harker spokeswoman for
hypertag which makes the technology fitted to the posters. it s a well established
technology. hypertag is also now making a poster that uses short-range bluetooth
radio technology to swap data. although the hypertags in the posters only pass on a
phone number ms harker said they can pass on almost any form of data including
images ring tones and video clips. she said that there are no figures for how many
people are using the posters but a previous campaign run for a cosmetics firm
racked up 12 500 interactions. before we ran a campaign there was a big question
mark of: if we build it will they come she said. now we know that yes they
will. the tfl campaign using the posters will run until boxing day.
search sites get closer to users search sites want to get to know you better. not
content with providing access to the millions of websites many now offer ways that
do a better job of remembering cataloguing and managing all the information you
come across. some of the latest to update their search systems are ask jeeves and
blinkx which have both released a series of utilities that try to help people get
more from the web. the future is all about developing your own personal web said
tony macklin spokesman for ask jeeves. mr macklin said that too often when people
use a search engine it was like the first time they ever used it because there was
no memory of what they had searched for before. each time you go back in you have
to start all over again he said. the series of updates to its service collected
under the my ask jeeves banner would help people remember where they had been
before. ask jeeves has added the ability to save websites of interest so the
next time a users visits the site they can search through the sites they have
previously found. sites saved in this way can be arranged in folders and have notes
attached to them to explain why they were saved. mr macklin said many people wanted
to save sites they had seen but did not want to add them to their bookmarks or
favourites not least because such lists cannot be easily searched. on average said
mr macklin users conduct between five and 10 searches per day and the tools in my
ask jeeves should stop them having to do searches twice and get to what they want
much more easily. under my ask jeeves users can search the web or through the
results they have already noted as interesting. it s about finding again what you
found before he said. the my ask jeeves service lets people store up to a 1000
web links or 5000 if they sign up to the free service. by way of comparison google
s desktop search tool catalogues search histories informally and lets people look
through the sites they have visited. at the same time search start-up blinkx has
released a second version of its eponymous software. blinkx is desktop search
software that watches what someone is working on be it a document or e-mail and
suggests websites video clips blogs or documents on a pc that are relevant to it.
since blinkx launched it has faced increased competition from firms such as google
copernic enfish x1 and apple all of whom now have programs that let people search
their pc as well as the web. the competition has validated the problem we tackle
said suranga chandratillake co-founder of blinkx. in the latest release of blinkx
the company has added what it calls smart folders. once created the folders act as
persistent queries that automatically sweep the web for pages related to their
subject and catalogues relevant information documents or incoming e-mails on hard
drives too. what users do with blinkx and other desktop search engines shows that
people tend to be very promiscuous in their use of search engines. blinkx users do
not stop using other web search systems he said. they might use google to look
up a company or yahoo for travel because they know they are good at that he
said. the classic thing we have seen recently is people using blinkx to look at
the things they have searched on he said. the variety of ways to search data was
only helping users said mr chandratillake and that it was likely that in the
future people would use different ones for different tasks.
car giant hit by mercedes slump a slump in profitability at luxury car maker
mercedes has prompted a big drop in profits at parent daimlerchrysler. the german-
us carmaker saw fourth quarter operating profits fall to 785m euros ($1bn) from
2.4bn euros in 2003. mercedes-benz s woes - its profits slid to just 20m euros -
obscured a strong performance from the chrysler group whose returns met market
expectations. mercedes faces fierce competition in the luxury car sector from bmw
and but hopes to revive its fortunes by 2006. mercedes profits over the period
compared unfavourably with 2003 s 784m euro figure and were well below analyst
expectations of 374m euros. for the year as a whole its operating profits fell 46%
to 1.6bn euros. sales of mercedes brands fell 2% as demand cooled while revenues
were affected by the weakness of the us dollar. the carmaker blamed the fall in
profits on high launch costs for new models and losses from its mercedes smart
mini-car range. mercedes is hoping to increase productivity by 3bn euros having
negotiated 500m euros in annual savings with german workers last year. the firm
said it was determined to retain mercedes position as the world s most successful
luxury brand. however daimlerchrysler s shares fell 1.5% on the news. while all
these divisions are doing well the big worries continue to surround mercedes-benz
michael rabb an analyst with bank sal oppenheim told reuters. in contrast
chrysler enjoyed a 5% annual increase in unit sales while revenues - calculated in
us dollars - rose 10%. the us division - whose marques include dodge and jeep -
transformed a full year operating loss of 506m euros in 2003 into a 1.4bn euros
profit last year. overall daimlerchrysler saw worldwide vehicle sales rise 8% to
4.7 million in 2004 while total revenues added 4% to 142bn euros. chrysler s strong
performance helped the world s fifth largest carmaker boost net income by 400m
euros to 2.5bn euros. the year 2004 shows that our strategy works well - even in
such a challenging competitive environment said jurgen schrempp daimlerchrysler
s chairman. daimlerchrysler took a 475m euro hit in costs stemming from a defects
scandal at its joint venture japanese subsidiary fuso. daimlerchrysler last week
agreed a compensation package with partner mitsubishi motors which will see it buy
out its stake in fuso. looking forward daimerchrysler s profits are expected to be
slightly higher in 2005. however it is expecting significant improvements in
profitability in 2006 as a result of a major investment in the mercedes product
range.
errors doomed first dome sale the initial attempt to sell the millennium dome
failed due to a catalogue of errors a report by the government s finance watchdog
says. the report said too many parties were involved in decision-making when the
attraction first went on sale after the millennium exhibition ended. the national
audit office said the dome cost taxpayers £28.7m to maintain and sell in the four
years after it closed. finally a deal to turn it into a sport and entertainment
venue was struck. more than £550m could now be returned to the public sector in the
wake of the deal to regenerate the site in greenwich london. the nao report said
that this sale went through because it avoided many of the problems of the previous
attempt to sell the dome. deputy prime minister john prescott said a good deal had
been secured. delivery of the many benefits secured through this deal will
continue the substantial progress already made at the millennium village and
elsewhere on the peninsula he said. but edward leigh who is chairman of the
commons public accounts committee warned the government would have to work hard to
ensure taxpayers would get full benefit from the dome deal. he said: this report
also shows that the first attempt to sell the dome proved a complete fiasco. every
arm of government seems to have had a finger in the pie. the process was confused
and muddled. he added: four years after the millennium exhibition closed the
government finally has a deal to find a use for what has been a white elephant
since it closed in a deal that incredible as it may seem should bring in some
money and provide a benefit for the local area and the country as whole. however
it was more a question of luck that a strong bid turned up after thefirst abortive
attempt. nao head sir john bourn said: in difficult circumstances following the
failure of the first competition english partnerships and the office of the deputy
prime minister have worked hard to get a deal.
what now for kelly holmes last april kelly holmes spoke to the bbc sport website
about her loneliness her fight to stay fit and her decision not to contest both
the 800m and 1500m at the olympics. it just goes to show even the most meticulous
and measured athletes cannot predict what fate has in store for them. four months
later holmes stormed to double olympic gold and has since been made a dame won
the bbc sport personality of the year and written a book whilst still finding time
to coach aspiring athletes. with so much time spent in the spotlight holmes has
increasingly dropped hints that her ambition on the track has begun to wilt. and
when asked about her plans for both the indoor and outdoor seasons ahead the 34-
year-old has repeatedly chosen to tick the don t know box. holmes has now pulled
out of this weekend s european indoor championships where she was selected for
both the 800m and 1500m because of a hamstring injury. but should we be surprised
if the olympic champion over both those distances decides she just does not feel
like racing anymore well it s a lot easier being the double olympic champion
being feted by everybody than training to be at the top in middle distance running
points out former olympian and bbc pundit steve cram. you have to have a real
strong desire to carry on doing it even if you re very talented. holmes drive
and determination have always been unquestionable - that is the reason she has
battled back from a string of injuries that threatened to see her finish her career
empty-handed. but alarm bells start ringing when the kent athlete begins
questioning herself. will i have as much commitment desire and energy to go
through a major championship holmes asked in the new year. that is what i don t
know. at 34 holmes will also be aware that time is running out. us 400m and 200m
legend michael johnson a five-time olympic gold medallist retired shortly after
his 34th birthday as did britain s double olympic champion decathlete daley
thompson. the physical demands of the day-to-day grind will only get harder for
holmes who has already admitted she doesn t like the training anymore. whilst
out on the circuit the allure of defeating a double olympic champion will spur her
opponents on. holmes will not want to needlessly suffer the indignity of being
beaten. unless she is certain she has a strong chance of winning any race she will
not step onto the track. but if the kent athlete finds the form that fuelled her
ambitions last summer there are more prizes up for grabs. the day after completing
her double in athens the 34-year-old revealed she would still like to win her
first indoors title. holmes wish could easily be met in madrid before she goes on
to prepare for the outdoor season where there are still scores to be settled such
as a first gold at the world championships in helsinki. there is just one small
truth which could gnaw away at holmes motivation - the realisation that no matter
how hard she trains nothing she wins now can surpass her achievements in athens.
on the other hand if those achievements cannot be matched shouldn t they be at
least shared and celebrated you don t get the chance very often in your career to
step onto the track as the double olympic champion agreed cram. you want to be
able to take your bow in front of the fans because it s a fantastic feeling. i
think deep down kelly wants to run. i think she will compete and run races on the
circuits but whether or not she runs in the major championships is much less
certain. athletics fans had every reason to believe they would see the new-look
kelly holmes tearing up the track again. after her olympic glory she emphatically
denied she planned to retire. so why is holmes dragging her heels about making a
decision on where when or whether to even bother competing again that s just
kelly explains cram. she s always been like that. she enjoys people trying to
guess what she is going to do next. she knows every time she makes a pronouncement
now it s headline news. kelly has to figure out for herself what it is she wants
and that will be based on athletics decisions whether she can be competitive if
she is fit enough to put her neck on the line. and if she decides not to run again
no-one is going to turn round and say you re making the wrong decision.
day-lewis set for berlin honour actor daniel day-lewis is to be presented with an
award for his career in film at the berlin film festival. the 47-year-old whose
credits include his oscar-winning performance in my left foot will be presented
with the berlinale camera award on 15 february. the honour awarded since 1986
honours figures in cinema that the festival feels particularly indebted to . man
to man a historical epic starring kristin scott thomas opens the german festival
on 10 february. a candid documentary about the life and career of singer george
michael a different story will also be screened at the 10-day event. day-lewis
has competed four times at the berlin film festival with films in the name of the
father (1994) the crucible (1997) the boxer (1998) and martin scorsese s gangs of
new york (2003). the festival praises him for his sensational start with roles in
my beautiful launderette and costume classic a room with a view and a great
number of celebrated roles in subsequent productions. japan s oldest film studio
will also be honoured along with day-lewis. shochiku film studios which was
founded 110 years ago will become the first cinematic institution to receive the
berlinale camera award. famous japanese directors including akira kurosawa have had
films produced at the studio.
bmw reveals new models pipeline bmw is preparing to enter the market for car-style
people carriers the firm s chief has told bbc news. speaking at a bmw event ahead
of the geneva motor show helmut panke predicted demand for such crossover vehicles
would soar in europe. in contrast he said the popularity of van-style seven-seat
vehicles and traditional saloon cars would fade. customers are moving out of the
mini-van (and) traditional concepts are not as attractive anymore he said. we
have decided that bmw will enter the [crossover] segment he said in the clearest
indication yet about the car maker s intentions. mr panke praised the honda accura
as the best execution yet of a crossover vehicle. we have decided that the bmw
brand will enter the segment he said. a decision on just how bmw will manage its
entry into the new market is due in the first half of 2005. typically it takes
about three years from when a decision is taken before a new model hits the streets
mr panke said implying that a bmw crossover could be on the market by 2008. the
coming switch is driven in part by the need for successful carmakers to stay aware
of trans-atlantic differences in the car market mr panke insisted. while in the us
drivers tend to prefer sports utility vehicles (suvs) such as the bmw x5 and its
sibling x3 in europe demand for crossover vehicles is likely to be considerable
mr panke said. there s a growing market here he said. we are going to go that
way.
kennedy questions trust of blair lib dem leader charles kennedy has said voters now
have a fundamental lack of trust of tony blair as prime minister. he said
backing his party was not a wasted vote adding that with the lib dems what you
see is what you get . he made his comments at the start of a day of appearances on
channel five in a session on the wright stuff programme. questions from callers a
studio audience and the show s presenter covered lib dem tax plans anti-terror
laws and immigration. mr kennedy said during his nearly 22 years in parliament he
had seen prime ministers and party leaders come and go and knew the pitfalls of
british politics. 1983 was when i was first elected as an mp - so tony blair
michael howard and myself were all class of 83 - and over that nearly quarter of a
century the world has changed out of recognition he said. we don t actually hear
the argument any longer: lib dems good people reasonable ideas but only if we
thought they could win around here - it s a wasted vote . you don t hear that
because the evidence of people s senses demonstrates that it isn t a wasted vote.
but he said mr blair had lost the trust of the british people. there is a
fundamental lack of trust in tony blair as prime minister and in his government
he said. what we ve got to do as a party - what i ve got to do as a leader of
this party - is to convey to people that what you see is what you get. mr kennedy
also used his tv appearance to defend his party s plans to increase income tax to
50% for those earning more than £100 000 saying it would apply to just 1% of the
population. he said the extra revenue would allow his party to get rid of tuition
and top-up fees introduce free personal care for the elderly and replace the
council tax with a local income tax. mr blair has already spent a day with five and
michael howard is booked for a similar session.
russian film wins bbc world prize russian drama the return (vozvrashchenie) has
been named winner of the bbc four world cinema award. the film tells the story of
two adolescent boys who are subjected to a harsh regime when their strict father
returns after a 10-year absence. directed by andrey zvyagintsev the return
previously won the 2003 golden lion award at the venice film festival. the prize
was presented at an awards ceremony held in london on thursday and hosted by
jonathan ross. the winner was chosen by a panel which included x files actress
gillian anderson critic roger clarke and touching the void director kevin
mcdonald. ross who is the presenter of bbc one s film 2005 was also involved in
the deliberations. a shortlist of six films from around the world had been drawn up
from which the panel chose. other nominees included the motorcycle diaries
zatoichi and hero. a viewer poll saw director zhang yimou s martial arts epic hero
emerge as the favourite with 32% of votes cast. tragedy struck the production of
the return when one of the young stars 15-year-old vladimir girin drowned in a
lake. the winner of the world cinema award last year was the french animated
feature belleville rendezvous
us firm pulls out of iraq a us company has pulled out of a major contract to
rebuild iraq s transport system after attacks on reconstruction efforts pentagon
officials have said. contrack international of arlington virginia heads a
coalition of firms working on a series of schemes. its withdrawal from the $325m
(£170m) contract in november is thought to be the largest cancellation to date.
contrack said the original scope of work that was envisioned could not be executed
in a cost-effective manner . but the firm denied reports it was withdrawing
completely from iraq. members of the joint venture including contrack are
committed to the ongoing reconstruction efforts are actively working in iraq and
continue to look for new construction opportunities in the country it said in a
statement. the pentagon s project and contract office (pco) in baghdad said it had
taken over contrack s management of the subcontractors working on the
transportation projects. us firms and their workers have been targets of attacks
and security concerns are said to be a major reason for the slow pace of
reconstruction in iraq. of the $18.4bn in reconstruction funds approved by congress
less than $2bn has been spent. lt col eric schnaible of the pco told the associated
press news agency contrack s withdrawal from the transportation contract was a
mutually agreed-to separation and did not indicate a movement by us companies to
leave iraq. some parts of the country are a whole lot more permissive than others
he added. where we can get the work done good things are happening.
virus poses as christmas e-mail security firms are warning about a windows virus
disguising itself as an electronic christmas card. the zafi.d virus translates the
christmas greeting on its subject line into the language of the person receiving
infected e-mail. anti-virus firms speculate that this multilingual ability is
helping the malicious program spread widely online. anti-virus firm sophos said
that 10% of the e-mail currently on the net was infected with the zafi virus. like
many other windows viruses zafi-d plunders microsoft outlook for e-mail addresses
and then uses mail-sending software to despatch itself across the web to new
victims. to be infected users must open up the attachment travelling with the
message which bears the code for the malicious bug. the attachment on the e-mail
poses as an electronic christmas card but anyone opening it will simply get a crude
image of two smiley faces. the virus subject line says merry christmas and
translates this into one of 15 languages depending of the final suffix of the e-
mail address the infected message has been sent to. the message in the body of the
e-mail reads: happy holidays and this too is translated. on infected machines the
virus tries to disable anti-virus and firewall software and opens up a backdoor on
the pc to hand over control to the writer of the virus. the virus is thought to
have spread most widely in south america italy spain bulgaria and hungary. the
original zafi virus appeared in april this year. we have seen these hoaxes for
several christmases already and personally i prefer traditional pen and paper
cards and we recommend this to all our clients too said mikko hypponen who
heads f-secure s anti-virus team.
injury sidelines philippoussis mark philippoussis withdrew from the sydney
international tennis tournament as expected on sunday after suffering a groin
injury during the hopman cup. his participation in the australian open which
begins on 17 january in melbourne also remains in doubt. defending women s
champion justine henin-hardenne is also out of the sydney event because of a knee
injury. in the only main draw men s or women s singles match on sunday nathalie
dechy beat american lisa raymond 7-5 6-3. number one men s seed lleyton hewitt
begins his quest for a fourth sydney title on tuesday when he plays karol beck.
lindsay davenport top seed in the women s draw has been handed a first-round bye
and plays france s dechy in the second round on tuesday.
the year search became personal the odds are that when you fire up your browser
you go straight to your favourite search engine rather than type in a web address.
some may see this as the height of laziness but in an era of information overload
search has become a vital tool in navigating the net. it is symptomatic of how the
way we use the internet is changing. and as google has shown there is money in
offering a service that people cannot live without. there is no shortage of
companies vying for the loyalty of web searchers offering a wealth of different
services and tools to help you find what you want. over the past 12 months giants
of the technology world such as microsoft and yahoo have sought to grab a slice of
the search action. user experience has contributed to people searching more said
yonca brunini of yahoo. as people become more familiar with the internet they tend
to spend more time online and ask more queries she said. the other second thing
is broadband ms brunini told the bbc news website. this will do to internet what
colour has done to tv. but search is hardly a new phenomenon. it has been around
since the early days of the net. veteran surfers will remember old-timers like
hotbot and altavista. search was always important said urs holzle google vice-
president of operations. we trumpeted that in 1999. it is even truer now as there
are more users and more information. people didn t realise that search was the
future. the financials have something to do with it. google has shown web commerce
can work through its targeted small adverts which appear at the top and down the
right-hand side of a page and are related to the original search. these small ads
helped google reach revenues of $805.9m for the three months to september. others
have woken up to the fact that you can make money out of web queries. once you see
there is a market microsoft is bound to step to it. if microsoft sees search as
important then nobody queries it said mr holzle. microsoft is just one of the
net giants muscling in on search. yahoo ask jeeves amazon and a handful of
smaller outfits are all seeking to capture eyeballs. web users face a plethora of
choices as each company tries to outflank google by rolling out new search products
such as desktop search. it reflects how the battlefield has shifted from the net to
your pc. search is not just about finding your way around the web. it is now about
unlocking information hidden in the gigabytes of documents images and music on
hard drives. for all these advances search is still a clumsy tool often failing
to come up with exactly what you had in mind. in order to do a better job search
engines are trying to get to know you better doing a better job of remembering
cataloguing and managing all the information you come across. personalisation is
going to be a big area for the future said yahoo s yonca brunini. whoever cracks
that and gives you the information you want is going to be the winner. we have to
understand you to give you better results that are tailored to you. this is
perhaps the holy grail of search understanding what it is you are looking for and
providing it quickly. the problem is that no one yet knows how to get there.
kennedy begins pre-election tour liberal democrat leader charles kennedy has begun
a week-long tour to persuade voters they are the real opposition . mr kennedy is
visiting constituencies in somerset and hampshire on monday - rural seats where his
party is hoping to make gains from the conservatives. later he will visit places
such as liverpool where labour is targeted. labour say a lib dem vote could let
the tories in while the tories say the lib dems would mean higher taxes soft
crime laws more power to europe . mr kennedy s tour comes as he labour leader
tony blair and conservative leader michael howard all step up campaigning ahead of
the next general election widely expected to be held on 5 may. on tuesday mr
kennedy will visit leicester south where lib dem mp parmjit singh gill overturned
a big labour majority to win the seat in last year s by-election. stops in
shrewsbury north dorset liverpool manchester basingstoke and west london are
planned for later in the week. the liberal democrats say in the northern cities
the race is between them and labour while in southern seats - particularly the
south west - it is between them and the tories. speaking to the bbc s westminster
hour on sunday mr kennedy said the upcoming general election - widely tipped for 5
may - would be much more unpredictable than any others in recent experience .
asked whether it was realistic to assume the liberal democrats could win the
general election he said: there s no limit to the ambitions we have as a party.
but we have got to be responsible we have got to be credible we have got to
demonstrate to people that we are up to that task. mr kennedy said the british
public felt let down by labour on issues from iraq to top-up fees and the
conservatives were not asking the critical questions . and he said people were
highly sceptical about labour and conservative promises on tax. but he brushed off
labour suggestions a vote for his party would mean letting the tories in by the
back door . if you look at the four previous parliamentary by-elections the
liberal democrats have demonstrated that not only can we leapfrog the
conservatives where we start in a third place position but we can go on to defeat
the government. that s going to be the story i think of this coming general
election.
benitez delight after crucial win liverpool manager rafael benitez admitted victory
against deportivo la coruna was vital in their tight champions league group. jorge
andrade s early own goal gave liverpool a 1-0 win. and benitez said: we started at
a very high tempo and had many chances. it is a very important win for us and we
could have scored more goals. we were very good defensively and also good on the
counter attack. we are pleased but move on to the next game. igor biscan was
outstanding in midfield after replacing injured xabi alonso and benitez said: he
played very well. it is important to have all the players ready and a good squad
so you can play more games at a high level. benitez added: it is all back in our
own hands now it was a great win for us and i was delighted with what i feel was
the best liverpool i have seen. as far as my feelings about winning in spain that
is really not important. i want to see us win away matches in the champions league
that it was in spain was not my first consideration. as far as i am concerned it
is important for liverpool to win it is not important in what country it is in.
benitez added: benitez said: we had a problem before the start it was decided
that xabi could not play more than 45 minutes. but in the end because of the way
that (dietmar) hamann and (igor) biscan performed we did not need to change things
until right at the end of the match. depor are a good team and if you allow them
to keep possession they can be very dangerous indeed. but we knew that if we hit
them on the counter-attack it would make them nervous and that is how it worked
out. deportivo coach javier irureta said: liverpool played very well and we just
could not break them down. i know we have now gone six games at home in europe
without scoring but that does not reflect our overall performances. but this time
we did not play well and we lacked imagination. the goal was a bad mistake and a
big blow to our confidence. players who usually want the ball at that stage did not
want it. i know we are bottom of the group but as long as there is hope of
qualifying we will hang on to that.
tory expert denies defeatism the conservatives campaign director has denied a
report claiming he warned michael howard the party could not win the next general
election. the times on monday said australian lynton crosby told the party leader
to focus on trying to increase the tories commons presence by 25 to 30 seats. but
mr crosby said in a statement: i have never had any such conversation... and i do
not hold that view. mr howard later added there was not one iota of truth in the
report. the strategist helped australia s pm john howard win four elections. mr
howard appointed mr crosby as his elections chief last october. mr crosby s
statement said: the conservative party has been making an impact on the issues of
lower tax and controlled immigration over the past week. it added: the labour
party will be wanting to do all they can to distract attention away from the issues
that really matter to people.
bombardier chief to leave company shares in train and plane-making giant bombardier
have fallen to a 10-year low following the departure of its chief executive and two
members of the board. paul tellier who was also bombardier s president left the
company amid an ongoing restructuring. laurent beaudoin part of the family that
controls the montreal-based firm will take on the role of ceo under a newly
created management structure. analysts said the resignations seem to have stemmed
from a boardroom dispute. under mr tellier s tenure at the company which began in
january 2003 plans to cut the worldwide workforce of 75 000 by almost a third by
2006 were announced. the firm s snowmobile division and defence services unit were
also sold and bombardier started the development of a new aircraft seating 110 to
135 passengers. mr tellier had indicated he wanted to stay at the world s top
train maker and third largest manufacturer of civil aircraft until the
restructuring was complete. but bombardier has been faced with a declining share
price and profits. earlier this month the firm said it earned $10m (£19.2m) in the
third quarter down from a profit of $133m a year ago. i understand the board s
concern that i would not be there for the long-term and the need to develop and
execute strategies and the need to reshape the management structure at this time
mr tellier said in a statement on monday. bombardier said restructuring plans drawn
up by mr tellier s would continue to be implemented. shares in bombardier lost 65
canadian cents or 25% on the news to 1.90 canadian dollars before rallying to 2.20
canadian dollars.
blair sees greater bush consensus george w bush will display a more consensual
approach to world politics as he begins his second term as us president tony blair
has said. the prime minister said mr bush had learned military force was not the
only way to fight terrorism. he understood that the best prospect of peaceful co-
existence lies in the spread of democracy and human rights mr blair told the
guardian newspaper. mr bush was sworn in at a ceremony in washington dc on
thursday. echoing the new us secretary of state condoleezza rice the prime
minister said there has been a clear evolution of us policy since the war in
afghanistan in 2001. mr blair had personally seen the change over time in
conversations with mr bush. the president understood that while military and
security measures were important there also needed to be a multilateral approach
to solving the world s problems. turning to critics fears that the us was poised
for further military action mr blair refused to give succour to suggestions it was
preparing for strikes against iran. the prime minister conceded that the us had
what appears to be a harder position towards the state than europe. but the prime
minister pointed out that until now the us had allowed britain france and germany
to take the lead in trying to halt the iranian nuclear programme. following claims
that us forces had worked inside iran to identify potential targets mr blair was
asked if the sas had also been in the country. we never answer questions about
special forces but do not take that as indicating an affirmative said mr blair.
mr blair said he believed the president was keen to work with other countries while
trying to spread democracy and human rights. it is significant in my view that
he is coming to europe as his first foreign visit said mr blair. following his
inauguration mr bush is due in europe at the end of january.
kilroy names election seat target ex-chat show host robert kilroy-silk is to
contest the derbyshire seat of erewash at the next general election. labour s
elizabeth blackman won the seat in 1997 and has a 6 932 majority. she says she will
fight on her record as a hard-working constituency mp . mr kilroy-silk announced
his plans a day after launching his new party veritas the latin for truth. the
east midlands mep who quit the uk independence party wants his new group to
change the face of uk politics. his choice of election constituency quashes
speculation that he would stand against defence secretary geoff hoon in ashfield
nottinghamshire. ukip won 31% of the vote in erewash in last june s european
elections - with mr kilroy-silk among their candidates for the region. until 1997
erewash had been held by the tories since 1970. ms blackman said she was proud of
the government s achievements in the area. she declined to give her view of mr
kilroy-silk at this point. on thursday he told a london news conference that
veritas would avoid the old parties lies and spin . he said our country was
being stolen from us by mass immigration and promised a firm but fair policy on
immigration. veritas says it hopes to contest most seats at the forthcoming general
election but plans to announce detailed policies on crime tax pensions health
and defence over the next few weeks. ukip leader roger knapman says he is glad to
see the back of mr kilroy-silk. labour campaign spokesman fraser kemp said veritas
was joining an already crowded field on the right of british politics . mr kilroy-
silk was joined in the new venture by one of ukip s two london assembly members
damien hockney who is now veritas deputy leader. ukip s chairman petrina
holdsworth has said the group will just be a parody of the party the men have left.
mr kilroy-silk quit ukip last week after months of tension as he vied
unsuccessfully for the leadership of that party. he said he was ashamed to be a
member of a ukip whose leadership had gone awol after the great opportunity
offered by its third place at last june s european elections. ukip s leader roger
knapman has said he is glad to see the back of mr kilroy-silk. he has remarkable
ability to influence people but sadly after the [european] election it became
clear that he was more interested in the robert kilroy-silk party than the uk
independence party so it was nice knowing him now goodbye he said. ukip
officials also argue mr kilroy-silk has not been straightforward in attacking the
party he once wanted to lead.
novartis hits acquisition trail swiss drugmaker novartis has announced 5.65bn euros
($7.4bn; £3.9bn) of purchases to make its sandoz unit the world s biggest generic
drug producer. novartis which last month forecast record sales for 2005 said it
had bought all of germany s hexal. it also acquired 67.7% of hexal s us affiliate
eon labs and offered to buy the remaining shares for $31 each. novartis said that
it would be able to make cost savings of about $200m a year following the
acquisitions. novartis shares rose 1% to 57.85 swiss francs in early trading. the
deal will see novartis sandoz business overtake israel s teva pharmaceuticals as
the world s biggest maker of generics. based on 2004 figures the newly merged
producer would have sales of more than $5bn the company estimated. novartis said
that it would merge a number of departments adding that there may be job cuts.
the strong growth outlook for sandoz which will create jobs is expected to
partially compensate for necessary reductions in the work force the firm said in
a statement. generic drugs are chemically identical to their more expensive branded
rivals. producers such as sandoz can copy the branded products usually after their
patent protection expires and can sell them more cheaply as they do not have to pay
research and development cost. there are more than 150 generic drugmakers
worldwide and analysts have predicted consolidation in a market that they call
fragmented. however not all analysts were initially convinced about the deal.
this is a very expensive acquisition birgit kuhlhoff from sal oppenheim
investment bank told reuters. i find it strange that they are making acquisitions
in exactly those markets where they suffered price pressure.
hariri killing hits beirut shares shares in solidere the lebanese company founded
by assassinated former prime minister rafik hariri fell 15% in renewed trading in
beirut. the real estate firm which dominates lebanon s stock exchange ended the
day down at $8.08. traders said there was some panic selling during friday s
session the first since a three-day market closure to mourn the death of mr
hariri. beirut s benchmark blom stock index closed down 7.9% at 642.80. solidere
in which mr hariri was a major shareholder was the major drag on the index. the
company owns much of the property in central beirut which it restored and
redeveloped following the end of lebanon s bitter 15-year civil war. solidere
should be above $10 but because of this disaster it is falling said one trader.
if solidere drops much lower i would consider it a buying opportunity. this is a
very big company held by many lebanese. critics had accused mr hariri of using
lebanon s post-war reconstruction drive for his personal financial gain. but his
assassination on monday sent shudders through lebanon s business community which
saw the billionaire tycoon as the country s best hope for economic revival.
solidere posted profits of $12.5m in the first half of 2004 and its shares had
been gaining in recent months.
renault boss hails great year strong sales outside western europe helped renault
boost its profits by more than 40% in 2004 although the firm warned of lower
margins this year. france s second largest carmaker enjoyed a healthy 43% rise in
net profits to 2.4bn euros ($3.1bn; £2.9bn) as sales rose 8% to 40.7bn euros. the
firm said strong demand outside western europe and the good performance of its
megane range lifted its results. chairman louis schweitzer said 2004 had been a
great year for the firm. renault sold more than 2.4 million vehicles in 2004 an
increase of 4% on the previous year. growth came mainly from outside western europe
with particularly strong sales in turkey russia and north africa. in total sales
outside western europe - renault s core market - rose 16.5%. japanese carmaker
nissan - in which renault owns a 44% stake - contributed 1.7bn euros in net income
over the year. nissan chairman carlos ghosn is to succeed mr schweitzer at the head
of renault later this year. renault said the outlook for the industry in europe
this year was stable with small growth forecast in other regions. the firm will
benefit from the launch of a new clio model in the coming year and the roll-out of
the logan in many markets. however the firm said it expected operating margins to
be lower in 2005 at 4% of sales as opposed to 5%. in a sluggish market and an
environment impacted by the rise in raw material prices renault intends to
continue to grow its global sales the company said in a statement.
domain system opens door to scams a system to make it easier to create website
addresses using alphabets like cyrillic could open a back door for scammers a
trade body has warned. the internationalised domain names system has been a work
in progress for years and has recently been approved by the internet engineering
task force. but the uk internet forum (ukif) is concerned that the system will let
scammers create fake sites more easily. the problem lies in the computer codes used
to represent language. registering names that look like that of legitimate
companies but lead users to fake sites designed to steal passwords and credit card
details could become a whole lot easier for determined scammers says stephen dyer
director of ukif. domain names are the real language addresses of websites
rather than their internet protocol address which is a series of numbers. they are
used so people can more easily navigate the web. so-called ascii codes are used to
represent european languages but for other languages a hybrid of a system called
unicode is used. so for example website paypal could now be coded using a mixture
of the latin alphabet and the russian alphabet. the resulting domain as displayed
to the users would look identical to the real site as a russian a look just like
an english a . but the computer code would be different and the site it would
lead users to could be a fake. this is more than just a theory. a fake paypal.com
has already been registered with net domain giant verisign by someone who has
followed the debate around the internationalised domain name (idn) system said mr
dyer. as the idea was to prove a point rather than be malicious the fake domain has
now been handed back to paypal but it sets a worrying precedent mr dyer said.
although the idn problem is well known in technical circles the commercial world
is totally unaware how easily their websites can be faked said mr dyer. it is
important to alert users that there is a new and invisible and almost undetectable
way of diverting them to what looks like a perfectly genuine site he added. there
are solutions. for instance browsers could spot domains that use mixed characters
and display them in different colours as a warning to users. mr dyer acknowledged
that it would be a huge undertaking to update all the world s browsers. another
solution to introduce idn-disabled browsers could be a case of throwing out the
baby with the bath water he said. centr the council of european national top
level domain registries agrees. a rush to introduce idn-disabled browsers into
the marketplace is an overly-zealous step that will harm public confidence in idns
- a technology that is desperately needed in the non-english speaking world the
organisation said in a statement.
tories leave door open for archer the conservative party would deal
sympathetically with any application by disgraced peer lord archer to rejoin its
ranks its co-chairman has said. dr liam fox told bbc one s breakfast with frost
programme there was no place for vindictiveness in politics. lord archer spent
two years in prison after being convicted of perjury and perverting the course of
justice. the former tory deputy chairman s five-year suspension from the party has
just elapsed. a jury ruled that lord archer lied during a libel trial against the
daily star at the high court in london in 1987. he won damages after the newspaper
printed allegations about involvement with a prostitute. dr fox was asked if he
would say yes or no if lord archer applied to rejoin. i m sure that in line with
people having served their sentence and having done some reparations for what they
did wrong we would look at that sympathetically. i don t believe in
vindictiveness i don t think that has any place in politics unlike the prime
minister and alastair campbell. tory peer lord tebbit said he agreed with dr fox
s view and said the case should be looked at on its merits. after all he is far
from being the worst perjurer in the world he added. meanwhile senior
conservative mp sir teddy taylor warned that moves bring lord archer back into the
fold could be controversial. he said: i suppose on a sunday in particular we
should always make provision for forgiving sinners. but there is no doubt it would
be controversial. lord archer who was not available for comment remains a
popular figure among constituency tory parties and is a successful fundraiser. he
has not been seen in the house of lords since his release from prison in july 2003
although there is nothing in the rules to prevent him from attending.
jobs growth still slow in the us the us created fewer jobs than expected in january
but a fall in jobseekers pushed the unemployment rate to its lowest level in three
years. according to labor department figures us firms added only 146 000 jobs in
january. the gain in non-farm payrolls was below market expectations of 190 000 new
jobs. nevertheless it was enough to push down the unemployment rate to 5.2% its
lowest level since september 2001. the job gains mean that president bush can
celebrate - albeit by a very fine margin - a net growth in jobs in the us economy
in his first term in office. he presided over a net fall in jobs up to last
november s presidential election - the first president to do so since herbert
hoover. as a result job creation became a key issue in last year s election.
however when adding december and january s figures the administration s first
term jobs record ended in positive territory. the labor department also said it
had revised down the jobs gains in december 2004 from 157 000 to 133 000.
analysts said the growth in new jobs was not as strong as could be expected given
the favourable economic conditions. it suggests that employment is continuing to
expand at a moderate pace said rick egelton deputy chief economist at bmo
financial group. we are not getting the boost to employment that we would have got
given the low value of the dollar and the still relatively low interest rate
environment. the economy is producing a moderate but not a satisfying amount of
job growth said ken mayland president of clearview economics. that means there
are a limited number of new opportunities for workers.
student inequality exposed teenagers from well-off backgrounds are six times more
likely to go to university than those from the most deprived areas a report says.
the higher education funding council for england said more people went to
university between 1994 and 2000. but the percentage of poorer students hardly
changed at all said its chief executive sir howard newby. increasingly more
women than men went to university while tuition fees and student loans made no
major difference. the hefce report drawing on child benefits data said teenagers
in the richest areas could expect a better than 50% chance of going to university
while in the poorest neighbourhoods it was 10%. participation at constituency level
ranged from 69% in kensington and chelsea 65% in the city of london and
westminster and 62% in sheffield hallam down to 10% in bristol south and leeds
central and 8% in nottingham north and sheffield brightside. sir howard said the
report highlighted the entrenched divisions between rich and poor areas but
added it was a social as much as an educational problem. he told bbc news: we know
once children from deprived backgrounds get into university they do very well. in
fact surprisingly more go into postgraduate study than those from more affluent
backgrounds. the issue is i think one of raising aspirations amongst those
families and those communities that university is something for them and not for
other people. he said by the time universities traditionally dealt with pupils
between the ages of 16 and 18 it was too late. instead they should be reaching out
to communities and schools much earlier even down to primary school level to
persuade them a university education was something they could aspire to he said.
but while the report revealed stark inequalities and exposed the extent of the
challenge there were some encouraging findings he added. tuition fees and
student loans in england and wales - and the different fee regime in scotland - did
not seem to have affected the choices of young people even the poorest. the report
also showed women were 18% more likely than men to enter higher education in 2000 -
up from 6% in 1994. in the poorest areas the gap was 30% in women s favour and
growing faster than anywhere else. the higher education minister kim howells
said: we are working in schools to raise the attainment and aspiration of young
people in disadvantaged areas. higher standards in schools would lead to greater
participation in higher education. from 2006 upfront tuition fees in england would
be removed with grants for the less well off. the shadow education secretary tim
collins said: it is clear from this report that children from disadvantaged areas
are far more likely to have encountered poor standards in their secondary
education. tackling these must be the top priority for any government looking to
improve university access. the group which represents university vice-chancellors
universities uk said the new system of deferred fees in england due to start in
2006 with grants and bursaries for poorer students would encourage more of them
to go into higher education. the national union of students argued the opposite -
that the situation was likely to get much worse with poorer students being
restricted in choice and having to make decisions based on their financial
situation rather than aspiration . the tables below show the participation rate
for each parliamentary constituency in britain:
high fuel costs hit us airlines two of the largest airlines in the us - american
and southwest - have blamed record fuel prices for their disappointing quarterly
results. american airlines parent amr reported a loss of $387m (£206m) for the
fourth quarter of 2004 against a $111m loss for the same period a year earlier.
meanwhile southwest airlines saw its fourth-quarter 2004 profits fall 15% to $56m
against $66m a year earlier. both said high fuel bills would continue to pressure
revenues in 2005. american the world s biggest airline by some measures said it
expected to report a loss for the first quarter of 2005. southwest which has the
highest market value of any us carrier said it would remain profitable despite
high fuel prices. amr s shares were flat in wednesday morning trading on the new
york stock exchange as the results were slightly better than analysts had
anticipated. amr s chief executive gerard arpey said the airline s difficulties
reflected the situation within the industry. amr s results for the fourth quarter
of 2004 reflect the economic woes that plagued the airline industry throughout 2004
- in particular high fuel prices and a tough revenue environment he said. for
the full year amr posted a loss of $761m lower than 2003 s $1.2bn loss and an
indication that the airline has successfully cut costs. amr added that as part of
its cost cutting measures it is postponing the delivery of 54 boeing jets. shares
in southwest fell 65 cents to $14.35 as analysts voiced their disappointment. the
results came in below our already conservative estimate for the quarter said ray
neidl an analyst at calyon securities. both american and southwest have been
squeezed by cut-throat competition in the us airline industry as a glut of
available seats has led to fierce price reductions.
new media battle for bafta awards the bbc leads the nominations for the bafta
interactive awards including one for the radio times website and one for sport
interactive s euro 2004 coverage. the awards which were started in 1997
recognise the best websites digital tv shows and cd roms. other nominees include
the guardian news website the national theatre mtv the science museum and the
london stock exchange. the winners from 12 different categories are crowned on 2
march 2005. there were nearly 400 entries this year - a third more than last year.
