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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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!


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.