the bbc has 16 nominations while the guardian has three nominations. this year s
nominees are a testament to the creative and innovative work going on within the
industry said grant dean chair of the interactive committee. categories include
interactive tv film digital tv mobile phones and music. shaun of the dead oasis
definitely maybe really bend it like beckham the chaplin collection and the day
today will battle it out in the dvd category. itv s great british spelling test
takes on the bbc s olympics and spooks interactive for the interactive tv award.
and the guardian takes three of a possible five nominations in the news and sport
category for its website coverage of euro 2004 the tour de france and the us
elections. the bbc s ican site is up for the technical and social innovation award
alongside the likes of nottingham university s uncle roy all around you. in 2002
the british academy of film and television decided to split the awards into
separate games and interactive ceremonies to fully cover the range of innovation
outside the gaming industry.
blair and brown criticised by mps labour mps have angrily criticised tony blair and
gordon brown amid renewed reports of a rift between the two men. a meeting of the
parliamentary labour party saw a succession of normally loyal members warn that
feuding could jeopardise labour s election hopes. the pm insisted nothing would
derail labour s campaign despite a new book saying he has upset his chancellor by
backing out of a pledge to stand aside. mr brown will again be in the public eye at
the party s new poster launch. in what the party had hoped would be perceived as a
show of unity he is due to line up alongside alan milburn - the man
controversially appointed as the party s election supremo - and deputy leader john
prescott for the event in london on tuesday. relations between mr brown and mr
milburn are widely reported to be cool ever since mr blair brought the latter back
into the cabinet to run labour s election campaign a role successfully carried out
by mr brown in both 1997 and 2001. mr blair told the parliamentary labour party on
monday: i know from everyone here in cabinet and government nothing is going to
get in the way of a unified labour party with a unified position and winning the
third term people desperately need. the prime minister and his chancellor arrived
within seconds of each other for the meeting of the plp and were seemingly in good
spirits as it started. new speculation about the state of their relationship was
sparked by claims in brown s britain by sunday telegraph journalist robert peston
which suggested mr blair went back on a pledge to make way for mr brown. labour s
paul flynn said mr blair and mr brown had a scorching from mps adding: it was a
parliamentary labour party meeting like no other. backbencher stephen pound said
some mps had threatend to expose those fuelling the reports if mr blair and mr
brown did not stop this nonsense this poisonous briefing . lord campbell-savours
a former mp challenged mr brown to deny reports that he had told the prime
minister he did not believe anything he said. mr prescott said mps were entitled to
complain about discipline after reading recent press reports. they told us very
clearly it was the troops telling the leaders: get in line he told bbc radio 4 s
today on tuesday. mr prescott said there were occasional disagreements in any
government. but he argued mr blair and mr brown could work successfully together
and had produced a strong economy and better public services. the new book claims
mr prescott hosted a dinner in november 2003 where the prime minister told mr brown
he would stand down before the next election because he had lost trust over the
iraq war. he had then changed his mind in june 2004 following intervention from
cabinet allies and suspicion that the chancellor was manoeuvring against him
writes mr peston. mr prescott said there was a dinner but the discussions were
confidential. of course as a waiter for 10 years i have a professional ability
here he joked. mr blair has insisted he has done no deals over the premiership
while mr brown says he will not let gossip distract him from helping a unified
election campaign. the conservatives say the two men are behaving like squabbling
schoolboys and the liberal democrats claim personal ambition is obstructing good
government.
wenger dejected as arsenal slump arsenal manager arsene wenger claimed their
display in the 3-1 defeat against bayern munich was our worst peformance in the
champions league . kolo toure s late goal gives the gunners hope for the second
leg but wenger said: the only positive is that we are still in the tie. the
players are really down in the dressing-room. i feel we really turned in a bad
performance. at 3-0 we faced a real struggle but 3-1 at least gives us a chance.
goalscorer toure was also at fault for two goals and wenger said: we need to help
toure rebuild his confidence as he is low at the moment. wenger also tried to stay
upbeat himself adding: but there is enough time for crying. i could cry - maybe
it would be easier - but life goes on. in this job you have good and bad nights.
this was a bad night - but i still have confidence in the quality of my players as
well as their spirit and desire. but wenger s bayern counterpart felix magath was
in no mood to celebrate either. he said: i am far from happy despite the win. my
players failed to try and score a fourth to kill the tie and then conceded the late
goal. arsenal are fully capable of scoring several goals against us on their own
turf. arsenal keeper jens lehmann whose personal rivalry with bayern goalkeeper
oliver kahn was not helped by the result said: do i blame myself for the third
goal as a goalkeeper i always blame myself. i just know the goals were very easy
against us. in my time here we have never conceded three easy goals like that -
but sometimes it happens. it would have been impossible to go through at 3-0 - but
with the goal we have chances. everything is now possible.
turkey deal to help world peace a deal bringing turkey a step closer to eu
membership is of fundamental importance to the peace and security of the world
tony blair has said. the deal struck at the european council last week also
proved claims of a clash between muslims and christians were wrong mr blair
said. it represented the achievement of an historic british objective he added.
tory leader michael howard said the deal laid to rest any suggestion the eu was
anti-islamic . turkey s involvement with the eu would provide an invaluable
bridge between europe and the rest of the world mr howard added. but the tory
leader argued that the eu constitution was not designed to take in a country as
large as turkey. mr blair has been a leading advocate of turkish membership despite
controversy surrounding the idea. he insisted that the turkish leadership had made
great advances in improving its human rights records. the deal to open formal talks
with ankara came despite an eu demand for turkey to recognise cyprus. it was
agreed the issue can be tackled at a later date but turkish premier recep erdogan
had to accept negotiations did not guarantee his country full eu membership. the
internationally recognised southern part of cyprus is an eu member but turkey
which occupies northern cyprus had previously insisted it would not bow to demands
to recognise the country calling the issue a red line . it could take up to 15
years before turkey is able to join and entry cannot be guaranteed. if it joins
turkey may have to accept restrictions to limit migration by its citizens. the eu
has also announced that it will start accession talks with croatia in april 2005.
however talks will begin only if the country co-operates fully with the un war
crimes tribunal for the former yugoslavia.
will the budget bring out smiling voters as tory spokesman oliver letwin said -
any chancellor would use his pre-election budget to offer some vote winning
sweeteners wouldn t he. and everyone does indeed expect gordon brown to do just
that in his last budget before the expected polling day of 5 may. there will be
plenty of talk about taking no risks with the economy or handing out irresponsible
giveaways. but mr brown will stun westminster and break just about every historical
precedent if he fails to do something designed to put a smile on voters faces and
make them more inclined to back labour in the election. and there has already been
speculation about possible tax reductions for the poorest and increasing the
threshold on stamp duty in this week s budget. the aim of his package will be to
keep any disillusioned core labour voters in the fold while ensuring the middle
england voters who gave tony blair two election victories don t desert him at the
third poll. and needless to say there will be plenty of analysis of what impact
the budget will have on mr brown s own ambitions to replace mr blair as prime
minister at some point after a third win. but there is a shadow hanging over this
pre-election performance - in the shape of £11 billion or thereabouts. that is the
size of the financial black hole the tories backed by some independent
forecasters believe mr brown will have to fill with tax increases after the
election. the opening shot in that battle was fired at the weekend with claims a
treasury leak suggested mr brown was ready to slap capital gains tax on home sales
to raise some of that cash. it was immediately denied but the tories remain
suspicious claiming that as mr letwin said if the money does not come from there
where will it come from. mr brown will undoubtedly claim the forecasts are simply
wrong and that he will have absolutely no need to raise taxes after the election
should labour win. previous gloomy forecasts proved wrong he will argue while
suggesting that only by sticking with him can britain continue to have a sound
economy low unemployment and high public spending. the opposition will reject that
by claiming they can keep the economy sound increase spending and cut taxes at the
same time. the liberal democrats will also promise to run a sound economy but
based on increased taxes to fund spending and amongst other things abolishing the
council tax in favour of a local income tax. and there will be prolonged argument
over which of the parties can make the greatest savings in whitehall and beyond to
fund their policies. but probably what that all boils down to is a simple question
of which of the parties the voters most trust to keep the economy stable and avoid
any unpleasant surprises in the coming years. and it is probably still the answer
to that one question that will overwhelmingly decide the outcome of the general
election.
campbell rescues arsenal sol campbell proved to be an unlikely match-winner to earn
arsenal a hard-fought win at portsmouth. the england defender lashed home a 25-
yard shot for his first goal in 16 months to take arsenal back into second spot
five points behind chelsea. but before campbell scored the best two chances of the
game fell to pompey striker ricardo fuller. in the first half he blasted wide when
clear and his control let him down in the second half when well placed. portsmouth
got plenty of bodies behind the ball to deny arsenal space in the early stages. but
their marking was slack at a corner and patrick vieira should have done better when
the ball fell to him 16 yards out. a mistake by arjan de zeeuw let thierry henry in
behind the pompey defence on 17 minutes but as he bore down on goal linvoy primus
got in a saving tackle. with just fuller as an out-and-out striker portsmouth s
shape made life difficult for arsenal. but a delightful touch by robin van persie
gave henry a sight of goal although the angle was too tight for his shot to
trouble jamie ashdown. ashdown caused hearts to flutter on 28 minutes when he
missed his punch at a corner and kolo toure headed just wide and as arsenal began
to press van persie blasted over a good opportunity after henry had set him up.
henry took a quick return pass from vieira but ashdown was out quickly to block
and there were some anxious seconds for pompey as the ball ran loose before matthew
taylor cleared. after playing second fiddle portsmouth should have taken the lead
on 34 minutes. referee howard webb played a good advantage to allow steve stone to
send gary o neil away but having shrugged off toure the pompey midfielder planted
his shot wide from 10 yards. as half-time approached henry teased a shot through a
ruck of players and inches wide. at the other end fuller broke clear but failed to
hit the target as toure closed him down. fuller was given the best chance of the
match so far on 48 minutes when patrik berger s break and slipped pass played him
clear. but a poor first touch lost him the opportunity and even when he checked
back and went down under vieira s challenge referee webb was not interested.
fuller paid the price when he gave way on 55 minutes to aiyegbeni yakubu who
returned after six weeks out with a knee injury. but it needed alert reflexes and
safe handling from ashdown to cling on to van persie s shot as henry sniffed for
scraps. portsmouth were growing in confidence and keeper manuel almunia had to
stand his ground to beat away a powerful shot from berger. arsenal were struggling
to find their rhythm but took the lead through the unlikely source of campbell. the
england defender needed little invitation as pompey backed off to stride forward
and lash a ferocious shot past ashdown. arsenal might have stretched their lead two
minutes later when mathieu flamini escaped his marker to flash a header wide from
henry s free-kick. almunia went full length to grab berger s long-range shot while
ashdown palmed away substitute dennis bergkamp s shot. ashdown griffin de zeeuw
primus taylor stone o neil faye (berkovic 83) berger lualua fuller (yakubu
55). subs not used: hislop quashie cisse. almunia lauren toure campbell
cole pires flamini vieira clichy van persie (bergkamp 68) henry. subs not
used: lehmann fabregas senderos hoyte. cole. campbell 75. 20 170. h webb (s
yorkshire).
george michael to perform for bbc george michael is to perform live at london s
abbey road studios as part of a bbc radio 2 special next month. the session which
will broadcast on 18 december will also see him talk about how his biggest hits
came about. michael s appearance is part of the station s sold on song initiative
which explores the art of songwriting. the station also confirmed that chris
tarrant will be hosting a one-off new year s eve programme. he left london s
capital fm this year after 17 years. the former breakfast show host - who attracted
some of the highest ratings in britain despite only broadcasting to london - will
offer his own individual take on the year in the two-hour show. this should be
great fun tarrant said. i ve had a fantastic year and i know that lots of other
people have as well. i m definitely looking forward to being on radio 2. other
christmas specials from radio 2 include singer jamelia hosting a christmas day
concert from the london community gospel choir while actor christopher lee will
read fireside tales from the likes of edgar allan poe e nesbit and ambrose bierce.
comedian harry hill will host a spoof nostalgia show on christmas day while singer
jamie cullum will perform a live concert for the station.
microsoft launches its own search microsoft has unveiled the finished version of
its home-grown search engine. the now formally launched msn search site takes the
training wheels off the test version unveiled in november 2003. the revamped engine
indexes more pages than before can give direct answers to factual questions and
features tools to help people create detailed queries. microsoft faces challenges
establishing itself as a serious search site because of the intense competition for
queries. google still reigns supreme as the site people turn to most often when
they go online to answer a query keep up with news or search for images. but in
the last year google has faced greater competition than ever for users as old
rivals such as yahoo and microsoft and new entrants such as amazon and blinkx
try to grab some of the searching audience for themselves. this renewed interest
has come about because of the realisation that many of the things people do online
begin with a search for information - be it for a particular web page recipe book
gadget news story image or anything else. microsoft is keen to make its home-
grown search engine a significant rival to google. to generate its corpus of data
microsoft has indexed 5 billion webpages and claims to update its document index
every two days - more often than rivals. the microsoft search engine can also
answer specific queries directly rather than send people to a page that might
contain the answer. for its direct answer feature microsoft is calling on its
encarta encyclopaedia to provide answers to questions about definitions facts
calculations conversions and solutions to equations. tony macklin director of
product at ask jeeves pointed out that its search engine has been answering
specific queries this way since april 2003. the major search providers have moved
beyond delivering only algorithmic search so in many ways microsoft is following
the market he said. tools sitting alongside the msn search engine allow users to
refine results to specific websites countries regions or languages. microsoft is
also using so-called graphic equalisers that let people adjust the relevance of
terms to get results that are more up-to-date or more popular. the company said
that user feedback from earlier test versions had been used to refine the workings
of the finished system. the test or beta version of the msn search engine
unveiled in november had a few teething troubles. on its first day many new users
keen to try it were greeted with a page that said the site had been overwhelmed.
blog reading explodes in america americans are becoming avid blog readers with 32
million getting hooked in 2004 according to new research. the survey conducted
by the pew internet and american life project showed that blog readership has shot
up by 58% in the last year. some of this growth is attributable to political blogs
written and read during the us presidential campaign. despite the explosive growth
more than 60% of online americans have still never heard of blogs the survey
found. blogs or web logs are online spaces in which people can publish their
thoughts opinions or spread news events in their own words. companies such as
google and microsoft provide users with the tools to publish their own blogs. the
rise of blogs has spawned a new desire for immediate news and information with six
million americans now using rss aggregators. rss aggregators are downloaded to pcs
and are programmed to subscribe to feeds from blogs news sites and other websites.
the aggregators automatically compile the latest information published online from
the blogs or news sites. reading blogs remains far more popular than writing them
the survey found. only 7% of the 120 million us adults who use the internet had
created a blog or web-based diary. getting involved is becoming more popular though
with 12% saying they had posted material or comments on other people s blogs. just
under one in 10 of the us s internet users read political blogs such as the daily
kos or instapundit during the us presidential campaign. kerry voters were slightly
more likely to read them than bush voters. blog creators were likely to be young
well-educated net-savvy males with good incomes and college educations the survey
found. this was also true of the average blog reader although the survey found
there was a greater than average growth in blog readership among women and those in
minorities. the survey was conducted during november and involved telephone surveys
of 1 324 internet users.
us industrial output growth eases us industrial production continued to rise in
november albeit at a slower pace than the previous month. the us federal reserve
said output from factories mines and utilities rose 0.3% - in line with forecasts
- from a revised 0.6% increase in october. analysts added that if the carmaking
sector - which saw production fall 0.5% - had been excluded the data would have
been more impressive. the latest increase means industrial output has grown 4.2% in
the past year. many analysts were upbeat about the prospects for the us economy
with the increase in production coming on the heels of news of a recovery in retail
sales. this is very consistent with an economy growing at 3.5 to 4.0%. it is
congruent with job growth and consumer optimism comerica chief economist david
littman said of the figures. the us economy grew at a respectable annual rate of
3.7% in the three months between july and september while jobs growth averaged 178
000 during the same period. while the employment figures are not spectacular
experts believe they are enough to whittle away at america s 5.4% jobless rate. a
breakdown of the latest production figures shows mining output drove the increase
surging 2.1% while factory output rose 0.3%. but utility output dropped 1.4%.
meanwhile the amount of factory capacity in use during the month rose to 77.6% -
its highest level since may 2001. many investors think that product market
inflation won t be a problem until the utilisation rates are at 80% or higher
cary leahy senior us economist at deutsche bank securities said. so there is
still a lot of inflation-fighting slack in the manufacturing sector overall i d
say manufacturing at least away from autos continues to improve and i would bet
that it improves at a faster rate in coming months given how lean inventories are
citigroup senior economist steven wieting added.
online games play with politics after bubbling under for some time online games
broke through onto the political arena in 2004. the us presidential election
provided a showcase for many aimed at talking directly to a generation that has
grown up with joysticks and gamepads. experts say this reflects how video games are
becoming a mainstream part of culture and society. the first official political
campaign game was technically launched during the last week of 2003: the iowa game
commissioned by the democrat hopeful howard dean. more than 20 followed suit
including frontrunner elections president forever and the political machine
which allowed players to run an entire presidential campaign including having to
cope with the media. others helped raise the stakes during the bush/kerry contest
by highlighting a candidate s virtues or his vices. the phenomenon has astonished
the forefathers of political games a handful of multi-discipline games enthusiasts
keen to push frontiers. when i started researching political games at the
university about five years ago i thought it was going to be something that would
take decades to happen said gonzalo frasca computer games specialist at the
information technology university of copenhagen. i must admit that i was the first
person to be surprised at seeing how fast they have evolved added the uruguayan-
born researcher who has so far created games for two political campaigns. many
artists and designers are experimenting with this form of gaming with an agenda in
projects such as newsgaming.com. the aim is to comment on international news events
via games. the ability of games to simulate reality makes them a powerful
modelling tool to interact with actual situations in an original way. video games
generate strong reactions mainly because they are new but also because our culture
needs to learn how to deal with simulation mr frasca told the bbc news website.
this was the case with the one he created for a political party in uruguay
cambiemos an online puzzle game that offered a view on how the country s problems
could be solved by working together. it s up to us to explore what we can learn
from ourselves through play and video games. ultimately dr frasca sees games as a
small laboratory where we can play with our hopes fears and beliefs. children
learn a lot about the world through play. there is no reason why we adults should
stop doing it as we grow up. but experts estimate it will still take at least
about a decade until this new breed of video gaming communication become a common
tool for political campaigns. this is hardly surprising compared to other forms
of mass media like the worldwide web. only a few years ago most politicians did
not have a webpage while now it is almost a must-have. dr frasca said: political
campaigns will continue to experiment with video games. they represent a new tool
of communication that can reach a younger audience in a language that can clearly
speak to them. it will not replace other forms of political propaganda but it
will integrate itself on to the media ecology of political campaigns.
ferguson puts faith in youngsters manchester united manager sir alex ferguson said
he has no regrets after his second-string side lost 3-0 away at fenerbahce in the
champions league. ferguson said: the good thing about being manager is that you
are in control of which team to pick. i care about united that s important so
while i am disappointed at the result i am not at the team i selected. this game
was important for the young lads. they will remember it and next time they come
they will be better. ferguson admitted his side were well-beaten by the turks a
result which meant they finished second in group d behind lyon. he added: they ll
know not to play like that again. we showed a lack of strength. but i have no
complaints about the scoreline. in the second half we had some good moments in
attack. and in that situation you have to take one chance. but we didn t do that
so the game just petered out for us. i didn t think it made much difference
whether we won the group or finished second and i still don t. we could get inter
ac milan and juventus but bayern barcelona and real madrid were among the runners-
up. all we can do is let fate decide how it works out.
electronics firms eye plasma deal consumer electronics giants hitachi and
matshushita electric are joining forces to share and develop technology for flat
screen televisions. the tie-up comes as the world s top producers are having to
contend with falling prices and intense competition. the two japanese companies
will collaborate in research & development production marketing and licensing.
they said the agreement would enable the two companies to expand the plasma display
tv market globally. plasma display panels are used for large thin tvs which are
replacing old-style televisions. the display market for high-definition televisions
is split between models using plasma display panels and others - manufactured by
the likes of sony and samsung - using liquid-crystal displays (lcds). the deal will
enable hitachi and matsushita which makes panasonic brand products to develop new
technology and improve their competitiveness. hitachi recently announced a deal to
buy plasma display technology from rival fujitsu in an effort to strengthen its
presence in the market. separately fujitsu announced on monday that it is
quitting the lcd panel market by transferring its operations in the area to
japanese manufacturer sharp. sharp will inherit staff manufacturing facilities and
intellectual property from fujitsu. the plasma panel market has seen rapid
consolidation in recent months as the price of consumer electronic goods and
components has fallen. samsung electronics and sony are among other companies
working together to reduce costs and speed up new product development.
lesotho textile workers lose jobs six foreign-owned textile factories have closed
in lesotho leaving 6 650 garment workers jobless union officers told the ap news
agency. factory workers union secretary general billy macaefa blamed the closures
on the end of worldwide textile quotas. the quotas for developing nations ended on
1 january gave them a set share of the rich countries markets. they also limited
the amount countries like china could export to the big markets of the united
states and eu. we understand that some (owners)... were complaining that the
south african rand was strong against the us dollar and they were losing when
exporting textiles and clothing to the united states mr macaefa said at a news
briefing in the capital maseru. lesotho s currency the maloti is fixed to the
rand. but we suspect that they left the country unceremoniously because of the end
of quotas introduced by the world trade organization. he said the six factories
were leisure garments modern garments precious six garments tw garments lesotho
hats and vogue landmark. the owners - two from taiwan two from china one from
mauritius and one from malaysia - left over the december holiday period without
informing or paying their employees he said. union leaders and trade campaigners
have been warning that developing nations such as lesotho sri lanka and
bangaldesh could lose thousands of jobs once the quotas were lifted. in the
mountainous country surrounded by south africa it is feared as many as 50 000
textile workers could lose their jobs and mr mafeca said he expected more
companies to leave. the assistance of a us law had given lesotho s textiles duty-
free access to north american markets. the african growth and opportunity act
(agoa) gave sub-saharan countries preferential access to the us market for apparel
and textile products as well as a wide range of other goods. a lesotho government
news briefing is expected on wednesday.
hatfield executives go on trial engineering firm balfour beatty and five railway
managers are to go on trial for manslaughter over the hatfield rail crash in 2000.
four people died when a section of rail broke and a high speed train derailed.
balfour beatty s railway maintenance arm was in charge of the upkeep of the line at
hatfield hertfordshire. balfour beatty managers anthony walker and nicholas
jeffries and railtrack managers alistair cook sean fugill and keith lea all face
individual charges. all five men along with four others are also accused of
breaches of health and safety laws. balfour beatty rail maintenance faces a
corporate manslaughter charge. it is expected the trial could last as long as a
year. the accident on 17 october 2000 happened when the london to leeds express
came off the tracks at 115 mph when it was derailed by a cracked section of rail.
the accident on the east coast main line sparked major disruption. the overall
responsibility for the line was railtrack s - the company that has now become
network rail. those who died in the accident were steve arthur 46 from pease
pottage west sussex; peter monkhouse 50 of headingley leeds; leslie gray 43
of tuxford nottingham; and robert james alcorn 37 of auckland new zealand.
koubek suspended after drugs test stefan koubek says he has been banned for three
months by the international tennis federation (itf) after testing positive for a
banned substance. the world number 60 failed a routine drugs test at this year s
french open but now plans to lodge an appeal. koubek believes an injection given to
him by an austrian doctor to treat a wrist injury is to blame for producing traces
of the substance in his system. i have acted correctly the 27-year-old austrian
said in a statement. koubek who defeated britain s greg rusedski in the decisive
rubber of the davis cup in september is now set to miss the start of the season.
he said a three-month ban would mean that i not only will miss the australian
open but also the davis cup in australia.
apple sues tiger file sharers apple has taken more legal action to stop online
leaks of its new products. the computer giant has sued three men for releasing
preview versions of its latest mac osx software onto file-sharing sites prior to
its release. it said two versions of the operating system codenamed tiger were
put onto the net in october and december. it is the second time in two weeks apple
has taken legal action to protect its future products. tiger is due to be shipped
in early 2005. last week it filed a lawsuit against unnamed individuals who
leaked details about new products onto the web. the latest action was against
members of the apple developer connection a group of programmers which gets to see
test versions of upcoming software so they can develop or change their own programs
to work with them. members of apple developer connection receive advance copies of
apple software under strict confidentiality agreements which we take very
seriously to protect our intellectual property apple said in a statement. it
added that its future financial results were very much dependent on developing and
improving its operating systems and other software. it is thought the men used
sites which employ bittorrent technology. with bittorrent technology sites do not
host actual files being shared instead they host a link that points people to
others that have the particular file. last week the motion picture association of
america launched a legal campaign targeting websites that operate using the
bittorrent system in an effort to clamp down on movie piracy. apple is no stranger
to taking legal action against those who leak product information. in december 2002
it sued a former contractor who allegedly put drawings images and engineering
details of its powermac g4 computer online. the latest action was filed on monday
in the us district court in california. it comes just weeks before the macworld
conference in san francisco used to showcase new products.
google to scan famous libraries the libraries of five of the world s most important
academic institutions are to be digitised by google. scanned pages from books in
the public domain will then be made available for search and reading online. the
full libraries of michigan and stanford universities as well as archives at
harvard oxford and the new york public library are included. online pages from
scanned books will not have adverts but will have links to online store amazon
google said. the goal of the project is to unlock the wealth of information that
is offline and bring it online said susan wojcicki director of product
management at google. there will also be links to public libraries so that the
books can be borrowed. google will not be paid for providing for the links. it will
take six years to digitise the full collection at michigan which contains seven
million volumes. users will only have access to extracts and bibliographies of
copyrighted works. the new york library is allowing google to include a small
portion of books no longer covered by copyright. harvard is limiting its
participation to 40 000 books while oxford wants google to scan books originally
published in the 19th century and held in the bodleian library. a spokeswoman for
oxford university said the digitised books would include novels poetry political
tracts and art books. important works that are out of print or only available in a
few libraries around the world will be made available to everyone she said. about
one million books will be scanned by google less than 15% of the total collection
held in the bodleian. we hope that oxford s contribution to this project will be
of scholarly use as well as general interest to people around the world said
reg carr director of oxford university library services. it s a significant
opportunity to bring our material to the rest of the world said paul leclerc
president of the new york public library. it could solve an old problem: if people
can t get to us how can we get to them this is the day the world changes said
john wilkin a university of michigan librarian working with google. it will be
disruptive because some people will worry that this is the beginning of the end of
libraries. but this is something we have to do to revitalise the profession and
make it more meaningful.
looks and music to drive mobiles mobile phones are still enjoying a boom time in
sales according to research from technology analysts gartner. more than 674
million mobiles were sold last year globally said the report the highest total
sold to date. the figure was 30% more than in 2003 and surpassed even the most
optimistic predictions gartner said. good design and the look of a mobile as well
as new services such as music downloads could go some way to pushing up sales in
2005 said analysts. although people were still looking for better replacement
phones there was evidence according to gartner that some markets were seeing a
slow-down in replacement sales. all the markets grew apart from japan which shows
that replacement sales are continuing in western europe mobile analyst carolina
milanesi told the bbc news website. japan is where north america and western
european markets can be in a couple of years time. they already have tv music
ringtones cameras and all that we can think of on mobiles so people have stopped
buying replacement phones. but there could be a slight slowdown in sales in
european and us markets too according to gartner as people wait to see what comes
next in mobile technology. this means mobile companies have to think carefully
about what they are offering in new models so that people see a compelling reason
to upgrade said gartner. third generation mobiles (3g) with the ability to handle
large amounts of data transfer like video could drive people into upgrading their
phones but ms milanesi said it was difficult to say how quickly that would happen.
at the end of the day people have cameras and colour screens on mobiles and for
the majority of people out there who don t really care about technology the speed
of data to a phone is not critical. nor would the rush to produce two or three
megapixel camera phones be a reason for mobile owners to upgrade on its own. the
majority of camera phone models are not at the stage where they can compete with
digital cameras which also have flashes and zooms. more likely to drive sales in
2005 would be the attention to design and aesthetics as well as music services.
the motorola razr v3 phone was typical of the attention to design that would be
more commonplace in 2005 she added. this was not a women s thing she said but
a desire from men and women to have a gadget that is a form of self-expression too.
it was not just about how the phone functioned but about what it said about its
owner. western europe has always been a market which is quite attentive to design
said ms milanesi. people are after something that is nice-looking and together
with that there is the entertainment side. this year music will have a part to
play in this. the market for full-track music downloads was worth just $20 million
(£10.5 million) in 2004 but is set to be worth $1.8 billion (£9.4 million) by 2009
according to jupiter research. sony ericsson just released its walkman branded
mobile phone the w800 which combines a digital music player with up to 30 hours
battery life and a two megapixel camera. in july last year motorola and apple
announced a version of itunes online music downloading service would be released
which would be compatible with motorola mobile phones. apple said the new itunes
music player would become motorola s standard music application for its music
phones. but the challenge will be balancing storage capacity with battery life if
mobile music hopes to compete with digital music players like the ipod. ms milanesi
said more models would likely be released in the coming year with hard drives. but
they would be more likely to compete with the smaller capacity music players that
have around four gigabyte storage capacity which would not put too much strain on
battery life.
holmes starts 2005 with gb events kelly holmes will start 2005 with a series of
races in britain. holmes will make her first track appearance on home soil since
winning double olympic gold in january s norwich union international in glasgow.
she will also run in the grand prix in birmingham in february and may defend her
indoor aaa 800m title in sheffield earlier that month. i am still competitive and
still want to win she said. i m an athlete and i can t wait to get back on the
track. she added: these events are also a great opportunity to thank the british
public for the enormous levels of support they have given me from the moment i
stepped off that plane from greece. the glasgow meeting will see holmes compete
over 1500m in a five-way match against sweden france russia and italy.
horror film heads us box office a low-budget horror film produced by evil dead
director sam raimi has topped the north american box office. boogeyman which
focuses on a man who returns to his childhood home to confront his traumatic past
took $19.5m (£14.9m) in three days. last week s chart-topper the robert de niro
thriller hide and seek fell to number four. other new entries included the wedding
date a comedy starring will and grace s debra messing at number two. the road-
trip comedy are we there yet and multiple oscar nominee million dollar baby
completed the top five. other oscar contenders including the aviator and sideways
continued to perform strongly at the box office. the aviator has taken $75m (£40m)
so far while sideways has taken $46.8m (£24.8m) in a more limited release.
boogeyman which cost just $7m (£3.5m) to make performed well even though it was
not screened to critics before release - normally a sign that a film will get bad
reviews or perform poorly at the box office. i certainly believe it s a genre
where people are going to be more moved by the marketing materials for the movie
than by what the critics say said rory bruer head of distribution for sony
pictures which released the film in the us. overall the weekend box office was
strong despite the fact that it was american football s super bowl weekend - a time
when cinema admissions generally fall. this year the top 12 films grossed around
$91m (£48.3m) compared to 2004 s super bowl weekend when the total box office was
$73.4m (£38.9m).
holmes starts 2005 with gb events kelly holmes will start 2005 with a series of
races in britain. holmes will make her first track appearance on home soil since
winning double olympic gold in january s norwich union international in glasgow.
she will also run in the grand prix in birmingham in february and may defend her
indoor aaa 800m title in sheffield earlier that month. i am still competitive and
still want to win she said. i m an athlete and i can t wait to get back on the
track. she added: these events are also a great opportunity to thank the british
public for the enormous levels of support they have given me from the moment i
stepped off that plane from greece. the glasgow meeting will see holmes compete
over 1500m in a five-way match against sweden france russia and italy.
howard unveils tory asylum plans tory plans to cut immigration to the uk are not
racist and will make the asylum system fairer for genuine refugees michael howard
has said. as his party set out detailed asylum reform plans mr howard said they
would help smash people smuggling gangs. there would be an annual limit on asylum
and all claims would be processed overseas. some charities say the plans would put
refugees lives at risk if they were turned away once quotas were filled. tony
blair said labour would set out workable plans for tackling immigration abuse in
the next few weeks and attacked the tory plans. by cutting the number of front-
line immigration staff at our borders they will actually make the problem worse
said mr blair. liberal democrat chairman matthew taylor said there needed to be a
quick fair and firm asylum system. but he said it was absolutely disgusting to
propose a system which could turn away genuine refugees. the conservatives say
there is little risk of this happening as demand for asylum will be considered when
quotas are set. in a speech in london on monday mr howard said: it s not racist
as some people to claim to talk about controlling immigration far from it. he
said that coming from an immigrant family himself he recognised that firm but fair
immigration controls were essential for good community relations. - withdrawing
from the 1951 united nations convention on refugees which obliges countries to
accept people being persecuted on the basis of need not numbers - introduce laws
to allow the immediate removal of asylum seekers whose claims were clearly
unfounded because they came from safe countries or had destroyed documents -
detain asylum seekers without documents so people whose identity was not known were
not able to move freely around the uk - a worry for national security - stop
considering asylum applications inside the uk and instead take people from united
nations refugee agency camps. anyone applying for asylum would be taken to new
centres close to their countries of origin. the tories also want quotas for
those seeking work permits through an australian-style points system and those
wanting to join families in the uk. mr howard said nearly 160 000 people were
settling in the uk every year - the size of a city like peterborough. the plans
would help achieve a substantial reduction in immigration he said although he
could not predict a figure. he said that only two out of 10 asylum seekers had
their claims accepted under the current unfair and inhumane system. we need to
break the link between arriving in britain and claiming asylum mr howard said.
by breaking that link we can smash the criminal gangs at the heart of the trade in
people smuggling. but the un refugees agency is worried the policy sends the
wrong message to poorer countries which receive the bulk of refugees. and a
spokesman for european justice and home affairs commissioner franco frattini said
the plans would contravene eu asylum policy which meant the uk could not simply
refuse to hear an asylum case. refugee council chief executive maeve sherlock
called the plans dangerous ill thought-out and hugely irresponsible . lives could
be put at risk if refugees were turned away once the quotas were filled she
warned. commission for racial equality chairman trevor phillips said asylum
applications were down 40% and economic migration down about 10%. he did not think
mr howard intended to centre the debate about race. but he warned that some
campaigners could use his words to hint the policy was about keeping out people of
a different colour or culture. mr howard called that suggestion disgraceful .
post-christmas lull in lending uk mortgage lending showed a post-christmas lull
in january indicating a slowing housing market lenders have said. both the
council of mortgage lenders (cml) and building society association (bsa) said
lending was down sharply. the cml said gross mortgage lending stood at £17.9bn
compared with £21.8bn in january last year. the bsa said mortgage approvals - loans
approved but not yet made - were £2bn down from £2.6bn in january 2004. at the
same time the british bankers association (bba) said lending was weaker .
overall the bba said mortgage lending rose by £4bn in january a far smaller
increase than the £5.1bn seen in december. this was a return to the weaker pattern
of lending seen in the last months of 2004 the bba added. however it is the year-
on-year lending comparisons which are the most striking. the cml said lending for
house purchases and gross mortgage lending were 29% and 18% lower year-on-year
respectively. these figures show beyond doubt the recent slowdown in the housing
market peter williams cml deputy director said.
new ukip defection to veritas the uk independence party has lost one of its two
london assembly members to robert kilroy-silk s new political party expected to
launch on wednesday. damian hockney said ex-chatshow host mr kilroy-silk would
deliver better as the leader of a eurosceptic party. he said mr kilroy-silk had
made him deputy party leader of veritas latin for truth. sources close to mr
hockney said around eight other members of london ukip were also planning to jump
ship. details of the coming week s events were hammered out at a meeting at mr
kilroy-silk s buckinghamshire home on sunday the bbc news website was told. the
news came after ukip suspended a candidate for allegedly suggesting the criminally
insane should be killed. john houston 54 was due to stand in the east kilbride
seat in lanarkshire at the next election. a spokesman for ukip called on mr hockney
to quit the london assembly. ukip asserts that mr hockney has a moral obligation
if not a legal one to stand down. mr hockney meanwhile told the bbc: i believe
that robert kilroy-silk can deliver better as a leader of a eurosceptic party than
the current leadership of the uk independence party. on the suspension of mr
houston ukip said those who selected him knew nothing of his views. mr houston is
alleged to have said that the organs of the criminally insane should be made
available to law-abiding members of the community and proposed the legalisation of
drugs and the sex trade. the document reportedly said: we re looking for the
resurrection of the british empire. the problems for the human race -
environmental and others - can only be dealt with on a global scale and that calls
for a radical alliance of the english-speaking nations which they are uniquely
able to do. ukip spokesman mark croucher said the main issue would be that mr
houston s reported views had been presented as ukip policy which they were not.
schools to take part in mock poll record numbers of schools across the uk are to
take part in a mock general election backed by the government. some 600 schools
have already signed up for the y vote mock elections 2005 run by the hansard
society and aimed at boosting interest in politics. pupils in the schools taking
part will learn the skills of speech writers canvassers and political candidates.
schools minister stephen twigg said engaging young people s interest was essential
to the future of democracy. he added: said young people who are engaged and
motivated by the political process are essential to the future health of our
democracy. the mock elections initiative provides an opportunity for pupils to
develop their own understanding of how the democratic process works and why it
matters. by experiencing the election process first hand - from running a campaign
to the declaration of the final result - we hope that young people will develop the
enthusiasm to take part in the future. the hansard society the electoral
commission and the department for education and skills are running the programme.
pupils will stand as party candidates speech writers and canvassers. michael
raftery project manager at the hansard society said: the y vote mock elections
for schools mirror the excitement and buzz of a real election raising awareness of
citizenship and the benefits of active democracy. the mock votes will take place
around 5 may widely expected to be the date of the general election. information
packs including ballot papers and manifesto guides with elections happening in
early may were sent out to the 3 000 schools invited to take part.
franz ferdinand s art school lesson scottish rock band franz ferdinand who shot to
prominence in 2004 have won two brit awards. with their self-titled debut franz
ferdinand have achieved what most rock bands crave - high credibility and critical
acclaim while also selling stacks of cds. they have risen to the head of the uk s
art rock ranks with an album of songs that are catchy creative and original enough
to sound fresh. with a cool spiky fun sound previously associated with bands like
talking heads they hit upon a style that had been out of fashion for a while and
so was ripe for another airing. their first uk single hit number three last january
followed by two more top 20 hits while the album has sold more than 600 000 copies
in 11 months on release. in september it was named album of the year winning the
prestigious mercury music prize. on the festivals circuit they have been one of
the main attractions for huge crowds at glastonbury t in the park and
reading/leeds. they have also found success in japan europe and the us. by
september the album had sold 500 000 in the states and total sales were pushing two
million worldwide. they have been nominated for three grammy awards in the us as
well as the us music industry s shortlist award but lost the shortlist prize to us
band tv on the radio. nevertheless franz ferdinand were the only uk band to win an
mtv video music award this year taking the breakthrough video crown for take me
out. the four-piece met two years ago when drummer paul thomson was working at the
glasgow art school where bassist bob hardy was studying. singer alex kapranos was
studying english at university but had friends at art school and the line-up was
completed when guitarist nick mccarthy moved from munich germany to the city. at
the turn of the year kapranos told bbc news online the band were fed up with
serious bands in that post-rock thing that seemed to be doing its damndest to
avoid any bloody tune . we want people to go away from the gigs humming the tunes
that we were singing. but at the same time bringing an edge to it. franz ferdinand
had a question they asked themselves every time they wrote a song kapranos said.
where s the fun in that they pondered at every stage making enjoyment the top
priority and ensuring they did not disappear up their own muso posteriors. the band
started out with a diy ethic that saw them take over a disused art-deco warehouse
in glasgow and rename it the chateau. the venue soon became legendary - so well-
known that the police spent a month trying to find it eventually raiding it and
arresting kapranos. but the charges of running an illegal bar and contravening
health and safety fire hazard and noise abatement laws were dropped. the band
took over an abandoned victorian courtroom and jail instead and named that the
chateau. the buzz about the band soon spread around the music industry and 40
record labels turned up to one gig in glasgow - which the band thought was totally
ridiculous . i m really glad it was almost comical because we weren t overwhelmed
by the seriousness of it kapranos said. they signed with independent label domino
home of smog sebadoh and four tet in june 2003.
mobile games come of age the bbc news website takes a look at how games on mobile
phones are maturing. a brief round-up follows but you can skip straight to the
reviews by clicking on the links below. if you think of snake when some mentions
mobile games then you could be in for a bit of a surprise. this is because mobile
games have come a long way in a very short time. even before nokia s n-gage game
phone launched in late 2003 many mobile operators were realising that there was an
audience looking for something to play on their handset. and given that many more
people own handsets than own portable game playing gadgets such as the gameboy it
could be a very lucrative market. that audience includes commuters wanting
something to fill their time on the way home game fans looking for a bit of
variety and hard core gamers who like to play every moment they can. life for all
these types of player has got immeasurably better in the last year as the numbers
of titles you can download to your phone has snowballed. now sites such as wireless
gaming review list more than 200 different titles for some uk networks and the
ranges suit every possible taste. there are ports of pc and arcade classics such as
space invaders lunar lander and bejewelled. there are also versions of titles
such as colin mcrae rally that you typically find on pcs and consoles. there are
shoot-em-ups adventure games strategy titles and many novel games only found on
handsets. rarely now does an action movie launch without a mobile game tie-in.
increasingly such launches are all part of the promotional campaign for a film
understandable when you realise that a good game can rack up millions of downloads.
the returns can be pretty good when you consider that some games cost £5. what has
also helped games on mobiles thrive is the fact that it is easier than ever to get
hold of them thanks to technology known as wap push. by sending a text message to a
game maker you can have the title downloaded to your handset. far better than
having to navigate through the menus of most mobile operator portals. the number of
handsets that can play games has grown hugely too. almost half of all phones now
have java onboard meaning that they can play the increasingly sophisticated games
that are available - even the ones that use 3d graphics. the minimum technology
specifications that phones should adhere to are getting more sophisticated which
means that games are too. now double key presses are possible making familiar
tactics such as moving and strafing a real option. the processing power on handsets
means that physics on mobile games is getting more convincing and the graphics are
improving too. some game makers are also starting to take advantage of the extra
capabilities in a mobile. many titles particularly racing games let you upload
your best time to see how you compare to others. usually you can get hold of their
best time and race against a ghost or shadow to see if you can beat them. a few
games also let you take on people in real time via the network or if you are
sitting close to them via bluetooth short-range radio technology. with so much
going on it is hard to do justice to the sheer diversity of what is happening. but
these two features should help point you in the direction of the game makers and
give you an idea of where to look and how to get playing. too fast too furious
(digital bridges) as soon as i start playing this i remember why i never play
driving games - because i m rubbish at them. no matter if i drive the car via
joystick or keypad i just cannot get the hang of braking for corners or timing a
rush to pass other drivers. the game rewards replay because to advance you have to
complete every section within a time limit. winning gives you cash for upgrades.
graphically the rolling road is a convincing enough evocation of speed as the palm
trees and cactus whip by and the city scrolls past in the background. the cars
handle pretty well despite my uselessness but it was not clear if the different
models of cars were appreciably different on the track. the only niggle was that
the interface was a bit confusing especially when using a joystick rather than the
keypad to play. fatal force (macrospace) a futuristic shooter that lets you
either play various deathmatch modes against your phone or run through a series of
scenarios that involves killing aliens invading earth. graphics are a bit cartoon-
like but only helps to make clear what is going on and levels are well laid out and
encourage you to leap about exploring. both background music and sounds effects
work well. the scenarios are well scripted and you regularly get hints from the
fatal force commanders. weapons include flamethrowers rocket launchers grenades
and at a couple of points you even get chance to use a mech for a short while. with
the right power-up you can go into a matrix-style bullet time to cope with the
onslaught of aliens. the game lets you play via bluetooth if others are in range.
online the game has quite a following with clans player rankings and even new
downloadable maps.
beer giant swallows russian firm brewing giant inbev has agreed to buy alfa-eco s
stake in sun interbrew russia s second-largest brewer for up to 259.7m euros
($353.3m; £183.75m). alfa-eco the venture capital arm of russian conglomerate
alfa group has a one-fifth stake in sun interbrew. the deal gives inbev the world
s biggest beermaker near-total control over the russian brewer. inbev bought out
another partner in august 2004. inbev brands include bass stella artois
hoegaarden and staropramen. it employs 77 000 people running operations in over 30
countries across the americas europe and asia pacific. the leuven-based brewery
said it would own 97.3% of the voting shares and 98.8% of the non-voting shares of
sun interbrew. the deal is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2005.
inbev was formed in august 2004 when belgium s interbrew bought brazilian brewer
ambev. sun interbrew which employs 8 000 staff owns breweries in eight russian
cities - klin ivanovo saransk kursk volzhsky omsk perm and novocheboksarsk.
there are also three breweries in ukraine in the cities of chernigov nikolaev and
kharkov.
cyber criminals step up the pace so-called phishing attacks that try to trick
people into handing over confidential details have boomed in 2004 say security
experts. the number of phishing e-mail messages stopped by security firm
messagelabs has risen more than tenfold in less than 12 months. in 2004 it detected
more than 18 million phishing e-mail messages. other statistics show that in 2004
73% of all e-mail was spam and one in 16 messages were infected with a virus. in
its end-of-year report messagelabs said that phishing had become the top security
threat and most popular form of attack among cyber criminals. in september 2003
messagelabs caught only 273 phishing e-mails that tried to make people visit fake
versions of the websites run by real banks and financial organisations. but by
september 2004 it was stopping more than two million phishing related e-mail
messages per month. worryingly said the firm phishing gangs were using
increasingly sophisticated techniques to harvest useful information such as login
details or personal data. older attacks relied on users not spotting the fact that
the site they were visiting was fake but more recent phishing e-mails simply try
to steal details as soon as a message is opened. other phishing scams try to
recruit innocent people into acting as middlemen for laundering money or goods
bought with stolen credit cards. e-mail security attacks remain unabated in their
persistence and ferocity said mark sunner chief technology officer at
messagelabs. in just 12 months phishing has firmly established itself as a threat
to any organisation or individual conducting business online he said. mr sunner
said messagelabs was starting to see some phishing attacks become very focused on
one company or organisation. already particular businesses are threatened and
blackmailed indicating a shift from the random scattergun approach to customised
attacks designed to take advantage of the perceived weaknesses of some businesses
he said. although phishing attacks grew substantially throughout 2004 viruses and
spam remain popular with cyber-criminals and vandals. one of the biggest outbreaks
took place in january when the mydoom virus started circulating. to date the
company has caught more than 60 million copies of the virus. also up this year was
the amount of spam in circulation. in 2003 only 40% of messages were spam. but by
the end of 2004 almost three-quarters of messages were junk.
o driscoll saves irish blushes two moments of magic from brian o driscoll guided
ireland to a workmanlike victory against italy. a pair of classic outside breaks
from the ireland captain set up tries for geordan murphy and peter stringer. italy
led 9-8 early in the second half but stringer s try gave ireland a lead they never
lost. the hosts cut the gap to 18-12 with 10 minutes left and nearly scored through
ludovico nitoglia but denis hickie s try ensured an irish victory. italy came
flying out of the blocks and took the lead through a luciano orquera penalty after
seven minutes. it could have been better for the hosts but the fly-half missed two
kickable penalties and ireland drew level with a ronan o gara penalty midway
through the first half. the italians were driving at the heart of the irish defence
and for the first quarter the irish pack struggled to secure any ball for their
talented backs. when they finally did just before the half-hour mark o driscoll
promptly created a sparkling try for murphy. the ireland captain ran a dummy
scissors and made a magical outside break before drawing the full-back and putting
the diving murphy in at the corner. o gara missed the twice-taken conversion and
the visitors found themselves trailing once again. roland de marigny took over the
kicking duties for italy from the hapless orquera and he landed a penalty either
side of the break to edge italy into a 9-8 lead. the only ireland player offering
a real threat was o driscoll and it was his break that set up the second try for
the visitors. shane horgan threw an overhead pass as he was about to be forced into
touch and stringer scooted over with o gara landing the tricky conversion. a
penalty apiece saw ireland leading 18-12 as the game entered the final quarter but
they were lucky to survive when italy launched a series of attacks. winger nitoglia
dropped the ball as he reached for the line and italy nearly rumbled over from a
driving maul. an o gara penalty put ireland more than a converted try ahead and
they made the game safe when hickie latched onto an inside pass from murphy and
crossed for a converted try. o driscoll limped off late on joining centre partner
gordon d arcy on the sidelines and the final word went to italy. prop martin
castrogiovanni powered over for a try which was fitting reward for an italian pack
which had kept the irish under pressure throughout. de marigny; mi bergamasco
canale masi nitoglia; orquera troncon; lo cicero ongaro castrogiovanni;
dellape bortolami; persico ma bergamasco parisse. perugini intoppa del fava
dal maso griffen pozzebon robertson. murphy horgan o driscoll d arcy hickie
o gara stringer corrigan byrne hayes o kelly o connell s easterby leamy
foley. sheahan horan o callaghan miller g easterby humphreys dempsey. p o
brien (new zealand)
little britain vies for tv trophy bbc hits little britain and strictly come dancing
are among numerous british shows nominated for the prestigious golden rose
television awards. homegrown reality programmes dominated that category including
channel 4 s supernanny and itv1 s hell s kitchen. eastenders and coronation street
were overlooked in the soap category but doctors and family affairs gained nods.
the festival which honours the best tv from around the globe will take place in
lucerne switzerland from 3-8 may. little britain which is now in its second
series faces competition from bbc two s the catherine tate show and sacha baron
cohen s creations borat and bruno. in the separate sitcom category dark comedy
nighty night - which began life on bbc three - will do battle with mainstream bbc
one show my family. bbc one s strictly come dancing which saw celebrities compete
against each other to become champions of the dancefloor is among five british
nominations in the varirty category. lenny henry who won a golden rose for his in
pieces series in 2001 picks up another nomination for his recent bbc show. british
television music shows have picked up six nominations with bbc three s flashmob -
the opera up against the uk music hall of fame series which was screened on
channel 4. british television has performed very well in the arts and specials
category gaining a total of 11 nominations. the bbc leads the way with its
programmes on the sound of music agatha christie and rolf on art - the big event -
which saw harris lead an effort to produce a life-size painting in london s
trafalgar square. british shows - which picked up a total of 48 nominations - will
have to overcome competition from a host of other countries including the us
canada japan and across europe. uk nominee tv diaries which is shown around the
world is owned by a british company but has yet to be screened in this country.
previous uk winners have included ant & dec s saturday night takeaway pop idol
channel 4 show faking it and comedy duo french and saunders who became the first
winners to receive and honorary golden rose. individual performers will also be
rewarded with prizes for best comics best sitcom actor and actress and best
gameshow host. last year actor shane richie won an award for his portrayal of alfie
moon in eastenders.
oscar nominee dan o herlihy dies irish actor dan o herlihy who was nominated for
best actor at the 1955 oscars has died at the age of 85. o herlihy whose oscar
nomination was for luis bunuel s the adventures of robinson crusoe died at his
home in malibu california a spokesman said. the actor began his film career in
the 1940s playing macduff to orson welles macbeth in 1948 and was also a regular
in on the dublin stage. he later appeared in robocop and its sequel and cult tv
show twin peaks. he played the ceo of omni consumer products in 1987 s robocop and
robocop 2 three years later and was saw mill owner andrew packard in twin peaks
also in 1990. despite his oscar nomination he had few other lead roles and became
a familiar supporting actor on tv and in film. the year he was nominated the
academy award was won by marlon brando for on the waterfront.
collins named uk athletics chief uk athletics has ended its search for a new
performance director by appointing psychologist dave collins. collins who worked
with the british teams at the 2000 and 2004 olympics takes over from max jones.
six candidates were interviewed for the job including denise lewis coach charles
van commenee and former british triple jumper keith connor. we ve searched long
and hard to ensure we have found the right person said uka chief executive david
moorcroft. we have thoroughly tested the candidates. i believe david will make a
great leader and i have great faith in what he will achieve. collins said: it s a
great challenge. over the next few months i will spend time listening to those who
already make a significant contribution to athletics and other elite sports in the
uk. collins who has worked with javelin thrower steve backley in the past
started his career as a royal marine before becoming a pe teacher. he is currently
professor of physical education and sport performance at edinburgh university
where he helps competitors across many sports including rugby athletics judo and
football. he has specialised in helping competitors fulfil their potential through
psychology and has worked with the great britain women s curling team who won gold
at the 2002 winter olympics. mark lewis-francis sought collins advice in athens
when he was looking for inspiration before he ran the final leg of britain s
surprise triumph in the 4x100m relay. collins has played rugby at regional level
was captain of the great britain american football team and competed at national
level in judo and karate. he arrives with british athletics at a crossroads.
despite kelly holmes golden double and the success of the sprint relay squad the
gb team failed to live up to expectations in athens. many older competitors have
retired or are coming to the end of their careers and britain failed to win a
single medal at the world junior championships in italy this year. collins will not
have day-to-day coaching contact with the athletes but will be expected to make
changes to the system and coaching set-up in order to secure medals at the beijing
olympics in 2008. the appointment of a new performance director was one of the main
recommendations in sir andrew foster s review of the sport which was published in
may. it was commissioned by uk sport and sport england which wanted uk athletics
to justify funding of more than £40m from the government following the failure to
hang on to the 2005 world championships which are now being held in helsinki. van
commenee dropped out of the selection process to take on the same role with the
dutch olympic committee while connor s application was rejected after an arduous
interview process. foster however declared himself satisfied with how the
appointment was made. the appointment of david collins with his strong mix of
leadership skills and managerial experience is testament to the professional and
detailed recruitment process he said.
us interest rate rise expected us interest rates are expected to rise for the fifth
time since june following the us federal reserve s latest rate-setting meeting
later on tuesday. borrowing costs are tipped to rise by a quarter of a percentage
point to 2.25%. the move comes as a recovery in the us economy the world s biggest
shows signs of robustness and sustainability. the dollar s record-breaking decline
meanwhile has spooked markets and along with high oil prices has raised concerns
about the pace of inflation. we are seeing evidence that inflation is moving
higher said ken kim an analyst at stone & mccarthy research. it s not a risk
it s actually happening. mr kim added that borrowing costs could rise further.
the fed has said that it will move in a measured way to combat price growth and
lift interest rates from their 40-year lows that were prompted by sluggish us and
global growth. with the economic picture now looking more rosy the fed has
implemented quarter percentage point rises in june august september and november.
although the us economy grew at an annual rate of 3.9% in the three months to
september analysts warn that fed has to be careful not to move too aggressively
and take the wind out of the recovery s sails. earlier this month figures showed
that job creation is still weak while consumer confidence is subdued. i think the
fed feels it has a fair amount of flexibility said david berson chief economist
at fannie mae. while inflation has moved up it hasn t moved up a lot. if
economic growth should subside... the fed would feel it has the flexibility to
pause in its tightening. but if economic growth picked up and caused core
inflation to rise a little more quickly i think the fed would be prepared to
tighten more quickly as well.
download chart debut is delayed the inclusion of downloaded music in the official
singles chart has been delayed for a month. the british phonographic industry
(bpi) had planned to include download formats in the chart from 20 march. but the
date has been put back to 17 april to create a level playing field for
independent labels. the bpi is concerned that independent repertoire is not
adequately represented online and said they were looking at ways of rectifying it.
bpi chairman peter jamieson said: the inclusion of download formats in the
official uk singles chart is the most significant development in the charts for 20
years. but for a multitude of reasons the current chart representation of
independent repertoire at the major download outlets is poor. i am very pleased we
have secured this delay on behalf of independents. we have to try and establish a
realistic level playing field of opportunity. the official uk charts are run by
the official uk charts company (occ) - a joint venture between the bpi and the
british association of record dealers (bard). at an occ board meeting on wednesday
the occ board agreed with bpi members that the 20 march start date be postponed.
download formats will now be included in the official uk singles chart for the
first time in the chart published on 17 april - the sales week beginning 10 april.
the us has already merged downloaded singles into its billboard hot 100 chart.
cyber crime booms in 2004 the last 12 months have seen a dramatic growth in almost
every security threat that plague windows pcs. the count of known viruses broke
the 100 000 barrier and the number of new viruses grew by more than 50%. similarly
phishing attempts in which conmen try to trick people into handing over
confidential data are recording growth rates of more than 30% and attacks are
becoming increasingly sophisticated. also on the increase are the number of
networks of remotely controlled computers called bot nets used by malicious
hackers and conmen to carry out many different cyber crimes. one of the biggest
changes of 2004 was the waning influence of the boy hackers keen to make a name by
writing a fast-spreading virus said kevin hogan senior manager in symantec s
security response group. although teenage virus writers will still play around with
malicious code said mr hogan 2004 saw a significant rise in criminal use of
malicious programs. the financial incentives were driving criminal use of
technology he said. his comment was echoed by graham cluley senior technology
consultant from anti-virus firm sophos. mr cluley said: when the commercial world
gets involved things really get nasty. virus writers and hackers will be looking
to make a tidy sum. in particular phishing attacks which typically use fake
versions of bank websites to grab login details of customers boomed during 2004.
web portal lycos europe reported a 500% increase in the number of phishing e-mail
messages it was catching. the anti-phishing working group reported that the number
of phishing attacks against new targets was growing at a rate of 30% or more per
month. those who fall victim to these attacks can find that their bank account has
been cleaned out or that their good name has been ruined by someone stealing their
identity. this change in the ranks of virus writers could mean the end of the mass-
mailing virus which attempts to spread by tricking people into opening infected
attachments on e-mail messages. they are not an efficient way of spreading viruses
said mr hogan. they are very noisy and they are not technically challenging. the
opening months of 2004 did see the appearance of the netsky bagle and mydoom mass
mailers but since then more surreptitious viruses or worms have dominated. mr
hogan said worm writers were more interested in recruiting pcs to take part in bot
nets that can be used to send out spam or to mount attacks on websites. in
september symantec released statistics which showed that the numbers of active bot
computers rose from 2 000 to 30 000 per day. thanks to these bot nets spam
continued to be a problem in 2004. anti-spam firms report that in many cases
legitimate e-mail has shrunk to less than 30% of messages. part of the reason that
these bot nets have become so prevalent he said was due to a big change in the
way that many viruses were created. in the past many viruses such as netsky have
been the work of an individual or group. by contrast said mr hogan the code for
viruses such as gaobot spybot and randex were commonly held and many groups work
on them to produce new variants at the same time. the result is that now there are
more than 3 000 variations of the spybot worm. that s unprecedented said mr
hogan. what makes it difficult is that they are all co-existing with each other
and do not exist in an easy to understand chronology. the emergence of the first
proper virus for mobile phones was also seen in 2004. in the past threats to
smart phones have been largely theoretical because the viruses created to cripple
phones existed only in the laboratory rather than the wild. in june the cabir
virus was discovered that can hop from phone to phone using bluetooth short-range
radio technology. also released this year was the mosquito game for symbian phones
which surreptitiously sends messages to premium rate numbers and in november the
skulls trojan came to light which can cripple phones. on the positive side finnish
security firm f-secure said that 2004 was the best-ever year for the capture
arrest and sentencing of virus writers and criminally-minded hackers. in total
eight virus writers were arrested and some members of the so-called 29a virus
writing group were sentenced. one high-profile arrest was that of german teenager
sven jaschen who confessed to be behind the netsky and sasser virus families. also
shut down were the carderplanet and shadowcrew websites that were used to trade
stolen credit card numbers.
souped-up wi-fi is on the horizon super high-speed wireless data networks could
soon be in use in the uk. the government s wireless watchdog is seeking help on
the best way to regulate the technology behind such networks called ultra wideband
(uwb). ofcom wants to ensure that the arrival of uwb-using devices does not cause
problems for those that already use the same part of the radio spectrum. uwb makes
it possible to stream huge amounts of data through the air over short distances.
one of the more likely uses of uwb is to make it possible to send dvd quality video
images wirelessly to tv screens or to let people beam music to media players around
their home. the technology has the potential to transmit hundreds of megabits of
data per second. uwb could also be used to create so-called personal area networks
that let a person s gadgets quickly and easily swap data amongst themselves. the
technology works over a range up to 10 metres and uses billions of short radio
pulses every second to carry data. at the recent consumer electronics show in las
vegas products with uwb chips built-in got their first public airing. currently
use of uwb is only allowed in the uk under a strict licencing scheme. we re
seeking opinion from industry to find out whether or not we should allow uwb on a
licence-exempt basis said a spokesman for ofcom. companies have until 24 march
to respond. in april the ec is due to start its own consultation on europe-wide
adoption of uwb. the cross-europe body for radio regulators known as the european
conference of postal and telecommunications administrations (cept) is carrying out
research for this harmonisation programme. early sight of the cept work has caused
controversy as some think it over-emphasises uwb s potential to interfere with
existing users. by contrast a preliminary ofcom report found that it would be quite
straight-forward to deploy uwb without causing problems for those that already use
it. the ofcom spokesman said it was considering imposing a mask or set of
technical restrictions on uwb-using devices. we would want these devices to have
very strict controls on power levels so they can not transmit a long way or over a
wide area he said. despite the current restrictions the technology is already
being used. cambridge-based ubisense has about 40 customers around the world using
the short-range radio technology said david theriault standards and regulatory
liaison for ubisense. he said that uwb was driving novel ways to interact with
computers. it s like having a 3d mouse all the time he said. he said that
european decisions on what to do with uwb allied with ieee decisions on the exact
specifications for it would help drive adoption. prior to its adoption as a way for
gadgets and computers to communicate uwb was used as a sensing technology. it is
used to spot such things as cracks under the surface of runways or to help firemen
detect people through walls.
kewell waits as injury drags on liverpool winger harry kewell is struggling to
recover from his achilles tendinitis problem and may not recover until march
claims his agent. kewell 26 had hoped to play against fulham last weekend and to
be ready for the champions league tie against bayer leverkusen on 22 february. but
bernie mandic said: he s had scans which don t show anything substantial. but
despite his best efforts at the moment he simply can t shake off the discomfort and
get back on the park. mandic continued in the sydney morning herald: harry s
struggling a bit but the club are doing everything they can to get him right.
harry was desperate to be fit for the fulham game as part of his plan to play
himself in for the leverkusen match. kewell has not played since december 19 and
misses out on international duty this week with australia facing south africa in
durban on wednesday.
pop band busted to take a break chart-topping pop band busted have confirmed that
they plan to take a break following rumours that they were on the verge of
splitting. a statement from the band s record company universal said frontman
charlie simpson planned to spend some time working with his other band fightstar.
however they said that busted would reconvene in due course . the band have had
eight top three hits including four number ones since they first hit the charts
in 2002. their singles include what i go to school for year 3000 crashed the
wedding you said no and who s david the band which also includes members matt
jay and james bourne made the top ten with their self-titled debut album as well
as the follow-up a present for everyone in 2003. they won best pop act and best
breakthrough act at the 2004 brit awards and were nominated for best british group.
most recently they topped the charts with the theme from the live-action film
version of thunderbirds which was voted record of the year on the itv1 show. the
band have capitalised on a craze for artists playing catchy pop music with rock
overtones. the trio are seen as an alternative to more manufactured artists who are
not considered credible musicians because they do not write their own songs or play
their own instruments. however recent rumours have suggested that simpson has been
wanting to quit the band to focus on fightstar. he now plans to take fightstar on
tour.
irish company hit by iraqi report shares in irish oil company petrel resources have
lost more than 50% of their value on a report that the firm has failed to win a
contract in iraq. reuters news agency reported that iraq s oil ministry has
awarded the first post-war oilfield contracts to a canadian and a turkish company.
by 1700 gmt petrel s shares fell from 97p ($1.87) to 44p ($0.85). petrel said that
it has not received any information from iraqi authorities to confirm or deny the
report. iraq is seeking to award contracts for three projects valued at $500m
(£258.5m). turkey s everasia is reported by reuters to have won a contract to
develop the khurmala dome field in the north of the country. a canadian company
named iog is reported to have won the contract to run the himrin field. ironhorse
oil and gas has denied to reuters that it is the company in question. these two
projects aim to develop khurmala field to produce 100 000 barrels per day and raise
the output of himrin. the winners of the contract are to build new flow lines and
build gas separation stations. the contract to develop the suba-luhais field has
not yet been awarded as iraq s oil ministry is studying the offers. if iraq s
cabinet approves the oil ministry s choice of companies then this will be the
first deal that iraq has signed with a foreign oil company. iraq is still trying to
boost its production capacity to match levels last seen in the eighties before the
war with iran. oil officials hope to double iraq s output by the end of the decade.
security papers found in street an inquiry is under way after files containing
security details about the pakistani president s visit to london were found by a
member of the public. the files are believed to contain detailed security
arrangements for gen pervez musharraf s visit this week including police codes.
scotland yard said the policing operation had been reviewed. a spokesman said
president musharraf s safety had not been compromised as the papers had been
handed in promptly. we cannot discuss who was responsible for the documents only
that they contained the policing arrangements for the official visit said the
spokesman. the papers are believed to have been found by a member of the public in
a street in mayfair and given to the mirror newspaper. the police spokesman said
the newspaper handed the report over on monday. the force s directorate of
professional standards is investigating the circumstances surrounding the loss of
the documents he said. gen musharraf held talks with tony blair on monday. he
arrived in britain on sunday night after flying from the united states where he
met president george w bush. he is due to visit the pakistani community in
manchester on tuesday afternoon.
us casino tricks face ban in uk controversial new uk casinos will be banned from
using american tricks of the trade to ensure they are socially responsible it
has been suggested. culture secretary tessa jowell said proposed super-casinos
will be different from their us counterparts. in america pheromones have
reportedly been released from machines to encourage aggressive gambling and clocks
are often removed from walls. eight super-casinos are proposed from 2010 if the
gambling bill becomes law. ms jowell said the legislation would ban psychological
trickery. she told the times: british casinos will be quite different to those
overseas. they will have to act in a socially responsible way and will be tightly
regulated. they will be run according to british rules and we ll simply not allow
any tricks which people are subjected to unawares and which increase the risk of
problem gambling. one tactic used in the us is simulating daylight during night-
time to lull players into remaining at the tables and slot machines. casinos also
frequently offer free food drink and hotel accommodation to keep punters betting.
a spokesman for the british casino association which represents the uk industry
said the government was trying to allay fears over a uk las vegas . he said the
way the licences were being awarded meant uk firms were at a massive disadvantage
and foreign companies would be certain to win the contracts. the uk industry is
one of the world s most respected he said. we have the lowest level of problem
gambling in the world. we certainly don t use pheremones. the uk gambling
industry is being totally frozen in time and the foreign companies will take over.
abbas will not tolerate attacks palestinian leader mahmoud abbas has said he will
not tolerate attacks such as last friday s suicide bombing in the israeli city of
tel aviv. in an interview ahead of a meeting in london to discuss palestinian
reforms mr abbas said such attacks were against palestinian interests. the
palestinian authority (pa) was exerting a 100% effort to end the violence mr
abbas added. the attack which killed five was the first of its kind since he took
office. mr abbas confirmed israel shared information with the pa in the hunt for
the organisers of the attack. the israeli government refuses to accept syria s
denials that it was implicated in the nightclub bombing. israeli officials gave an
intelligence briefing to foreign ambassadors on monday explaining syria s alleged
involvement. british foreign minister jack straw said there had been a continuing
stream of information suggesting palestinian militant groups were operating from
within syria. in an email interview in the british newspaper the independent mr
abbas said: we believe peace is possible now and we are ready to negotiate with
israel to reach a true and lasting peace based on justice and international
legitimacy. he added: we have an opportunity and it would be irresponsible if we
the israelis or the world allow it to slip away. tuesday s meeting on palestinian
reform is being hosted by british prime minister tony blair. also due to attend are
us secretary of state condoleezza rice un secretary general kofi annan world bank
officials and foreign ministers from 23 european and arab countries. the conference
was a vital step in renewing the peace process mr straw said. it s a high-level
attendance which reflects the sense of momentum and opportunity created by recent
events he added. a spokesman for mr blair said the prime minister expected the
conference to discuss a comprehensive co-ordinated and above all practical work
plan for both the palestinian authority and the international community . israel
will not attend but is said to be closely watching the outcome.
hacker threat to apple s itunes users of apple s music jukebox itunes need to
update the software to avoid a potential security threat. hackers can build
malicious playlist files which could crash the program and let them seize control
of the computer by inserting trojan code. a new version of itunes is now available
from the apple website which solves the problem. security firm idefence which
notified users of the problem recommended that users upgrade to itunes version
4.7.1. the problem affects all users of itunes - windows and mac os - running
versions 4.7 and earlier. users can automatically upgrade itunes by opening the
look for updates window in the program. the security firm says users should avoid
clicking on or accessing playlist files - which have the file extension of .pls
or .m3u - which have come from unknown sources. itunes is the world s most popular
online music store with more than 200 million songs downloaded since it launched in
2003.
ds aims to touch gamers the mobile gaming industry is set to explode in 2005 with a
number of high-profile devices offering a range of gaming and other features such
as movie and music playback. market leader nintendo however is releasing a
handheld console that it says will revolutionise the way games are played. the
first striking thing about the ds is how retro it looks. far from looking like a
mould-breaking handheld it looks more like nintendo dug out a mould from a 1980s
handheld prototype. the lightweight clam shell device opens up to reveal two
screens and when switched on it instantly reveals its pedigree. both screens are
crisp and clear while the bottom of the two is touch sensitive. nintendo has given
developers free rein to utilise the dual screens and ability to control the action
by simply touching the screen. the japanese gaming giant hopes the ds will
maintain the firm s pre-eminence in an increasingly-competitive mobile gaming
market. nintendo first launched its gameboy console in 1989 and has dominated the
market ever since. but its lead can no longer be taken for granted. sony will enter
the market later this year with its playstation portable while start-up companies
gizmondo and tapwave zodiac are also offering hybrid devices. we believe the ds
will appeal to all ages both genders and gamers of any skill said david yarnton
nintendo europe s general manager said at the recent press launch for the handheld.
with its two screens wireless connectivity and backwards compatibility with the
gameboy advance the ds certainly has a number of unique selling points. it went on
sale in the us in mid-november priced $150 and nintendo says sales have exceeded
expectations without giving detailed figures. japan and europe will have to wait
until the first quarter of 2005 to get the device. with more than two million pre-
orders for the device in japan nintendo is confident it will keep its number one
spot. but will the device prove to be as revolutionary as claimed the game ships
with a demo of metroid hunters - a 3d action title which can be played alone or
with a group of friends using the machine s wireless capabilities. it certainly
looks impressive on the small machine and plays smoothly even with a group of
people. the game can be controlled by using the supplied stylus to aim. the top
screen is used to navigate the action while the bottom screen offers a top-down map
and the ability to switch weapons. it is certainly a unique control method and
while it makes aiming more controlled it can be a little disorientating. super
mario 64 ds is a faithful re-creation of the nintendo 64 classic with a host of new
mini-games and new levels. the game looks stunning on the portable machine and the
sound too is impressive for such a small machine. one thing is for certain.
hardened gamers will have to learn to adapt to a new way of playing while it could
prove to be an accessible way in to gaming for novices ultimately the success or
failure of the device lies in the hands of developers. if they manage to create
titles which use the nintendo ds s key features then a whole new market of gamers
could open up. the fear is that the touch screen and voice recognition are treated
as little more than gimmicks.
house prices rebound says halifax uk house prices increased by 1.1% in december
the first monthly rise since september the halifax has said. the uk s biggest
mortgage lender said prices rose 15.1% over the whole of 2004 but by only 2.8% in
the second half of the year. the average price of a house in the uk now stands at
£162 086 halifax said. the survey seems to fly in the face of recent evidence that
the uk housing market has been slowing substantially in response to interest rate
rises. last week the nationwide said that house prices fell 0.2% in december
with annual inflation running at a three year low. on tuesday figures from the
bank of england showed that the number of mortgages approved in the uk has fallen
to the lowest level for nearly a decade. new loans in november fell to 77 000 from
85 000 in october the lowest rate since september 1995 the bank of england said.
growth in unsecured lending such as personal loans and credit cards also slowed
last month. capital economics which has in the past predicted a sharp fall in uk
house prices branded halifax s findings a temporary surprise which would be
reversed over the coming months. the month by month volatility of the halifax
house price data should not distract from the fact that there is a clear downward
trend in house prices a capital economics statement said. experts believe five
interest rate rises since november 2003 are cutting borrowers appetite for debt.
despite recording a price rise in december the halifax survey concluded that there
was continuing signs of a genuine slowdown in the housing market. martin ellis
halifax chief economist said that there was no need to revise the bank s
prediction made last month that prices would fall by 2% in 2005. sound housing
market fundamentals will continue to underpin the market in 2005 ensuring that the
market remains healthy and that house prices fall only slightly mr ellis said. if
the bank s prediction of a 2% price drop comes true it will be the first annual
fall in nine years. the bank said that the recent pattern of house prices rising
the fastest in the north of england continued in december. in the north west and
yorkshire and the humber halifax said prices rose by 3% and 1.2% in the two
regions respectively during the month. at the other send of the scale prices in
the south east and london fell by 1.6% and 0.5% respectively. the biggest decline
was seen in wales where prices fell by 6.2% an area that had experienced strong
house price growth during most of 2004. overall halifax said prices in the final
quarter of 2004 were 0.1% higher than in the previous quarter. this was the
smallest quarterly rise since the second quarter of 2000 the bank said. as a
result annual house price inflation dipped below 20% during the final few months
of 2004.
profile: david blunkett before he resigned the position of home secretary on
wednesday david blunkett had been in charge of a substantial body of government
portfolios including race policing and immigration. his responsibilities in
running the home office included civil emergencies security terrorism and
expenditure. named home secretary after the 2001 general election mr blunkett had
seen the focus on his office intensify. the attacks on the world trade center on 11
september 2001 heightened concern for security and immigration in particular. a
labour loyalist from a working class background mr blunkett 57 had been unafraid
of pushing for tough changes to labour policy. recently the issue of identity
cards had provoked controversy with questions raised over cost and invasions of
civil liberties. mr blunkett was also at the centre of a humiliating scandal
involving the former immigration minister beverly hughes. having received his full
backing ms hughes was forced to resign in april over abuses in the visa processing
system which she claimed to be unaware of. mr blunkett s own comments on
immigration had prompted censure - he told refugees from afghanistan and kosovo to
get back home to start rebuilding their countries. and he also urged people from
ethnic minorities to develop a sense of belonging in britain telling them to
speak english at home. avoiding political correctness is second nature to the
former home secretary who spurns a metropolitan elite and airy fairy libertarians
and earlier in the year coined the phrase liberati as an amalgam of glitterati
and liberal . yet in january of this year he courted further controversy over his
seemingly liberal reclassification of cannabis from a grade b to grade c status
drug . before the recent furore mr blunkett had always appeared more interested
in politics than his personal life. mr blunkett told the daily telegraph in 2001
that he continued to wear his wedding ring in spite of being a divorcee as a
useful way of ensuring that people don t casually think i am available . he added:
i am not available because i am just getting on with the job. mr blunkett entered
parliament for sheffield brightside in 1987 after first contesting the sheffield
hallam seat in 1974. he is one of very few blind mps and was the first to reach
the front bench and the cabinet. his relaxed performances - with his guide dog by
his side - at the despatch box in the labour party s national executive and on
the conference platform made it easy to forget his disability. mr blunkett himself
described not being able to see as simply an inconvenience . using braille for
speeches and briefed by his officials on tape he also has a sharp tongue at times
and a pragmatic approach to politics. mr blunkett was schooled in sheffield where
he led the city council for seven years before entering the commons. he chaired the
labour party nationally and was a unifying force in the 80s and 90s shadowing
health and education. in tony blair s first government mr blunkett was put in
charge of education and employment where he won big increases in funds for schools
while insisting on improved standards of literacy and numeracy. he was prepared to
stand up to the teaching unions - which sometimes heckled his speeches - and his
policy of charging university students for tuition fees was not popular. in the
labour party he has been regarded as a loyal colleague a conciliator who avoids
factions and a man whose humour and determination make him widely popular. there
have been wry smiles as well. in 1999 his then guide dog lucy threw up in the
chamber during the speech of his tory opponent. lucy was replaced by her half-
sister sadie a black labrador-curly-coated retriever cross in 2003 after nearly
a decade by mr blunkett s side.
us trade deficit widens sharply the gap between us exports and imports has widened
to more than $60bn (£31.7bn) an all-time record. figures from the commerce
department for november showed exports down 2.3% to $95.6bn while imports grew
1.3% to $155.8bn on rising consumer demand. part of the expanding deficit came from
high prices for oil imports. but the numbers suggested the sliding dollar - which
makes exports less expensive - has had little impact and could indicate slowing
economic growth. the trade deficit - far bigger than the $54bn widely expected on
wall street - prompted a rapid response from the currency markets. by 1650 gmt
the dollar was trading against the euro at $1.3280 almost a cent and a half weaker
than before the announcement. against the pound the dollar was down about 0.7% at
$1 8923. the dollar s fall has been sudden violent and appropriate given this
number said brian taylor of wells fargo in minneapolis. recent exchange rate
movements certainly haven t had any impact yet. treasury secretary john snow put a
brave face on the news saying it was a sign of strong economic expansion. the
economy is growing at such a fast rate that it is generating lots of disposable
income... some of which is used to buy goods from our trading partners. although
the white house officially still backs the us s traditional strong dollar policy
it has tacitly indicated that it would be happy if the slide continued. the dollar
has fallen by 50% against the euro - as well as by 30% against the yen - in the
past three years. the main catalyst most economists accept is the large budget
deficit on the one hand and the current account deficit - the difference between
the flow of money in and out of the us - on the other. the trade deficit is a large
part of the latter. in november the fall in exports was largely due to a decline
in sales of industrial supplies and materials such as chemicals as well as of cars
consumer goods and food. one small bright spot for us policy-makers was a slight
decline in the deficit with china often blamed for job losses and other economic
woes. although china s overall trade surplus is expanding according to chinese
government figures the commerce department revealed the us s deficit with china
was $19.6bn in november down from $19.7bn the month before. but the deficit with
japan was at its worst in more than four years.
game warnings must be clearer violent video games should carry larger warnings so
parents can understand what their children are playing the trade and industry
secretary has said. patricia hewitt is expected to call for the law banning the
sale of 18-rated games to children to be enforced better at a games industry
meeting on sunday. she is concerned too many children are playing games aimed at
adults which include high levels of violence . parents are expected to spend
millions on video games as christmas presents. violent games have been hit by
controversy after the game manhunt was blamed by the parents of 14-year-old stefan
pakeerah who was stabbed to death in leicester in february. his mother giselle
said her son s killer warren leblanc 17 - who was jailed for life in september -
had mimicked behaviour in the game. police investigating the stefan s murder
dismissed its influence and manhunt was not part of its legal case. ahead of sunday
s meeting in london ms hewitt said she was proud of the uk s vibrant games
industry but was concerned too many children were playing games which should only
be sold to adults. roger bennett head of gaming industry body elspa said banning
violent games would be wrong. he said: we don t want to go down that route. we
have seen that the government is supportive of the industry. the government is
holding a further meeting on friday with industry and retail representatives as
well as the british board of film classification to discuss how labelling can be
made clearer. ms hewitt said: adults should be treated as adults and children as
children. it is important that retailers respect the classifications and do not
sell games with high levels of violence to minors. equally parents need to know
what they might be buying for their children. video games are different to films
or videos and not all parents have grown up playing games in the way our children
do. we need to look carefully at how we improve content warnings and strengthen
sales enforcement. her call was backed by culture media and sport secretary tessa
jowell who said: you wouldn t let your child watch the texas chainsaw massacre.
you wouldn t let them go to a strip club. so you shouldn t let them play an 18-
rated game. it s the same principle - adults can make their own informed choices
but children can t always and need to be protected. anyone convicted of selling an
18-rated game to a child can be jailed for six months and fined up to £5 000.
rockstar games the makers of manhunt has said in the past it markets its games
responsibly and only targets its adverts at adults.
taxes must be trusted - kennedy public trust in taxes is breaking down because
labour and tories are not being straight with people on the issue lib dem leader
charles kennedy has said. a day ahead of the government s pre-budget report mr
kennedy used a speech to say his party was facing up to painful economic realities
. he said the current level of taxation was about right although he would put a
new 50% tax on top earners. other parties have accused the lib dems of making
uncosted promises. mr kennedy made it clear he was determined to counter that
accusation. the lib dems have already published what they say are the full costings
for all their plans and wednesday s speech did not announce new policies. speaking
at the commonwealth club mr kennedy said it was critical for a political party to
have economic credibility both on what it promised and what it was expected to
deliver. he said. budgets have to add up. tough choices are needed in public
spending. the lib dems would cut low priority spending including the government
s id cards scheme and the child trust fund. those cutbacks would free up funds for
increasing basic state pensions for over-75s putting more police on the streets
and reintroducing fee eye and dental checks he said. the lib dems argue they were
honest about taxes in the past by calling for a 1p rise on income tax. now they say
the only simple tax rise they want is a new 50% tax band for top earners to pay for
scrapping university tuition fees providing free personal care for elderly and
disabled people and keeping local taxes down. there would also be a local income
tax to replace council tax and a number of changes to environmental taxes to ensure
it is the polluter who pays . the lib dems say the tories have only laid out
possible options for cutting taxes to grab headlines while labour has hidden most
of its tax rises. mr kennedy said: that contract with the people - that the
government will only tax fairly and will spend their money wisely - can only be
sustained if the political parties are straightforward about their plans. with the
stealth tax strategy of gordon brown the obvious unfairness of our current tax
system - especially the council tax and the empty promises of the conservative
party on this issue - it is no wonder that trust in taxation is breaking down. he
challenged the treasury to open up its books so the national audit office can
report on the government s performance. conservative co-chairman liam fox said:
liam fox said if charles kennedy is serious about making his budgets add up he
should start by explaining how they would fund their 100 spending commitments. the
reality is the lib dems lack the courage to tackle waste and bureaucracy and the
only people who would face tough choices would be the families who would be £630
worse off a year. and chancellor gordon brown said the lib dem figures did not
add up. he accused the party of claiming it would spend less while across the
country committing itself to spend more.
court halts mark morrison album premiership footballer and record company boss
kevin campbell has gained a court injunction stopping r&b singer mark morrison from
releasing an album. the everton striker signed morrison to his fledging 2 wikid
records label and claims he spent thousands of pounds producing his album innocent
man. now he is attempting to prevent morrison releasing the album on monday through
another label. but morrison vowed to ignore the order saying no judge is gonna
stop me . morrison who is now as well known for his brushes with the law than his
music career rose to fame with the 1996 single return of the mack. but the
leicester singer has struggled to repeat its success following two spells in jail.
one was for hiring a stand-in to complete his community service for possession of a
stun gun and three-months following a nightclub fracas. he signed to mr campbell s
label a year ago and has released one single with the label saying the album was
due for release on 24 january. but mr campbell said he learned that morrison
planned to release the album through jet star which is advertising it on its
website. mr campbell said: i m glad we were granted the injunction but i m
completely gutted that we have had to go that far. mark morrison was given
everything he asked for by 2 wikid but it seems that he couldn t help but return to
his old ways. i ve worked hard to realise my ambition in football but had hoped
that my future career would be in the music business. i have always dreamt of
starting a record label but now mark morrison has spoilt that dream for me. there
is no loyalty in this business - just greed. but morrison is determined the album
will be released on monday. he said: the injunction is ludicrous. i signed a new
deal with a new record company because i was not getting the support i needed from
2 wikid. i was with that label for a year and in that time released just one
record which was not properly promoted. he added: the whole world is waiting for
this album and it will come out on december 27. no injunction or judge will stop
it. the mack will return. the case is set to be heard in the high court on 20
december.
worcester v sale (fri) sixways friday 25 february 2000 gmt they make just one
change with tim collier replacing phil murphy in the second row. in contrast sale
are missing 14 players due to a combination of international call-ups and injuries.
john payne and chris rhys jones come into the centres while scrum-half richard
wigglesworth looks set to play on the wing. delport; pieters rasmussen lombard
o leary; brown powell; windo van niekerk horsman; collier gillies; hickey
sanderson macleod- henderson. replacements: fortey murphy daly vaili cole
hayes trueman. hanley; mayor payne rhys jones wigglesworth; hercus redpath
(capt); turner roddam stewart; day schofield; caillet carter chabal.
replacements (from): bozzi coutts anglesea lund martens riley duffy c jones.
warning over windows word files writing a microsoft word document can be a
dangerous business according to document security firm workshare. up to 75% of
all business documents contained sensitive information most firms would not want
exposed a survey by the firm revealed. to make matters worse 90% of those
companies questioned had no idea that confidential information was leaking. the
report warns firms to do a better job of policing documents as corporate compliance
becomes more binding. sensitive information inadvertently leaked in documents
includes confidential contractual terms competitive information that rivals would
be keen to see and special deals for key customers said andrew pearson european
boss of workshare which commissioned the research. the efficiencies the internet
has brought in such as instant access to information have also created security and
control issues too he said. the problem is particularly acute with documents
prepared using microsoft word because of the way it maintains hidden records about
editing changes. as documents get passed around worked on and amended by different
staff members the sensitive information finds its way into documents. poor control
over the editing and amending process can mean that information that should be
expunged survives final edits. microsoft however does provide an add-on tool for
windows pcs that fixes the problem. the remove hidden data add-in is a tool that
you can use to remove personal or hidden data that might not be immediately
apparent when you view the document in your microsoft office application says the
instructions on microsoft s website. microsoft recommends that the tool is used
before people publish any word document. a tool for apple machines running word is
not available. workshare surveyed firms around the world and found that on average
31% of documents contained legally sensitive information but in many firms up to
three-quarters fell in to the high risk category. often said mr pearson this
sensitive information was invisible because it got deleted and changed as different
drafts were prepared. however the way that windows works means that earlier
versions can be recalled and reconstructed by those keen to see how a document has
evolved. few firms have any knowledge of the existence of this so-called metadata
about the changes that a document has gone through or that it can be reconstructed.
the discovery of this hidden information could prove embarrassing for companies if
for instance those tendering for contracts found out about the changes to terms of
a deal being negotiated. the research revealed that a document s metadata could be
substantial as on average only 40% of contributors changes to a document make it
to the final draft. problems with documents could mean trouble for firms as
regulatory bodies step up scrutiny and compliance laws start to bite said mr
pearson.
ailing eurodisney vows turnaround eurodisney the european home of mickey mouse and
friends has said it will sell 253m euros (£175m; $328m) of new shares as it looks
to avoid insolvency. the sale is the last part of a plan to restructure 2.4bn
euros-worth of debts. despite struggling since it was opened in 1992 eurodisney
has recently made progress in turning its business around and ticket sales have
picked up. however analysts still question whether it attracts enough visitors to
stay open even with the restructuring. eurodisney remains europe s largest single
tourist attraction attracting some 12.4 million visitors annually. a new
attraction - walt disney studios - has recently opened its site near paris. the
company s currently traded stock tumbled in paris on the latest news shedding 15%
to 22 euro cents. eurodisney will sell the new shares priced at 9 euros cents each.
the us disney corporation and saudi arabian prince al-walid bin talal the firm s
two main shareholders will buy the new stock. the restructuring deal is the second
in the firm s troubled financial history; its finances were first reorganised in
1994.
gadget show heralds mp3 christmas partners of those who love their hi-tech gear may
want to get their presents in early as experts predict a gadget shortage this
christmas. with apple s ipod topping wish lists again there may not be enough
ipod minis to go round predicts oliver irish editor of gadget magazine stuff.
the ipod mini is likely to be this year s tracey island said mr irish. stuff has
compiled a list of the top 10 gadgets for 2004 and the ipod is at number one. for
anyone bewildered by the choice of gadgets on the market stuff and what hi-fi are
hosting a best-of gadget show in london this weekend. star of the show will be sony
s qrio robot an all-singing all-dancing football-playing man-machine who can
even hold intelligent conversations. but he is not for sale and sony has no
commercial plans for the robot. he will greet visitors and is flying in from
japan. he probably has his own airplane seat that is how highly sony prize him
said mr irish. also on display will be a virtual keyboard which projects itself
onto any flat surface. the event will play host to a large collection of digital
music players from companies such as creative sony and philips as well as the
ubiquitously fashionable ipod from apple. suggestions that it could be a gaming or
wireless christmas are unlikely to come true as mp3 players remain the most popular
stocking filler said mr irish. demand is huge and apple has promised that it can
supply enough but people might struggle to get their hands on ipod minis said mr
irish. for those who like their gadgets to be multi-talented the gizmondo a
powerful gaming console with gps and gprs that also doubles up as an mp3 player
movie player and camera could be a must-have. what is impressive is how much it
can do and how well it can do them said mr irish. this christmas gadgets will
not be an all-male preserve. women will be getting gadgets from husbands and
boyfriends as well as buying them for themselves said mr irish. gadgets nowadays
are lifestyle products rather than just for geeks.
how the academy awards flourished the 77th annual academy awards are taking place
on 27 february with the stars of the movie-making world once again holding their
breath to discover who will be showered with the honours this year. but from humble
beginnings how did the modern day extravaganza become the behemoth it is today
how it all started the first academy awards were handed out in 1929 at a
comparatively low-key dinner held at the hollywood roosevelt hotel - just over the
road from their modern day home. just 250 guests attended with ticket prices at
$5. the first film to win was wings which starred clara bow in the only silent
movie to win the big award. for the first 10 years or so the winners list was
handed to the newspapers so they could publish them at 11pm but in 1940 the
winners were published in the los angeles times at 8.45pm meaning guests entering
the ceremony knew already knew the results. as a result the sealed envelope system
was introduced leading to the secrecy and suspense-filled night that happens
today. when and where the tradition of holding the awards at a banquet continued
until 1942 but with increasing interest came a growing guest list and it became
impractical to host it as a dinner. the ceremonies were then transferred to
theatres with the famous grauman s chinese theatre the first to host the expanded
event. other venues included the dorothy chandler pavilion and the shrine
auditorium. they are now held at the kodak theatre which opened in 2002 just
across the road from its original home and holds 6 000 people. until 1954 they were
held on a thursday then swapped around from monday to wednesday before sunday
night was settled on although the month swapped from may to april to march and now
its current month of february. the first televised ceremony was in 1953 with bob
hope as the mc. who was oscar there is no solid evidence as to how the trophy
became to be known as oscar. one popular story is that academy librarian margaret
herrick said the statue looked like her uncle oscar. a journalist apparently
overheard this conversation and used the phrase in an article. the first time it
is thought to have been used in print was when columnist sidney skolsky used it to
describe katherine hepburn s first best actress win in 1934. the academy officially
adopted the nickname in 1939. the trophy was designed by mgm art director cedric
gibbons. since its inception 2 530 oscars have been handed out. in support of the
war effort the academy handed out plaster oscar statuettes during wwii. after the
war winners exchanged the plaster awards for the real thing. fifty-five statues
were stolen in en route to the awards in 2000 52 were recovered nine days later.
winners were unaffected as a new batch was rushed out. who sits in judgement the
academy was set up in 1927 as a non-profit organisation with 36 members from
different film disciplines. douglas fairbanks sr was the first president and
oversaw the first awards. there are now 5 700 members of the academy - with
membership by invitation only to those who are seen to have achieved distinction in
the movies and are therefore seen as fit to judge their peers. some of the criteria
for admittance includes: film credits that reflect the high standards of the
academy receipt of an academy award nomination achievement of unique distinction
earning of special merit or making an outstanding contribution to film. the stars
who left empty-handed while many of the biggest films and movie-makers have been
honoured by the academy there is still surprise at those that did not receive any
nominations that later went on to become classics. among the overlooked films were
hobson s choice dirty harry the 39 steps the searchers and king kong. actors
that failed to win for their iconic roles included al jolson in the jazz singer
(1927) humphrey bogart in casablanca (1944) gene kelly in singing in the rain
(1952) and henry fonda in 12 angry men (1957). alfred hitchcock also failed to win
an award despite five nominations. his enduring influence on the horror genre was
finally recognised with an honorary gong in 1968. the show always goes on not even
war has halted the glittering hollywood event. there were calls for it to be
cancelled in 2003 during the war in iraq but as it didn t stop during world war ii
or the vietnam war. documentary winner michael moore ensured nobody forgot about
the iraq war though and used his acceptance speech to criticise the american
invasion. the ceremony was muted with the glitz turned down and many female stars
opting for demure dark dresses. the ceremony has been postponed on three occasions.
los angeles floods in 1938 saw it put back a week. the death of martin luther king
saw it postponed for two days in 1968 as a mark of respect and there was a 24-hour
delay following the assassination attempt on president ronald reagan. controversies
and other gaffes three people have refused oscars including actor george c scott
who said the whole thing was demeaning . writer dudley nichols refused his academy
award in 1935 for his screenplay for the insider because the writers guild was
striking at the time. marlon brando turned down his best actor oscar for the
godfather in 1973 in protest as hollywood s apparent discrimination against native
american people. he sent along a woman called sacheen littlefeather to collect his
award. she was later revealed to be native american actress maria cruz. the
following year robert opal interrupted proceedings when he streaked flashing a
peace sign as well as everything else. the tv network managed to pan away and avoid
too much nudity. opal was murdered in 1979. frank capra was the butt of one major
gaffe in 1934 when the host opened out best picture envelope and declared come on
up and get it frank to which frank capra bounded up to the stage before realising
that he had meant frank lloyd had won for cavalcade. capra vowed he would never to
go the awards again but went the following year to collect his award for it
happened one night.
cabs collect mountain of mobiles gadgets are cheaper smaller and more common than
ever. but that just means we are more likely to lose them. in london alone over
the past six months more than 63 000 mobile phones have been left in the back of
black cabs according to a survey. that works out at about three phones per cab.
over the same period almost 5 000 laptops and 5 800 pdas such as palms and pocket
pcs were left in licensed cabs. even the great and good are not immune to losing
their beloved gadgets. jemima khan reportedly left her ipod phone and purse in a
cab and asked for them to be returned to her friend who turned out to be hugh
grant. as the popularity of portable gadgets has grown and we trust more of our
lives to them we seem to be forgetting them in ever larger numbers. the numbers of
lost laptops has leapt by 71% in the last three years. this has left londoners or
those travelling by cab in the capital as the world s best at losing laptops
according to the research by the licensed taxi drivers association and pointsec a
mobile-data backup firm. more than twice as many laptops were left in the back of
black cabs in london as in any of the nine other cities (helsinki oslo munich
paris stockholm copenhagen chicago and sydney) where the research into lost and
found gadgets was carried out. by contrast danes were most adept at losing mobile
phones being seven times more likely to leave it behind in a cab than travellers in
germans norwegians and swedes. top of the range phones can carry enormous amounts
of data - enough to hold hundreds of pictures or thousands of contact details.
given that few people back up the data on their pc it is a fair bet that even fewer
do so with the phone they carry around. you could be losing a fair chunk of your
life in the back of that cab not least because many people collect numbers on their
phone that they do not have anywhere else. equally phones let you navigate
through contacts by name so many people have completely forgotten their friends
numbers and could not reconstruct them if they had to. this growing habit of losing
gadgets explains the rise of firms such as retrofone which lets people buy a cheap
old-fashioned phone to replace the tiny shiny expensive one they have just lost.
briton s growing love of phones has also led to the creation of the mobile
equipment national database that lets you register the unique id number of your
phone so it can be returned to you in the event of it being lost or stolen.
according to statistics 50% of all muggings and snatch theft offences involve
mobiles. millions of gadgets are now logged in the database and organisations such
as transport for london regularly consult it when trying to re-unite folk with
their phones and other gadgets. for the drivers finding a mobile in the back of
their cab is one of the more pleasant things many have found. the survey of what
else has been left behind included a harp a dog a hamster and a baby.
a decade of good website design the web looks very different today than it did 10
years ago. back in 1994 yahoo had only just launched most websites were text-
based and amazon google and ebay had yet to appear. but says usability guru dr
jakob nielsen some things have stayed constant in that decade namely the
principles of what makes a site easy to use. dr nielsen has looked back at a decade
of work on usability and considered whether the 34 core guidelines drawn up back
then are relevant to the web of today. roughly 80% of the things we found 10 years
ago are still an issue today he said. some have gone away because users have
changed and 10% have changed because technology has changed. some design crimes
such as splash screens that get between a user and the site they are trying to
visit and web designers indulging their artistic urges have almost disappeared
said dr nielsen. but there s great stability on usability concerns he told the
bbc news website. dr nielsen said the basic principles of usability centring
around ease of use and clear thinking about a site s total design were as
important as ever. it s necessary to be aware of these things as issues because
they remain as such he said. they are still important because the net has not
changed as much as people thought it would. a lot of people thought that design
and usability was only a temporary problem because broadband was taking off he
said. but there are a very small number of cases where usability issues go away
because you have broadband. dr nielsen said the success of sites such as google
amazon ebay and yahoo showed that close attention to design and user needs was
important. those four sites are extremely profitable and extremely successful
said dr nielsen adding that they have largely defined commercial success on the
net. all are based on user empowerment and make it easy for people to do things
on the internet he said. they are making simple but powerful tools available to
the user. none of them have a fancy or glamorous look he added declaring
himself surprised that these sites have not been more widely copied. in the future
dr nielsen believes that search engines will play an even bigger part in helping
people get to grips with the huge amount of information online. they are becoming
like the operating system to the internet he said. but he said the fact that
they are useful now does not meant that they could not do better. currently he
said search sites did not do a very good job of describing the information that
they return in response to queries. often people had to look at a website just to
judge whether it was useful or not. tools that watch the behaviour of people on
websites to see what they actually find useful could also help refine results.
research by dr nielsen shows that people are getting more sophisticated in their
use of search engines. the latest statistics on how many words people use on search
engines shows that on average they use 2.2 terms. in 1994 only 1.3 words were
used. i think it s amazing that we have seen a doubling in a 10-year period of
those search terms said dr nielsen. you can hear more from jakob nielsen and web
design on the bbc world service programme go digital
wales stars need a rest - ruddock wales coach mike ruddock has defended his
decision not to release any of the international stars for this weekend s regional
celtic league fixtures. ruddock says the players will benefit from the rest and
their absence will give youngsters a chance to impress. we ve got the wru charter
in place now which outlines exactly what happens ruddock told bbc wales sport.
once we re in the six nations the players will only be released in his and the wru
s best interests. the ospreys and scarlets say they are happy to support the wales
cause but the dragons have expressed disappointment at not being able to use their
national squad players in friday s game with ulster. ceri sweeney gareth cooper
ian gough and kevin morgan have been used sparingly by ruddock in the opening two
six nations wins and captain jason forster believes they would benefit from a game
with the dragons. i m sure the guys would want to come back to get some game time
forster told bbc wales sport. it would also be a timely reminder to mike [ruddock]
as to what they can do. and the supporters want to see the star players - no
disrespect to the other guys - performing on the pitch. ruddock though is keen
to protect his players from injury and fatigue. at this stage there s nothing
more [the players] can do in games to impress me further. we ve got to look at it
at another angle and see the opportunities that are provided for the younger
players in the region. for example the dragons might use james ireland this
weekend. i ve been looking at the lad - he s a great prospect for the future.
french and english clubs have requested to have all their international players
available which means stephen jones gareth thomas and mefin davies will play this
weekend. the majority of ireland and scotland players have also been released for
provincial duty.
blair pressing us on climate tony blair is pressing the us to cut greenhouse
gases despite its unwillingness to sign the kyoto protocol downing street has
indicated. officials have confirmed climate change was discussed when influential
senator john mccain recently visited mr blair. climate change was an issue the
prime minister wanted to progress during the uk s presidency of the g8 and eu in
2005 said a spokesman. but he played down reports mr blair was considering a new
us-friendly treaty. according to the times the uk leader wants to end us
isolation with a kyoto-lite agreement on the scale and nature of the threat from
climate change. he is said to have discussed the idea with mr mccain during his
time at number 10. the prime minister is said to believe the united states refusal
to sign the kyoto protocol on emissions is undermining other countries resolve to
cut carbon dioxide production. so far the us has refused to sign up to the kyoto
treaty - which aims to cut emissions - branding it politically motivated and not
based on science. president bush s advisers have repeatedly denied global warming
is taking place. europe which disputes the claim has also signalled it wants to
press ahead with talks about longer term climate change action in a way which
involves both the united states and developing countries. mr blair s reported
treaty would also establish an international programme to develop technology needed
for renewable energy and the reduction of carbon emissions says the times. but
there is still apparently little prospect of america agreeing to cut emissions
which could further provoke environmental campaigners already angry at the lack of
progress. mr blair was left blushing on wednesday when it emerged his manifesto
target of a 20% cut to the 1990 greenhouse gas level by 2010 was set to be missed.
hitzlsperger waiting on o leary aston villa s thomas hitzlsperger is waiting to
learn the future of manager david o leary before committing himself to a new
contract with the club. o leary has been in talks over a new deal and he said: i
had a message from thomas agent asking me what the news was on myself. he wants
to find out before he goes into discussions over thomas. the reason thomas is not
speaking to the club is because the agent wants to see the outcome of what happens
to me. hitzlsperger s current deal expires in the summer and he has been offered a
new deal by the midlands club. the german international is understood to be keen to
remain at villa despite interest in his native country from hamburg. but he wants
assurances that o leary will also be committing himself long-term because
negotiations over a new three-and-a-half-year contract appear to have stalled. o
leary wants his backroom staff - assistant manager roy aitken and fitness coach
steve mcgregor - to also be given satisfactory deals which will tie them to villa
until the summer of 2008.
ferguson rues failure to cut gap boss sir alex ferguson was left ruing manchester
united s failure to close the gap on chelsea everton and arsenal after his side s
1-1 draw with fulham. premiership leaders chelsea and the gunners endured a 2-2
stalemate on sunday giving united the chance to make up some ground in the league.
but ferguson said: i think what makes it so bad is that both our rivals dropped
points at the weekend. it was a great opportunity - and we haven t delivered.
united went ahead through alan smith in the 33rd minute before bouba diop s superb
25-yard strike cancelled out the visitors lead in the 87th minute. ferguson
described the result as an absolute giveaway after united had earlier missed a
host of opportunities to finish off the encounter. he said: it was a good
performance - some of the football was fantastic - but we just didn t finish them
off. in fairness it s a fantastic strike from the fulham player. the result
leaves ferguson s side fourth in the league on 31 points - four points behind
arsenal and a further five back from chelsea.
women mps reveal sexist taunts women mps endure shocking levels of sexist abuse
at the hands of their male counterparts a new study shows. male mps pretended to
juggle imaginary breasts and jeered melons as women made commons speeches
researchers from birkbeck college were told. labour s yvette cooper said she found
it hard to persuade commons officials she was a minister and not a secretary. some
83 mps gave their answers in 100 hours of taped interviews for the study whose
secretary are you minister . the research team under professor joni lovenduski
had set out to look at the achievements and experiences of women at westminster.
but what emerged was complaints from mps of all parties of sexist barracking in the
chamber sexist insults and patronising assumptions about their abilities. barbara
follet one of the so-called blair babes elected in 1997 told researchers: i
remember some conservatives - whenever a labour woman got up to speak they would
take their breasts - imaginary breasts - in their hands and wiggle them and say
melons as we spoke. former liberal democrat mp jackie ballard recalled a stream
of remarks from a leading mp on topics such as women s legs or their sexual
persuasion. and ex-tory education secretary gillian shepherd remembered how one of
her male colleagues called all women betty . when i said look you know my name
isn t betty he said ah but you re all the same so i call you all betty .
harriet harman told researchers of the sheer hostility prompted by her advancement
to the cabinet: well you ve only succeeded because you re a woman. another
current member of the cabinet says she was told: oh you ve had a very fast rise
who have you been sleeping with even after the great influx of women mps at the
1997 general election and greater numbers of women in the cabinet female mps
often say they feel stuck on the edge of a male world. liberal democrat sarah
teather the most recent female mp to be elected told researchers: lots of people
say it s like an old boys club. i ve always said to me it feels more like a
teenage public school - you know a public school full of teenagers. prof joni
lovenduski who conducted the study with the help of margaret moran mp and a team
of journalists said she was shocked at the findings. we expected a bit of this
but nothing like this extent. we expected to find a couple of shocking episodes.
but she said there was a difference between the experiences of women before the
1997 intake and afterwards. this was mainly because there were more women present
in parliament who were not prepared to put up with the sexist attitudes they came
across prof lovenduski said. but she added: some women including the women who
came in 1997 received extraordinary treatment and i am not convinced that if the
number of women changed back to what it was before 1997 that things would not
change back. what i think is shocking to the general public is that these things
go on in the house of commons. the interviews are to be placed in the british
library as a historical record.
spider-man creator wins profits spider-man creator stan lee is to get a multi-
million dollar windfall after winning a court battle with comic book company
marvel. a judge has upheld lee s demand for 10% of marvel s profits from the
hugely successful spider-man films. spider-man and its sequel made $1.6bn (£857m)
at box offices worldwide. of the cut now due to lee 82 who created spider-man in
1962 his lawyer said: it could be tens of millions of dollars that s no
exaggeration. us district court judge robert w sweet ruled lee should get a tenth
of profits generated since november 1998 by marvel tv and movie productions
involving the company s characters. lee took legal action in 2002 saying marvel
shut him out of jackpot profits from the first blockbuster film. he said the
company - where he worked for more than 60 years - had gone back on agreement to
give him the 10%. as well as spider-man lee co-created the incredible hulk x-men
daredevil and fantastic four characters. he said: i am gratified by the judge s
decision although since i am deeply fond of marvel and the people there i
sincerely regret that the situation had to come to this. the ruling also means he
is entitled to a slice of profits from dvd sales and certain merchandise. marvel
said it would appeal and did not expect the decision to impact on financial
forecasts for 2004 and beyond. the new york court did not rule on lee s claims to a
share of profits from some spider-man and hulk movie merchandise which will be
decided at a future trial marvel said.
rock band u2 break ticket record u2 have smashed irish box office records with
ticket sales for their dublin concerts after more than 150 000 were sold within 50
minutes. tickets for the two concerts at the city s croke park stadium were
released at 8am on friday morning. nothing like it has ever been seen in ireland
before said justin green spokesman for organisers mcd promoters. we could have
sold a million tickets. the dublin dates on june 24 and 25 form part of the
worldwide vertigo tour. the tour begins in san diego on 28 march and will cover 13
us cities. the band will also play 24 european gigs finishing in lisbon in august.
mr green said that ticket outlets had been bombarded by u2 fans. unfortunately
there s thousands and thousands of disappointed fans all over the country which is
disappointing but there s only two dates confirmed he said. many fans camped on
the streets of the irish capital for three days to ensure they were first in line
at ticketmaster in st stephen s green shopping centre where the tickets went on
sale on friday. however the majority of tickets priced at between 59.50 and 80
euro each were sold online. earlier this week bono announced that the band would
play two shows at the venue which holds almost 80 000 people due to the
phenomenal demand for tickets.
tate & lyle boss bags top award tate & lyle s chief executive has been named
european businessman of the year by a leading business magazine. iain ferguson was
awarded the title by us publication forbes for returning one of the uk s venerable
manufacturers to the country s top 100 companies. the sugar group had been absent
from the ftse 100 for seven years until mr ferguson helped it return to growth.
tate s shares have leapt 55% this year boosted by firming sugar prices and sales
of its artificial sweeteners. after years of a sagging stock price and a seven-
year hiatus from the ftse 100 one of britain s venerable manufacturers has
returned to the vaunted index forbes said. mr ferguson took the helm at the
company in 2003 after spending most of his career at consumer goods giant
unilever. tate & lyle which was an original member of the historic ft-30 index in
1935 operates more than 41 factories and 20 more additional production facilities
in 28 countries. previous winners of the forbes award include royal bank of
scotland chief executive fred goodwin and former vodafone boss chris gent.
analysis: no pain no gain he called it his masochism strategy in the run-up to
the iraq war and now tony blair has signed up for another dose of pain. the idea
is simple - the prime minister goes head to head with an often hostile group of
real voters in the full spotlight of the television cameras. the theory is that
talking to the great british public even if they are the great unwashed is
better than having the media filter what voters hear from politicians. it is also
the most effective way of showing that he is aware of real people s concerns and -
on occasions - of their outright fury. mr blair used the tactic before the iraq war
to try to show he really was engaging with public concerns and you can expect to
see it much more in the run-up to the election. labour knows it has been damaged
by accusations of spin control freakery and over-slick presentation - sometimes
from within the ranks of its own mps. tony blair himself has said people complain
he does not listen. mr blair s latest bout of flagellation came with a series of
questions sessions on five television throughout wednesday. the trouble began on
the wright stuff show with maria hutchings marching up to him saying tony that
s rubbish as she tried to complain about her autistic son s school being
threatened with closure. a few don t worries as mrs hutchings was led back to the
audience averted a public slanging match - he spoke to her privately after the
show. but that was only the start and later sessions produced the type of grilling
not even the toughest television interviewer could produce. writer neil coppendale
from west sussex asked of the iraq war: tens of thousands of innocent men women
and children died - how do you manage to sleep at night on immigration london
teacher diane granger said: where are you going to put everyone and can you
imagine even jeremy paxman putting the question posed by brighton nurse marion
brown: would you wipe somebody s backside for £5 mr blair tried to use the
questioners first names - and sometimes threw them off their stride by asking what
they would do about the problems. many of the newspapers have branded the exercise
a pr stunt which backfired. indeed there is a danger mr blair simply ends up
looking embattled . conservative michael howard and liberal democrat charles
kennedy are to be offered chances to appear in similar slots on the channel next
month. labour strategists believe more of the sessions will mean the hecklers no
longer become a story and the real issues take prominence. james humphreys ex-
head of corporate communications at number 10 says the strategy shows frustration
with the media. they feel they don t get their voice across and going direct to
people is clearly their game on this occasion he says. there are risks but the
prize is tackling the trend of lower turnouts at the polls he argues. the prime
minister knows full well the potential hazards . he must remember with gritted
teeth his confrontation with sharron storer the birmingham woman who harangued him
over the state of her local hospital in the 2001 election campaign. all you do is
walk around and make yourself known you don t do anything to help anybody she
told mr blair before stomping off refusing his pleas to discuss the issue
privately. former downing street media chief alastair campbell has described the
episode as a bit of a disaster as it meant the launch of labour s election
manifesto received little coverage. but it was seen as one of the few moments when
that election campaign came alive not least because it coincided with john
prescott s even more direct contact - when he punched an egg-throwing protester.
former prime ministers too have come to grief at the hands of a persistent member
of the public. the undoubted highlight of years of election phone-in shows was
margaret thatcher discomfort on nationwide in 1983 when viewer diana gould put her
on the spot about the sinking of the belgrano in the falklands war. john major
reaped the benefits of street campaigning during the 1992 election campaign with
his famous soapbox. it may have left him splattered with eggs and engine oil at
times but he felt it added fizz to his campaign. in his memoirs he also argues
the strategy contrasted with neil kinnock s contrived photo opportunities and
attempts at an artful campaign. he wanted to look like a prime minister. i was
prime minister and i wanted a flesh and blood fight says mr major. mr blair told
prospective labour mps on thursday that taking part in phone-ins and public
meetings could enthuse and engage and give the public a sense of empowerment . but
he also wants to counter complaints that he has spent too much time on
international affairs and foreign trips. mr blair recalls how bill clinton once
advised him: always remember that what people see of you in the news in the
evening is how they think you spend your day. his hope must be that voters
watching him on the rack will bear out for labour the old maxim: no pain no gain.
boris opposes mayor apology ken livingstone should stick to his guns and not
apologise for his nazi comment to a jewish reporter tory mp boris johnson has
insisted. mr johnson also claimed tony blair s intervention in the row was an
attempt to reassure jewish voters . london mayor mr livingstone says he is
standing by his remarks which likened an evening standard journalist to a
concentration camp guard . but the prime minister says it is time for mr
livingstone to say sorry. labour s mr livingstone has said his comments may have
been offensive but were not racist and said earlier this week he would not
apologise even if mr blair asked. later the prime minister said: a lot of us in
politics get angry with journalists from time to time but in the circumstances
and to the journalist because he was a jewish journalist yes he should apologise.
however mr johnson who was forced to apologise last year for an article in the
magazine he edits about liverpudlians grieving over the death of british hostage
ken bigley said mr blair should butt out of the row. i don t see why the prime
minister has to get involved in this the spectator editor told bbc radio 4 s
today programme. it s a dispute between ken livingstone and a reporter on the
evening standard. mr johnson mp for henley-on-thames oxfordshire said he
suspected labour was now trying to reassure jewish voters because of this curious
way in which labour seems to be trying to curry favour with disillusioned muslim
voters who may be disillusioned about the war . ken doesn t think he s got
anything to say sorry for and if that s really his feeling then i think that he
should stick to his guns he said. mr johnson apologised last october for
perpetuating an outdated stereotype of liverpool in the leader article on the
death of mr bigley. the article in the magazine suggested grieving liverpudlians
were wallowing in their victim status. it also attributed blame to drunken
liverpool football fans for the 1989 hillsborough disaster in which 96 died. mr
johnson told today: it s perfectly true that i got into the grovelling game myself
and when i apologised there were some things that i felt i ought to say sorry
for ... there were also other things i didn t think i should apologise for he
said. but here s old ken - he s been crass he s been insensitive and thuggish and
brutal in his language - but i don t think actually if you read what he said
although it was extraordinary and rude i don t think he was actually anti-semitic.
dunne keen to commit to man city richard dunne is ready to commit his long-term
future to manchester city after turning his career around. he was once threatened
with the sack by city boss kevin keegan but has since responded with impressive
performances prompting interest from other clubs. early talks have taken place and
the defender said: hopefully something will be sorted out as soon as possible. i
definitely want to stay at city because i have really improved as a player here.
newcastle boss graeme souness is said to have been impressed enough by dunne s
turnaround in form to be ready to make a bid for the big stopper in the january
transfer window. but the 25-year-old dubliner underlined his intention to stay at
eastlands. he added: it s nice to be linked with top clubs but the important thing
is this one and what we do. i really enjoy it at city and i want to keep that
going. keegan is expected to be told there will be no funds to bring in fresh
faces in january. dunne s professionalism was famously questioned by keegan who
ordered the defender home after he allegedly turned up for training in a
dishevelled state. but dunne is keen to put that period of his life behind him and
said: i ve grown up a lot and the manager sees me as one of the most experienced
players in the squad. i ve played more games than any other outfield players this
season so i can t be regarded as being a kid any more. i have to use that as added
pressure to perform and apart from the games at newcastle and middlesbrough
defensively we ve done quite well. keegan is set for another boost when goalkeeper
nicky weaver makes his long-awaited return in a reserve game at blackburn on
tuesday. former england under-21 keeper weaver has missed nearly three full seasons
with a succession of knee injuries which eventually needed pioneering transplant
surgery earlier this year.
house prices suffer festive fall uk house prices fell 0.7% in december according
to figures from the office of the deputy prime minister. nationally house prices
rose at an annual rate of 10.7% in december less than the 13.7% rise the previous
month. the average uk house price fell from £180 126 in november to £178 906
reflecting recent land registry figures confirming a slowdown in late 2004. all
major uk regions apart from northern ireland experienced a fall in annual growth
during december. december is traditionally a quiet month for the housing market
because of christmas celebrations. however recent figures from the land registry -
showing a big drop in sales between the last quarter of 2004 and the previous year
- suggested the slowdown could be more than a seasonal blip. the volume of sales
between october and december dropped by nearly a quarter from the same period in
2003 the land registry said. although both the office of the deputy prime minister
(odpm) and the land registry figures point to a slowdown in the market the most
recent surveys from nationwide and halifax have indicated the market may be
undergoing a revival. after registering falls at the back-end of 2004 halifax said
house prices rose by 0.8% in january and nationwide reported a rise of 0.4% in the
first month of the year.
strong dollar call halts slide the us dollar s slide against the euro and yen has
halted after us treasury secretary john snow said a strong dollar was in america s
interest . but analysts said any gains are likely to be short-lived as problems
with the us economy were still significant. they also pointed out that positive
comments apart president george w bush s administration had done little to stop
the dollar s slide. a weak dollar helps boost exports and narrow the current
account deficit. the dollar was trading at $1.2944 against the euro at 2100gmt
still close to the $1.3006 record level set on 10 november. against the japanese
yen it was trading at 105.28 yen after hitting a seven-month low of 105.17
earlier in the day. policy makers in europe have called the dollar s slide brutal
and have blamed the strength of the euro for dampening economic growth. however it
is unclear whether ministers would issue a declaration aimed at curbing the euro s
rise at a monthly meeting of eurozone ministers late on monday. higher growth in
europe is regarded by us officials as a way the huge us current account deficit -
that has been weighing on the dollar - could be reduced. mr snow who is currently
in dublin at the start of a four-nation eu visit has applauded ireland s
introduction of lower taxes and deregulation which have helped boost growth. the
eurozone is growing below its potential. when a major part of the global economy is
below potential there are negative consequences... for the citizens of those
economies... and for their trading partners he said. mr snow s comments may have
helped shore up the dollar on monday but he was careful to qualify his statement.
our basic policy of course is to let open competitive markets set the values
he explained. markets are driven by fundamentals and towards fundamentals. us
officials have also said that other economies need to grow so the us is not the
main global growth engine. economists say that the fundamentals or key indicators
of the us economy are looking far from rosy. domestic consumer demand is cooling
and heavy spending by president bush has pushed the budget deficit to a record
$427bn (£230bn). the current account deficit meanwhile hit a record $166bn in the
second quarter of 2004. for many analysts a weaker dollar is here to stay. no end
is in sight said carsten fritsch a strategist at commerzbank . it is only a
matter of time until the euro reaches $1.30. some analysts maintain the us is
secretly happy with a lower dollar which helps makes its exports cheaper in europe
thus boosting its economy.
ibm puts cash behind linux push ibm is spending $100m (£52m) over the next three
years beefing up its commitment to linux software. the cash injection will be used
to help its customers use linux on every type of device from handheld computers and
phones right up to powerful servers. ibm said the money will fund a variety of
technical research and marketing initiatives to boost linux use. ibm said it had
taken the step in response to greater customer demand for the open source software.
in 2004 ibm said it had seen double digit growth in the number of customers using
linux to help staff work together more closely. the money will be used to help this
push towards greater collaboration and will add linux-based elements to ibm s
workplace software. workplace is a suite of programs and tools that allow workers
to get at core business applications no matter what device they use to connect to
corporate networks. one of the main focuses of the initiative will be to make it
easier to use linux-based desktop computers and mobile devices with workplace. even
before ibm announced this latest spending boost it was one of the biggest advocates
of the open source way of working. in 2001 it put $300m into a three-year linux
program and has produced linux versions of many of its programs. linux and the open
source software movement are based on the premise that developers should be free to
tinker with the core components of software programs. they reason that more open
scrutiny of software produces better programs and fuels innovation.
millions go missing at china bank two senior officials at one of china s top
commercial banks have reportedly disappeared after funds worth up to $120m (£64m)
went missing. the pair both worked at bank of china in the northern city of harbin
the south china morning post reported. the latest scandal at bank of china will do
nothing to reassure foreign investors that china s big four banks are ready for
international listings. government policy sees the bank listings as vital economic
reforms. bank of china is one of two frontrunners in the race to list overseas. the
other is china construction bank. both are expected to list abroad during 2005.
they shared a $45bn state bailout in 2003 to help clean up their balance sheets in
preparation for a foreign stock market debut. however a report in the china-
published economic observer said on monday that the two banks may have scrapped
plans to list in new york because of the cost of meeting regulatory requirements
imposed since the enron scandal. bank of china is the country s biggest foreign
exchange dealer while china construction bank is the largest deposit holder. china
s banking sector is burdened with at least $190bn of bad debt according to official
data though most observers believe the true figure is far higher. officially one
in five loans is not being repaid. attempts to strengthen internal controls and
tighten lending policies have uncovered a succession of scandals involving
embezzlement by bank officials and loans-for-favours. the most high-profile case
involved the ex-president of bank of china wang xuebing jailed for 12 years in
2003. although he committed the offences whilst running bank of china in new york
mr wang was head of china construction bank when the scandal broke. earlier this
month a china construction bank branch manager was jailed for life in a separate
case. china s banks used to act as cash offices for state enterprises and did not
require checks on credit worthiness. the introduction of market reforms has been
accompanied by attempts to modernise the banking sector but links between banks
and local government remain strong. last year china s premier wen jiabao
targeted bank lending practices in a series of speeches and regulators ordered all
big loans to be scrutinised in an attempt to cool down irresponsible lending.
china s leaders see reforming the top four banks as vital to distribute capital to
profitable companies and protect the health of china s economic boom. but two
problems persist. first inefficient state enterprises continue to receive
protection from bankruptcy because they employ large numbers of people. second
many questionable loans come not from the big four but from smaller banks. another
high profile financial firm china life is facing shareholder lawsuits and a probe
by the us securities and exchange commission following its 2004 new york listing
over its failure to disclose accounting irregularities at its parent company.
what s next for next-gen consoles the next generation of video games consoles are
in development but what will the new machines mean for games firms and consumers
we may not know when they will be released what they will be called or even what
they will be able to do but one thing is certain - they are coming. sony microsoft
and nintendo are all expected to release new machines in the next 18 months. the
details of playstation 3 xbox 2 (codename xenon) and nintendo s so-called
revolution are still to be finalised but developers are having to work on titles
for the new machines regardless. we know maybe what the ps3 will do but we can
only guess said rory armes studio general manager for video game giant
electronic arts in europe. it s a horrendous effort in the first year he
admitted. microsoft had delivered development kits to ea said mr armes but he
said the company was still waiting on sony and nintendo to send kits. although the
details may not be nailed down mr armes said ea was beginning to get a sense of
the capabilities of the new machines. the rumours are that playstation 3 will have
a little more under the hood [than xbox 2] he said. microsoft is obviously a
software company first and foremost while sony has more experience in hardware. i
think sony will be able to push more into a box at cost. what is certain is that
the new machines will provide great leaps in processing and graphical power. it is
also likely that they will contain convergence technologies to make the machines
more of an entertainment hub. at the consumer electronics show in las vegas
microsoft boss bill gates said xbox 2 would be part of his vision of the digital
lifestyle. while short on detail he painted a picture of a machine that would
complement a pc and offer great video gaming but video gaming for a broader set of
people more communications more media more connectivity . sony is thought to
have a similar vision for ps3 while nintendo remain focused on a machine purely for
games. until it is clear precisely what the new machines can do developers are
working on a first round of titles to harness the new horsepower. gary dunn
development director at codemasters said the company had a central technology
group which was at the forefront of preparing for the next generation of consoles.
we are working on new libraries of effects. a lot of the major techniques are
already out there and in use in pc gaming such as pixel shaders and normal
mapping. mr dunn said he expected the introduction of real-world physics to be a
major part of the new consoles. we want to increase that level of immersion and
realism in gaming to people can lose themselves in a game. in the first year at
least developers said gamers should not expect games which harness the full
potential of the machines. graphical spit and polish and better physics in line
with the capabilities of current high-end graphics cards for pcs should be
expected. simon gardner president of climax s action studio said: it s
definitely an exciting time. we want to give more freedom to the player. we want to
give players an emotional connection to the characters they play. the environments
will be much more believable and dramatic growing and changing as you play. there
will be a breadth of effects more involving worlds to play in. it s a bit like
being an artist and being given a bigger canvas and a smaller brush. we re being
given more tools. for the average consumer we can get things of a more filmic
quality. gerhard florin head of ea in europe said gamers should expect titles
that blur the line between films and video games. many will be sceptical - gamers
were given similar predictions during the last transition of console hardware - but
this time it would seem to be more likely. ps3 will provide graphics
indistinguishable from movies said mr florin. he said the distribution method for
games would also change radically in the next round of consoles. a gamer could buy
a starter disc for 10 euros. when he goes home he goes online and he could buy ai
and levels as you go. it s much smarter if you can get levels as you go. mr
armes warned that developers still had to learn how to tell stories effectively in
the medium. in some ways we are trying to forget about the hardware go in the
opposite direction. we have been very bad at letting technology design our
creativity. what we have to do as a company is start ignoring the technology and
learning our craft in telling stories. mr gardner agreed: we can thrown more
polygons around and have better ai but if it doesn t make for a better game then
that s not very useful. developers will certainly have the tools with the new
machines but how they employ them is still to be decided.
ibm puts cash behind linux push ibm is spending $100m (£52m) over the next three
years beefing up its commitment to linux software. the cash injection will be used
to help its customers use linux on every type of device from handheld computers and
phones right up to powerful servers. ibm said the money will fund a variety of
technical research and marketing initiatives to boost linux use. ibm said it had
taken the step in response to greater customer demand for the open source software.
in 2004 ibm said it had seen double digit growth in the number of customers using
linux to help staff work together more closely. the money will be used to help this
push towards greater collaboration and will add linux-based elements to ibm s
workplace software. workplace is a suite of programs and tools that allow workers
to get at core business applications no matter what device they use to connect to
corporate networks. one of the main focuses of the initiative will be to make it
easier to use linux-based desktop computers and mobile devices with workplace. even
before ibm announced this latest spending boost it was one of the biggest advocates
of the open source way of working. in 2001 it put $300m into a three-year linux
program and has produced linux versions of many of its programs. linux and the open
source software movement are based on the premise that developers should be free to
tinker with the core components of software programs. they reason that more open
scrutiny of software produces better programs and fuels innovation.
bell set for england debut bath prop duncan bell has been added to england s 30-man
squad to face ireland in the rbs six nations. and with phil vickery sidelined for
at least six weeks with a broken arm and julian white out with a neck injury bell
could make his england debut. bell 30 had set his sights on an international
career with wales. but last december the international rugby board confirmed that
he could only be eligible for england as he had travelled on tour with them in
1998. england coach andy robinson could take a gamble and call inexperienced sale
sharks prop andrew sheridan into his front row. but sheridan favours the loosehead
side of the scrum and a more likely scenario is for uncapped bell - who was among
the tryscorers when england a beat france a 30-20 nine days ago - to be drafted in.
robinson also has an injury worry over centre olly barkley who withdrew from bath
s starting line-up to face gloucester last weekend. he was due to have a hospital
scan on monday while gloucester centre henry paul who started at fly-half against
bath limped out at kingsholm because of an ankle problem. despite barkley s three
missed penalties in the 18-17 defeat against france he is expected to retain his
place at inside centre although leicester s in-form prospect ollie smith would be
an obvious replacement. bath coach john connolly rates barkley as no better than a
50/50 chance to make the dublin trip. uncapped fly-half andy goode has been named
in a 30-man training squad for the ireland game and he strengthened his selection
claims by kicking 28 points during leicester s record 83-10 win against newcastle
on sunday. england s players are due to meet at their surrey training base on
monday.
boeing secures giant japan order boeing is to supply japan airlines with up to 50
of its forthcoming 7e7 planes in a deal that could be worth as much as $6bn
(£3.1bn) for the us giant. japan airlines has made a firm order for 30 of the
aircraft at $120m each with the option to buy 20 more. asia s biggest airline
joins japanese rival all nippon as one of the first carriers to order the mid-size
7e7 which boeing says is super-economical. airbus this week announced the first
pre-sale of its 7e7 rival - the a350. boeing s great european competitor is to sell
10 of its forthcoming a350 to spanish carrier air europe which has the option to
buy two more in a deal that could be worth more than $1.8bn. both the 7e7 and the
a350 are being designed to be as fuel-efficient as possible in the 200- to 300-seat
sector and each will be available in both short and long range versions. japan
airlines said it had looked at both aircraft before choosing the 7e7 also known as
the dreamliner. we chose the 7e7 after carefully considering both it and airbus
aircraft said a japan airlines spokesman. the 7e7 fits better for what we needed
and it could be delivered when we hoped to get it. boeing continues to enjoy a
dominance over airbus in japan and japanese companies are taking key roles in
building the 7e7. the first 7e7s will be delivered to japan airlines in april 2008.
boeing has set itself a target of getting 200 firm commitments for the 7e7 by the
end of this year and has orders for 56 so far. airbus hopes to have 50 orders in
place for the a350 by mid-2005.
fido to be taken off vote lists the risk of pets and children being given votes
could be cut by changing how people register to vote the uk elections watchdog has
said. those are some of the mistakes found under the current system where one
person in each household applies for voting forms for the other occupants. the
electoral commission says enabling people to register individually could cut some
errors and combat fraud. voters need to register by 11 march if the next poll is on
5 may as expected. but any individual registration scheme would not be introduced
in britain before that general election. the proposed scheme would mean voters
using individual identifiers when they vote - such as their own voting number
date of birth and signature. the electoral commission says having voters register
individually rather than the head of household do it for them fits better with
human rights laws. chairman sam younger told mps on tuesday care was needed to
ensure that people were not lost off the register in the process - which happened
when northern ireland switched to a similar system. there have been rare cases when
household pets have been put on the electoral roll the mps heard. and some people
have registered all their family regardless of their age - birth dates are not
included on the forms so election officers cannot easily check. non-british
citizens who are not entitled to vote have also been registered in some cases. mr
younger said there was anecdotal evidence of inaccuracies in the register the vast
majority of which were caused by genuine mistakes. he argued local councils could
look harder at promoting targeted campaigns at hard to reach voters for example.
some authorities already run such programmes but in others councillors worry about
the party political impact of encouraging particular areas to turn out. mr younger
said using the royal mail s postal redirection service had already helped election
officers retrace about 50 000 voters. he argued individual registration would also
increase security for postal ballots and other new ways of voting. there have been
fears there are too few checks to ensure current postal votes are cast by the
person on the voting form. he said it might also help register students in halls of
residences where the hall warden often has to do the job for everybody. the mps on
the office of the deputy prime minister and constitutional affairs select
committees pressed mr younger on how to avoid losing voters in any changeover. he
said the northern ireland example illustrated real difficulties to be confronted.
currently british voters have to re-register to vote every year or face being
removed from the electoral rolls if they fail to do so two years running. mr
younger suggested the re-registration could happen less frequently but argued
efforts were needed to check the electoral rolls were up-to-date.
captains lining up for aid match ireland s brian o driscoll is one of four six
nations captains included in the northern hemisphere squad for the irb rugby aid
match on 5 march. france s fabien pelous gordon bullock of scotland and italy s
marco bortolami are also in the northern party. sir clive woodward will coach the
northern team against rod macqueen s southern hemisphere team in a tsumani fund-
raising match at twickenham. i m looking forward to working with such outstanding
players he said. it will be a chance for woodward to assess some of his options
before unveiling his british and irish lions touring party who will visit new
zealand in the summer. the game promises to be a great spectacle he said. both
teams are fielding top-quality sides and i really hope that the rugby public and
community get behind this game to raise as much money as possible for such a
deserving cause. l dallaglio (england) b cohen (england) a rougerie (france) d
traille (france) f pelous (france) r ibanez (france) p de villiers (france) b o
driscoll (ireland capt) p o connell (ireland) d humphreys (ireland) c paterson
(scotland) c cusiter (scotland) g bullock (scotland) s taylor (scotland) a lo
cicero (italy) m bortolami (italy) s parisse (italy) d peel (wales) c sweeney
(wales) j thomas (wales) r williams (wales) j yapp (wales). c latham
(australia); r caucaunibuca (fiji) j fourie (s africa) t umaga (new zealand) s
bobo (fiji); a mehrtens (new zealand) g gregan (australia capt); t kefu
(australia) p waugh (australia) s burger (s africa); i rawaqa (fiji) v matfield
(s africa); k visagie (s africa) j smit (s africa) c hoeft (new zealand).
reserves: b reihana (new zealand) b lima (samoa) e taukafa (tonga) o palepoi
(samoa) s sititi (samoa) m rauluni (fiji) a n other.
libya takes $1bn in unfrozen funds libya has withdrawn $1bn in assets from the us
assets which had previously been frozen for almost 20 years the libyan central
bank has said. the move came after the us lifted a trade ban to reward tripoli for
giving up weapons of mass destruction and vowing to compensate lockerbie victims.
the original size of libya s funds was $400m the central bank told reuters.
however the withdrawal did not mean that libya had cut its ties with the us he
added. we are in the process of opening accounts in banks in the united states
the central bank s vice president farhat omar ben gadaravice said. the previously
frozen assets had been invested in various countries and are believed to have
included equity holdings in banks. the us ban on trade and economic activity with
tripoli - imposed by then president ronald regan in 1986 after a series of what the
us deemed terrorist acts including the 1988 lockerbie air crash - was suspended in
april. bankers from the two country s had been working on how to unfreeze libya s
assets.
barclays profits hit record level barclays the uk s third-biggest bank has seen
annual pre-tax profits climb to record levels boosted by a sharp rise in business
at its investment arm. profits for the year to 31 december rose 20% to £4.6bn
($8.6bn). barclays chief john varley said the bank had caught the winds of a
very strong world economy. earnings at barclays capital investment bank rose 25% to
£1.04bn but investment in branch operations held back growth in its uk retail
business. the group is the first of britain s five big banks to report 2004
results. according to analysts forecasts hsbc the biggest uk bank by stock
market valuation will report profits of £9.4bn later this month. barclays results
were in line with market expectations. its global investors wing made £347m an 82%
jump on 2003 figures. profits at barclaycard rose by 5% to £801m but were said to
have been affected by a series of interest rate rises and investment to grow its
customer base. the bank also blamed margins pressure on its mortgage business and
spending on its branches over the past year for a 1% fall in profits in its uk
retail division to £1.13bn. the outlook for 2005 is good as a result of balance
sheet growth and investments made in 2004 mr varley said. barclays cautioned that
growth this year may be slower than in 2004 on the back of softer us and chinese
economies and the impact of interest rate rises on household spending in the uk. it
added its bid to acquire a controlling stake in south africa s leading retail bank
absa was being considered by regulatory authorities. speaking on bbc radio 4 mr
varley declined to be drawn on reports that barclays had held merger talks with us
bank wells fargo. a tie-up between barclays and california-based wells fargo would
create the world s fourth biggest bank valued at $180bn. at 1405 gmt shares in
barclays were trading down 0.67% at 590 pence. the headline numbers are in line
but the story is costs said analyst alex potter at lehman brothers. they are a
bit more aggressive than we had expected. the cost overshoot is not in barclays
capital but in the uk bank.
celts savour grand slam prospect the six nations has heralded a new order in
northern hemisphere rugby this year and wales and ireland rather than traditional
big guns france and england face a potential grand slam play-off in three weeks
time. but before that game in cardiff wales must get past scotland at murrayfield
while ireland face the not insignificant task of a home fixture with the mercurial
french. no-one knows what mood france will be in at lansdowne road on 12 march -
sublime as in the first half against wales or ridiculous like in the same period
against england at twickenham. but how the mighty have fallen. england sat on rugby
s summit 15 months ago as world champions and 2003 grand slam winners. but they
have lost nine of their 14 matches since that heady night in sydney. and they face
the ignominy of what could amount to a wooden spoon play-off against italy in a
fortnight. england are enduring their worst run in the championship since captain
richard hill was dumped in favour of mike harrison after three straight losses in
1987. coach andy robinson who took over from the successful sir clive woodward in
september has lost a phalanx of world cup stars. and he is enduring the toughest
of teething problems in bedding down his own style with a new team. the same year
that england ruled the roost a woeful wales lost all five matches in the six
nations. and they won only two games against scotland and italy in 2004. wales
most recent championship title was in 1994 and their last grand slam success came
in 1978 in the era of gareth edwards phil bennett jpr williams et al. but welsh
rugby fans remain on permanent tenterhooks for the blossoming of a new golden age.
after several false dawns coach mike ruddock may have come up with the team and
philosophy to match expectations. the fresh verve is inspired by skipper gareth
thomas now out with a broken thumb accurate kicking from either fly-half stephen
jones or centre gavin henson a rampant martyn williams leading the way up front
and exciting runners in the guise of henson and shane williams. ireland coach eddie
o sullivan and captain brian o driscoll have got their side buzzing too and they
are close to shedding the nearly-men tag that has dogged them for the past few
years. the men from the emerald isle have been six nations runners-up for the past
two years to france and england. but they have not won the title since 1985 and
last clinched a grand slam in 1948. as for scotland they have struggled this
decade and the 2004 wooden spoon winners have not been in the top two since they
lifted the title in 1999. italy continue the elusive search for their first six
nations away win and can still only account for the scalps of scotland (twice) and
wales since joining the elite in 2000. coach john kirwan is a passionate and
dedicated believer in the azzurri but is lacking in raw materials. and so to
france. brilliant one minute inept the next. but the reigning champions could
quite easily turn on the style in dublin and end up winning the title through the
back door. ireland though have won three times in their last five meetings. welsh
romantics would probably prefer a glorious victory in the celtic showdown to crown
their grand slam. but given that ireland have beaten wales in four of their last
five meetings the welsh legions are likely to be behind les bleus on 12 march.
blogs take on the mainstream web logs or blogs are everywhere with at least an
estimated five million on the web and that number is set to grow. these online
diaries come in many shapes and styles ranging from people willing to sharing
their views pictures and links to companies interested in another way of reaching
their customers. but this year the focus has been on blogs which cast a critical
eye over news events often writing about issues ignored by the big media or
offering an eye-witness account of events. most blogs may have only a small
readership but communication experts say they have provided an avenue for people
to have a say in the world of politics. the most well-known examples include iraqi
salam pax s accounts of the us-led war former iranian vice-president mohammad ali
abtahi exclusive insight into the islamic republic s government and the highs and
lows of the recent us election campaign. there are already websites pulling
together these first-hand reporting accounts heralded by blogs like wikinews.com
launched last november. the blogging movement has been building up for many years.
andrew nachison director of the media center a us-based think-tank that studies
media technology and society highlights the us presidential race as a possible
turning point for blogs. you could look at that as a moment when audiences
exercised a new form of power to choose among many more sources of information
than they have never had before he says. and blogs were a key part of that
transformation. among them were blogs carrying picture messages saying we are
sorry for george w bush s victory and the responses from his supporters. mr
nachison argues blogs have become independent sources for images and ideas that
circumvent traditional sources of news and information such as newspapers tv and
radio. we have to acknowledge that in all of these cases mainstream media
actually plays a role in the discussion and the distribution of these ideas he
told the bbc news website. but they followed the story they didn t lead it.
some parts of the so-called traditional media have expressed concerns about this
emerging competitor raising questions about the journalistic value of blogs.
others like the french newspaper le monde have applied a different strategy
offering blogs as part of its content. i don t think the mission and role of
journalism is threatened. it is in transition as society itself is in transition
says mr nachison. however he agrees with other experts like the linguist and
political analyst noam chomsky that mainstream media has lost the traditional role
of news gatekeeper. the one-to-many road of traditional journalism yes it is
threatened. and professional journalists need to acclimate themselves to an
environment in which there are many more contributors to the discourse says mr
nachison. the notion of a gatekeeper who filters and decides what s acceptable for
public consumption and what isn t that s gone forever. with people now walking
around with information devices in their pockets like camera or video phones we
are going to see more instances of ordinary citizens breaking stories. it seems
unlikely that we will end up living in a planet where every human is a blogger.
but the current number of blogs is likely to keep on growing in a web already
overloaded with information. blog analysis firm technorati estimates the number of
blogs in existence the so-called blogosphere has already exceeded five million
and is growing at exponential levels. tools such as google s blogger movabletype
and the recently launched beta version of msn spaces are making it easier to run a
blog. us research think-tank pew internet & american life says a blog is created
every 5.8 seconds although less than 40% of the total are updated at least once
every two months. but experts agree that the phenomenon allowing individuals to
publish share ideas exchange information comment on current issues post images
or video on the web easily is here to stay. we are entering one era in which the
technological infrastructure is creating a different context for how we tell our
stories and how we communicate with each other said mr nachison. and there s
going to be bad that comes with the good.
rush future at chester uncertain ian rush s future as chester manager is uncertain
after he and assistant mark aizlewood refused a severance package. chester have
won only two of their last 10 league games but chairman steve vaughan claims he
cannot afford to sack the 43-year-old liverpool legend. vaughan said: i offered a
financial settlement so they could resign with dignity but an obvious action is to
dismiss them. i haven t because of the finances so technically they re still
employees. vaughan claimed that aizlewood had verbally agreed to the offer. but
the chester chairman added: after they discussed the offer with their solicitor
who also acts as their agent they decided to withdraw the verbal agreement which
was disappointing. rush was appointed at the end of august following the departure
of former liverpool team-mate mark wright who guided chester to the conference
title last season. chester were bottom of league two when rush took over but the
former liverpool striker enjoyed an impressive start to managerial life taking the
club into the third round of the fa cup and winning the manager-of-the-month award
for october. chester s downturn in form culminated in a 5-0 defeat at shrewsbury
that leaves them hovering just above the league two relegation zone.
camera phones are must-haves four times more mobiles with cameras in them will be
sold in europe by the end of 2004 than last year says a report from analysts
gartner. globally the number sold will reach 159 million an increase of 104%.
the report predicts that nearly 70% of all mobile phones sold will have a built-in
camera by 2008. improving imaging technology in mobiles is making them an
increasingly must-have buy. in europe cameras on mobiles can take 1.3 megapixel
images. but in japan and asia pacific where camera phone technology is much more
advanced mobiles have already been released which can take 3.2 megapixel images.
japan still dominates mobile phone technology and the uptake there is huge. by
2008 according to gartner 95% of all mobiles sold there will have cameras on
them. camera phones had some teething problems when they were first launched as
people struggled with poor quality images and uses for them as well as the
complexity and expense of sending them via mms (multimedia messaging services).
this has changed in the last 18 months. handset makers have concentrated on trying
to make phones easier to use. realising that people like to use their camera phones
in different ways they have introduced more design features like rotating screens
and viewfinders removable memory cards and easier controls to send picture
messages. mobile companies have introduced more ways for people to share photos
with other people. these have included giving people easier ways to publish them on
websites or mobile blogs - moblogs. but the report suggests that until image
quality increases more people will not be interested in printing out pictures at
kiosks. image sensor technology inside cameras phones is improving. the gartner
report suggests that by mid-2005 it is likely that the image resolution of most
camera phones will be more than two megapixels. consumer digital cameras images
range from two to four megapixels in quality and up to six megapixels on a high-
end camera. but a lot of work is being done to make camera phones more like digital
cameras. some handsets already feature limited zoom capability and manufacturers
are looking into technological improvements that will let people take more photos
in poorly-lit conditions like nightclubs. other developments include wide-angle
modes basic editing features and better sensors and processors for recording film
clips. images from camera phones have even made it into the art world. an
exhibition next month in aid of the charity mencap will feature snaps taken from
the camera phones of top artists. the exhibition fonetography will feature
images taken by photographers david bailey rankin and nan goldin and artists sir
peter blake tracey emin and jack vettriano. but some uses for them have worried
many organisations. intel samsung the uk s foreign office and lawrence livermore
national laboratories in the us have decided to ban camera phones from their
buildings for fear of sensitive information being snapped and leaked. many schools
fitness centres and local councils have also banned them over fears about privacy
and misuse. italy s information commissioner has also voiced concern and has issued
guidelines on where and how the phones can be used. but camera phone fears have not
dampened the manufacturers profits. according to recent figures sony ericsson s
profits tripled in the third-quarter because of new camera phones. over 60% of
mobiles sold during the three months through to september featured integrated
cameras it said.
rock group korn s guitarist quits the guitarist with us rock band korn has quit the
music business saying he made the decision after experiencing a religious
awakening. brian head welch told a radio station in california that his
bandmates respected his decision to leave. a replacement guitarist has yet to be
named by korn who are currently at work on their eighth studio album. welch added
that he would appear at a church in bakersfield to explain how he got to this
place in life . the remaining members of korn who are known for their hardcore
brand of rock said they hoped welch finds the happiness he is looking for . the
34-year-old made reference to the band s aggressive brand of music and its young
fans in his parting statement. anger is a good thing and if kids want to listen
to korn good but there s happiness after the anger he told his local radio
station in bakersfield. i m going to show it through my actions how much i love
my fans added welch. korn have enjoyed a moderate degree of chart success in the
uk with 10 singles breaking into the top 40. their best performance to date in the
uk has been 2002 s here to stay which reached number 12 while their album
untouchables released in the same year made it to number four.
wales coach elated with win mike ruddock paid tribute to his wales side after they
came from 15-6 down to beat france 24-18 in the six nations. after going two
tries down in 12 minutes we had to show character said the national team coach.
i didn t have to tell them anything at half-time because those players have stared
down the barrel of a gun before. they decided they didn t want to do that again
and came out fighting. it was a great team effort and we showed great character to
come back. man-of-the-match stephen jones who kicked three penalties a drop goal
and conversion was ecstatic following after the win at stade de france. it s
just a special moment. two years ago we didn t win a single game in the six
nations. but we re a very happy camp now he said. we worked hard as a squad and
i m a proud welshman. we ve got hard matches to come so we re just happy with the
start. double try scorer martyn williams was keen not to talk about a possible
grand slam for wales. we ve got more self-belief these days. two or three years
ago we might have collapsed after going behind so early. there s no mention of a
grand slam among the players. we ve got a tough game against scotland at
murrayfield. they could bring us crashing down to earth.
gatlin and hayes win owen awards american olympic stars justin gatlin and joanna
hayes have been named the winners of the 2004 jesse owens awards usa track & field
s (usatf) top honour. gatlin 22 won the closest 100m final in games history with
a career-best time of 9.85 seconds in athens. he also won bronze in the 200m and
silver in the 4x100m relay becoming the only male athlete to win three athletics
medals this summer. hayes 27 set an olympic record of 12.37 in winning the 100m
hurdles. established in 1981 the jesse owens awards - named in honour of the late
olympic great who won four gold medals at the 1936 berlin games - are presented
annually to the outstanding us male and female track and field performers. the
2004 awards will be presented on 3 december in conjunction with the usatf annual
meeting in portland. it is such a great honour to win the jesse owens award said
gatlin. it is one of the biggest honours in track and field and it is a great end
to a great year. hayes said: knowing some of the great people who have won this
award before me and knowing what it represents i feel a sense accomplishment and
pride which lets me know that everything that i have worked for is and always will
be worth it.
charity single for quake relief singers including sir cliff richard and boy george
are recording a charity single to help raise funds for victims of the asian
tsunami. they hope the song will raise more than £2m for the relief fund. the song
titled grief never grows old and described as a melancholy ballad was written by
radio dj mike read. former boyzone singer ronan keating may also take part if a
studio can be found close to where he is holidaying in switzerland. other music
stars being approached include robin and barry gibb of the bee gees jazz sensation
jamie cullum chris rea and olivia newton-john. sir cliff has recorded his vocal
part in barbados while boy george has recorded his in new york. read wrote the
song before the boxing day tragedy but had thought it was too gloomy to release.
now he plans to have it recorded by a collection of pop stars under the name one
world project. it s a natural home for it because people kept saying to me it s
such a good song but it s such a sad song read said. he said the song was a
slow ballad and would work with around 10 singers rather than a sing-along like
the band aid 20 single raising money for famine relief in africa. the backing track
has already been recorded and organisers hope it can be finished within the next
week to get it into record shops as soon as possible. read went to the disasters
emergency committee (dec) which is co-ordinating the british relief effort with
the idea the day after boxing day. i was totally shocked at the enormity and
suddenness of the disaster and in tears on seeing the orphaned children wandering
aimlessly in search of their parents he said. read said all the funds raised by
the record would go to the dec. i d only be pleased in terms of what it meant for
sales if it got to number one he added. the charity welcomed the news of the
single and said money raised would help its agencies working in the affected region
to rebuild survivors lives and livelihoods.
standard life concern at lse bid standard life is the latest shareholder in
deutsche boerse to express concern at the german stock market operator s plans to
buy the london stock exchange. it said deutsche boerse had to show why its planned
£1.35bn ($2.5bn) offer for the lse was good for shareholder value. reports say
standard life which owns a 1% stake in deutsche boerse may seek a shareholder
vote on the issue. fellow shareholders us-based hedge fund atticus capital and uk-
based tci fund management have also expressed doubts. deutsche boerse s
supervisory board has approved the possible takeover of the lse despite the signs
of opposition from investors. the onus is on deutsche boerse s management to
demonstrate why the purchase of the lse creates more value for shareholders than
other strategies such as a buyback said richard moffat investment director of
uk equities at standard life investments. atticus capital holding 2% of deutsche
boerse wants it to buy back its own shares rather than buy the lse. and tci which
holds about 5% has made a request for an extraordinary shareholders meeting to be
held to vote on replacing the company s entire supervisory board. it has also
demanded that shareholders be consulted about the proposed acquisition and whether
the operator of the frankfurt stock exchange should return $500m (£266m) to
shareholders instead. in december deutsche boerse which also owns the
derivatives market eurex and the clearing firm clearstream put an informal offer
of 530 pence per lse share on the table. however the lse said the cash offer
undervalued both its own business and the benefits of such a tie-up. since then an
improved offer from deutsche boerse has been anticipated as its management has
continued talks with lse chief executive clara furse. but the london exchange is
also holding talks with deutsche boerse s rival euronext which operates the
amsterdam brussels lisbon and paris exchanges as well as london-based
international derivatives market liffe.
wi-fi web reaches farmers in peru a network of community computer centres linked
by wireless technology is providing a helping hand for poor farmers in peru. the
pilot scheme in the huaral valley 80 kilometres north of the capital lima aims to
offer the 6 000-strong community up-to-date information on agricultural market
prices and trends. the agricultural information project for farmers of the chancay-
huaral valley also provides vital links between local organisations in charge of
water irrigation enabling them to coordinate their actions. more than 13 000 rural
inhabitants as well as 18 000 students in the region will also benefit from the
telecoms infrastructure. the 14 telecentres uses only free open source software
and affordable computer equipment. the network has been three years in the making
and was officially inaugurated in september. the non-government organisation
cepes (peruvian centre for social studies) led the $200 000 project also backed by
local institutions the education and agriculture ministries and european
development organisations. the plan includes training on computers and internet
skills for both operators and users of the system said carlos saldarriaga
technical coordinator at cepes. farmers are also taking extra lessons on how to
apply the new information to make the most of their plots of land. the board of
irrigation users which runs the computer centres aims to make the network self-
sustainable within three years through the cash generated by using the telecentres
as internet cafes. one of the key elements of the project is the agricultural
information system with its flagship huaral.org website. there farmers can find
the prices for local produce as well as information on topics ranging from plague
prevention to the latest farming techniques. the system also helps the inhabitants
of the chancay-huaral valley to organise their vital irrigation systems. water is
the main element that unites them all. it is a precious element in peru s coastal
areas because it is so scarce and therefore it is necessary to have proper
irrigation systems to make the most of it mr saldarriaga told the bbc news
website. the information network also allows farmers to look beyond their own
region and share experiences with other colleagues from the rest of peru and even
around the world. cepes says the involvement of the farmers has been key in the
project s success. throughout the last three years the people have provided a
vital thrust to the project; they feel it belongs to them said mr saldarriaga.
the community training sessions attended by an equal number of men and women have
been the perfect showcase for their enthusiasm. we have had an excellent response
mainly from young people. but we have also had a great feedback when we trained 40
or 50-year old women who were seeing a computer for the first time in their lives.
so far the huaral programme promoters say the experience has been very positive
and are already planning on spreading the model among other farmers organisations
in peru. this is a pilot project and we have been very keen on its cloning
potential in other places underlined mr saldarriaga. the cepes researcher
recalls what happened in cuyo a 50-family community with no electricity during
the construction of the local telecentre site. there it was necessary to build a
mini-hydraulic dam in order to generate 2kw worth of power for the computers the
communications equipment and the cabin lights. it was already dark when the
technicians realised they didn t have any light bulbs to test the generator so
they turned up to the local store to buy light bulbs recalls carlos saldarriaga.
the logical answer was we don t sell any so they had to wait until the next
morning to do the testing. now with the wireless network cuyo as well as the
other communities is no longer isolated.
spain coach faces racism inquiry spain s football federation has initiated
disciplinary action against national coach luis aragones over racist comments about
thierry henry. if found guilty aragones could lose his job or face a fine of about
£22 000. the federation had initially declined to take action against aragones
after comments he made during a national team training session in october. but its
president angel maria villar changed his mind after a request by spain s anti-
violence commission. aragones insisted the comments made to henry s arsenal club-
mate jose antonio reyes were meant to motivate the player and were not intended
to be offensive. i never intended to offend anyone and for that reason i have a
very easy conscience he said at the time. i m obliged to motivate my players to
get the best results. as part of that job i use colloquial language with which
we can all understand each other within the framework of the football world.
england s players made a point of wearing anti-racism t-shirts when training before
their friendly against spain in madrid last month. but the storm increased
following racist chanting by spanish fans at england s black players during the
game which spain won 1-0. spain s minister of sport jaime lissavetzky was quick to
give his backing to the federation s decision. everyone who has a public function
has to consider their declarations and make sure they do not give a negative image
he said. we are going to have zero tolerance in questions of racism.
lions blow to world cup stars british and irish lions coach clive woodward says he
is unlikely to select any players not involved in next year s rbs six nations
championship. world cup winners lawrence dallaglio neil back and martin johnson
had all been thought to be in the frame for next summer s tour to new zealand. i
don t think you can ever say never said woodward. but i would have to have a
compulsive reason to pick any player who is not available to international rugby.
dallaglio back and johnson have all retired from international rugby over the last
12 months but continue to star for their club sides. but woodward added: the key
thing that i want to stress is that i intend to use the six nations and the players
who are available to international rugby as the key benchmark. my job along with
all the other senior representatives is to make sure that we pick the strongest
possible team. if you are not playing international rugby then it s still a step
up to test rugby. it s definitely a disadvantage. i think it s absolutely
critical and with the history of the lions we have got to take players playing for
the four countries. woodward also revealed that the race for the captaincy was
still wide open. it is an open book he said. there are some outstanding
candidates from all four countries. and following the all blacks impressive
displays in europe in recent weeks including a 45-6 humiliation of france
woodward believes the three-test series in new zealand will provide the ultimate
rugby challenge. their performance in particular against france was simply awesome
said the lions coach. certain things have been suggested about the potency of
their front five but they re a very powerful unit. with his customary
thoroughness woodward revealed he had taken soundings from australia coach eddie
jones and jake white of south africa following their tour matches in britain and
ireland. as a result woodward stressed his lions group might not be dominated by
players from england and ireland and held out hope for the struggling scots.
scotland s recent results have not been that impressive but there have been some
excellent individual performances. eddie in particular told me how tough they had
made it for australia and i will take on board their opinions. and scotland
forward simon taylor looks certain to get the call provided he recovers from knee
and tendon problems. i took lessons from 2001 in that they did make a mistake in
taking lawrence dallaglio when he wasn t fit and went on the trip. every player
has to be looked at on their own merits and simon taylor is an outstanding player
and i have no doubts that if he gets back to full fitness he will be on the trip.
i am told he should be back playing by march and he has plenty of time to prove his
fitness for the lions - and there are other players like richard hill in the same
boat.
brown proud of economy record gordon brown has delivered a rousing speech to
labour s spring conference setting out the government s agenda for the next general
election. the chancellor said he was proud of his party s record on the economy
and would strive for continuing stability if elected. the gateshead conference was
told he would help young people who were struggling to buy their own homes. and the
chancellor vowed to continue the fight against child poverty. later prime minister
tony blair will answer questions sent by the public via text and e-mail. analysing
mr brown s position before the speech bbc correspondent james hardy said mr brown
would draw sharp dividing lines with the conservatives for the forthcoming
election campaign. he would contrast labour s plan to invest £60bn in services with
a tory plan to cut spending by £35bn. mr brown will lay out his credentials as a
reforming chancellor determined to take on and beat the asian tiger economies which
increasingly dominate world trade our correspondent said. on friday night mr
brown confirmed he would not make any tax commitments until the labour manifesto
had been published after the budget expected in march. but commentators will
listen to his speech closely for hints on whether as the conservatives claim he
plans to raise tax after the election. the tories accuse labour of raising taxes 66
times since coming to power in 1997. following the chancellor s keynote speech
the prime minister will face interactive questioning from ordinary voters on
saturday. mr blair is thought to be deliberately putting himself on the line in a
bid to engage the electorate ahead of an expected may election. capital radio dj
margherita taylor will select questions to put to him from thousands e-mailed and
sent by text. the prime minister s enthusiasm for the job remains undimmed alan
milburn labour s election strategist told radio 4 s today programme on saturday.
mr blair has the same passion and the same commitments for the job as when labour
came to power in 1997 he said. and he confirmed mr blair s insistence that no
poll date had yet been set. he said: i m the general election co-ordinator and i
don t know and tony has not made up his mind. on friday the prime minister
completed a whistle-stop tour of england during which he unveiled his party s six
pre-election pledges. starting in london he visited marginal constituencies
pledging to build on what he said were labour s achievements on the economy crime
education and public services. the conservatives and lib dems said the pledges -
set to underpin labour s election campaign - were worthless .
set your television to wow television started off as a magical blurry image. then
came the sharpness the colour and the widescreen format. now the tv set is taking
another leap forward into a crystal clear future although those in europe will
have to be patient. after years of buzz about high-definition tv (hdtv) it is
finally taking off in a handful of countries around the world mainly the us and
japan. if you believe the hype then hdtv will so wow you that you will never want
to go back to your old telly. hdtv is just the latest must-have technology in
viewers homes says jo flaherty a senior broadcaster with the cbs network in the
us. all television images are made up of pixels going across the screen and scan
lines going down. british tv pictures are made up of 625 lines and about 700
pixels. by contrast hdtv offers up to 1 080 active lines with each line made up
of 1 920 pixels. the result is a picture which can be up to six times as sharp as
standard tv. but to get the full impact programmes need to be broadcast in this
format and you need a hdtv set to receive them. most new computer displays are
already capable of handling high-resolution pictures. viewers in japan the us
australia canada and south korea are already embracing the new tv technology with
a selection of primetime programmes being broadcast in the new format which
includes 5.1 digital surround sound. but tv viewers in europe will have to wait to
enjoy the eye-blasting high-definition images. many high-end european tv
programmes such as the recent athens olympics are already being produced in high-
definition. but they still reach your screen in the old 625 lines. the prospects
for getting sharper images soon do not seem very encouraging. according to
consultants strategy analytics only 12% of homes in europe will have tvs capable
of showing programmes in high-definition by 2008. but the hdtv hype spilling out of
the us and japan has spurred european broadcasters and consumer electronic
companies to push for change. big sports and entertainment events are set to help
trigger the general public s attention. the 2006 world cup in germany will be
broadcast in high-definition. in the uk satellite broadcaster bskyb is planning
hdtv services in 2006. there is already a hdtv service in europe called euro1080.
other european broadcasters especially in france and germany also aiming to
launch similar services. in britain digital satellite and cable are largely seen
as the natural home for hdtv at least while a decision is taken regarding
terrestrial broadcast options. the communications watchdog ofcom could hand over
some terrestrial frequencies freed up when the uk switches off its analogue tv
signal. for now broadcasters like the bbc are working on their own hdtv plans
although with no launch date in sight. the bbc will start broadcasting in hdtv
when the time is right and it would not be just a showcase but a whole set of
programming says andy quested from the bbc s high-definition support group. we
have made the commitment to produce all our output in high-definition by 2010
which would put us on the leading edge. one of the options under consideration is
to offer high-definition pictures on the web. the bbc has already dipped its toe
into this including some hdtv content in recent trials of its interactive media
player - a video player for pcs. it is planning to offer special releases of
selected flagship programmes online in the near future. according to mr quested
this could help put europe back into the running in the race to switch to hdtv.
this is backed by recent research which suggests that the number of europeans with
broadband has exploded over the past 12 months with the web eating into tv viewing
habits.
green reports shun supply chain nearly 20% more uk top 250 firms produced non-
financial reports on social and environment issues than last year. but of the 145
companies reporting 76% didn t examine their supply chains says the annual
directions survey. green groups say putting pressure on supply chains is a major
way companies can reduce their environmental impact. the survey is published by
corporate social responsibility firm context and branding firm salterbaxter. blake
lee-harwood campaigns director at greenpeace in the uk said: it s fairly
meaningless to talk about your company s direction in terms of sustainability
without having detailed knowledge of your supply chain. it s also important to get
some kind of independent assessment of your reporting. less than a quarter of
companies (24%) get their corporate social responsibility (csr) reports
independently verified to provide assurances they are accurate and complete says
the survey. to date there are no set standards for non-financial reporting
although the global reporting initiative an independent pro-sustainability
institution is planning to establish some. the reports surveyed by directions are
published voluntarily. they are usually called corporate social responsibility
(csr) reports sustainability reports or social and environmental reports. peter
knight director of context says 24 uk top 250 companies reported for the first
time this year and in general the quality of reports has improved. the corporate
lexicon of homilies generalities and soft assurances - fluff - is on its way out.
there are less pictures of smiling children and butterflies. the uk government
will soon require all quoted companies to report their social and environmental
risks in a chapter in their annual reports called the operating and financial
review. the regulation is not expected until 2005 and the first reports under this
scheme will not be published before 2006. the us seems to lag europe in producing
corporate social responsibility reports. the majority of european top 50 companies
(44) publish them and only 27 of the us top 50.
cherie accused of attacking bush cherie blair has been accused of criticising
george w bush s policies in a private address she gave during a united states
lecture tour. the prime minister s wife is said to have praised the supreme court
for overruling the white house on the legal rights of guantanamo bay detainees. the
tories said she broke a convention that british political figures do not act in a
partisan way when abroad. but downing street said she was speaking in her capacity
as a lawyer. it said she was not expressing political opinions. mrs blair s remarks
are said to have been made in a speech to law students in massachusetts. she said
the decision by the us supreme court to give legal protection to two britons held
at guantanamo bay was a significant victory for human rights and the international
rule of law. she also described the us legal code as an outdated grandfather clock
and welcomed a decision to throw out a law backed by mr bush relating to sodomy in
texas. bbc news correspondent gary o donoghue said mrs blair was likely to face
further calls for restraint since the us election is imminent. there have been
some objections from people reasonably close to the bush administration about her
making these comments in their backyard just two days before a presidential
election he said. conservatives here too have made their feelings clear. cherie
booth has always regarded herself as having an independent career. she has
continued to practise as a major human rights lawyer in the courts. it s not
unusual for her to make these sorts of criticisms clear but it can be embarrassing.
dallaglio his own man to the end controversy and lawrence dallaglio have never been
very far away from each other throughout a glittering international career. even
the end of his nine-year career came out of the blue just four days before the
start of the season. but then dallaglio has always been his own man. ever since
emerging onto the international scene dallaglio has polarised opinions. to
supporters of england dallaglio could do no wrong. an integral part of a sustained
period of success for england dallaglio s crowning glory was his part in the side
that won the rugby world cup in 2003. rival fans meanwhile have tended to take
an alternative view seeing dallaglio as the epitome of the less agreeable
characteristics of english rugby. never afraid to speak his mind be it to the
referee or the opposition on the pitch or his coach or the media off it dallaglio
has sometimes rubbed people up the wrong way. dallaglio arrived as part of the
unheralded england side which became the shock winners of the first rugby sevens
world cup in 1993. it took him another two years to graduate to the full england xv
but once there he proved to the manor born. displaying maturity and physical power
beyond his years dallaglio rapidly established himself as an automatic choice able
to play any one of the three back-row positions at international standard. within
two years of his debut dallaglio was offered the england captain s band and his
career continued to go from strength to strength as he made the 1997 lions tour to
south africa. although overlooked for the captaincy in favour of england team-mate
martin johnson he played a massive role in the 2-1 series victory. but after
building up a seemingly unstoppable momentum dallaglio s career hit the buffers at
speed in 1999. first came the last-minute defeat to wales in which dallaglio s
decision not to kick for goal in the dying minutes was blamed for costing england a
grand slam. worse was to follow though as an infamous newspaper sting cost him his
treasured england captaincy. with sensational allegations of drug use - of which he
was subsequently cleared - splashed across the front pages a devastated dallaglio
stepped down as england skipper. but he bounced back getting his head down at club
level before returning to the england fold albeit now as a lieutenant to new
captain johnson. as a member of a new-look england side on the long road to world
cup glory - a journey not without mishaps as a succession of grand slams
opportunities were spurned - dallaglio emerged as a key performer once again. yet
another setback arrived in 2001 as a serious knee injury cut short dallaglio s
involvement on the lions tour to australia. rumours began to circulate that his
career was over but in typical dallaglio style he embarked on a punishing
schedule of rehabilitation to return an even more fearsome physical specimen. one
effect of the injury was to rob dallaglio of much of his pace but ever the
pragmatist he reinvented himself as a close quarters number eight of the highest
calibre. the only player to play every minute of england s world cup triumph in
australia dallaglio could hardly have done more to secure england s historic win
and for that he will always be held in the highest esteem by england supporters.
following johnson s retirement dallaglio s career came full circle as woodward
restored him as england captain. while england did not hit the heights in dallaglio
s second spell as captain losing five of their eight post-world cup tests
dallaglio led by example leaving him as one of the few members of a squad lacking
many world cup stars to live up to expectations. dallaglio walks away from the
international game safe in the knowledge that he will go down as one of england s
most accomplished players if not one of the great captains despite his evident
pride in leading his country. the problem now for england is how to replace the
almost irreplaceable. the likes of matt dawson jonny wilkinson phil vickery and
hill have all been mentioned as contenders for dallaglio s role as captain. but it
is as a player that england will really struggle to replace the 32-year-old.
although players like joe worsley and chris jones are more than capable of stepping
up the fact that there is no stand-out candidate speaks volumes about dallaglio s
massive influence on english rugby.
woodward eyes brennan for lions toulouse s former irish international trevor
brennan could be one of clive woodward s many surprises when the 44-man lions tour
squad is announced. brennan who last played for ireland against samoa in 2001 is
held in high esteem by the former england coach. if you speak to the players there
s a huge amount of respect for the guy woodward told the sunday independent.
players tend to know better than most coaches. it s not just the irish but welsh
and english players as well. the 31-year-old former dublin milkman moved from
leinster to toulouse in 2003 and immediately picked up a heineken cup winner s
medal in an all-french final against perpignan at lansdowne road. brennan is
highly-rated at stade toulousain where he is used anywhere in the back five.
woodward is ensuring his preparations for the trip to new zealand in june are as
thorough as possible. i ve spoken to quite a few players and they probably don t
know what they re actually saying when we re having these conversations he told
the newspaper. but you talk about certain players and they ll say if they think
they re up to scratch or that they don t want them in their team. i haven t heard
a bad word said against trevor which considering he has a pretty tough guy
reputation is to me impressive.
tsunami won t divert africa aid uk aid to help the victims of the asian tsunami
disaster will not take much needed relief from africa prime minister tony blair
has promised. mr blair told the bbc s breakfast with frost show the money spent on
the tsunami would not invade the money britain wanted to spend on africa.
questioned about the disaster he said his faith in god had not been shaken. he
added he would give new figures on the number of tsunami-related british deaths to
the commons on monday. foreign secretary jack straw said on friday that about 440
britons were either dead or missing in the disaster. mr blair told sunday s
programme: since jack straw gave those figures a couple of days ago they haven t
moved a great deal which should give us some hope that we are beginning to reach
the peak of the numbers. but we just can t be sure. it is just an immensely
difficult job to get absolutely accurate figures all countries are struggling with
this. he said the £50 million originally allocated from the department for
international development was now well on the way to being spent. but the exact
allocation could not be clarified until the world bank had completed its assessment
of the needs of the countries affected. within the next few weeks a clearer picture
would emerge of the long-term costs of reconstruction he added. but he pledged
that africa - which sees a preventable tsunami-size death toll every month from
conflict disease and poverty - would not be neglected. as britain takes up its
presidency of the g8 group of leading nations mr blair said ministers had a big
agenda for africa. for the first time we have a plan that won t just deal with aid
and debt but will also deal on issues of governance within african countries and
conflict resolution he said. a lot of the problems in africa come from conflict
that again are preventable but only with the right systems in place.
wal-mart is sued over rude lyrics the parents of a 13-year-old girl are suing us
supermarket giant wal-mart over a cd by rock group evanescence that contains swear
words. the lawsuit filed in washington county alleges wal-mart deceived
customers by not putting warning labels on the cover. trevin skeens alleges wal-
mart knew of the offending word because it had censored it on its music sales
website. wal-mart said it was investigating the claims but had no plans to pull the
cd. wal-mart has a policy of not stocking cds which carry parental advisory labels.
mr skeens said he bought the anywhere but home cd for his daughter and was shocked
to hear the swearing when it was played in their car. i don t want any other
families to get this expecting it to be clean. it needs to be removed from the
shelves to prevent other children from hearing it said mr skeens of brownsville.
the lawsuit seeks to force wal-mart to censor the music or remove it from its
stores in maryland. it also seeks damages of up to $74 500 (£38 660) for every
customer who bought the cd at maryland wal-marts and also naming record label
wind-up records and distributor bmg entertainment in the legal action. while wal-
mart sets high standards it would not be possible to eliminate every image word
or topic that an individual might find objectionable wal-mart spokesman guy
whitcomb told the herald-mail of hagerstown.
peer-to-peer nets here to stay peer-to-peer (p2p) networks are here to stay and
are on the verge of being exploited by commercial media firms says a panel of
industry experts. once several high-profile legal cases against file-sharers are
resolved this year firms will be very keen to try and make money from p2p
technology. the expert panel probed the future of p2p at the consumer electronics
show in las vegas earlier in january. the first convictions for p2p piracy were
handed out in the us in january. william trowbridge and michael chicoine pleaded
guilty to charges that they infringed copyright by illegally sharing music movies
and software. since the first successful file-sharing network napster was forced to
close down the entertainment industry has been nervous and critical of p2p
technology blaming it for falling sales and piracy. but that is going to change
very soon according to the panel. the music and film industries have started some
big legal cases against owners of legitimate p2p networks - which are not illegal
in themselves - and of individuals accused of distributing pirated content over
networks. but they have slowly realised that p2p is a good way to distribute
content said travis kalanick founder and chairman of p2p network red swoosh and
soon they are all going to want a slice of it. they are just waiting to come up
with business models that work for them which includes digital rights management
and copy-protection standards. but until the legal actions are resolved
experimentation with p2p cannot not happen said michael weiss president of
streamcast networks. remembering the furore around vcrs when they first came out
mr weiss said: old media always tries to stop new media. when they can t stop it
they try to control it. then they figure out how to make money and they always make
a lot of money. once the courts decided that the vcr in itself was not an illegal
technology the film studios turned it into an extremely lucrative business. in
august 2004 the san francisco-based us court of appeals ruled in favour of
grokster and streamcast two file-sharing networks. the court said they were
essentially in the same position that sony was in the 1980s vcr battle and said
that the networks themselves could not be deemed as illegal. p2p networks usually
do not rely on dedicated servers for the transfer of files. instead it uses direct
connections between computers - or clients. there are now many different types of
p2p systems than work in different ways. p2p nets can be used to share any kind of
file like photos free software licensed music and any other digital content. the
bbc has already decided to embrace the technology. it aims to offer most of its own
programmes for download this year and it will use p2p technology to distribute
them. the files would be locked seven days after a programme aired making rights
management easier to control. but the technology is still demonised and
misunderstood by many. the global entertainment industry says more than 2.6 billion
copyrighted music files are downloaded every month and about half a million films
are downloaded a day. legal music download services like apple itunes napster
have rushed into the music marketplace to try and lure file-sharers away from free
content. sales of legally-downloaded songs grew tenfold in 2004 with 200 million
tracks bought online in the us and europe in 12 months the ifpi reported this
week. but such download services are very different from p2p networks not least
because of the financial aspect. there are several money-spinning models that
could turn p2p into a golden egg for commercial entertainment companies. paid-for-
pass-along in which firms receive money each time a file is shared along with
various drm solutions and advertiser-based options are all being considered. we
see there are going to be different models for commoditising p2p said marc
morgenstern vice president of anti-piracy firm overpeer. consumers are hungry
for it and we will discover new models together agreed mr morgenstern. but many
net users will continue to ignore the entertainment industry s potential
controlling grip on content and p2p technology by continuing to use it for their
own creations. unsigned bands for example use p2p networks to distribute their
music effectively which also draws the attention of record companies looking for
new artists to sign. increasingly what you are seeing on p2p is consumer-created
content said derek broes from microsoft. they will probably play an increasing
role in helping p2p spread he said. looking into p2p s future file sharing is
just the beginning for p2p networks as far as mr broes is concerned. once some of
these issues are resolved you are going to see aggressive movement to protect
content but also in ways that are unimaginable now he said. file-sharing is the
tip of the iceberg.
napster offers rented music to go music downloading for those that have rejected
the free peer to peer services can be a costly business. the cost of paying even
as little as 70p per track can add up particularly for those people who own one of
the new generation of players that can store thousands of songs. paying per track
for music is becoming as outmoded as paying per minute for internet access and
alternative monthly or yearly subscription models are springing up as a more
convenient and ultimately cheaper way of owning music. music fans are moving
away from buying the traditional bundled package of a dozen or more songs that we
used to call an album to newer ways that fit their lifestyle; either single tracks
or subscriptions services said paul myers chief executive of wippit a uk-based
music download service. while itunes is doing good business with its sales of
individual tracks to ipod owners others are questioning whether the concept of
owning music is even valid in the digital age. napster is due to launch a new
rental subscription service - dubbed napster to go in the uk in the next few
months. the service can be used on players that support microsoft windows latest
digital rights management technology known as janus. this includes players made by
samsung rio and creative. currently on offer in beta-version in the us the
service costs $15 per month for unlimited downloads. the technology ensures that
music downloaded to the player only remains playable while the user subscribes to
the service. users need to update their license on a monthly basis or the tunes
will no longer play. this has outraged some digital music lovers especially as
napster already offers a cheaper service for downloading music to the pc. napster
claims the higher price is a result of record labels charging more for the to-go
service and says it also offers greater value for customers. mr myers is not
convinced a rental model will work for consumers. we ve been offering our
unlimited music subscription service for more than three years now and our
customers know what they want. format interoperability excellent value and the
reassurance that music purchased from wippit is theirs to keep and enjoy on
whatever device they choose he said. who wants to download a track that won t
play next month if you decide to unsubscribe to the service or change portable
player for an ipod or the latest mobile phone wippit offers a download
subscription service for £4.99 per month or £50 per year. it has a catalogue of
around 60 000 songs.
who do you think you are the real danger is not what happens to your data as it
crosses the net argues analyst bill thompson. it is what happens when it arrives
at the other end. the financial services authority has warned banks and other
financial institutions that members of criminal gangs may be applying for jobs
which give them access to confidential customer data. the fear is not that they
will steal money from our bank accounts but that they will instead steal something
far more valuable in our digital society - our identities. armed with the personal
details that a bank holds plus a fake letter or two it is apparently easy to get
a loan open a bank account with an overdraft or get a credit card in someone else
s name. and it is then a simple matter to move the money into another account and
leave the unwitting victim to sort out the mess when statements and demands for
payment start arriving. identity theft is an increasingly significant economic
crime and we are all becoming more aware of the dangers of leaving bills receipts
and bank statements unshredded in our rubbish. but however careful you may be if
the organisations you trust with your personal data bank accounts and credit cards
are not able to look after their databases properly then you are in trouble. it is
surprising that it has taken the gangs so long to realise that a well-placed
insider is by far the simplest way to break the security of a computer system. in
fact i suspect that the fsa is probably very late to this particular party and
that this sort of thing has been going on for rather a long time. has anyone
checked bob cratchit s family links to the criminal underworld i wonder and it is
hardly likely to be only banks that are being targeted. health authorities
government agencies and of course the big e-commerce sites like amazon must also
offer rich pickings for the fraudsters. the good news is that better auditing is
likely to catch out those who access account details that they are not supposed to.
and as we all become aware of the danger of identity theft and look more carefully
for unexpected transactions on our statements banks should have good enough
records and logs to trace the people who might have accessed the account details.
fortunately there are now ways to keep bank systems more secure from the sort of
data theft that involves taking a portable hard drive or flash memory card into the
office plugging it into a usb slot and sucking down customer files. companies
like securewave for example can restrict the use of usb ports just to authorised
devices or even to an individual s personal memory card. these solutions are not
perfect but it does not feel like a wave of fraud is about to wash away the entire
financial system. however the warning does highlight one of the major issues with
e-commerce and online trading - the security or otherwise of the servers and other
systems that make up the back office . it has been clear for years that the real
danger in paying for goods online with a credit card is not that the number will be
intercepted in transit but that the shop you are dealing with will be hacked. in
fact i do not know of a single case where an e-mail containing payment details has
led to card fraud. there are simply too many e-mails passing over the net for
interception to be a sensible tool for anyone out to commit fraud. cd universe
powergen and many other companies have left their databases open and suffered the
consequences. and just last week the online bank cahoot admitted that its customer
account details could be read by anyone who could guess a login name. whether it is
external hackers breaking in because of poor system security or internal staff
abusing the access they get as part of their job the issue is the same: how do we
make sure that our personal data is not abused any organisation that processes
personal data is of course bound by the data protection act and must take proper
care of it. unauthorised disclosure is not allowed but the penalties are small and
the process of prosecuting under the act so convoluted as to be worthless in
practice. this is not something we can just leave it to the market. the
consequences of having one s identity stolen are too serious and markets respond
too slowly. after all i bank with cahoot but it would be so much hassle to move my
accounts that i did not even consider it when i heard about their security
problems. i doubt many others have closed their accounts especially when there is
little guarantee that other banks are not going to make the same sort of mistake in
future. the two options would seem to be more stringent data protection law so
that companies really feel the pressure to improve their internal processes or a
wave of civil lawsuits against financial institutions with sloppy practices whose
customers suffer from identity theft. i have never felt comfortable with the us
practice of suing everything that moves partly because it seems to make lawyers
richer than their clients so i know which i d prefer. bill thompson is a regular
commentator on the bbc world service programme go digital.
asia shares defy post-quake gloom indonesian indian and hong kong stock markets
reached record highs. investors seemed to feel that some of the worst-affected
areas were so under-developed that the tragedy would have little impact on asia s
listed firms. obviously with a lot of loss of life a lot of time is needed to
clean up the mess bury the people and find the missing said abn amro s eddie
wong. [but] it s not necessarily a really big thing in the economic sense. india
s bombay stock exchange inched slightly above its previous record close on
wednesday. expectations of strong corporate earnings in 2005 drove the indonesian
stock exchange in jakarta to a record high on wednesday. in hong kong the hang
seng index may be benefiting in part from the potential for its listed property
companies to gain from rebuilding contracts in the tsunami-affected regions of
south east asia. in sri lanka some economists have said that as much as 1% of
annual growth may be lost. sri lanka s stock market has fallen about 5% since the
weekend but it is still 40% higher than at the start of 2004. thailand may lose
30bn baht (£398m; $768m) in earnings from tourism over the next three months
according to tourism minister sontaya kunplome. in the affected provinces he
expects the loss of tourism revenue to be offset by government reconstruction
spending. thailand intends to spend a similar sum - around 30bn baht - on the
rebuilding work. it will take until the fourth quarter of next year before tourist
visitors in phuket and five other provinces return to their normal level said
naris chaiyasoot director general at the ministry s fiscal policy office. in the
maldives the cost of reconstruction could wipe out economic growth according to a
government spokesman. our nation is in peril here said ahmed shaheed the chief
government spokesman. he estimated the economic cost of the disaster at hundreds of
millions of dollars. the maldives has gross domestic product of $660m. it won t be
surprising if the cost exceeds our gdp he said. in the last few years we made
great progress in our standard of living - the united nations recognised this. now
we see this can disappear in a few days a few minutes. shaheed noted that
investment in a single tourist resort - the economic mainstay - could run to $40m.
between 10 and 12 of the 80-odd resorts have been severely damaged and a similar
number have suffered significant damage. however many experts including the
world bank have pointed out that it is still difficult to assess the magnitude of
the disaster and its likely economic impact. in part this is because of its scale
and because delivering aid and recovering the dead remain priorities. calculators
will have to wait said an imf official in a briefing on wednesday. the financial
and world community will be turning toward reconstruction efforts and at that point
people will begin to have a sense of the financial impact.
murray to make cup history andrew murray will become britain s youngest-ever davis
cup player after it was confirmed he will play in the doubles against israel on
saturday. the 17-year-old will play alongside fellow debutant david sherwood
against israel s jonathan erlich and andy ram. murray will eclipse the record set
by roger becker back in 1952. greg rusedski takes tim henman s place as first
choice in the singles while alex bogdanovic will play in the second singles clash.
rusedski will take on former world number 30 harel levy and bogdanovic - who has
previously played in two singles rubbers against australia - will face noam okun.
murray is the brightest young hope in british tennis after winning the us open
junior title last year and the bbc young sports personality of the year. british
number one tim henman who announced his davis cup retirement earlier this year
believes britain can win the tie in tel aviv. it s going to be as really tough
match. israel have some really good players - and their doubles pair of andy ram
and jonathan erlich are among the top eight in the world - but i fancy our chances
he said. but henman urged bogdanovic who has had run-ins with british tennis
officials in the past to seize his chance. alex is a quality player - he s young
but he s got to keep pushing forward. he s got to be stronger he s got a lot of
ability but he s got to be more disciplined mentally and physically and if he does
that he s got a good chance.
briton wins short film oscar three of the five nominees in the live-action short
film category at this year s oscars were british. for andrea arnold who won the
category ashvin kumar and gary mckendry the past month has thrust them from
relative obscurity into the limelight. arnold s gritty drama wasp is about a
single mother living on the breadline while kumar s little terrorist follows a
young pakistani muslim boy who gets stuck on the wrong side of the heavily armed
indian border. mckendry s entry everything in this country must forces british
soldiers and catholics to challenge their relationship during the troubles in
northern ireland. last week the trio attended an official screening of all the
nominated short films at the academy s headquarters in beverly hills. i felt so
privileged to have a thousand people watching my film on the biggest screen i ve
ever seen says arnold. set in her native dartford wasp tells the story of a
young mum who unable to find a babysitter leaves her four young daughters
outside a pub while she s on a date. the image that sparked the film was that of a
wasp crawling into a baby s mouth. the other nominees said they made their films
for this reason or that - they had something to say. but i just start with an image
i can t shake off work outwards from that and see what comes out she explains.
since she presented children s tv shows number 73 and motormouth in the 1980s
arnold has kept a low profile and is having trouble adapting to this sudden
onslaught of attention. i m not interested in the publicity. it s not my
personality. i m overwhelmed by all the fuss she said. it s all a bit like a
beauty contest - all the films are great and so different. but even though my film
has won 30 awards worldwide (including one at sundance last month) i d still be
proud of it - even if it hadn t won any. asked what the nomination means to her
arnold says she feels flattered and honoured . we ve all been overwhelmed by the
response and can t get it in perspective yet. i m still reeling. and she won t
commit to an opinion of hollywood yet. i m just in the middle of it living moment
to moment day to day. but despite her reservations about the academy awards and
the media frenzy that surrounds it she accepts that it has opened doors for her.
people will definitely listen to what i want to do now and the phone didn t stop
ringing for a week after i got nominated. as for the future arnold firmly
believes that you often get a stronger vision of the world with short films. you
re left more to your own devices without people interfering as much. that said
she is currently working on a feature film with dogville and dancer in the dark
director lars von trier.
us to raise tv indecency fines us politicians are proposing a tough new law aimed
at cracking down on indecency and bad language on us tv. fines of up to $500 000
(£266 582) could be imposed each time broadcasters transmit nudity or profanities.
the proposal unveiled in the house of representatives also seeks to revoke a
broadcaster s licence after three violations have been committed. the exposure of
janet jackson s breast at last year s superbowl landed cbs with a $550 000 (£293
264) fine. entertainers could also be liable for fines under the proposed
legisation from both us politcians and officials from the federal communications
commission (fcc). a republican senator from kansas sam brownbeck is set to call
for a maximum $3 million (£1.6 million) fine for repeated violations. the current
maximum fine stands at $32 500 (£17 320) - 20 of the stations in the cbs network
were each penalised these lesser amounts for the jackson incident. republican
politician fred upton who chairs the committee responsible for broadcasting said
current fines are more of a cost of doing business rather than a deterrent . last
year s janet jackson wardrobe malfunction encouraged the fcc to impose tougher
rules but the us congress adjourned last year without agreeing on a new level of
fines. new figures have to be decided before new legislation can be put before
president bush. certain broadcasters like fox claim the material they carry does
not violate indecency laws and is protected under the right to free speech.
no re-draft for eu patent law a proposed european law on software patents will not
be re-drafted by the european commission (ec) despite requests by meps. the law is
proving controversial and has been in limbo for a year. some major tech firms say
it is needed to protect inventions while others fear it will hurt smaller tech
firms. the ec says the council of ministers will adopt a draft version that was
agreed upon last may but said it would review all aspects of the directive . the
directive is intended to offer patent protection to inventions that use software to
achieve their effect in other words computer implemented invention . in a
letter ec president josé manuel barroso told the president of the european
parliament josep borrell that the commission did not intend to refer a new
proposal to the parliament and the council (of ministers) as it had supported the
agreement reached by ministers in may 2004. if the european council agrees on the
draft directive it will then return for a second reading at the european
parliament. but that will not guarantee that the directive will become law -
instead it will probably mean further delays and controversy over the directive.
most eu legislation now needs the approval of both parliament and the council of
ministers before it becomes law. french green mep alain lipietz warned two weeks
ago that if the commission ignored the parliament s request it would be an insult
to the assembly. he said that the parliament would then reject the council s
version of the legislation as part of the final or conciliation stage of the
decision procedure. in the us the patenting of computer programs and internet
business methods is permitted. this means that the us-based amazon.com holds a
patent for its one-click shopping service for example. critics are concerned
that the directive could lead to a similar model happening in europe. this they
fear could hurt small software developers because they do not have the legal and
financial might of larger companies if they had to fight patent legal action in
court. supporters say current laws are inefficient and it would serve to even up a
playing field without bringing eu laws in line with the us.
mci shareholder sues to stop bid a shareholder in us phone firm mci has taken legal
action to halt a $6.75bn (£3.6bn) buyout by telecoms giant verizon hoping to get a
better deal. the lawsuit was filed on friday after qwest communications which had
an earlier offer for mci rejected said it would submit an improved bid. mci s
directors have backed verizon despite it tabling less money. they are accused of
breaching their fiduciary duties by depriving mci shareholders of maximum value .
according the legal papers filed in a delaware court verizon is set to pay an
unconscionable unfair and grossly inadequate sum for mci which was formerly
known as worldcom. qwest said on wednesday that mci had rejected a deal worth $8bn.
a number of large mci shareholders expressed unhappiness at the decision saying
that verizon s offer made up of cash shares and dividends undervalued the
company. friday s lawsuit argues that the verizon offer makes no provision for
future growth prospects and that consolidation in the us phone industry will put a
premium on mci s network assets and clients. mci s directors have argued that
verizon is bigger than qwest has fewer debts and has built a successful mobile
division. chief executive michael capellas spent last week meeting with
shareholders in an effort to win their backing. in 2002 investors in the then-
named worldcom lost millions when the company filed for bankruptcy following an
accounting scandal. however the firm - now renamed mci - has put its operations in
order and emerged from bankruptcy protection last april. it is a long-distance and
corporate phone firm and would provide the buyer with access to a global
telecommunications network and a large number of business-based subscribers. mci
shares jumped on friday hitting their highest level since april 2004 amid
speculation that it would be the focus of a bidding war. a takeover of mci would be
the fifth billion-dollar telecoms deal since october as companies look to cut costs
and boost client bases. earlier this month sbc communications agreed to buy its
former parent and phone pioneer at&t for about $16bn.
goldsmith denies war advice claim the attorney general has denied his statement to
parliament about the legality of the iraq war was drafted by downing street
officials. lord goldsmith said lord falconer and baroness morgan played no part in
drafting the answer. he added the answer represented his view that the war was
legal but was not a summary of his advice to the pm. the government has resisted
calls to publish the full advice saying such papers are always kept confidential.
in a statement lord goldsmith said: i was fully involved throughout the drafting
process and personally finalised and of course approved the answer. he said the
answer had been prepared in his office with the involvement of solicitor general
harriet harman two of his own officials three foreign office officials a qc
christopher greenwood and the then lord chancellor lord irvine of lairg. no
other minister or official was involved in any way. he suggested the claim that
lord falconer and lady morgan had drafted the answer were the result of a mis-
transcription of his evidence to the butler inquiry into pre-war intelligence. as
i have always made clear i set out in the answer my own genuinely held
independent view that military action was lawful under the existing (un) security
council resolutions he said. the answer did not purport to be a summary of my
confidential legal advice to government. former foreign secretary robin cook said
lord goldsmith s admission that his parliamentary answer was not a summary of his
legal opinion suggested parliament may have been misled. the attorney general may
never have presented his answer as a summary but others certainly did he said.
what is clear from his statement today is that he does not believe that it was a
full accurate summary of his formal opinion. earlier tony blair dismissed
questions about the attorney general s advice and said his parliamentary statement
had been a fair summary of his opinion. that s what he (lord goldsmith) said and
that s what i say. he has dealt with this time and time and time again mr blair
told his monthly news conference in downing street. he refused to answer further
questions on the issue. on the question of whether such papers have always been
kept confidential tory mp michael mates who is a member of the commons
intelligence and security committee and was part of the butler inquiry told the
bbc: that as a general rule is right but it s not an absolute rule. he said
there had been other occasions when advice had been published most recently
regarding prince charles s marriage plans. the government could not pick and choose
when to use the convention he said. mr mates added: this may be one of those
special occasions... when it would be in the public interest to see the advice
which the attorney general gave to the prime minister. the claims about lord
falconer and baroness morgan s involvement were made in a book published this week
by philippe sands qc a member of cherie blair s matrix chambers. he also says lord
goldsmith warned tony blair on 7 march 2003 that the iraq war could be illegal
without a second un resolution sanctioning military action. a short statement
about lord goldsmith s position presented in a written parliamentary answer on 17
march 2003 - just before a crucial commons vote on the military action - did not
suggest this. former minister clare short who resigned from the government over
the iraq war said the ministerial answer was the same statement that was earlier
shown to the cabinet as it discussed military action. she said the full advice
should have been attached according to the ministerial code and demanded a lords
inquiry into the matter. the conservatives and liberal democrats say they still
want the publication of the full legal advice given by the attorney general. lib
dem foreign affairs spokesman sir menzies campbell said lord goldsmith s statement
still did not clear up the outstanding issues. if his original advice of 7 march
accepted that military action might be illegal how was it that he resolved any
such doubts by the time the parliamentary answer was published on 17 march he
said. only the fullest disclosure will now do.
games win for blu-ray dvd format the next-generation dvd format blu-ray is winning
more supporters than its rival according to its backers. blu-ray backed by 100
firms including sony is competing against toshiba and nec-backed hd-dvd to be the
format of choice for future films and games. the blu-ray association said on
thursday that games giants electronic arts and vivendi would both support its dvd
format. the next generation of dvds will hold high-definition video and sound. this
offers incredible 3d-like quality of pictures which major hollywood studios and
games publishers are extremely keen to exploit in the coming year. in a separate
press conference at the consumer electronics show in las vegas toshiba announced
that dvd players for its technology would be on the market by the end of 2005. as
we move from standard definition video images to high-definition images we have a
much greater need for storage richard doherty from panasonic s hollywood
laboratories one of the pioneers of blu-ray told the bbc news website. so by
utilising blue laser-based technology we can make an optical laser disc that can
hold six times as much as today s dvd. a blu-ray disc will be able to store 50gb
of high-quality data while toshiba s hd-dvd will hold 30gb. mr doherty added that
it was making sure the discs could satisfy all high-definition needs including the
ability to record onto the dvds and smaller discs to fit into camcorders. both
toshiba and blu-ray are hopeful that the emerging dvd format war akin to the
betamax and vhs fight in the 1980s can be resolved over the next year when next-
generation dvd players start to come out. when players do come out they will be
able to play standard dvds too which is good news for those who have huge
libraries of current dvds. but the support from vivendi and electronics arts is a
big boost to blu-ray in the battle for supremacy. gaming is a $20 billion industry
worldwide so is as crucial as the film industry in terms of money to be made. the
technical requirement for game development today demands more advanced optical-disc
technologies said michael heilmann chief technology officer for vivendi
universal. blu-ray offers the capacity performance and high-speed internet
connectivity to take us into the future of gaming. ea a leading games developer
and publisher added that the delivery of high-definition games of the future was
vital and blu-ray had the capacity functionality and interactivity needed for the
kinds of projects it was planning. sony recently announced it would be using the
technology in its next generation of playstations. mr doherty said gamers were
ravenous for high-quality graphics and technology for the next generation of
titles. gamers especially those working on pcs are always focused on more
capacity to deliver textures deeper levels for delivering higher-resolution
playback. he added: the focus for games moving forward is on increased
immersion. gaming companies really like to focus on creating a world which
involves creating complicated 3d models and textures and increasing the resolution
increasing the frame rate - all of these are part of getting a more immersive
experience. fitting these models on current dvd technologies means compressing the
graphics so much that much of this quality is lost. as games move to more photo-
real capability the current technology is limiting. they are thrilled at the
advanced capacity to start to build these immersive environments said mr doherty.
currently graphics-intensive pc games also require multiple discs for
installation. high-definition dvds will cut down on that need. likewise consoles
rely on single discs so dvds that can hold six times more data mean much better
high-resolution games. blu-ray has already won backing from major hollywood studios
such as mgm studios disney and buena vista as well as top technology firms like
dell lg samsung and phillips amongst others. while toshiba s hd-dvd technology
has won backing from paramount universal and warner bros. the real world benefits
(of hd-dvd) are apparent and obvious said jim cardwell president of warner home
video. mr cardwell added that rapid time to market and dependability were
significant factors in choosing to go with hd-dvd. both formats are courting
microsoft to be the format of choice for the next generation xbox but discussions
are still on-going. next generation dvds will also be able to store images and
other data. ces is the largest consumer electronics show in the world and runs
from 6 to 9 january.
palace threat over cantona masks manchester united fans wearing eric cantona masks
will not be allowed in selhurst park on saturday. united fans are planning to mark
the 10th anniversary of cantona s infamous kung-fu kick on crystal palace fan
matthew simmons by wearing the masks. but palace stadium manager kevin corner has
warned: if they wear them inside selhurst park they will be immediately rejected
on safety grounds. and no fans wearing cantona masks will be allowed entry to the
stadium. united fans had declared saturday as cantona day and had planned to
wear masks that were popular during the frenchman s time as a player at the old
trafford club. cantona received a nine-month ban following the incident and palace
are keen to avoid an incident that would stir up ill feeling between the two sets
of supporters. four months after the cantona incident a palace fan paul nixon was
killed prior to an fa cup semi-final at villa park.
middlesbrough 2-2 charlton a late header by teenager danny graham earned
middlesbrough a battling draw with charlton at the riverside. matt holland had put
the visitors ahead in the 14th minute after his shot took a deflection off franck
queudrue. but middlesbrough peppered the charlton goal after the break and chris
riggott stroked home the equaliser. shaun bartlett s strike put charlton back in
front but that lead lasted just six minutes before graham rushed onto queudrue s
pass to head home. the match burst to life from the whistle and charlton defender
hermann hreidarsson had sight of an open goal after just six minutes. hreidarsson
received danny murphy s free-kick from the right but he crashed his free header
wide of the far post. the iceland international looked such a danger the boro bench
could be heard issuing frantic instructions to mark him. charlton s early pressure
paid off when bartlett received a long ball from talal el karkouri in the box and
laid it off to holland who buried his right-footed strike. szilard nemeth recalled
in place of joseph-desire job was twice denied his chance to get middlesbrough
back on level terms by dean kiely. the striker played a great one-two with jimmy
floyd hasselbaink only to see kiely get down well to smother his shot before
directing a header straight into the keeper s arms. boro had plenty of time on the
ball but the addicks comfortably mopped up the pressure - with kiely tipping a
hasselbaink header over the bar - to take their lead into half-time. it was all
one-way traffic after the break at the riverside as middlesbrough poured forward
and kiely even saved hreidarsson s blushes when he palmed the ball away to prevent
a charlton own goal. but the addicks keeper could do nothing about riggott s
equaliser in the 74th minute. the boro defender looked suspiciously offside as he
got on the end of gareth southgate s misdirected effort but despite the charlton
protests his goal stood. the addicks did not let their heads drop and bartlett left
the boro defence standing picking up hreidarsson s cross to easily sink his right-
footed strike. but substitute graham was on hand to grab a share of the points for
the home side. the 19-year-old striker nodding home the equaliser - and his first
premiership goal - with five minutes left on the clock. i felt we did enough to
win the game even though the first half was lacklustre. we dominated after the
break the players showed a fantastic response and we should have gone on to win.
but for (charlton goalkeeper) dean kiely who made three tremendous saves we could
have scored five or six. to take the lead and then to get penned back it feels
a little bit like a defeat admitted kiely. we were winning but middlesbrough
kept knocking on the door. but we stood up and credit to us we didn t capitulate.
we ll kick on now. our short-term ambition is to progress from the seventh place
finish from last year. nash reiziger (graham 82) riggott southgate queudrue
parlour (job 86) doriva nemeth (parnaby 87) zenden downing hasselbaink. subs
not used: cooper knight. riggott 74 graham 86. kiely hreidarsson perry el
karkouri young konchesky murphy (euell 78) holland kishishev thomas
(johansson 72) bartlett. subs not used: fish jeffers andersen. konchesky
hreidarsson perry. holland 14 bartlett 80. 29 603 m riley (w yorkshire).
mobile tv tipped as one to watch scandinavians and koreans two of the most
adventurous groups of mobile users are betting on mobile tv. anders igels chief
executive of nordic operator teliasonera tipped it as the next big thing in mobile
in a speech at the 3gsm world congress a mobile trade fair in cannes this week.
nokia the finnish handset maker is planning a party in singapore this spring to
launch its tv to mobile activities in the region. consultancy strategy analytics of
boston estimates that mobile broadcast networks will have acquired around 51
million users worldwide by 2009 producing around $6.6bn (£3.5bn) in revenue. sk
telecom of south korea which is launching a tv to mobile service (via satellite)
in may plans to charge a flat fee of $12 a month for its 12 channels of video and
12 channels of audio. it will be able to offer an additional two pay tv channels
using conditional access technology. mr shin-bae kim chief executive of sk telecom
also at 3gsm said: we have plans to integrate tv with mobile internet services.
this will enable viewers to access the mobile internet to get more information on
adverts they see on tv. there will be 12 handsets available for the launch of the
korean service. lg electronics of south korea was demonstrating one at 3gsm that
could display video at 30 frames a second. footage shown on the handset was clear
and watchable. a speech on mobile tv by angel gambino of the bbc also drew a large
crowd suggesting that even those mobile operators and equipment vendors which are
not particularly active in mobile tv yet are starting to look into it. but all is
not simple and straightforward in the mobile tv arena. there is a battle for
supremacy between two competing standards: dvb-h for digital video broadcasting for
handsets and dmb for digital multimedia broadcasting. dr chan yeob yeun vice
president and research fellow in charge of mobile tv at lg electronics said: dmb
offers twice the number of frames a minute as dvb-h and does not drain mobile
batteries as quickly. the japanese koreans and ericsson of sweden are backing
dmb. samsung of south korea has a dmb phone too that will be one of those offered
to users of the tu media satellite mobile tv service to be launched in korea in
may. nokia by contrast is backing dvb-h and is involved in mobile tv trials that
use its art-deco style media phone which has a larger than usual screen for tv or
visual radio (a way of accompanying a radio programme with related text and
pictures). mobile operators o2 and vodafone are among the operators trialling
mobile tv. but even if the standards battle is resolved there is the thorny issue
of broadcasting rights. ms gambino says the bbc now negotiates mobile rights when
it is negotiating content. for those not convinced mobile users will want to watch
tv on their handsets digital audio broadcasting may provide a good compromise and
better sound quality than conventional radio. developments in this area are
continuing. at a dab conference in cannes several makers of dab chips for mobiles
announced smaller lower- cost chips which consume less power. among the chip
companies present were frontier silicon and radioscape. the jury is still out on
whether tv and digital radio on mobiles will make much money for anyone. but with
many new services going live soon it won t be long before the industry finds out.
lifestyle governs mobile choice faster better or funkier hardware alone is not
going to help phone firms sell more handsets research suggests. instead phone
firms keen to get more out of their customers should not just be pushing the
technology for its own sake. consumers are far more interested in how handsets fit
in with their lifestyle than they are in screen size onboard memory or the chip
inside shows an in-depth study by telecommunications company ericsson.
historically in the industry there has been too much focus on using technology
said dr michael bjorn senior advisor on mobile media at ericsson s consumer and
enterprise lab. we have to stop saying that these technologies will change their
lives he said. we should try to speak to consumers in their own language and
help them see how it fits in with what they are doing he told the bbc news
website. for the study ericsson interviewed 14 000 mobile phone owners on the
ways they use their phone. people s habits remain the same said dr bjorn. they
just move the activity into the mobile phone as it s a much more convenient way to
do it. one good example of this was diary-writing among younger people he said.
while diaries have always been popular a mobile phone -- especially one equipped
with a camera -- helps them keep it in a different form. youngsters use of text
messages also reflects their desire to chat and keep in contact with friends and
again just lets them do it in a slightly changed way. dr bjorn said that although
consumers do what they always did but use a phone to do it the sheer variety of
what the new handset technologies make possible does gradually drive new habits and
lifestyles. ericsson s research has shown that consumers divide into different
tribes that use phones in different ways. dr bjorn said groups dubbed pioneers
and materialists were most interested in trying new things and were behind the
start of many trends in phone use. for instance he said older people are using
sms much more than they did five years ago. this was because younger users often
the children of ageing mobile owners encouraged older people to try it so they
could keep in touch. another factor governing the speed of change in mobile phone
use was the simple speed with which new devices are bought by pioneers and
materialists. only when about 25% of people have handsets with new innovations on
them such as cameras can consumers stop worrying that if they send a picture
message the person at the other end will be able to see it. once this significant
number of users is passed use of new innovations tends to take off. dr bjorn said
that early reports of camera phone usage in japan seemed to imply that the
innovation was going to be a flop. however he said now 45% of the japanese people
ericsson questioned use their camera phone at least once a month. in 2003 the
figure was 29%. similarly across europe the numbers of people taking snaps with
cameras is starting to rise. in 2003 only 4% of the people in the uk took a
phonecam snap at least once a month. now the figure is 14%. similar rises have been
seen in many other european nations. dr bjorn said that people also used their
camera phones in very different ways to film and even digital cameras. usage
patterns for digital cameras are almost exactly replacing usage patterns for
analogue cameras he said. digital cameras tend to be used on significant events
such as weddings holidays and birthdays. by contrast he said camera phones were
being used much more to capture a moment and were being woven into everyday life.
conservative mp defects to labour a conservative mp and former minister has
defected to labour. robert jackson 58 mp for wantage in oxfordshire said he was
disillusioned with the party s leadership and its dangerous views on europe.
prime minister tony blair declared himself delighted saying mr jackson would be
warmly welcomed by labour mps. mr jackson who has clashed with his leaders over
tuition fees and europe in the past served as higher education minister between
1987 and 1990. in a letter to his constituency chairman he wrote: it is in the
country s best interest that tony blair rather than michael howard should form the
next government. while saying he admired mr blair s courageous leadership of the
country he bitterly criticised the conservatives stance on europe. the
conservative party s hostility to europe has now hardened to the point at which it
advocates the unilateral denunciation of britain s treaty obligations he wrote.
mr blair said mr jackson was a decent fair-minded and dedicated public servant...
who will be warmly welcome by labour mps and members . as he rightly says [the
conservatives] have learned nothing from their two election defeats and are if
anything drifting further rightwards he added. a spokesman for michael howard
said mr jackson s views on policy issues were very different from those of the
party leadership. he believes students should pay tuition fees that tony blair
should not be criticised over his handling of the iraq war and that more powers
should be given to europe the spokesman said. he added that it was not surprising
mr jackson had chosen to leave the conservatives. mr jackson is due to stand down
at the next election. he is the third conservative mp to defect to labour since
1997.
go-ahead for balkan oil pipeline albania bulgaria and macedonia has given the go
ahead for the construction of a $1.2bn oil pipeline that will pass through the
balkan peninsula. the project aims to allow alternative ports for the shipping of
russian and caspian oil that normally goes through turkish ports. it aims to
transport 750 000 daily barrels of oil. the pipeline will be built by the us-
registered albanian macedonian bulgarian oil corporation (ambo). the 912km pipeline
will run from the bulgarian port of burgas over the black sea to the albanian city
of vlore on the adriatic coast crossing macedonia. the project was conceived in
1994 but it was delayed because of the lack of political support. by signing the
agreement on tuesday the prime ministers of bulgaria albania and macedonia have
overcome the problem. this is one of the most important infrastructure projects
for regional eu and euro-atlantic integration for the western balkans said
albanian prime minister fatos nano. according to pat ferguson president of ambo
work on the pipeline will begin in 2005 and it is expected to be ready in three or
four years. he added that the company had already raised about $900m from the
overseas private investment corporation (opic) - a us development agency - the
eximbank and credit suisse first boston among others. the project has also the
support of the european union. analysts have said that oil companies like
chevrontexaco exxon mobil and british petroleum would be happy to find alternative
routes to the bosphorus and dardanelles straits.
henman decides to quit davis cup tim henman has retired from great britain s davis
cup team. the 30-year-old who made his davis cup debut in 1994 is now set to
fully focus on the atp tour and on winning his first grand slam event. i ve made
no secret of the fact that representing great britain has always been a top
priority for me throughout my career henman told his website. captain jeremy
bates has touted alex bogdanovic and andrew murray as possible replacements for the
veteran. henman added that he was available to help britain in its bid for davis
cup success with the next tie against israel in march . although i won t be
playing i would still like to make myself available to both jeremy and the lta in
the future so that i can draw upon my experience in the hope of trying to help the
british players develop their full potential he added. i ve really enjoyed
playing in front of the thousands of british fans both home and abroad and would
like to thank every one of them for their unwavering support over the years.
henman leaves davis cup tennis with an impressive record having won 36 of his 50
matches. great britain captain jeremy bates paid tribute to henman s efforts over
the years. tim has quite simply had a phenomenal davis cup career and it has been
an absolute privilege to have captained the team with him in it said bates. tim
s magnificent record speaks for itself. while it s a great loss i completely
understand and respect his decision to retire from davis cup and focus on the grand
slams and tour. looking to the future this decision obviously marks a watershed
in british davis cup tennis but it is also a huge opportunity for the next
generation to make their mark. we have a host of talented players coming through
and despite losing someone of tim s calibre i remain very optimistic about the
future. henman made his davis cup debut in 1994 against romania in manchester. he
and partner bates won their doubles rubber on the middle saturday of the tie.
britain eventually lost the contest 3-2. henman and britain had little luck in
davis cup matches until 1999 when they qualified for the world group. britain drew
the usa and lost the tie when greg rusedski fell to jim courier in the deciding
rubber. they made the final stages again in 2002 but this time lost out to the
might of sweden.
hollywood ready for oscars night hollywood is preparing for the biggest night in
the film world s calendar the 77th academy awards on sunday. a host of stars are
expected to grace the red carpet outside los angeles kodak theatre including
johnny depp cate blanchett and leonardo dicaprio. british actors in attendance
include nominees clive owen imelda staunton kate winslet and director mike leigh.
the aviator leads the shortlist but critics believe the night may belong to clint
eastwood s million dollar baby. a recent poll of us pundits found eastwood s boxing
drama had become the new favourite to win best film over the howard hughes biopic.
if the 74-year-old does win he will become the oldest person ever to be named best
director at the ceremony. uk critics still favour the aviator for best film but
believe the best director title will generate a close fought battle between
eastwood and martin scorsese. scorsese has never won the best director prize
despite four previous nominations for films including raging bull goodfellas and
gangs of new york. eastwood has won best director once before for unforgiven in
1993. most experts predict the twice-nominated jamie foxx will win best actor for
his portrayal of singer ray charles while vera drake star imelda staunton looks
likely to lose out in the best actress field to hilary swank in million dollar
baby. the uk s highest hopes remain with clive owen who has scooped both the
golden globe and the bafta for his supporting role in closer. actor and comedian
chris rock will host the event which will be broadcast with a seven-second time
delay to allow censors to cut out any unsuitable content. we have the bleep
machine ready but bleeps will be used as needed producer gil cates told
reporters. however he added that he strongly disapproved of the growing tendency
to censor live broadcasts on us tv. he also played down fears that rock who is
known for using strong language in his stand-up routines might cause controversy
on the night. the 40-year-old comic has already promised not to swear live on air
during the show. chris has a sense of humour and everything he says is really said
humorously cates said. you need a movie star and someone who is a stand-up comic
so they can deal with the vicissitudes of the show. security will also be tight
with police employing a system to detect sarin nerve gas. we are pulling out all
the stops said john miller chief of counterterrorism at the los angeles police
department. the show is a symbol of american culture and has the potential to be a
high-visibility target he added. meanwhile organisers have erected a canopy over
the red carpet following an outbreak of torrential rain in los angeles over the
past week. cates said the covers would be removed if the threat of wet weather
receded. details have also emerged of the contents of this year s gift bags which
are given to nominees and presenters on the night. this year s bags will include a
gift certificate for a luxury beach resort a pair of mink eyelashes and a kitchen
set with a year s supply of tea and coffee. the event will be televised by the abc
network from 1700 local time (0100 gmt) and on sky movies in the uk from 0130 gmt.
musicians to tackle us red tape musicians groups are to tackle us visa regulations
which are blamed for hindering british acts chances of succeeding across the
atlantic. a singer hoping to perform in the us can expect to pay $1 300 (£680)
simply for obtaining a visa. groups including the musicians union are calling for
an end to the raw deal faced by british performers. us acts are not faced with
comparable expense and bureaucracy when visiting the uk for promotional purposes.
nigel mccune from the musicians union said british musicians are disadvantaged
compared to their us counterparts. a sponsor has to make a petition on their behalf
which is a form amounting to nearly 30 pages while musicians face tougher
regulations than athletes and journalists. if you make a mistake on your form you
risk a five-year ban and thus the ability to further your career says mr mccune.
the us is the world s biggest music market which means something has to be done
about the creaky bureaucracy says mr mccune. the current situation is preventing
british acts from maintaining momentum and developing in the us he added. the
musicians union stance is being endorsed by the music managers forum (mmf) who
say british artists face an uphill struggle to succeed in the us thanks to the
tough visa requirements which are also seen as impractical. the mmf s general
secretary james seller said: imagine if you were an orchestra from the orkneys
every member would have to travel to london to have their visas processed. the
us market is seen as the holy grail and one of the benchmarks of success and we re
still going to fight to get in there. it s still very important but there are
other markets like europe india and china added mr seller. a department for
media culture and sport spokeswoman said: we re aware that people are
experiencing problems and are working with the us embassy and record industry to
see what we can do about it. a us embassy spokesman said: we are aware that
entertainers require visas for time-specific visas and are doing everything we can
to process those applications speedily. we are aware of the importance of
cultural exchange and we will do our best to facilitate that he added.
campbell lifts lid on united feud arsenal s sol campbell has called the rivalry
between manchester united and the gunners bitter and personal . past encounters
have stirred up plenty of ill-feeling between the sides and they meet again at
highbury on tuesday. it is just more bitter and personal against united the
defender told the guardian newspaper. there s an edge. after all that has
happened if we beat them it will be one of our sweetest ever wins especially
because of how we lost to them up there. last october arsenal lost 2-0 at old
trafford which ended a record 49-match unbeaten league run and sparked a mini-
crisis with the gunners winning only three of their next 10 games. it had a
psychological impact on us but again because of the way we were defeated added
the 30-year-old referring to a controversial penalty award for united s first
goal. that was far more upsetting losing like that because they just seem to get
away with it. you try and balance out over the course of a season but i ve had so
many rough decisions against them you begin to wonder. with tensions spilling over
afterwards - united boss sir alex ferguson was allegedly pelted with pizza in the
players tunnel - there is little surprise that so much is riding on the return
encounter on. everyone at arsenal has been waiting for this game said campbell.
we are up for this one. speaking on his long-term plans campbell signalled his
intent to move abroad before he turns 35. i m 30 now and in five years time i won
t be in this country - that s definite. italy looks good to me because it would
suit my kind of football. spain is an option but the idea of tasting a new culture
and learning another language excites me the most. i m starting a little with
french of course.
women in film are earning less women in the uk film industry earn less than their
male counterparts despite being better qualified according to a study released on
wednesday. only 16% of women earn more than £50 000 compared with 30% of men.
women make up a third of the workforce. the research was carried out jointly by the
uk film council and industry training body skillset. it also found that women in
the industry were less likely than men to be married or have dependant children.
the study which claims to be the most in-depth so far conducted found 60% of
women in the film industry hold degrees compared with 39% of men. whilst 17% of
men in the industry had no qualifications this was true for only five per cent of
women. in the lower salary bracket 35% of women earn less than £20 000 a year
compared to only 18% of men. the research found very few women worked in the camera
sound electrical and construction departments but they made up a majority of
those working in make-up and hairdressing. uk film council chief executive john
woodward said: whilst the uk has benefited hugely from its highly-qualified film
production workforce there are still many barriers facing people who want to get in
and stay in the industry. developing the film production workforce must be
underpinned with a commitment to diversity as well as training. the workforce is
largely focused around london with 78% in the industry based in the capital and
the south east of england. the industry depends heavily on word of mouth with 81%
being recruited in that way. in total only five percent of the workforce is made
up of ethnic minorities although in london the figure rises to 24%. the necessity
of completing unpaid work experience to get into the workforce has also shot up
from 5% before the 1980s to 45% after 2000.
google launches tv search service the net search giant google has launched a search
service that lets people look for tv programmes. the service google video beta
searches closed caption information that comes with programmes. it only searches us
channel content currently. results list programmes with still images and text from
the point where the search phrase was spoken. it should expand over time to include
content from more channels said a google spokesperson. the first version of the
service is part of google s expanding efforts to be a ubiquitous search engine for
people to find what they want on the web and beyond. we think tv is a big part of
people s lives said jonathan rosenberg google s vice president of product
management. ultimately we would like to have all tv programming indexed. google
video has been indexing us-based programmes from pbs the nba fox news and c-span
since december. but there were few clues from google about when more global
broadcasters would be included. over time we plan to increase the number of
television channels and video content available via google video but don t have
more product details to share with you today a google spokesperson told the bbc
news website. the results thrown up by the search will also include programme and
episode information like channel date and time. it also lets people find the next
time and channel where a programme will aired locally using a us zip code search
function. rival search engine yahoo has been developing a similar type of video
search for webcasts and tv clips which it promotes from its homepage. it offers
direct links to websites with movies or other clips relevant to the search query
but does not pinpoint when the search query occurred. a spokeswoman told the
financial times on monday that yahoo was adding captioning for bloomberg bbc and
bskyb broadcasts. a smaller service blinkx.tv was launched last month. it
searches for and links to tv news film trailers and other video and audio clips.
piero gives rugby perspective bbc sport unveils its new analysis tool piero at the
wales v england rugby union match on saturday. but what does it do and how does it
work picture the scene - wales are camped on the england line in the dying
seconds of the six nations opening match. a ball is flung out to winger shane
williams who crosses to score the winning try for wales. but the england players
are incensed - arguing that the pass was forward and the try should not stand. in
the past sports fans would be left debating the validity of the try for days and
weeks to come. but bbc sport s new tool piero could end discussions in minutes.
piero named after the italian painter and pioneer of perspective piero della
francesco creates a virtual stadium in which virtual players can be tracked from
almost any angle. viewers will be able to see precisely how the ball was thrown and
by whom giving a greater depth to the growing wealth of analysis available during
sports broadcasts. the technology has been created by bbc research and development
for bbc broadcast and bbc outside broadcasts. bbc sport is the first client to
start using the system. in order to keep audiences growing and growing... we need
to work closely with people who create technology and innovation to bring sport to
life said andrew thompson the bbc s head of development new media and sports
news. we want to appeal to core fans - to give them more analysis more detail
more definitive answers about key passages of play. piero works by taking
telemetric data from fixed camera positions and sending that data inside the video
signal to a pc which can then render the information into 3d graphics. the more
cameras using piero the better the detail possible out the other end when the data
is turned into 3d models. it allows us to tell the story of a passage of play
tracking individual players across the field looking at tactics said andy
townsend from bbc broadcast. an operator can manipulate the information and
provide almost real-time replays of incidents as well as more in-depth analysis.
the virtual camera can focus on virtually any aspect of the pitch giving viewers
an insight into action that the camera normally cannot see. piero also provides a
wealth of statistical detail - from the length of kicks to the length of a run of
an individual player and the height of a lift at any lineout. mr townsend said
sports performance companies were already showing an interest in the technology.
bbc broadcast hopes the technology can be sold to third parties interested in using
it a number of different ways - from sport broadcasting to entertainment and game
shows.
japanese mogul arrested for fraud one of japan s best-known businessmen was
arrested on thursday on charges of falsifying shareholder information and selling
shares based on the false data. yoshiaki tsutsumi was once ranked as the world s
richest man and ran a business spanning hotels railways construction and a
baseball team. his is the latest in a series of arrests of top executives in japan
over business scandals. he was taken away in a van outside one of his prince hotels
in tokyo. there was a time when mr tsutsumi seemed untouchable. inheriting a large
property business from his father in the 1960s he became one of japan s most
powerful industrialists with close connections to many of the country s leading
politicians. he used his wealth and influence to bring the winter olympic games to
nagano in 1998. but last year he was forced to resign from all the posts he held
in his business empire after being accused of falsifying the share-ownership
structure of seibu railways one of his companies. under japanese stock market
rules no listed company can be more than 80% owned by its 10 largest shareholders.
now mr tsutsumi faces criminal charges and the possibility of a prison sentence
because he made it look as if the 10 biggest shareholders owned less than this
amount. seibu railways has been delisted from the stock exchange its share value
has plunged and it is the target of a takeover bid. mr tsutsumi s fall from grace
follows the arrests of several other top executives in japan as the authorities try
to curb the murky business practices which were once widespread in japanese
companies. his determination to stay at the top at all costs may have had its roots
in his childhood. the illegitimate third son of a rich father who made his money
buying up property as japan rebuilt after world war ii he has described the
demands his father made. i felt enormous pressure when i dined with him and it was
nothing but pain tsutsumi told a weekly magazine in 1987. he scolded me for
pouring too much soy sauce or told me fruit was not for children. he didn t let me
use the silk futon saying it s a luxury. there have been corporate governance
issues at some other japanese companies too. last year twelve managers from
mitsubishi motors were charged with covering up safety defects in their vehicles
and three executives from japan s troubled ufj bank were charged with concealing
the extent of the bank s bad loans.
us bank loses customer details the bank of america has revealed it has lost
computer tapes containing account details of more than one million customers who
are us federal employees. several members of the us senate are among those
affected who could now be vulnerable to identity theft. senate sources say the
missing tapes may have been stolen from a plane by baggage handlers. the bank gave
no details of how the records disappeared but said they had probably not been
misused. customers accounts were being monitoring and account holders would be
notified if any unusual activity was detected bank officials said. bank of
america said the tapes went missing in december while being shipped to a back-up
data centre. we with federal law authorities have done a very robust thorough
investigation on this and neither we nor they would make the statement lightly that
we believe those tapes to be lost alexandra tower a spokeswoman for the north
carolina-based bank told time magazine. but although there was no evidence of
criminal activity the bank said the secret service - a federal agency whose brief
includes investigations of serious financial crime - is said to be looking into the
loss. new york senator charles schumer said he was told by the senate rules
committee that the tapes were probably stolen from a commercial plane. whether it
is identity theft terrorism or other theft in this new complicated world baggage
handlers should have background checks and more care should be taken for who is
hired for these increasingly sensitive positions the democrat senator said.
details of his vermont colleague pat leahy s credit card account are among those
missing senator leahy s spokeswoman tracy schmaler said. about 900 000 military
and civilian staff at the defence department are among the 1.2 million affected
according to a pentagon spokesman.
battered dollar hits another low the dollar has fallen to a new record low against
the euro after data fuelled fresh concerns about the us economy. the greenback hit
$1.3516 in thin new york trade before rallying to $1.3509. the dollar has weakened
sharply since september when it traded about $1.20 amid continuing worries over
the levels of the us trade and budget deficits. meanwhile france s finance
minister has said the world faced economic catastrophe unless the us worked with
europe and asia on currency controls. herve gaymard said he would seek action on
the issue at the next meeting of g7 countries in february. ministers from european
and asian governments have recently called on the us to strengthen the dollar
saying the excessively high value of the euro was starting to hurt their export-
driven economies. it s absolutely essential that at the meeting of the g7 our
american friends understand that we need coordinated management at the world level
said mr gaymard. thursday s new low for the dollar came after data was released
showing year-on-year sales of new homes in the us had fallen 12% in november - with
some analysts saying this could indicate problems ahead for consumer activity.
commerce department data also showed consumer spending - which drives two thirds of
the us economy - grew just 0.2% last month. the figure was weaker than forecast -
and fell short of the 0.8% rise in october. the official us policy is that it
supports a strong dollar but many market observers believe it is happy to let the
dollar fall because of the boost to its exporters. the us government has faced
pressure from exporter organisations which have publicly stated the currency still
has further to fall from abnormal and dangerous heights set in 2002. the us says
it will let market forces determine the dollar s strength rather than intervene
directly. statements from president bush in recent weeks highlighting his aim to
cut the twin us deficits have prompted slight upturns in the currency. but while
some observers said the quiet trade on thursday had exacerbated small moves in the
market most agree the underlying trend remains downwards. the dollar has now
fallen for a third consecutive year and analysts are forecasting a further albeit
less dramatic weakening in 2005. i can see it finishing the year around $1.35 and
we can see that it s going to be a steady track upward for the euro/dollar in 2005
finishing the year around $1.40 said adrian hughes currency strategist with hsbc
in london.
jones files conte lawsuit marion jones has filed a lawsuit for defamation against
balco boss victor conte following his allegations that he gave her performance-
enhancing drugs. the sydney olympic gold medallist says conte damaged her
reputation and she is seeking $25m (£13m) in the suit. conte whose company is at
the centre of a doping investigation made the claims in a us television programme.
he and three others were indicted in february by a federal grand jury for a variety
of alleged offences. in an email to the associated press on wednesday conte said:
i stand by everything i said . jones won three gold medals and two bronzes in
sydney in 2000. her lawsuit filed in the us district court in san francisco said
the sprinter had passed a lie detector test and that she has never taken banned
performance-enhancing drugs . conte s statements the suit added were false and
malicious . after the abc television program earlier this month jones lawyer
richard nicholls said: marion has steadfastly maintained her position throughout:
she has never ever used performance-enhancing drugs. victor conte is a man facing
a 42-count federal indictment while marion jones is one of america s most
decorated female athletes. mr conte s statements have been wildly contradictory.
mr conte chose to make unsubstantiated allegations on television while marion
jones demanded to take and then passed a lie detector examination. mr conte is
simply not credible. we challenge him to submit to the same lie detector procedure
that marion jones passed. the sport s ruling body the iaaf is taking a cautious
approach to conte s allegations but contacted the us anti-doping agency.
communications director nick davies said the iaaf would seek to contact conte for
further information . but davies stressed it would be up to the american
authorities to decide whether they will take action against jones in light of conte
s television interview and the world governing body would monitor the situation
closely. if it is felt there is case to answer it would be for its national
governing body (usa track and field) to take the appropriate disciplinary action
he added. the us anti-doping agency has proved itself to be very diligent in its
anti-doping war. and i am sure like ourselves they will be watching the
television programme with great interest. jones who is under investigation for
steroid use by the us anti-doping agency has continually denied ever taking
illegal substances since being investigated in the balco scandal although she
praised a zinc supplement conte marketed. jones who did not win any medals in
athens in august has never failed a drugs test. meanwhile conte who has been
charged along with three other men of distributing illegal steroids and money
laundering is due to face trial in march.
mexicans tracking unhappy juninho mexican outfit red sharks veracruz hope to sign
juninho if the brazilian decides to leave celtic frustrated at his lack of first-
team action. their president gustavo parente sanchez says juninho does not wish
to remain in scottish football anymore . agent brian hassell insists that the 31-
year-old brazilian midfielder is determined to win back his place. but if the
manager is not going to pick him that s a different ball game he told the sun.
that s something we d have to look at. juninho deserves respect. he is not a little
kid. hassell warns that juninho could reconsider his future at celtic unless he is
given a run of games by the end of the january transfer window. juninho was signed
from middlesbrough during the summer but he has failed to live up to high
expectations and has lost his place to 18-year-old aiden mcgeady. he has 50 caps
for brazil and he s the best signing celtic ever made insisted hassell. he wants
to play for martin o neill but does martin o neill want to play him juninho is
not someone who has come through the celtic ranks. he deserves much more respect.
sanchez is bullish about his hopes of prising juninho from the scottish champions
although hassell believes mexico would not be his preferred destination. we have
already spoken with juninho and he said if he has no firm offer from a club in
spain veracruz will be his destination sanchez told his club s official website.
celtic manager o neill is no respecter of reputations. the onus is on juninho to
force his way into the team he said. players get a game on merit. that s the way
it has always been and that is certainly the case at celtic park.
mobile networks seek turbo boost third-generation mobile (3g) networks need to get
faster if they are to deliver fast internet surfing on the move and exciting new
services. that was one of the messages from the mobile industry at the 3gsm world
congress in cannes last week. fast 3g networks are here but the focus has shifted
to their evolution into a higher bandwidth service says the global mobile
suppliers association. at 3gsm siemens showed off a system that transmits faster
mobile data. the german company said data could be transmitted at one gigabit a
second - up to 20 times faster than current 3g networks. the system is not
available commercially yet but motorola the us mobile handset and infrastructure
maker held a clinic for mobile operators on hsdpa (high speed downlink packet
access) a high-speed high bandwidth technology available now. early hsdpa systems
typically offer around two megabits per second (mbps) compared with less than 384
kilobits per second (kbps) on standard 3g networks. high-speed downlink packet
access (hsdpa) - sometimes called super 3g - will be vital for profitable services
like mobile internet browsing and mobile video clips according to a report
published by uk-based research consultancy analysys. a number of companies are
developing the technology. nokia and canada-based wireless communication products
company sierra wireless recently agreed to work together on high speed downlink
packet access. the two companies aim to jointly market the hsdpa solution to global
network operator customers. while hsdpa theoretically enables data rates up to a
maximum of 14mbps practical throughputs will be lower than this in wide-area
networks said dr alastair brydon author of the analysys report: pushing beyond
the limits of 3g with hsdpa and other enhancements. the typical average user rate
in a real implementation is likely to be in the region of one megabit per second
which even at this lower rate will more than double the capacity... when compared
to basic wcdma [3g] he added. motorola has conducted five trials of its
technology and says speeds of 2.9mbps have been recorded at the edge of an outdoor
3g cell using a single hsdpa device. but some mobile operators are opting for a
technology called evolution data optimised (ev-do). us operator sprint ordered a
broadband data upgrade to its 3g network at the end of last year. we are expanding
our network and deploying ev-do technology to meet customer demand for faster
wireless speeds said oliver valente sprint s vice president for technology
development when the contract was announced. as part of $3bn in multi-year
contracts announced late last year sprint will spend around $1bn on ev-do
technology from lucent technologies nortel networks and motorola that provides
average data speeds of 0.3-0.5 megabits a second and peak download rates of
2.4mbps. mmo2 the uk-based operator with services in the uk ireland and germany
has opted for technology based on hsdpa. using technology from lucent it will
offer data speeds of 3.6mbps from next summer on its isle of man 3g network and
will eventually support speeds of up to 14.4mbps. us operator cingular wireless is
also adopting hsdpa using technology from lucent alongside equipment from siemens
and ericsson. siemens plans for a one gigabit network may be more than a user
needs today but christoph caselitz president of the mobile networks division at
the firm says that: by the time the next generation of mobile communication debuts
in 2015 the need for transmission capacities for voice data image and multimedia
is conservatively anticipated to rise by a factor of 10. siemens - in
collaboration with the fraunhofer german-sino lab for mobile communications and the
institute for applied radio system technology - has souped up mobile communications
by using three transmitting and four receiving antennae instead of the usual one.
this enables a data transmission such as sending a big file or video to be broken
up into different flows of data that can be sent simultaneously over one radio
frequency band. the speeds offered by 3g mobile seemed fast at the time mobile
operators were paying huge sums for 3g licences. but today instead of connecting
to the internet by slow dial-up phone connection many people are used to
broadband networks that offer speeds of 0.5 megabits a second - much faster than
3g. this means users are likely to find 3g disappointing unless the networks are
souped up. if they aren t those lucrative power users such as computer geeks
and busy business people will avoid them for all but the most urgent tasks
reducing the potential revenues available to mobile operators. but one gigabit a
second systems will not be available immediately. siemens says that though the
system works in the laboratory it still has to assess the mobility of multiple-
antennae devices and conduct field trials. a commercial system could be as far away
as 2012 though siemens did not rule out an earlier date.
newry to fight cup exit in courts newry city are expected to discuss legal avenues
on friday regarding overturning their ejection from the nationwide irish cup. the
ifa upheld its original decision to throw newry out of the cup following the andy
crawford registration row. a law firm will put a case forward for newry fc and
see what the legal implications of all this is are said newry boss roy
mccreadie. this is a big issue now that we have an appeal pending on
wednesday a fresh ifa hearing into crawford registration saga ruled that last
week s original verdict had been correct. it meant that bangor beaten 5-1 by newry
on the field will take on portadown in the sixth round. newry had claimed they had
uncovered fresh evidence in respect of the dates relating to the registration.
but mccreadie is not further annoyed that full details of wednesday s meeting was
not relayed to the club. even to this day we have as much information about what
happened during the meeting on wednesday as that told to the media. we are being
kept in the dark mccreadie told the news letter . we want an explanation.
there is no good sending us the same fax message the press people received. it s
a real sad case. if we are not back in the irish cup after our appeal and guided
by our legal advise we will seek to lodge an injunction in the courts to stop
bangor playing portadown.
iraqi voters turn to economic issues beyond the desperate security situation in
iraq lies an economy in tatters. a vicious cycle of unemployment poor social
services and poverty has been made worse by a lack of investment. so there is much
hope that an elected government will break the deadlock. first rule of law then
the economy says radwan hadi deputy managing director of aberdeen-based oil and
gas consultancy blackwatch petroleum services which entered iraq in 2003. mr hadi
s view about what the new government s priorities should be is shared by many
iraqis. the economy has become the second-most dominant issue for many political
parties ahead of sunday s election according to bristol university political
scientist anne alexander who is working on a project that looks at governance and
security in post-war iraq. job creation ranks high both on election manifestos and
on the iraqi people s wish list. nobody knows exactly how many iraqis are out of
work but it is clear that the situation is dire. estimates of iraq s unemployment
rate vary but we estimate it to be between 30-40% the washington-based
independent think-tank the brookings institution says in its iraq index. but some
progress has been made largely thanks to the country s oil revenues which have
exceeded $22bn since june 2003. iraq s infrastructure is on the mend with notable
improvements having been made in areas such as electricity supply irrigation
telephone networks and the re-opening of hospitals. but serious problems remain and
the growing divide between haves and have-nots is angering voters. one iraqi woman
told ms alexander about her frustration as she watched tv adverts for private
hospitals soon after having failed to track down basic medicines from baghdad s
pharmacies. observes mr hadi: the economy at present marks a big divide; the rich
get richer the poor get poorer. an indication of this can be seen in the world of
finance where in contrast with the daily plight of ordinary people 19 private
banks operate only one of which is run in accordance with islamic banking
principles. hopes are high for the future of finance so foreign banks have been
buying into the sector. national bank of kuwait has bought a majority stake in
credit bank of iraq the jordanian investment bank export & finance bank has bought
49% of national bank of iraq. foreign firms also hope to cash in on the
reconstruction effort. bechtel s efforts to rebuild schools and restore power have
attracted controversy as well as boosting its bottom line while halliburton has
enjoyed a wealth of military contracts. but the involvement of foreign firms in the
health and banking sectors and beyond sits uneasily with many iraqis who are
accustomed to the state taking responsibility for functions that are essential to
making society work observes ms alexander. it is seen as a selling off of iraq s
assets and bringing in multinationals at the expense of iraqi businesses and iraqi
workers she says. consequently the transitional government has been forced to
backtrack in recent months over its proposal to allow 100% foreign ownership of
iraqi assets she explains. in the west it is easy to forget that the otherwise
brutal baathist regime used to look after the majority of iraq s citizens rather
well in terms of job creation social security and healthcare. opinion polls
suggest that people still want the state to take a leading role in providing these
things ms alexander says. yet in some areas of the economy investment from
abroad is still warmly welcomed insists mr hadi an iraqi who left the country
three decades ago. i think the private sector will evolve incredibly fast mr
hadi says. iraq s vast natural resources can support any magnitude of economic
growth. many foreign companies say they are keen to get in on the act yet few
are actually entering the country in any meaningful way. but there are exceptions.
mr hadi s blackwatch is just one of many small operators preparing for a much
bigger future. blackwatch s baghdad-based affiliate falcon group has dozens of
people working for it across the country in kirkuk and baghdad and its engineers
and geo-scientists work with the iraqi oil ministry to hammer out technology
transfer issues mr hadi points out. these guys are trying to work. the iraqi
business people will do business at all times. life goes on in iraq the people
take responsibility they want to live normal lives.
us duo in first spam conviction a brother and sister in the us have been convicted
of sending hundreds of thousands of unsolicited e-mail messages to aol subscribers.
it is the first criminal prosecution of internet spam distributors. jurors in
virginia recommended that the man jeremy jaynes serve nine years in prison and
that his sister jessica degroot be fined $7 500. they were convicted under a
state law that bars the sending of bulk e-mails using fake addresses. they will be
formally sentenced next year. a third defendant richard rutkowski was acquitted.
prosecutors said jaynes was a snake oil salesman in a new format using the
internet to peddle useless wares news agency associated press reported. a fed-ex
refund processor was supposed to allow people to earn $75 an hour working from
home. another item on sale was an internet history eraser . his sister helped him
process credit card payments. jaynes amassed a fortune of $24m from his sales
prosecutors said. he s been successful ripping people off all these years ap
quoted prosecutor russell mcguire as saying. jaynes was also found guilty of
breaking a state law which prohibits the sending of more than 100 000 e-mails in 30
days virginia state attorney general jerry kilgore reportedly said. prosecutors
had asked for 15 years in jail for jaynes and a jail term for his sister. but
jaynes lawyer david oblon called the nine-year recommended term outrageous and
said his client believed he was innocent. he pointed out that all three of the
accused lived in north carolina and were unaware of the virginia state law. spam
messages are estimated to account for at least 60% of all e-mails sent.
us consumer confidence up consumers confidence in the state of the us economy is
at its highest for five months and they are optimistic about 2005 an influential
survey says. the feel-good factor among us consumers rose in december for the
first time since july according to new data. the conference board survey of 5 000
households pointed to renewed optimism about job creation and economic growth. us
retailers have reported strong sales over the past 10 days after a slow start to
the crucial festive season. according to figures also released on tuesday sales
in shopping malls in the week to 25 december were 4.3% higher than in 2003
following a last minute rush. wal-mart the largest us retailer has said its
december sales are expected to be better than previously forecast because of strong
post-christmas sales. it is expecting annual sales growth of between 1% and 3% for
the month. consumer confidence figures are considered a key economic indicator
because consumer spending accounts for about two thirds of all economic activity in
the united states. the continuing economic expansion combined with job growth
has consumers ending this year on a high note said lynn franco director of the
conference board s consumer research centre. and consumers outlook suggests that
the economy will continue to expand in the first half of next year. the overall us
economy has performed strongly in recent months prompting the federal reserve to
increase interest rates five times since june.
india-pakistan peace boosts trade calmer relations between india and pakistan are
paying economic dividends with new figures showing bilateral trade up threefold in
the summer. the value of trade in april-july rose to $186.3m (£97m) from $64.4m in
the same period in 2003 the indian government said. nonethless the figures
represent less than 1% of india s overall exports. but business is expected to be
boosted further from 2006 when the south asian free trade area agreement starts.
both countries eased travel and other restrictions as part of the peace process
aimed at ending nearly six decades of hostilities. sugar plastics pharmaceutical
products and tea are among the major exports from india to its neighbour while
firms in pakistani have been selling fabrics fruit and spices. if the positive
trend continues two-way trade could well cross half a billion dollars this fiscal
year india s federal commerce minister kamal nath said. according to official
data the value of india s overall exports in the current fiscal year is expected
to reach more than $60bn while in pakistan s case it is set to hit more than
$12bn. meanwhile the indian government said the prospects for the country s
booming economy remained very bright despite a temporary aberration this year.
its mid-year economic review forecasts growth of 6-6.5% in 2004 compared with 8.2%
in 2003. higher oil prices the level of tax collections and an unfavourable
monsoon season affecting the farm sector had hurt the economy in april-september
it said.
owen delighted with real display michael owen revelled in his return to the to the
real madrid starting line-up and inspired a 3-1 win over real betis on wednesday by
scoring the first goal. he said: i am happy i could play a game from the start
again. i felt good all though the game and it is obvious that i am happy to have
scored another goal. people have talked a lot about my performances and i think i
have had some months that were not so good and others that were very good. owen
starting his third successive la liga match converted a low cross from santiago
solari. robert carlos made it 2-0 at the break smashing home an indirect free-
kick. midfielder edu reduced the deficit after half-time but ivan helguera headed
past keeper antonio doblas to seal victory for his team. victory took real to
within six points of leaders barcelona and owen is confident real can close the
gap. he added: we had several chances against betis and i think we can get back in
touch with barcelona. it is only six points between barcelona and us and that is
nothing. if we can beat them at the bernabeu (on 10 april) then it will be just
three. owen has scored nine league goals one behind real s top scorer ronaldo.
real had lost their previous two league games.
gm issues 2005 profits warning general motors has warned that it expects earnings
this year be lower than in 2004. the world s biggest car maker is grappling with
losses in its european business and weak us sales. gm said higher healthcare costs
in north america and lower profits at its financial services subsidiary would hurt
its performance in 2005. gm said it expects to meet its 2004 earnings targets
despite a tough competitive environment . gm whose brands include buick cadillac
and chevrolet in the us and opel saab and vauxhall in europe is due to reveal
2004 earnings on 19 january. it said it would deliver a shareholder payout of
$6.0-$6.5 per share this year as promised but that next year s earnings per share
would be lower at between $4.0-$5.0. we re following a roadmap that we believe
will deliver strong results said gm chief executive rick waggoner. gm said it was
expecting reduced financial losses in europe in 2005. it is in the midst of
cutting 12 000 jobs - one fifth of the european total - in a bid to cut costs. the
biggest job losses are in germany. its vehicle businesses have gained market share
in three out of four regions in 2004 achieving record profitability in asia
pacific and returning to profit in latin america the middle east and africa. the
car maker has diversified into financial services and is extending the reach of
general motors acceptance corp (gmac) which has said it may enter the home loans
market. gmac has been a strong contributor to profits in 2004 but gm said it will
do less well this year delivering net income of $2.5bn. attaining earnings of $10
a share remains gm s goal the company said adding it believes it can achieve
this in 2007.
campbell returns to election team ex-downing street media chief alastair campbell
will return to the fold to strengthen labour s general election campaign the party
has confirmed. mr campbell has consistently made public his keenness to play a
part in the poll expected in may. both culture secretary tessa jowell and deputy
prime minister john prescott have welcomed his return. he is a strong labour party
member mr prescott told bbc one s breakfast with frost programme. mr campbell
quit number 10 in august 2003 after being tony blair s right-hand man at the 1997
and 2001 elections. labour have refused to discuss his exact new position and have
not said how it would affect his downing street replacement david hill. of course
alastair s going to be part of the election campaign and i think that all of us who
will also be part of the election campaign are very pleased about that ms jowell
told sky news. but she said his return would not put anybody else s nose out of
joint . this is the daft thing about the way in which politics is written about
ms jowell added. there s room for everybody. we serve the country better if we
make room for all the talent. a labour source told the sunday times mr campbell
would effectively front the election media campaign but said he would be given no
formal title. labour strategists told the paper he would be set loose on
conservative leader michael howard in attacking his party s economic record when it
was in power. they used pictures from the 1970s in the 1992 campaign to remind
people of the winter of discontent - and now it s our turn the source told the
paper. making michael howard leader gives us an unmissable opportunity to remind
people what it was like to pay mortgage rates of 15% even if it was more than a
decade ago. mr campbell was at the centre of the government s row with bbc over
andrew gilligan s story about the iraq weapons dossier. the hutton inquiry cleared
him of sexing up the dossier in the run-up to the iraq war. since leaving downing
street he has toured the country with his one man show an audience with alastair
campbell and presented a number of interview programmes for channel 4.
asian banks halt dollar s slide the dollar regained some lost ground against most
major currencies on wednesday after south korea and japan denied they were planning
a sell-off. the dollar suffered its biggest one-day fall in four months on tuesday
on fears that asian central banks were about to lower their reserves of dollars.
japan is the biggest holder of dollar reserves in the world with south korea the
fourth largest. the dollar was buying 104.76 yen at 0950 gmt 0.5% stronger on the
day. it also edged higher against both the euro and the pound with one euro worth
$1.3218 and one pound buying $1.9094. concerns over rising oil prices and the
outlook for the dollar pushed down us stock markets on tuesday; the dow jones
industrial average closed down 1.6% while the nasdaq lost 1.3%. the dollar s
latest slide began after a south korean parliamentary report suggested the country
which has about $200bn in foreign reserves had plans to boost holdings of
currencies such as the australian and canadian dollar. on wednesday however south
korea moved to steady the financial markets. it issued a statement that the bank
of korea will not change the portfolio of currencies in its reserves due to short
term market factors . japan too steadied nerves. a senior japanese finance
ministry official told reuters we have no plans to change the composition of
currency holdings in the foreign reserves and we are not thinking about expanding
our euro holdings . japan has $850bn in foreign exchange reserves. at the start of
the year the us currency which had lost 7% against the euro in the final three
months of 2004 and had fallen to record lows staged something of a recovery.
analysts however pointed to the dollar s inability recently to extend that rally
despite positive economic and corporate data and highlighted the fact that many of
the us s economic problems had not disappeared. the focus has been on the country s
massive trade and budget deficits and analysts have predicted more dollar weakness
to come.
wall street cool to ebay s profit shares in online auction house ebay fell 9.8% in
after-hours trade on wednesday after its quarterly profits failed to meet market
expectations. despite seeing net profits rise by 44% to $205.4m (£110m) during
october to december from $142m a year earlier wall street had expected more. ebay
stock fell to $92.9 in after-hours trade from a $103.05 end on nasdaq. ebay s net
revenue for the quarter rose to $935.8m from $648.4m boosted by growth at its
paypal payment service. excluding special items ebay s profit was 33 cents a
share but analysts had expected 34 cents. i think wall street has gotten a bit
ahead of ebay this quarter and for the 2005 year. said janco partners analyst
martin pyykkonen. for 2004 as a whole ebay earned $778.2m on sales of $3.27bn.
ebay president and chief executive meg whitman called 2004 an outstanding success
that generated tremendous momentum for 2005. i m more confident than ever that
the decisions and investments we re making today will ensure a bright future for
the company and our community of users around the world she said. ebay now
forecasts 2005 revenue of $4.2bn to $4.35bn and earnings excluding items of $1.48
to $1.52 per share. analysts had previously estimated that ebay would achieve 2005
revenues of $4.37bn and earnings of $1.62 per share excluding items.
uk pioneers digital film network the world s first digital cinema network will be
established in the uk over the next 18 months. the uk film council has awarded a
contract worth £11.5m to arts alliance digital cinema (aadc) who will set up the
network of up to 250 screens. aadc will oversee the selection of cinemas across the
uk which will use the digital equipment. high definition projectors and computer
servers will be installed to show mainly british and specialist films. most cinemas
currently have mechanical projectors but the new network will see up to 250 screens
in up to 150 cinemas fitted with digital projectors capable of displaying high
definition images. the new network will double the world s total of digital
screens. cinemas will be given the film on a portable hard drive and they will then
copy the content to a computer server. each film is about 100 gigabytes and has
been compressed from an original one terabyte-size file. fiona deans associate
director of aadc said the compression was visually lossless so no picture
degradation will occur. the film will all be encrypted to prevent piracy and each
cinema will have an individual key which will unlock the movie. people will see
the picture quality is a bit clearer with no scratches. the picture will look
exactly the same as when the print was first made - there is no degradation in
quality over time. the key benefit of the digital network will be an increase in
the distribution and screening of british films documentaries and foreign language
films. access to specialised film is currently restricted across the uk said
pete buckingham head of distribution and exhibition at the uk film council.
although a genuine variety of films is available in central london and a few other
metropolitan areas the choice for many outside these areas remains limited and
the digital screen network will improve access for audiences across the uk
digital prints costs less than a traditional 35mm print - giving distributors more
flexibility in how they screen films said ms deans. it can cost up to £1 500 to
make a copy of a print for specialist films. in the digital world you can make
prints for considerably less than that. distributors can then send out prints to
more cinemas and prints can stay in cinemas for much longer. the uk digital
network will be the first to employ 2k projectors - which are capable of showing
films at resolutions of 2048 * 1080 pixels. a separate competitive process to
determine which cinemas will receive the digital screening technology will conclude
in may. the sheer cost of traditional prints means that some cinemas need to show
them twice a day in order to recoup costs. some films need word of mouth and time
to build momentum - they don t need to be shown twice a day explained ms deans.
a cinema will often book a 35mm print in for two weeks - even if the film is a
roaring success they cannot hold on to the print because it will have to go to
another cinema. with digital prints every cinema will have its own copy.
ban on forced retirement under 65 employers will no longer be able to force workers
to retire before 65 unless they can justify it. the government has announced that
firms will be barred from 2006 from imposing arbitrary retirement ages. under new
european age discrimination rules a default retirement age of 65 will be
introduced. workers will be permitted to request staying on beyond this compulsory
retirement age although employers will have the right to refuse. trade and
industry secretary patricia hewitt said people would not be forced to work longer
than they wanted saying the default age was not a statutory compulsory retirement
age. she said employers would be free to continue employing people for as long as
they were competent. under age discrimination proposals from the department of
trade and industry last year workers were to be allowed to work on till 70 if they
wished. business leaders had opposed the plan as they said it would be too costly
and cumbersome. the british chambers of commerce welcomed the latest proposal.
this move today is the best of both worlds it said. employers have the ability
to define the end point of the employer-employee relationship and employees have
flexibility with a right to request to work past the age of 65. but age concern
said imposing a retirement age of 65 was cowardly and a complete u-turn . this
makes a mockery of the government s so-called commitment to outlawing ageism
leaving the incoming age discrimination law to unravel said gordon lishman
director general of age concern england . it is now inevitable that older people
will mount legal challenges to the decision using european law. the decision will
have no impact on the age at which workers can collect their state pension the
government has said.
local net tv takes off in austria an austrian village is testing technology that
could represent the future of television. the people of engerwitzdorf are filming
editing and producing their own regional news channel. the channel covers local
politics sports events and anything that residents want to film and are prepared
to upload for others to watch on pcs. the pilot has been so successful that telekom
austria is now considering setting up other projects elsewhere. it s growing
unbelievably fast said rudolf fischer head of telekom austria s fixed line
division. the trial of buntes fernsehen (multi-coloured tv) was started in late
2004 and creates a net-based tv station run by the 8 000 residents of
engerwitzdorf. the hardware and software to turn video footage into edited
programmes has been provided by telekom austria but this equipment following
training has been turned over to the villagers. any video programme created by the
villagers is uploaded to a buntes fernsehen portal that lets people browse and
download what they want to watch. most people watch the tv on their home pc and a
broadband connection is needed to get broadcast quality programmes. in the first
four months of the project villagers have created 60 films and put together regular
reports on local news items. they have adopted it very quickly said mr fischer.
they like the possibility to create their own content and see what s going on in
the area. it s kind of the democratisation of local tv he said because none
of the bigger broadcasters would ever do anything like this for that region. the
buntes fernsehen project has been such a success that telekom austria is now
considering setting up other schemes in similarly rural areas. mr fischer said it
was taking the roll-out to other areas slowly because of the work involved in
setting up the scheme getting backers from local government and educating people
how to make programmes. the engerwitzdorf scheme is an outgrowth of telekom austria
s online tv channel aon which lets people watch programmes on their pc. aon streams
a couple of live channels plus sports news and music programmes on to the net and
has a pay-for-download section that lets people watch what they want when they want
to watch it. in october a larger tv-on-demand project is due to launch in vienna
that will let people download many programmes from the net.
profile: david miliband david miliband s rapid rise through the ranks of government
continues with his promotion to cabinet office minister. elected in a safe labour
seat in 2001 his previous job was school standards minister - a role he won in may
2002. prior to the last election he was a key figure in new labour as the head of
the downing street policy unit where he was a key member of the manifesto writing
team. seen as one of the more intellectual figures in the government he was also
working for tony blair in his policy unit when he was leader of the opposition. a
brief glance at mr miliband s family background reveals an impressive socialist
pedigree in the form of his father ralph who died in 1994. he was an eminent and
influential leftwing academic. and while david miliband is seen as a key blair
lieutenant his brother ed is a special advisor to chancellor gordon brown. prior to
working for mr blair david miliband spent time at the left-leaning institute for
public policy research. he then became secretary of the commission on social
justice. the 39-year-old was educated at haverstock comprehensive before going on
to oxford to study politics philosophy and economics. he also took an msc in
political science from the massachusetts institute of technology.
argonaut founder rebuilds empire jez san the man behind the argonaut games group
which went into administration a week ago has bought back most of the company.
the veteran games developer has taken over the cambridge-based just add monsters
studios and the london subsidiary morpheme. the argonaut group went into
administration due to a severe cash crisis firing about half of its staff. in
august it had warned of annual losses of £6m for the year to 31 july. jez san is
one of the key figures in the uk s games industry. the developer who received an
obe in 2002 was estimated to have been worth more than £200m at the peak of the
dotcom boom. he founded argonaut in 1982 and has been behind titles such as 1993
starfox game. more recently it was behind the harry potter games for the
playstation. but like all software developers argonaut needed a constant flow of
deals with publishers. in august it warned of annual losses of £6m blaming delays
in signing new contracts and tough conditions in the software industry. the group s
three subsidiaries were placed in administration a week ago with mr sans resigning
as the company s ceo and some 100 staff being fired. after the latest round of cuts
there were 80 workers at argonaut headquarters in edgware in north london with 17
at its morpheme offices in kentish town london and 22 at the just add monsters
base in cambridge. mr san has re-emerged buying back morpheme and just add
monsters. we are pleased to announce the sale of these two businesses as going
concerns said david rubin of administrators david rubin & partners. this has
saved over 40 jobs as well as the substantial employment claims that would have
arisen had the sales not been achieved. mr rubin said the administrators were in
talks over the sale of the argonaut software division in edgware and were hopeful
of finding a buyer. this is a very difficult time for all the employees there but
i salute their commitment to the business while we work towards a solution he
said. some former employees are angry at the way cash crisis was handled. one told
bbc news online that the staff who had been fired had been financially ruined in
the space of a day .
dance music not dead says fatboy dj norman cook - aka fatboy slim - has said that
dance music is not dead but has admitted it is currently going through a fallow
patch . the commercial failure of the latest albums by britain s two biggest dance
acts - fatboy slim s palookaville and the prodigy s always outnumbered never
outgunned - has been coupled with the closure of many superclubs and the folding
of three dance music magazines. last month the brit awards announced they would no
longer be awarding a best dance act prize with the brits committee announcing that
dance music is no longer where it s happening in music. these developments lead
some to suggest that dance was finished as a popular music genre. cook acknowledged
that much change in the dance world in the four years since his last album halfway
between the gutter and the stars but he stressed this did not mean the dance scene
was permanently over. every week when i was making the album i was reading
articles about the demise of dance music - and obviously that affects you somewhat
he told bbc world service s the ticket programme. i personally don t believe it s
either dead or going to die but it s going through a bit of a fallow patch. so i
think consciously or subconsciously reading every week that dance music was dead
i would think right scrub that track then . although his album sales in the uk
are down - palookaville stayed in the uk top 75 for just three weeks - cook has
achieved recent global success with his beach parties. and event on brighton sea
front in 2002 attracted 250 000 people while a later one in rio achieved a crowd
of 360 000. the dvd of the rio set was the biggest seller of that year. with a
crowd that big if the weather s nice the atmosphere before i even go is so good
that about halfway through the first record i think i ve got them cook said. i
m always really really nervous before the big ones - they had to give me valium
before rio because two hours before i was literally just pacing the floor. for
some reason especially now i ve got a reputation for it the atmosphere and the
joie de vivre that s already going on means all i have to do is play up records.
he promised more such parties in more locations around the world - despite problems
after the brighton event which ended in chaos with many revellers finding
themselves stranded as transport ground to a halt. one man also died of a heart
attack and a woman fell to her death during the free party. we re having to widen
our horizons from just beaches because there s landlocked countries that want to
get involved cook said. we re doing rio at the carnival at the maracana and
sao paolo - our new gig is famous football stadiums. the dj admitted however
that his massive worldwide success had a downside with intense media interest in
his personal life. in particular he said he had struggled to cope with tabloid
intrusion during the temporary break-up of his marriage to radio one presenter zoe
ball after she was linked with dj dan peppe. the tabloid thing has been
difficult at times cook said. especially the me-and-zoe-gate - it s quite scary.
he said that he had been determined that what had happened with ball did not
affect the album. at first i was doing deliberately jolly tunes so that people
wouldn t think i was depressed he explained. then i thought that s not right .
and he highlighted a bizarre coincidence - that one song written before they split
had turned out to have a great deal more meaning than intended. i said to zoe i
did this track called my masochistic baby went and left me do you mind if it s on
the album he recalled. she said yeah it s hilarious because your
masochistic baby did leave you . cook also added that he had some ways of coping
with the intense paparazzi pressure which accumulates at the end of the private
road he lives on - where paul mccartney is a neighbour. it s almost like prisoners
rattling the bars with their mugs cook explained. if there s a pap at the end of
the road everyone knocks on each other s doors - paul comes round and we warn him
because we don t know who they re after.
kennedy questions trust of blair lib dem leader charles kennedy has said voters now
have a fundamental lack of trust of tony blair as prime minister. he said
backing his party was not a wasted vote adding that with the lib dems what you
see is what you get . he made his comments at the start of a day of appearances on
channel five in a session on the wright stuff programme. questions from callers a
studio audience and the show s presenter covered lib dem tax plans anti-terror
laws and immigration. mr kennedy said during his nearly 22 years in parliament he
had seen prime ministers and party leaders come and go and knew the pitfalls of
british politics. 1983 was when i was first elected as an mp - so tony blair
michael howard and myself were all class of 83 - and over that nearly quarter of a
century the world has changed out of recognition he said. we don t actually hear
the argument any longer: lib dems good people reasonable ideas but only if we
thought they could win around here - it s a wasted vote . you don t hear that
because the evidence of people s senses demonstrates that it isn t a wasted vote.
but he said mr blair had lost the trust of the british people. there is a
fundamental lack of trust in tony blair as prime minister and in his government
he said. what we ve got to do as a party - what i ve got to do as a leader of
this party - is to convey to people that what you see is what you get. mr kennedy
also used his tv appearance to defend his party s plans to increase income tax to
50% for those earning more than £100 000 saying it would apply to just 1% of the
population. he said the extra revenue would allow his party to get rid of tuition
and top-up fees introduce free personal care for the elderly and replace the
council tax with a local income tax. mr blair has already spent a day with five and
michael howard is booked for a similar session.
california sets fines for spyware the makers of computer programs that secretly spy
on what people do with their home pcs could face hefty fines in california. from 1
january a new law is being introduced to protect computer users from software
known as spyware. the legislation which was approved by governor arnold
schwarzenegger is designed to safeguard people from hackers and help protect their
personal information. spyware is considered by computer experts to be one of the
biggest nuisance and security threats facing pc users in the coming year. the
software buries itself in computers and can collect a wide range of information. at
its worst it has the ability to hijack personal data like passwords login
details and credit card numbers. the programs are so sophisticated they change
frequently and become impossible to eradicate. one form of spyware called adware
has the ability to collect information on a computer user s web-surfing. it can
result in people being bombarded with pop-up ads that are hard to close. in
washington congress has been debating four anti-spyware bills but california is a
step ahead. the state s consumer protection against spyware act bans the
installation of software that takes control of another computer. it also requires
companies and websites to disclose whether their systems will install spyware.
consumers are able to seek up to $1 000 in damages if they think they have fallen
victim to the intrusive software. the new law marks a continuing trend in
california towards tougher privacy rights. a recent survey by earthlink and webroot
found that 90% of pcs are infested with the surreptitious software and that on
average each one is harbouring 28 separate spyware programs. currently users
wanting protection from spyware have turned to free programs such as spybot and ad-
aware.
snicket tops us box office chart the film adaptation of lemony snicket novels has
topped the north america box office chart displacing ocean s 12. a series of
unfortunate events starring jim carrey took $30.2m (£15.5m) in its debut weekend.
ocean s 12 fell to number two while new entry spanglish entered the chart at number
three taking $9m (£4.6m). a series of unfortunate events also stars scottish
comedian billy connelly while carrey takes on a number of different roles in the
surreal film. the only other new entry in the top 10 was re-make flight of the
phoenix at number eight starring dennis quaid. carrey entertained crowds at the
uk premiere of lemony snicket in london on friday. the actor grabbed co-star meryl
streep and whisked her around leicester square. based on the cult children s books
by author daniel handler the film follows three children who are orphaned when
their parents die in a fire. they are taken in by their wicked uncle count olaf
played by carrey who schemes to get his hands on their fortune.
time to get tough on friendlies for an international manager a friendly provides
an important opportunity to work with your players. the only problem is that the
game itself can often be a farce. some people have been saying it would be better
to get the players together for the week and do away with the 90 minutes at the
end. i would say it s 50-50 whether you should have these games or not and if you
look at it that way you would probably say you re better not doing so. it would
certainly keep club managers happy as it would reduce the risk of players
returning to domestic duty injured. but international bosses will tell you that
scrapping friendlies is counterproductive because the only way for a team to get
better is by playing. the more you play together the easier it is when it comes to
the crunch in games like world cup quarter-finals against brazil. often in
friendlies though a manager will play his strongest side for the first 45 minutes
and then send out an entirely different one in the second half. and it s very
difficult for any player to come on as substitute in a side with a few changes let
alone a whole team s worth. the debate will rage on and i m not sure there is a
satisfactory solution. one manager who has got it right this week is walter smith.
the new scotland manager has decided to have a training camp instead of a friendly
for his first international week since replacing berti vogts. it is the sort of
move you would expect from walter who is a canny manager. the players have had
such a hard time recently that he is better off getting them together in a relaxed
atmosphere and trying to generate some team spirit before the next world cup
qualifiers. if he had sent them out on wednesday and they had been badly beaten it
would have done them no good whatsoever. john toshack has his first game in charge
of wales and it will be important for him to get a decent result against hungary.
he will have his own ideas on individuals and how to play and will probably look
more at the performance but the public wants results. it s extremely difficult to
get the balance for friendlies. if you win people forget them but if you lose it
becomes a stat that can be used against you. england s game against holland is a
good example. it looks like a good opportunity to try out players like
middlesbrough winger stewart downing or crystal palace striker andy johnson. but
you have got to remember sven-goran eriksson s side were given a lesson by spain in
the last game they played. the injury problems in defence should at least give the
likes of wes brown and jamie carragher a chance to impress. for the club managers
it will simply be a case of waiting at home with fingers crossed.
teens know little of politics teenagers questioned for a survey have shown little
interest in politics - and have little knowledge. only a quarter of 14-16 year
olds knew that labour was the government the tories were the official opposition
and the lib dems were the third party. almost all could identify tony blair but
only one in six knew who michael howard was and just one in 10 recognised charles
kennedy. the icm survey interviewed 110 pupils for education watchdog ofsted.
nearly half those pupils polled said it was not important for them to know more
about what the political parties stand for. and 4% of those questioned thought the
conservatives were in power - while 2% of them believed the lib dems were. the
survey also looked at issues of nationality. it found the union flag and fish and
chips topped the list of symbols and foods associated with being british. many of
the pupils also looked on themselves as english scottish or welsh rather than
british; while the notion of being european hardly occurred to anyone.
lopez misses uk charity premiere jennifer lopez cancelled an appearance at the uk
charity premiere of her new movie saying she was too ill to fly. the actress and
singer dropped out at the last minute and has now cancelled all european promotion
of the film shall we dance and her new album. she said: i very much wanted to be
in london but unfortunately i m not well. at the advice of my doctors i m unable to
travel. co-star richard gere attended the event held in aid of the tsunami appeal.
thousands braved the cold weather to see the stars in london s leicester square.
the red carpet boasted waltzing dancers in honour of the film s ballroom dancing
theme. the film s director peter chelsom said he was disappointed that lopez did
not attend. it s a shame. i know it s true that she s not well because she has
also cancelled her promotional tour. i ve heard she has swollen glands. gere 55
greeted the crowd and signed autographs accompanied by his wife carey lowell.
other stars who turned out on the night included honor blackman strictly come
dancing presenter tess daly and actress anita dobson. lopez issues a statement
apologising for her absence. i m so proud of shall we dance and was looking
forward to visiting london she said. this film was a labour of love for me and
i want to thank everyone involved in bringing it to you from the cast to the film
director to the crew. lopez appeared at the grammy awards on sunday singing a
duet with her third husband marc anthony.
christmas shoppers flock to tills shops all over the uk reported strong sales on
the last saturday before christmas with some claiming record-breaking numbers of
festive shoppers. a spokesman for manchester s trafford centre said it was the
biggest christmas to date with sales up 5%. and the regent street association said
shops in central london were also expecting the best christmas ever . that picture
comes despite reports of disappointing festive sales in the last couple of weeks.
the trafford centre spokeswoman said about 8 500 thousand vehicles had arrived at
the centre on saturday before 1130 gmt. we predict that the next week will
continue the same trend she added. it was a similar story at bluewater in kent.
spokesman alan jones said he expected 150 000 shoppers to have visited by the end
of saturday and a further 100 000 on sunday. our sales so far have been 2% up on
the same time last year he said. we re very busy it s really strong and people
will be shopping right up until christmas. over the christmas period we re
expecting people to spend in excess of £200m at the centre. on saturday afternoon
a spokeswoman for the st david s shopping centre in cardiff said it looked like
being its busiest day of the year with about 200 000 shoppers expected to have
visited by the close of play. at the st enoch s shopping centre in glasgow more
than 140 000 shoppers - an all-time record - were expected to have passed through
the doors by its closing time of 1900 gmt. senior business manager jon walton said:
it has been phenomenal - absolutely mobbed. every week footfall has been showing
strong growth and at the weekends it has been going mad. regent street association
director annie walker said on saturday: the stores were heaving today and a lot of
people are going to be doing last minute shopping as many people finished work on
friday and can go in the week. she said reports of a slump in pre-christmas sales
were related to the growing popularity of internet sales. i do think this has had
a lot to do with reports of lower sales figures she said. internet shopping has
gone up enormously and not all stores have websites.
progress on new internet domains by early 2005 the net could have two new domain
names. the .post and .travel net domains have been given preliminary approval by
the net s administrative body. the names are just two of a total of 10 proposed
domains that are being considered by the internet corporation for assigned names
and numbers icann. the other proposed names include a domain for pornography asia
mobile phones an anti-spam domain and one for the catalan language and culture.
the .post domain is backed by the universal postal union that wants to use it as
the online marker for every type of postal service and to help co-ordinate the e-
commerce efforts of national post offices. the .travel domain would be used by
hotels travel firms airlines tourism offices and would help such organisations
distinguish themselves online. it is backed by a new york-based trade group called
the travel partnership. icann said its early decision on the two domains was in
response to the detailed technical and commercial information the organisations
behind the names had submitted. despite this initial approval icann cautioned that
there was no guarantee that the domains would actually go into service. at the same
time icann is considering proposals for another eight domains. one that may not win
approval is a proposal to set up a .xxx domain for pornographic websites. a similar
proposal has been made many times in the past. but icann has been reluctant to
approve it because of the difficulty of making pornographers sign up and use it. in
2000 icann approved seven other new domains that have had varying degrees of
success. three of the new so-called top level domains were for specific industries
or organisations such as .museum and .aero. others such as .info and .biz were
intended to be more generic. in total there are in excess of 200 domain names and
the majority of these are for nations. but domains that end in the .com suffix are
by far the most numerous.
bush budget seeks deep cutbacks president bush has presented his 2006 budget
cutting domestic spending in a bid to lower a record deficit projected to peak at
$427bn (£230bn) this year. the $2.58 trillion (£1.38 trillion) budget submitted to
congress affects 150 domestic programmes from farming to the environment education
and health. but foreign aid is due to rise by 10% with more money to treat
hiv/aids and reward economic and political reform. military spending is also set to
rise by 4.8% to reach $419.3bn. the budget does not include the cost of running
military operations in iraq and afghanistan for which the administration is
expected to seek an extra $80bn from congress later this year. congress will spend
several months debating george w bush s proposal. the state department s planned
budget would rise to just under $23bn - a fraction of the defence department s
request - including almost $6bn to assist us allies in the war on terror . however
the administration is keen to highlight its global effort to tackle hiv/aids the
bbc s jonathan beale reports and planned spending would almost double to $3bn
with much of that money going to african nations. mr bush also wants to increase
the amount given to poorer countries through his millennium challenge corporation.
the scheme has been set up to reward developing countries that embrace what the us
considers to be good governance and sound policies. yet mr bush s proposed spending
of $3bn on that project is well below his initial promise of $5bn. a key spending
line missing from proposals is the cost of funding the administration s proposed
radical overhaul of social security the pensions programme on which many americans
rely for their retirement income. some experts believe this could require
borrowing of up to $4.5 trillion over a 20-year period. neither does the budget
include any cash to purchase crude oil for the us emergency petroleum stockpile.
concern over the level of the reserve created in 1970s has led to rises in oil
prices over the past year. the bush administration will instead continue to fill
the reserve by taking oil - rather than cash - from energy companies that drill
under federal leases. the outline proposes reductions in budgets at 12 out of 23
government agencies including cuts of 9.6% at agriculture and 5.6% at the
environmental protection agency. the spending plan for the year beginning 1 october
is banking on a healthy us economy to boost government income by 6.1% to $2.18
trillion. spending is forecast to grow by 3.5% to $2.57 trillion. but the budget is
still the tightest yet under mr bush s presidency. in order to sustain our
economic expansion we must continue pro-growth policies and enforce even greater
spending restraint across federal government mr bush said in his budget message
to congress. mr bush has promised to halve the us s massive budget deficit within
five years. the deficit partly the result of massive tax cuts early in mr bush s
presidency has been a key factor in pushing the us dollar lower. the independent
congressional budget office estimates that the shortfall could shrink to little
more than $200bn by 2009 returning to the surpluses seen in the late 1990s by
2012. but its estimates depend on the tax cuts not being made permanent in line
with the promise when they were passed that they would sunset or disappear in
2010. most republicans however want them to stay in place. and the figures also
rely on the social security trust fund - the money set aside to cover the
swelling costs of retirement pensions - being offset against the main budget
deficit.
junk e-mails on relentless rise spam traffic is up by 40% putting the total amount
of e-mail that is junk up to an astonishing 90%. the figures from e-mail
management firm email systems will alarm firms attempting to cope with the amount
of spam in their in-boxes. while virus traffic has slowed down denial of service
attacks are on the increase according to the firm. virus mail accounts for just
over 15% of all e-mail traffic analysis by the firm has found. it is no longer
just multi-nationals that are in danger of so-called denial of service attacks in
which websites are bombarded by requests for information and rendered inaccessible.
email systems refers to a small uk-based engineering firm which received a
staggering 12 million e-mails in january. the type of spam currently being sent has
subtlety altered in the last few months according to email systems analysis. half
of spam received since christmas has been health-related with gambling and porn
also on the increase. scam mails offering ways to make a quick buck have declined
by 40%. january is clearly a month when consumers are less motivated to purchase
financial products or put money into dubious financial opportunities said neil
hammerton managing director of email systems. spammers seem to have adapted their
output to reflect this focussing instead on medically motivated and pornographic
offers presumably intentionally intended to coincide with what is traditionally
considered to be the bleakest month in the calendar he said.
top stars join us tsunami tv show brad pitt robert de niro and hugh grant have
been added to the line-up for a two-hour us tv special to raise money for victims
of the asian tsunami. andy garcia lucy liu natalie portman and jay leno are also
among the new names for saturday s tsunami aid. they will join a-list singers
madonna sir elton john nelly and usher plus actors kevin spacey halle berry and
george clooney on the nbc broadcast. viewers will be urged to phone in to make
donations throughout the night. norah jones diana ross stevie wonder maroon 5
mary j blige and eric clapton will give musical performances on the show described
as a concert of hope . catherine zeta jones michael douglas bruce willis uma
thurman matt damon drew barrymore and tim robbins are among the other movie
superstars due to put in an appearance. george clooney recently reacted angrily to
a tv host s suggestion that not all funds raised would go towards tsunami relief.
fox tv s bill o reilly said he would be watching to see if the money gets to the
tsunami victims and warned the celebrities taking part had better be involved all
the way down the line . but clooney accused o reilly of creating a fuss for his own
personal gain saying viewers may now be afraid that their money will do no good .
he urged o reilly to co-present the tv special adding in a letter: we re not
playing games here we re trying to save lives. it s as simple as this - you re
either with this joint effort or against it. organisers say all funds will go to
the american red cross. the commercial-free benefit show will also be aired by a
string of cable broadcasters and clear channel s radio stations across the us. in
addition performances will be available to buy on the internet as downloads from
sony s connect music store. a similar tv benefit carried by all four primary us tv
networks after the 11 september terror attacks raised more than $150m (£80m). -
the bangkok international film festival got under way on thursday in the thai
capital in the shadow of the country s 5 300 deaths from the tsunami. the red
carpet gala opening night was ditched in favour of a more subdued first night. six
different films were shown at six cinemas with all money from ticket sales going
to charity.
rings of steel combat net attacks gambling is hugely popular especially with tech-
savvy criminals. many extortionists are targeting net-based betting firms and
threatening to cripple their websites with deluges of data unless a ransom is paid.
but now deep defences are being put in place by some of the uk s biggest net firms
to stop these attacks. increasing numbers of attacks and the huge amounts of data
being used to try to bump a site off the web are prompting firms to adopt the
measures. net firms are realising that it s not just about anti-virus and
firewalls said paul king chief security architect at cisco. there are more
things that can be done in the network to protect data centres. mr king said the
only way to properly combat these so-called distributed denial-of-service attacks
was with intelligent net-based systems. many of the gambling sites suffering ddos
attacks are in offshore data and hosting centres so any large scale data flood
could knock out access to many more sites than just the one the criminals were
targeting said mr king. this overspill effect was only likely to grow as attacks
grow in size and scale. malcolm seagrave security expert at energis said the
most common types of attacks hit sites with 10 megabytes of data over short periods
of time. bigger attacks sending down 200 megabytes of traffic or more were rarely
seen he said. it does feel like they are turning the dial because you see this
traffic gradually growing he said. so far there have been no attacks involving
gigabytes of data said mr seagrave. however he added that it was only a matter of
time before such large attacks were mounted. maria capella spokeswoman for net
provider pipex said that when ddos attacks were at their height customers were
getting hit every four to five days. the defences being put in place constantly
monitor the streams of data flowing across networks and pluck out the traffic
destined for target sites. it s about understanding what s genuine traffic and
keeping attack traffic from going to the site she said. we study the profile of
their traffic and as soon as we see an anomaly in the profile that s when we start
to get the backbone engineering boys to see if we are going to sustain an attack
said ms capella. this traffic can be hard to spot because ddos attacks typically
use thousands of computers in many different countries each participating machine
only sends a small part of the entire data flood. typically these computers have
been infected by a virus or worm which reports its success and the net address of
compromised machines back to the malicious hacker or hi-tech criminal that set off
the virus. hijacked computers are known as zombies or bots and collections of them
are called bot nets. many spammers rent out bot nets to help them anonymously
send junk mail. most of the zombies are based outside the country that hosts the
target site so getting the attacking pcs shut off can be difficult. often pipex and
other net suppliers do get advance notice that an attack is about to happen. the
serious players tend to precede an attack with some kind of ransom e-mail said ms
capella. we ask as part of the service we provide that customers notify us of
anything they have in advance that would give us forewarning. once an attack is
spotted dedicated net hardware takes over to remove the attack traffic and ensure
that sites stay up. energis took a similar approach said mr seagrave. we have
technology out there that allows us to detect attacks in minutes rather than let
network engineers spend hours pulling the information together said mr seagrave.
also net firms were starting to work more closely together on the problem of ddos
attacks and pool information about where they are coming from. information gathered
on attacks and where they originated has led to some arrests. he said energis also
did its own intelligence work to get in insight into which sites criminal gangs
plan to target. we have people in places where they shouldn t be monitoring tech
sites he said. sometimes though he said spotting the next victim was easy. you
can see them going alphabetically through the list with the gambling sites trying
one after another said mr seagrave.
davies favours gloucester future wales hooker mefin davies is likely to stay with
english side gloucester despite reported interest from the neath-swansea ospreys.
bbc wales understands the ospreys are interested in the 32-year-old but that he
would prefer to stay where he is. davies one of the stars of saturday s rbs six
nations win over england is only on a year contract at kingsholm. but the hooker
has proved his worth to the zurich premiership side and is likely to get a new deal
next season. the summer demise of the celtic warriors region left davies in the
cold and forced him to take a semi-professional contract with neath rfc. although
he got match time with the ospreys at the request of the wales management he
admitted before his move to gloucester that he was angry with the way he was
treated. the wru didn t give me any help off the field it was very disappointing
davies said at the time. it was a hard time throughout the summer then deciding
whether to accept an offer from stade francais which would have ended my wales
career.
beijingers fume over parking fees choking traffic jams in beijing are prompting
officials to look at reorganising car parking charges. car ownership has risen
fast in recent years and there are now two and a half million cars on the city s
roads. the trouble is that the high status of car ownership is matched by expensive
fees at indoor car parks making motorists reluctant to use them. instead roads are
being clogged by drivers circling in search of a cheaper outdoor option. the price
differences between indoor and outdoor lots are unreasonable said wang yan an
official from the beijing municipal commission for development and reform quoted in
the state-run china daily newspaper. mr wang who is in charge of collecting car
parking fees said his team would be looking at adjusting parking prices to close
the gap. indoor parking bays can cost up to 250% more than outdoor ones. sports
fans who drive to matches may also find themselves the target of the commission s
road rage. it wants them to use public transport and is considering jacking up the
prices of car parks near sports grounds. mr wang said his review team may scrap the
relatively cheap hourly fee near such places and impose a higher flat rate during
matches. indoor parking may be costly but it is not always secure. mr wang s team
are also going to look into complaints from residents about poor service received
in exchange for compulsory monthly fees of up to 400 yuan ($48; £26). the beijing
authorities decided two years ago that visiting foreign dignitaries motorcades
should not longer get motorcycle outriders as they blocked the traffic. unclogging
beijing s increasingly impassable streets is a major concern for the chinese
authorities who are building dozens of new roads to create a showcase modern city
ahead of the 2008 olympic games.
cars pull down us retail figures us retail sales fell 0.3% in january the biggest
monthly decline since last august driven down by a heavy fall in car sales. the
3.3% fall in car sales had been expected coming after december s 4% rise in car
sales fuelled by generous pre-christmas special offers. excluding the car sector
us retail sales were up 0.6% in january twice what some analysts had been
expecting. us retail spending is expected to rise in 2005 but not as quickly as in
2004. steve gallagher us chief economist at sg corporate & investment banking
said january s figures were decent numbers . we are not seeing the numbers that
we saw in the second half of 2004 but they are still pretty healthy he added.
sales at appliance and electronic stores were down 0.6% in january while sales at
hardware stores dropped by 0.3% and furniture store sales dipped 0.1%. sales at
clothing and clothing accessory stores jumped 1.8% while sales at general
merchandise stores a category that includes department stores rose by 0.9%. these
strong gains were in part put down to consumers spending gift vouchers they had
been given for christmas. sales at restaurants bars and coffee houses rose by
0.3% while grocery store sales were up 0.5%. in december overall retail sales
rose by 1.1%. excluding the car sector sales rose by just 0.3%. parul jain deputy
chief economist at nomura securities international said consumer spending would
continue to rise in 2005 only at a slower rate of growth than in 2004. consumers
continue to retain their strength in the first quarter he said. van rourke a
bond strategist at popular securities agreed that the latest retail sales figures
were slightly stronger than expected .
kilroy unveils immigration policy ex-chatshow host robert kilroy-silk has attacked
uk policy on immigration saying britain s open door approach is hitting low wage
indigenous workers. the veritas leader said the only people to benefit from
immigrants from places like poland were employers landlords members of the
metropolitan elite . the mep said his party would only admit foreigners who were
required because they had specific skills to offer. and he argued asylum cost £2bn
a year for 14 000 successful applicants. mr kilroy-silk said that worked out at
£143 000 per successful asylum seeker. he said veritas wanted to grant an amnesty
for all those in britain claiming asylum and who have children and deport everyone
else. britain should take its fair share of asylum seekers under the united nations
convention on human rights he argued. and mr kilroy-silk said he wanted to spend
an extra £500m a year to help provide for refugees abroad.
rem announce new glasgow concert us band rem have announced plans to perform for 10
000 scottish fans in a rescheduled gig. the band will play in what has been dubbed
europe s biggest tent on glasgow green on tuesday 14 june. they were forced to
pull out of a concert at the secc in glasgow last month after bassist mike mills
contracted flu. fans who bought tickets for the original 22 february show can
attend the rescheduled concert. the june gig will act as a warm-up for rem s open
air concert at balloch castle country park on the banks of loch lomond four days
later. promoters regular music booked glasgow green as the secc was not available
on the most suitable date. mark mackie director of regular music said: it is
fantastic news and it really shows rem s commitment to their scottish fans that
they are coming back to glasgow for what will be a truly unique gig. the rem gigs
will kick-start what promises to be a memorable summer for scottish music lovers.
grammy award winners u2 will play hampden on 21 june while oasis will also perform
at the national stadium in glasgow on 29 june. coldplay have announced a concert at
bellahouston park in glasgow on 1 july and t in the park will be held at balado
near kinross from 9-10 july. ticketweb and the secc box office will write to
customers who bought tickets for the february gig asking if they want to attend the
new show. those who bought tickets in person are being urged to return to the point
of purchase. anyone who cannot make the concert will be given a refund. the cut-off
date for swapping tickets is 1 april when those remaining will go on sale to the
public.
how political squabbles snowball it s become commonplace to argue that blair and
brown are like squabbling school kids and that they (and their supporters) need to
grow up and stop bickering. but this analysis in fact gets it wrong. it s not just
children who fight - adults do too. and there are solid reasons why even a trivial
argument between mature protagonists can be hard to stop once its got going. the
key feature of an endless feud is that everyone can agree they d be better off if
it ended - but everyone wants to have the last word. each participant genuinely
wants the row to stop but thinks it worth prolonging the argument just a tiny bit
to ensure their view is heard. their successive attempts to end the argument with
their last word ensure the argument goes on and on and on. (in the case of mr blair
and mr brown successive books are published ensuring the issues never die.) now
this isn t because the participants are stupid - it s actually each individual
behaving entirely rationally given the incentives facing them. indeed there s
even a piece of economic theory that explains all this. nothing as obscure as
post-neo-classical endogenous growth theory which the chancellor himself once
quoted - but a ubiquitous piece of game theory which all respectable policy wonks
are familiar with. it s often referred to as the prisoner s dilemma based on a
parable much told in economics degree courses... about a sheriff and two prisoners.
the story goes that two prisoners are jointly charged with a heinous crime and are
locked up in separate cells. but the sheriff desperately needs a confession from at
least one of them to provide enough evidence to convict them of the crime. without
a confession the prisoners will get a minimal sentence on some trumped up charge.
clearly the prisoners best strategy is to keep their mouths shut and take the
short sentence but the clever sheriff has an idea to induce them to talk. he tells
each prisoner separately that if they confess - and they are the only one to
confess - they ll be let off their crime. and he tells them that if they don t
confess - and they are the only one not to confess - they ll get life. now if you
are prisoner confronted with this choice your best bet is to confess. if your
partner doesn t confess you ll get off completely. and if your partner does
confess you d better confess to ensure you don t get life. the result is of course
both prisoners confess so the sheriff does not have to let either one off. both
prisoners individual logic was to behave that way even though both would have
been better if they had somehow agreed to shut up. don t worry if you don t
entirely follow it - you can to look it up on google where there are 283 000
entries on it. the prisoners dilemma and all its ramifications have truly
captured economists in the last couple of decades. it is a parable used to describe
any situation where there is an obvious sensible choice to be taken collectively
but where the only rational choice individually is to behave selfishly. a cold war
arms race for example - a classic case where both russia and america would be
better off with just a few arms rather than a lot of arms. but as long as each
wants just a few more arms than the other an arms race ensues with the results
that the individually logical decision to buy more arms results in arms levels
that are too high. what economics tells us is that once you re in a prisoners
dilemma - unless you are repeating the experience many times over - it s hard to
escape the perverse logic of it. it s no good just exhorting people to stop buying
arms or to stop arguing when all their incentives encourage them to carry on.
somehow the incentives have to change. in the case of the labour party if you
believe the rift between blair and brown camps is as bad as the reports suggest
solomon s wisdom needs to be deployed to solve the problem. every parent knows
there are ingenious solutions to arguments solutions which affect the incentives
of the participants. an example is the famous rule that one divides the other
chooses as a way of allocating a piece of cake to be sliced up between greedy
children. in the case of an apparently endless argument if you want it to come to
an end you have to ensure the person who has the last word is one who loses rather
than the one who wins the row. the cost of prolonging the row by even one more
briefing or one more book for that matter has to exceed the benefit of having the
last word and getting your point in. if the rest of the party can enforce that
they ll have the protagonists retreating pretty quickly.
souness delight at euro progress boss graeme souness felt newcastle were never
really in danger of going out of the uefa cup against heerenveen. an early own
goal followed by an alan shearer strike earned them a 2-1 win and a place in the
uefa cup last 16. obviously with winning in the first leg it gave us a great
advantage he said after the 4-2 aggregate victory. we got our goals early and in
the minds of some players the job was done but then they got a goal and perhaps
made us a bit nervous. shearer s goal moved him within 12 of jackie milburn s club
scoring record of 200 for the magpies. but souness said he did not think beating
the record would have any bearing on his decision to retire at the end of the
season. i think if he got it this year he would want to stay next year anyway he
added. he struck the ball very well - he always has done - and i think it was the
power and pace that beat the goalkeeper. souness also paid tribute to laurent
robert who was at the heart of much of united s attacking play. in the first half
he did really well and did everything you want from a wide player. more of the same
in future please he said.